How old were you the first time you started to smoke/drink?

[applegrove]

I was 16 for both. It was the summer. Someone brought a few packs of Moore's cigarillos and we thought they were so cool. I was hooked immediately. For alcohol it was one night on a pond. Someone brought beer and I had 3. Of course I've had to quit both since.

[emilyg]

1. 15. Choked on my first

cig.

[stevedeshazer]

2. 12.

I should be dead by now.

[Rhiannon12866]

3. 24 and 16.

I've been in AA for three-and-a-half years, but haven't managed to quit smoking yet. I've always felt that would be much harder. :smoke: :(

[applegrove]

4. Try quitnet.com to quit smoking.

[Rhiannon12866]

6. Thanks for the suggestion... I'll look into it.

So far, I've tried One Step at a Time filters (for years), SmokeEnders and a hypnotism program. I keep telling myself that I should give myself credit for giving up alcohol, but I'm asthmatic, so I know that I'll need to quit sooner or later. :( :hi:

[applegrove]

8. I did it using Champix/Chantix. You smoke for the first 9 days you are on that pill

but nicoteen soon can't get to the pleasure centre of your brain. Then when you stop it is easier not to start again... if you have a crave and break down and smoke...you have not affected the addiction centre of your brain so your quit is not over (plus you got no pleasure from it). If you want to smoke again you have to quit the pill for days before you could even enjoy a smoke. So you don't quit, you keep having craves but they pass. I went for walks and bought popsicles when I had a crave. Pretty soon your hands are completely over the need to hold a cigarette. In a few months you are totally over smoking. Once I quit champix I used to buy herbal cigarettes when I had a really bad crave. I did that for about 4 months and they were so gross one day I just said forget it. Now whenever I think of smoking I think only of those gross herbal cigs(with one exception this week). I have had a strong quit for 3 years and don't really miss smoking (except for this week but that is a long story, I'm going through something). Anyhow, if you can tolerate champix/chantix (some people get bad psychological side effects) I really reccommend it. By blocking the niccoteen pleasure centre of my brain on that pill, then smoking herbal cigs, I did a number on my brain. Good luck to you. It is so worth it.

[Rhiannon12866]

10. Thanks so much for the advice and encouragement.

However, my friend tried Chantix and it made her incredibly sick. She felt so awful that she didn't want to leave the house and eventually decided it wasn't worth it. It's also true that folks in recovery (from alcohol) are more likely to be smokers. I think it's harder to give up all your addictions at once, and, if you have one addiction, it's no doubt more likely that you'll have others. I've often been grateful that these are the only ones I have, LOL, unless you count DU... ;) :hi:

[Petrushka]

15. Here's a link to a website that helped with my quitting after a half-century of cigarette smoking:

http://www.quitsmokingonline.com/start.htm

[Lil Missy]

5. 13 for both.

I got deathly sick and vomited first time drinking. A sign of things to come.

Sober 2 years now.

[trackfan]

7. I smoked a tobacco pipe and marijuana when I was 15.

I, of course, drank sips of alcohol from the time I was a baby. I once had a few too many sips of my brother's friends' beer when I was 9, and felt a little tipsy, and recorded it in a journal. I didn't personally drink with the intention of possibly getting drunk until I was 17.

[Rowdyboy]

9. Beer etc-17, pot 18, cigarettes 20.....

Gave up cigarettes at 37, 20 years ago.

[Iggo]

11. 19 and 14.

That 19 is for tobacco.

For...um..."left-handed" cigarettes, I smoked once when I was in 7th grade, then nothing 'til I went pro the final month of high school.

[hay rick]

12. First cigarette, 8...

but didn't really get hooked until I was 16 or 17. Quit cold turkey (second attempt) at 35. Regular social drinking started at 18 when we moved to WV and that was the legal drinking age for 3.2 beer.

[DFW]

13. Older than 59 anyway

I'm 59 now and haven't started on either yet!

[Petrushka]

14. First cigarette at 15 . . . quit 50 years later . . . 10 years ago.

Never took up drinking . . . saw/felt too much drunken violence growing up.

[MorningGlow]

16. I was a late bloomer

Got buzzed on champagne at 16...vomiting-drunk a few weeks shy of my 18th birthday. For the record, that cured me of getting THAT drunk ever again--I never vomited due to alcohol after that (not even when I was a little sister to a fraternity). Never smoked.

[bigwillq]

17. Drink, 16.

Smoke, 18.

[AngryAmish]

18. started dipping snuff at 11, drinking at 13

Dipping snuff stopped when I got braces. You can't get copenhagen out of braces, and then you eat it, and then you puke.

