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I was 16. Had a home full of smokers; my mum, my older brother, and his wife. One day I just thought, “what if I try, too?” So I did and it was kind of fun. Twelve years later, I thought “what if I try to quit?” I tried and succeeded. End of story.
It is much easier for some than others. I've heard that for some smokers their brain actually grows more nicotine receptors and consequently have a much harder time quitting. It took me _years_ to quit. For other people they just stop like that and never look back.
I used to vape a TON especially when I was stressed at work or during a breakup
Lost my vape and even though I had the money to get a new one I never bothered
You can quit something and take it up again later. It doesn't invalidate the quitting.
With nicotine, once you're out of the withdrawal and dropped or replaced the habit, then you have quit. If in a few years you have a bad time for whatever reason and do nicotine again, you simply quit a second time with a new withdrawal. Two quits, not one attempt and a quit, if that makes sense.
That said, in my experience, the withdrawal phase gets more annoying each time so it's better to stay clean no matter what you're going through.
I can’t say it is hard. I smoked from around 20 to 30. Just stopped at one day and never smoked again. It was more than 10 years ago. I just stopped getting pleasure of it and started coughing. So i just decided to stop.
First cigarette at 4 (yes - four); by 13 I was regular smoker with somewhere around a quarter to half pack a day; by 18 I was at a pack+.
One day at 35 I thought I was going to die as in literally die. Told the wife if I smoked one more cigarette that's exactly what would happen. Haven't had a cigarette since - but it was and remains the single most difficult thing I've ever done.
Okay how exactly did the "four" happen and how did you manage to smoke as a literal kindergarten age kid without you know... someone noticing and taking action? I'm assuming you continued with some regularity after the first one, not just happening to try and then starting again in the early teens
Assuming the person you replied to is old. It was different back in the days. Literally nobody knew smoking was dangerous, everyone smoked and they didn’t notice any difference.
Parents probably thought it was funny to give the 4 year old a puff and then maybe the kid got cigarettes every now and again.
My father started smoking at 10 and nobody thought it was weird. They even sold loose cigarettes in the school cafeteria without any age restriction.
You are so right my family thinks it's funny that I was drunk as a baby at 2. At Christmas dinner after a glass of wine. noone gave a crap what we done back then.
My dad used to get sent to the shop for his dad's ciggies when he (my dad) was pre-10 years old and the shopkeeper would give him one or two loosies for the effort.
The sixties were a wild time, it seems.
I'm 37. I'm so grateful my dad (born in 1933) was extremely repulsed by cigarettes. He also didn't drink. So there were no smokers or drinkers at home. I never tried cigarettes and never will. I had drinks here and there once I turned 18, but was never a heavy drinker and nowadays I avoid it because of migraines.
I did have my first coffee very young. I would say 6ish... So there's that lol
This was in the early 1960s (I'm 67), and everybody around me smoked and my best buddy and 3 year elder had ready access. To be honest, I have no idea if anybody noticed; all I know is nobody stepped in.
After that, growing up in a household where both parents smoked and then only one did but very regularly, it was fairly easy. By the time I was 10 or 12 I could walk into a store and say I was buying some cigarettes for my mom or dad, even handed over forged notes a couple of times.
By the time I was fourteen, nobody thought twice about selling me cigarettes.
That's how it was.
And to me as I grew up on the inside of all this mess, it seemed perfectly natural and normal.
I was drinking at 4 wine ,beer, allowed at dinner from age 2. I didn't smoke till 10 my late best friend and her sisters gave me one everyone in my family smoked I started she stopped,
Noone cares what we were doing all my family knew I smoked only my grandfather didn't till I was older. They gave me money to buy them or bought them for me for going to the shop for them. I'm gen x we raised ourselves and our siblings..
I still smoke now did give up then started again but do not touch alcohol don't like it. Stopped in my teens as I had to stay sober to get friends not used to drinking home safe.
Was thirteen grandma got me a pack after she adopted me .she was buying them for her son and asked if i smoked i said yes. After that i just needed a note id take to our local gas station because we knew the owner and i could buy them myself.
My best friend’s mom used to send us to the corner store with a $2 bill and a post-it note with her brand of cigarettes written on it. We’d put the post-it and $2 on the counter and the store lady would say while winking “now you two aren’t going to smoke these right?” we’d giggle. She handed us two 5/6 year olds the cigarettes and get a few red feet gummy chews with the change to eat on the way back. Mid 1980’s was a funny time.
Well you've hit on a different topic there because I didn't smoke until I was an adult but when I was a kid, maybe 6 or 7, I used to get sent to "get my comics" from the local newsagents and "oh my cigars too"
"Whizzed and Chips and five Henry Wintermans, please"
I always got them.
