Why did you start smoking in the first place?

[WendyM]

I don't mean the general reason. I mean what specifically led to that first moment when you started smoking?

I started smoking as a teen, basically because cigs were cheaper and more readily available than food.

 

[Elendil]

It was 25 years ago Pretty sure it has somethin to do with gettin chicks, though...........

 

[Jules22871]

I started when I was 12, 7th grade, because it was the "cool" thing to do. By the time I was old enough to figure out how stupid it was I was already hooked. Been smoking ever since, except when pregnant, up until I started vaping.

 

[Brian1976]

stress did it for me... it was either that or drinking

 

[DylanCF]

Being cool and stupid

 

[WendyM]

I started when I was 12, 7th grade, because it was the "cool" thing to do. By the time I was old enough to figure out how stupid it was I was already hooked. Been smoking ever since, except when pregnant, up until I started vaping.

12? That's my son's age, that's so young.

I quit when pregnant too, and both times started right back up after each kid was weaned.

 

[Jules22871]

12? That's my son's age, that's so young.

I quit when pregnant too, and both times started right back up after each kid was weaned.

Yeah, i think I must have been the model for the phrase young, dumb and stupid,lol

Yeah, that is the same way I did it too. Once they were weaned I was back to smoking my stupid little head off. I am so glad I found the ecig.

 

[Flitzanu]

i remember clearly, i was 16. yes it was the cool thing to do, but it wasn't peer pressure. something about blowing smoke was appealing, and really i just enjoyed the whole act of doing it. i've always been more of a "casual" and "social" smoker, and i love to smoke when i drink because it gives me something to do other than drink.

so for me, i've probably spent more on vaping so far than i would have on cigs for the year, but hey...healthy and i get to enjoy my habit

plus i get to look even COOLER with blue LEDs.

 

[Mary Kay]

I got sick of asking hubby to quit, I started smoking. I was 21.

 

[Jules22871]

I got sick of asking hubby to quit, I started smoking. I was 21.

It's funny that you say that. My son didn't start to smoke until he was 20 years old! He said that he figured it must be something to try since I had been doing it so long. I felt like an utter failure as a parent that day! He is on the ecig now too!!! So maybe I didnt fail quite as bad as I thought.

Back in "the day" we actually had smoking areas at high school. If you were under 18 you had to have a notarized parent's permission slip to be out there but it was so cool to be able to walk around school with a pack of Marlboros sticking out of your purse and have no one say anything to you. Gosh were we ever stupid!

 

[Kate51]

I was 18, a girl friend and I thought it was just what everybody should do. That was in 1965. I would go home at night so sick I couldn't stand it! It took us two weeks of trying to be able to inhale!....you'd think that getting sick from something would be a red flag wouldn't you? So cool!
My Dad smoked, my Mom didn't ever, so she could smell it all over me. Cigarettes were $.35 a pack!

 

[RsL]

Interesting thread !

I was going to a business school in Downtown Minneapolis. Back in those days cigarette companies used to hand out free packs of cigarettes on the street corners as a promotional tool. Myself, as a non-smoker at the time, would walk around a block and just like that I'd have 4 free packs of smokes. Another block and I'd have another 4!

So I would then hand those packs out to my smoking friends and then just for the hellva it, I starting smoking a pack myself. Well, I never looked back. Yes, the cigarette companies really had it easy in those days attracting new users!

 

[Jules22871]

I was 18, a girl friend and I thought it was just what everybody should do. That was in 1965. I would go home at night so sick I couldn't stand it! It took us two weeks of trying to be able to inhale!....you'd think that getting sick from something would be a red flag wouldn't you? So cool!
My Dad smoked, my Mom didn't ever, so she could smell it all over me. Cigarettes were $.35 a pack!

You have a very good point about getting sick,lol When I started they were .65 a pack and I thought that was a lot since I used my lunch money to buy mine,lol Neither one of my parents smoked so I know they had to smell it on me. Wonder why they never said anything about it? I'll have to ask my dad about that the next time we talk.

 

[ImYourSalt]

my friends were doing it. the same reason i started drinking. then, after a puff here, and a, "hey can i bum one of those", i was off to the store for a pack of my own.

since then, it seems theres been one addiction after the other, and will power has become the name of the game.

 

[Tyson]

I went to school in the midwest. When you drank, you smoked so I started smoking when I was drinking and somehow that progressed into smoking all the time. I have to echo what several other people have said and say I'm glad I found the e-cig.

 

[Kate51]

Oh, boy, in 1965 $.35 was a LOT of money, and I had already been working for two years! My God I feel ancient. We didn't drink, no access to anything! No car to go get something, nor money to buy it! Then the legal age was 21 in Wisconsin. But I did share a beer somebody hocked from their Dad on skip day, the day before graduation. We all skipped school and went swimming at a local farmer's pond, and yes I had my cigarettes with me. When I think how really innocent we all were back then I have to laugh. (OR really STUPID) Those were the days allright!

 

[MrKrinkle]

I started in High School cause back then thats what the cool kids did between classes and it hid the smell of doobage better than cologne and such... and well we all know High School kids are just dumb teenagers anyway and now at 34 I look back to those days as a dumb mistake I shoulda just smelled like doobage & cologne...

 

[hammer_sickle01]

stress. i liked the sedating effect when taking in long drags. alcohol worked too but sometimes I liked to relax without being impaired.



*WARNING!!! MAJOR DOWNER MOMENT COMING UP----




suffered from anorexia in my early, early teens and for years after. if you could make up a food pyramid of what i ate back then it'd be made up of sugarfreegum, dietcoke and cigarettes. cigs really did calm nerves and especially, reduce appetite, or at least help ignore it.

unfortunately after i got over the worst of it (and doing well with myself now, I'm happy to admit) the nicotine addiction was set in pretty deep. If I could meet whoever invented the first ecig I'd give my right arm and left leg to them. Screw anyone else who says ecigs are anything otherwise than a brilliant lifesaving f'king invention.


*END OF DOWNER RANT

 

[Rebel]

Peer pressure. In the woods, older kids, told my mom i was staying at my friends, he said the same to his mom, he smoked first, i hesitated, was told "Dude if you dont were not gunna be cool with you, you might tell on us." It was a Marlboro Red. I coughed my .... off. Had my first beer that night too. If i could go back i would have ran. I dont even remember most of the kids names anymore. If i ever see the ringleader of that little get together again i plan on hitting him in the gut. One of my few regrets in life.

 

[WendyM]

*WARNING!!! MAJOR DOWNER MOMENT COMING UP----

I can't even imagine what its like, but if you ever need someone to talk to without any judging or pressure-- for any reason-- skype or PM me. I'm a good listener.

I'm glad you're doing better, and I agree completely: I didn't think I'd ever be a non-smoker (even when I quit in the past, I was a smoker-- I just happened to not be smoking), e-cigs have given me a choice.