How old are you and how long did you smoke

[sooprvylyn]

I share something in common with you. In my younger years I too had quite the illicits history. I can honestly say I believe you about the closet scenario. I've probably done any drug you can think of at least a couple times in my day(except Crack) and I've never been adicted to anything except Analogs either. They are definately the MOST addictive drug inthe world. I too grew up sometime in my very early 20s

As to why I started:
I'm not really sure what started me smoking at 15, probably a combination of the following
-It was against the rules
-My parents hated it
-My friends all smoked
-I looked SO COOL
-They were easy to get
-They gave you something to do at parties, and a way to socialize

I'm sure there are more reasons, but those are all ones that definately applied to me I guess.

soopervyln,

I didn't want to talk (respond) about this, but I looked at your thread anyway. I'm surprised (and disappointed) that so many of you started so young. Perhaps some of you would be good enough to explain the attraction/persuasion/influences that led you to start smoking. Advertising? Were you rural/urban? Peer pressure? Etc.

I did a lot of drugs during the 1960s and 1970s. Imagine the largest closet in your house chock full of Darvon, Valium, Qualudes, psilocybin, ..., peyote, pot, drugs whose names I don't even remember. (I never had much use for ....... or heroine; they didn't have any noticeable affect on me) When I graduated from college in 1980 (I know, before most of you were even born) I decided that it would be best to quit drugs because I needed to embark on a career, you know get serious! On my first job, I was out in the middle of nowhere and had a long ride home (two days on a fast pony), and a guy was smoking Chesterfields. I asked if I could bum one for the ride, and he gave me a whole pack! I was thrilled! I'm off drugs, and now I have something legal!

Of course, Chesterfields were horrible, but I soon made the cigarette/coffee and cigarette/beer connection, and I was a smoker! No more illegal drugs! I can smoke anywhere! That was the 80s. And I've been an addict ever since. For me, there is nothing that I've ever consumed that led to an addiction. Except cigarettes!

So soop. Here's my response. Started about 25 years ago, I was about 26 years old, and I'm now smoking about half as much as a week ago. I just started vaping and hope to work the bugs out soon, but a reminder to those that are discouraged. There isn't anything more addictive than cigarettes, and they're legal. Don't be too ambitious or you'll likely fail. For the first time ever, I wake up in the middle of the night and have trouble falling to sleep. So what! Get out of bed, get a large glass of water, and smoke a couple of analogs! Water is good! Lying awake in bed solves nothing!

God love and bless you all!

 

[The Fool]

54
Female
Smoked for 41 years
2 1/2 packs of Marlboro light 100's (built up to that amount over the years)
On June 26th it will be 6 months!!!!! I still can't believe it.

I have a very addictive personality. I was an alcoholic in my 20's and after 2 treatment programs was able to quit that (25 years sober last January). But these cigarettes really had me. I tried everything that came on the market. The patches I got I even had to have a doctors prescription to buy they were so new. Nothing ever worked for very long. Someone told me once that winners are losers who keep on trying, so I never stop trying to quit. My purchase of the e-cigarette was just one more attempt, in my heart of hearts I never expected it to work. Imagine my surprise! Great thread!

 

[Papa Hoyt]

30something
I was a smoker twice. once from 1995 to 2004 and from 2007 2010

 

[sooprvylyn]

I never expected the E-Cig to work either, I am in awe of this marvelous invention.

I hope it we dont find out that these are as bad a cigs 10 years from now.

 

[sanmartin]

Be 30 in a couple weeks, smoked a few to a pack a day for about 9 years, quit for a couple years, started again, quit again, started again, and this time I'm pretty sure I'll have quit for good. Vaping is just so much better, exactly what I was always wishing for from cigs (and hookah ).

 

[BCB]

61
female
smoked for 46 years (started at 15)
--started smoking because I liked the dizzy "high" feeling ( the "cool" thing was not a motivator for me)
--cigarettes are also the only drug I ever became addicted to, and the others had a fair shot at it....

 

[derek88]

21
Male
7 years started young heh

 

[tokenstang]

25
male
started wen i was in the 7th grade
smoked Marlboro Menthols 100s then went to USA Menthols cause they were cheaper
started because well all the cool kids did it so i did it too..stupid me lol

 

[otrpu]

I'm just curious, have you quit and for how long? Hope you don't take offense but have been trying to get my mother to quit and am not getting anywhere .. bought her everything she needs but she complains about this and that.