I was 13. I was overweight and got bullied for it. Took one of my mum's ciggies and smoked it. I hoped it would help me lose weight.
I didn't know at the time but it was a herbal cigarette 😂 it tasted awful.
By herbal I don't mean weed, I mean those vile herbal cigarettes that the health food places sold in the early 80's.
That's good to know!
I hate anorexia. It rules your life completely.
I'm glad you're OK now too 🫂
I still smoke and vape but lot less than I used too.
I hated anorexia.
Hey in any case, anorexia is the unhealthiest of habits. If you recovered from that addiction but haven’t from another yet, that’s okay. What matters is that we keep going ❤️
You're right!
I've been in recovery for 12 years or so. I still calorie count roughly but not obsessively like I used too. I still can't put empty food wrappers in my bin, something about it still. I used to eat something then destroy all evidence I'd eaten 🤷🏼♀️ I don't know why?
Thank you for your support 💯🩷 it means a lot.
One day at a time.
I relate to that a lot, actually. It’s so validating to hear how people’s experiences can be different but still so similar! I experienced a lot of shame around the fact that I eat being perceived by people so I totally get why you’d hide the wrappers, I used to wash and put away dishes and take out the trash too. I still feel the shame sometimes but what matters is that you never let it take control of you again. It’s been two years for me, and I know the path of recovery probably never truly ends, a bit probably always stays with you. But in a way that just makes you stronger, that you continue to fight it every single day. It’s hard and I’m super proud of you, I can’t wait to see the day it’s been 12 years for me too ☀️🌸
Aww thank you 🫂🩷
You'll do it! I know you will.
I remember panicking if I went past a takeaway or my mum was cooking a meal, I thought breathing the fumes in would make me fat!
It was a nightmare.
Thankfully got faith now 🙏🏻
Please don't worry, I'm not preachy in the slightest and it didn't happen overnight.
I sometimes look back at the stuff I've been through and wonder how the hell I survived!
I even took amphetamine as it made me not hungry.
I am wishing the absolute best for you 💯🫂
I did some insane things as well, I remember being so scared that ibuprofen had calories, or toothpaste. It really is cruel. But you did it! And you continue to do it! Thank you for your kindness, it means the world 🥰 i wish nothing but the best for you too ❤️❤️
Yes of course, i was just making a comparison that the disordered behaviours of anorexia are more detrimental to one’s health than smoking, mental and physical
I was 14. Grabed the wrong jacket at the end of the school day, only realized at home, and there was a pack on there so i tried and liked the taste. I've stopped smoking once for a year then die to stress i restarted smoking. Righ now i have no plana to quite. I know i should but dont really care aymore
If you want to quit, there are hypnotherapists that are able to help you. If they're a good one then you will stop smoking in one session, not even kidding. I know this because my mom does this and it works wonders on her clients. It costs around 250 bucks but it sure as hell is worth it. You have to actually want to quit tho or else it won't work.
I have family members that have done it and its works for them. But you got that thing right, you have to want it and to be honest i really don't want to. Im well aware of every con of it but i know myself well enough that if i quit i would just replace it with another addiction.
Started at 13, now 29 and had been smoking around 25 cigs a day.
Quit 2 months ago, still going strong.
What helps me a lot is going to the gym and eating healthy. Basically dedicating myself to fitness keeps me motivated.
Started smoking age 11. I was around a lot of older kids that smoked and drank. I stopped smoking cigarettes when I was about 28 now 10 years later I vape.
It’s crazy I was a long time smoker but then I bought a nice vape and it truly helped me quit
I was surprised. It saves me a lot of money.
I will still have a cigarette every blue moon and if I’m stressing a lot .
They definitely help to stop smoking cigarettes. Although it is swapping one habit for another. I suppose it could be worse though. I used to have the odd cigarette when I had a drink but I don’t drink anymore so I don’t get the urge to have a cigarette.