OTOH, drinking is awesome.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

19. College for both.

Occasionally drank til I puked (that's what all the cool kids were doing). Now - many years later - I don't like being drunk; I'll have a glass or two of wine with a meal, or a beer or a gin & tonic on a hot day, but that's about it. Tried smoking cigarettes for about a month (because that's what all the cool kids were doing) but couldn't stand the way they made my clothes and hair stink, so I stopped doing that. Smoked some of the other stuff off and on as well, but not long after college I got too busy and stopped doing that, too.

Now I'm old and boring...

[marzipanni]

44. I'm old and boring, too

I was only cool enough to take a drag of a cig at 16 (yuck), drink an occasional Kahlua and cream, Brandy Alexander (or other sweet alcoholic dessert) in my early 20s,, a glass of wine or a beer occasionally since then.
I always hated throwing up- would never do anything that might cause that to happen! (I also smoked a bit of marijuana in the past, but usually felt goofy enough w/o it!)

My addictions are dark chocolate in moderation, and the internets.

[Betty88]

20. 5 or 6....

My Grandpa had a theory, that he only applied to his granddaughters. This was that a girl needs to know how to drink so as not to get herself into trouble. And you know what it worked. Now grandpa was not getting me rip rowing drunk, just little sips of beer in the back room, where grandma could not see LOL. Was told to sip it slowly, enjoy the taste, pacing is everything.

I loved my grandpa very much, think I will have a beer for him a little later in the day.

BTW the boys were on their own, and you know what, none of them can hold their drink, well except for Frank in his case I think his dad did the teaching.

Think I'll have a pint for uncle Frank too ;)

Oh and I forgot about this, teething the old fashioned way

[GoCubsGo]

25. Your grandpa had the same attitude as my parents.

Start early with just a little bit, and it becomes no big deal. Oh, and they used it during teething,too. And, as a cold remedy. I still take a shot of whisky, bourbon or Southern Comfort before bed time when I have a cold.

[Iggo]

27. When she was in middle school, I taught my niece how to bounce a quarter into a cup.

At her college graduation a couple of weeks ago, she reminded me of that little episode and told me how it came in handy on occasion over the years.

[rurallib]

21. 13 for each

smoked 2 packs a day until I quit at 25.
drank like a fucking fish until I quit at 43, nearly 20 years back.

both parents were heavy drinkers and smokers. Both long dead by age 60

[era veteran]

22. Fifteen and a drunk from the first drink.

22 years, 7months, and 24 days since I quit.

[hifiguy]

23. Never smoked.

Tried a couple of cigs when I was 16-17 and they tasted like crap and made me want to barf. I soon found other to smoke that I liked a lot better. :hippie:

First beer at 15.

[GoCubsGo]

24. Beer, around age 1. Never started smoking.

My parents always let us have very small amounts of beer or wine. My dad has 8mm movies of me drinking some of my grandma's Miller at my first birthday party. Never enough to let us get drunk, however. I would often "split" a can of beer with my dad for dinner as a kid. Of course he got more than half of it. When I got to high school, and everyone was hell-bent on buying beer, I never understood what the big deal was. Both my grandmothers were of German descent, and my dad's dad was Italian. Beer and wine were just part of life, and not something to drink to get drunk on. And, bourbon was cold remedy, not something to mess up one's head.

[hay rick]

32. Great excuse for binge drinking...

being a Cubs fan.

[GoCubsGo]

33. Except that I don't binge drink.

Never have. Never will. Never saw any point to it.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

50. In general, people who were brought up with an ethos "It's OK to drink in

moderation but getting drunk is stupid and ugly," do not binge drink.

[hay rick]

52. I was brought up that way...

but the message got drowned out, first by peer pressure and later, by my own established bad habits.

Eventually I realized I was getting too old to still act like the young and foolish and discarded most of the bad habits.

Gotta admit, though, I miss the days when I was bulletproof.

[ohiosmith]

26. 16 and 16. Quit smoking in 76 although I still like the occasional cigar.

:toast:

[UTUSN]

28. 20 - yes, TWENTY - in Navy boot camp. I had sneaked ONE cig

from my father's pack around 16 yrs old and got sick. In boot camp, the fellow recruits/enablers would say, "We don't have anything except this. They took everything away, so why not?"

That led to the following 30 yrs of smoking, up to two, sometimes almost three packs per day. Still, from the begining I knew it was bad for me, since the body reacted with coughing and disgust, despite that I enjoyed it and had something "important" to do with my hands at any given time.

But inside those 30 years, I quit at least twice, once for a year, another time for two years, and cold turkey. When I started it up again (back then) it wasn't because of craving, just really that I enjoyed it and just plain wanted to do it.