I'm 30, so I can relate that she has been smoking a lot longer than me, but it was so easy .. almost accidental for me to quit.

Do you have any tips for those stuck with a 50+ year habbit?

____________________________

Not fully. . .have cut way back from 2.5 US packs a day. Havin a few problems with solo ecig. Thought since I was a heavy tobacco user I would need high nic juice. Wrong. . .Still cuttin my juice nic level to find the spot where I don't get headaches. But, in the middle of my search for nic level/preference, my CC was compromised. Only "tip" I can come up with, in my case, it has to be as convenient. To me, means all day batt & carto. As little fussin with it as possible. If I were gettin something for my mother I'd prolly be a lookin at pretty or colorful units, and maybe fruity kinds of juices. That's what I think, but who knows? I'm more of a functional kinda guy. Goal is to get outta the tobacco smoke first, then get outta the nic altogether. And give all this stuff to one of the youngins that wants to quit.

Good luck with your mom.

Cheers,
otrpu

Sorry for the hijack. . .return to age/sex/how long thread. . .

 

[KPKicker]

I am 44 years old.

I started smoking on September 1, 1979 and quit for good two weeks ago. So, 31 years of sucking on rolled death.

The reason I started smoking tobacco cigarettes at age 13 is because I had already been smoking another type of cigarette for about year. The type of cigarette that makes you very happy, hungry and convinces you that dancing naked in the snow is a good idea. I figured if I could handle those type of cigarettes, I could handle Marlboros. So, I bought my first pack of Marlboro Reds on 9/1/79 and really never stopped since. Oh, there were periods where I was down to a pack a week. But, more often than not I was doing 2 to 3 packs a day!

Thank God for e-cigs. I never would've been able to quit otherwise.

 

[VaporLung]

Im 36 and I had my first cigarette at 6 years old. I smoked on and off throughout Middle/High School, and REALLY started smoking a few years later when I joined the Navy. I would bounce from smoking, to not smoking, to snusing, to smoking B&M cigars, now Im combustion free (completely) Ive just come to the conclusion that I am rather addicted to nicotine, and Id rather just not give it up completely. (Just safer)

 

[Proton5]

I'm 27 been smoking a pack a day for ten years. Hopefully my kit from v4l arrives tomorrow so i can start putting down analogs for good.

 

[Xanax]

22 and smoked for 9 years

 

[JoeChemo]

57 and smoking for 41 years. Time flies even if you aren't having fun.

 

[lolcupcakes]

19, smoked for 6 years. Started real young, at 13, about one a day, then when I got to highschool, 15ish, a pack and a half a day until about two days ago. I am at maybe, 5 a day now.

 

[JerryRM]

One of the seniors on the forum.
60 years old
Male
46 years of cancer sticks.

Actually smoking kept me away from drugs in the wild 1960s. I felt that one bad habit was enough, so I never used drugs, not counting alcohol.

 

[JerryRM]

I have to give credit to the younger people on the forum, you recognized early in life that cigarette smoking wasn't good. Young people usually think they are invincible.

 

[laurieok]

female
58 years old
smoked for over 40 years
smoke free 1 year!

 

[kgeiger002]

Male
25 years smoking
A little over a month smoke-free

 

[audio]

58 (almost) female
41 years smoker
1 pk day on average
In 3 days it will be 6 months, no analogs

Audio, don't know how old you are but back in the 60's when I started, smoking was OK, nobody said not to smoke. No warnings on packs, etc. It was "cool".

OK darlin' (sometimes I call girls darlin' just because that's how girls are: no disrespect intended) way off topic, but I'll bite (figuratively, of course!). Let's see. It's 2010 and I was born in 1955, so that would make me about 55 YO. Having smoked for a while now, I suppose that would put my actual age beyond 60. That's just between you and me. Unlike you, I didn't start smoking in the 60s. I was in high school, and cigarettes cost(ed) money; illegal drugs were much less expensive, or free. I don't dispute whether cigarettes were "cool' or denigrate those who began smoking at an early age. I just didn't find the taste as appealing as other things that were easier for a teen to acquire at the time. Whether you start on drugs and end up on cigarettes, or start on cigarettes and end up on drugs doesn't really matter to me. What matters is that we're here now, trying to make anything and everything else in our lives more important than smoking. Regardless, you and all the others here have been a huge blessing to me. Who, other than you (COLLECTIVELY *&%$@ CAPSLOCK), could I confide in? God bless and keep you.