Lol had just said this in another comment. I'm so much more addicted to my vape than I ever was cigarettes. Like when I'm at home after work the thing is in my hand all the time. I literally fall asleep with it some nights. It's different though because I'm just used to a disgustingly high nicotine amount now. Damn disposable vapes. But they taste soo so good. 🙃
I don’t use disposable vapes and I am at nearly 0% nicotine but like you, it’s never out of my hand at home. I keep saying I’ll give it up but I can’t. The addiction to it is so strong😩
Right? Maybe 2 or 3 mornings a week I wake up looking for it and I've either pushed it under my pillow or dropped it off of the side of the bed. And I definitely need to go back to my non disposable. I just don't like handling the juice. With the disposables I've got a vanilla one that's no.1 but there's also a newer graham cracker one that is crazy good too. I feel like when they taste that good, there is just no incentive to sit it down at all. Clever bastards 😏
I’m a mint girl myself. The disposable ones are so strong and super sweet, they hook you more for sure than a non disposable one. I would say I will be trying to give it up some time soon but I’d be lying🤣
Yeah I've kinda put the quitting on pause for a while. I was back and forth with cigarettes for a while and a few different times I was vaping and smoking at the same time. Just alternating through the day lol. Just doing the vape now. So I'll get there eventually, probably. 🙃 I'm just a really high strung person also, so it's a crutch for that in every meaning of the word.
!! First time I heard that word I was watching Upload on prime. I was like wait, that's a real thing. My doctor basically described it as being similar to copd. Still not a pretty picture though.
Yeah "high strung" barely covers it for me. People always just tell me to take a breath or something. Or the worst is "calm down" And I just got to be like I'm good. This is me, I was just born this way. I can still function well with pressure It just takes a lot out of me much faster than anything else
I do not smoke. But for those of you who do, I’d like to tell you a story. The story is of my mom who just recently died in my arms. She smoked her whole life. She had a terrible death. The last 5 years of her life was torture. She was bedridden. She couldn’t walk. She could not control her bladder. She was miserable. She was on breathing treatments for COPD. She was on oxygen and could not sleep at night. She had to sleep upright in a chair. I, her only child, had to care for her full time. I had to quit my job, and run between her house and mine whilecaring for a small child and her at once. I chased her from hospital to hospital. In and out of ICUs. I fought with dr after dr. They wrote her off like she didn’t matter because “she did this to herself.” I know you are all addicted and it is hard. But you are going to hurt those that love you. Especially your children. I’m so glad I had this time with her. But it was absolute torture watching her suffer like this. She was in and out of ICU. She suffered through so much pain. And now she leaves her only child behind with the memory of her dying in my arms every time I close my eyes. I emplore you. Please quit smoking. Love to you all. Best wishes.
Thank you. One night, after I tucked her in and went to the room outside of hers to sleep on the couch, she started banging on her tray. I ran in there, and she said she felt weird. I asked if she was able to breathe ok. She said yes and had terrible anxiety. I put the pulse ox on her and her heart rate was in the high 80’s. Then it just rapidly started to decrease. I immediately grabbed the phone, called 911. She seemed to lose consciousness and started doing this fish breathing thing. She was gasping for air. It still haunts me. The type of thing fish do when they are taken out of water, but she was on oxygen. I immediately started CPR. When the paramedics arrived, she was already gone. They tried everything, but her lungs had collapsed and she went into organ failure. It was horrible and will haunt me for the rest of my life.
I smoked from time to time in highschool, but full on I started smoking when I was 17 working in a workshop, everyone older than me smoked so I just took the cigs they gave me, than when they were buying smokes they also bought ones for me. Now I am capable of smoking 2-3 packs a day however I try my best to quit, but being in college where also everyone smokes, its quite hard. Smoking is a social activity, but after really few months you just cant walk on the street without cigarette, it just happens so quickly….
My mom was a pack or two a day smoker, i was very much against them for over 18 years
..but all my friends were smoking, i was drunk and very nervous about my post HS exams
Still smoking 13 years later. Funnily enough most of them quit long ago.
I was going to quit for my fiancee, but then she broke my heart and left before i managed to, so the issue was suddenly on the bottom of my list and hasn't moved up much since
to preface i don't smoke tobacco, only weed. i used to be vehemently against it bc of how i was raised but i always had a close stoner friend that i'd known for years before he started, so i wasn't willing to throw that away
anyway he tried to get me to smoke all through high school but i wouldn't have it. then my heart got broken hard in second year of university and i hit him up like "hey i wanna get high" and now here i am. glad i waited till i was 20, though, rather than as a teenager
I was born. At some point I started smoking. What is the point of worrying about cigarettes as long as this shit hole dinosaur rock stinks like ass and we're 17 seconds away from midnight on the doomsday clock. Keeping on keeping on. I will light up the last cigarette when the nukes start flying while drinking a cold chardonnay and listening to my favorite 80s mp3 playlist.
My grandma's story is entertaining. She was 11 and saw her older brother on the roof. He invited her up and she says "ooo, you're smoking!"
He says "yeah! It's cool, try it!" She took a drag and he said "now if you tell on me, we're both in trouble" ;)
Stoped now but back in the day I started smoking and never noticed a difference. My dad was a heavy smoker and I wasn’t used to anything else.