It all stopped, what, 15 yrs ago with the first big signs of heart problems. Stopped cold. I never had problems with cold turkey. The first couple or three days are the worst. Just lots of liquids/water-juices, plus milk. Drinking milk is pretty much a killer for the smoking enjoyment. After that it's rather smooth sailing.

I never sermonized to others about quitting. In fact I liked sitting next to smokers and play at sniffing the second hand smoke when they lit up.

[Malikshah]

29. 20 and 18. Damn was I a late bloomer. Still drink, but after 24 yrs am on e-cigs

Finally kicked the "analogs" and have to say I'm happy. Hope that by fall, I'll have tapered off the e-cigs by lowering the nicotine level in the cartridges...\

As for smoking, I blame that nasty habit of "rounds" in British pubs--got offered so many smokes before I fell for it.... :)

[Burma Jones]

30. Smoke, 12........Drink, 15

I had tried smoking when I was 9, and had snuck a cigarette or two until I was 12. At 12 I started to smoke regularly. I quit when I was 36. I'm 51 now and still chew Nicotine gum

Beer was a constant companion all the way through College and until I was 30 or so....then I just started drinking socially on weekends and some wine with dinner etc etc.

I also used to weigh about 370 (on a 6' 1" frame)

Now, I'm about 240.......


Amazed I survived......so is my Wife........

[sinkingfeeling]

31. 18 to drink and 19 to smoke. In Ohio, it was legal to drink 3.2 beer at 18.

[mike_c]

34. 15ish for both....

That's when I started smoking pot too (as well as taking lots of other drugs, back in the day). Smoked cigarettes until my late 20s, maybe twelve years or so. Quit permanently, so I haven't smoked cigs in close to thirty years. Still drink a little though, LOL, and definitely still smoke dope.

[JonLP24]

35. 14 for both

[LynneSin]

36. 13 for smoking but it never took.

I'll be honest, I knew I wanted to be a smoker as early as 6 years old. Found a pack left on the neighbors porch when I was 13 and for a few days I tried them. I think a few more time I'd find cigarettes here and there but never smoked enough to become addicted. Later that year my father came down with lung cancer from his years of heavy smoking. So I guess that nipped the habit pretty quickly.

I know a few times my dad would let me try sips of beer but the first time I was given my own beer to drink was when I was 17 (Stroh's - yuckie!). First time I bought beer (illegally) was 18 on graduation night (Genny Cream Ale - double yuckie!).

[wysimdnwyg]

37. First smoke at 12 - thanks Sis!

First beer at 14. I thank my sister's friends for that one. And seriously, couldn't you find something better than Budweiser to initiate me? That crap was awful. On the bright side, it did help to prepare me for my college days when Busch beer was really cheap.

The cigs lasted 18 years. Still have an occasional beer, but I total up to less than a case per year. Usually less than a 12 pack.

[jtown1123]

38. 14 for drink, 20 for cigarette

smoking was not big at all where I grew up. When I went to college, I noticed a lot of smokers.

[RebelOne]

39. 16 and I also married at that age. I regret it (the marriage).

[NightWatcher]

40. 15 pot, 16, beer, 17 tobacco, 19 heroin

just kidding about the heroin...that was 20 (long story, someone sprinkled it in our weed pre-bong hit)

[KamaAina]

41. 17. First party before freshman year.

:beer:

Yes, I was a year ahead. That's right, I'm one of those Left Coast latte-sucking liberal intamalectuals. As a matter of fact, I just had a vegan mocha the other day. In Berkeley. So there! :P

[sakabatou]

42. I think it was... 6. Shabbat wine.

Haven't smoked.

[Seedersandleechers]

43. Age 15 for cigarettes

and 45 for drinking.

[pink-o]

45. About 12 or 13 for both.

But that's late, considering I started drinking coffee at 9 years old. I quit smoking at 26, can take or leave alcohol but you will have to pry my Cafe Latte from my cold, dead hand.:donut: :donut: :donut:

[femmocrat]

46. 17-- college freshman.

But... the drinking age was 18 where I went to school.

[tinymontgomery]

47. 13 or so for both

It was so long ago.Joints by 14.

[lunatica]

48. 17 for smoking. 45 for drinking

Bad marriage drove me to drink. I was able to stop smoking in a double blind program which I think is Chantix now.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

49. I never smoked, except when I had to do so when I was in a play

I didn't inhale.

Nobody in my immediate family smoked, my father because he was raised in kind of Puritanical household, and my mother because her father was an early anti-smoking activist.

I was allowed to drink wine at family gatherings from the age of about 12. As a result, it never felt like a rebellious act to me.

[Luciferous]

51. 14 for smoking. I can't remember the first time I had a drink. I've never

been much of a drinker...