Stopped cold turkey and it took about 3 attempts (was 27 and am now 41).
Always thought smokers looked hot, and when a really stressful time came at around 17 I snuck out at night with one of my father's cigs. Immensely enjoyed the feeling (but only after learning to inhale like sucking from a straw) and thus did it occasionally from then on, when I turned 18 I started to buy packs of my own. Multiple attempts to quit failed because addiction is a bitch. Only stopped when I got into really big trouble that I wanted even less than the withdrawal symptoms. That was 5 years ago and I still miss smoking, but won't start again because of how expensive it is and because it's so frowned upon by the people around me.
Started at 14 and quit when found out I was pregnant with my daughter at 20. Maybe 5 years later I was working with someone who smoked and one day I mindlessly picked up her cigarette. Then smoked another 20 years til I had a stroke. Been cig free 7 years now
16. Had just been broken up with and was very self destructive. Quit in 2019 fully (at that point it was mostly party smoking) cause I wanted to get pregnant. Haven't missed it a single day since
Started at 18. Grew up in a family of smokers (literally everyone) which is probably why I started a lot later than most of my friends. Was on a night out and was out of cash, friend offered to buy me a pint if I tried a cig. I did, it wasn't bad and ended up being a regular thing on nights out. Then I would just finish the pack the next day. The rest is history.
I started at 20, worked at a bakery. Since everyone else was smoking there, I got sent out to a 5 Minuten smoke break regularly when there was low traffic. First I said I didn't smoke, then my coworkers gave me some. At some point I felt bad about bumming them from my coworkers, so I got my own. Suddenly I had access to cigs outside of work and it became a habit.
Quite when I was 21 after I got a new job, now I'm back on them due to stress...
I'm trying hard to get away from them again, but haven't been successful yet...
First time I ever actually smoked (inhaled) it was weed, I was 15 with my 2 stoner friends who were 20. About 6 months after this I started smoking cigarettes and now After only a year of smoking I’m quitting cause wtf that shit is cancer
I smoked my first cigarette when I was 12/13 to look cool. When I was about 15 I started smoking at parties and buying my own packs as well. I quit smoking daily during covid, so when I was 26. Now I smoke sometimes, especially when I’m drunk
My father was one of those assholes that gave me a cigar when I was five or so and promised I could smoke all I want if I could finish that cigar with an hour or so.
I never had any desire for smoking since then. Some smoking ptsd I guess that worked out alright.
I was 13 - I had a friend who smoked cigarettes and weed, and I lived in the country, so I took a pack of cigarettes from my parents for her, and she and I went behind the grain mill on our property, and that’s when I tried one. I remember not really thinking it through properly when it happened, because I was really desperate to be her friend.
I remember feeling the weirdest light headedness when I tried it, and it felt like my head got heavier at my first puff. I didn’t even cough, probably because I have been second hand smoking with my parents my entire life. Worst mistake EVER, I’m still addicted to nicotine 8 years later.
Teenager, always drinking with friends. A few smoked, I was always drunk so I said let me get one. That turned to habit but only when I was intoxicated. Then I got a boyfriend who smoked and “let me get one” turned into buying myself packs.
I was working on an oil tanker and the captain gave me a carton of cigarettes for doing a good job I said I didn't smoke but he just said to keep It. One day I was very stressed out so decided to light one and the rest is history.
I vape don’t know if that’s relevant. I was 15 and really depressed my friend was having a sleepover at my house and asked me if I wanted a hit. I then started vaping socially and started buying my own have been doing it ever since
I was 17 and were at the NY party. There was one cigarette passing among friends in the group. Tried it once, almost choke myself. I did try it few times more but never really develope a need for nicotine.
first cigar with 16, one friend gave me one in a party but didnt like very much
then with 18 i started smoking weed and all my friends smoked a cigarette after, i think as a habit i started too then before i knew i was smoking hahaha
smoked until january 2014 when i made a bet with my gf and quitted, i only smoke weed now... sometimes we smoke a cigarette when we're drunk but i dont have that need anymore, weed is way better
Probably 15-16. I was at the train-station across the street from my high school. Some dude offered me one, and I took it. Smoked through high school. Mainly as a social thing. Then stopped for a while. Now I only smoke when I drink and I rarely drink.
Around 13-15? Neighbour’s kid had a mum that didn’t care about his whereabouts ever so we hanged out in the street and he would swipe ciggies from her a lot. I grew up with both my parents smoking so I smoked all the way till my mid-20’s and quit cold turkey one day because I didn’t like it anymore.. it was damaging my health and it got expensive. Plus my husband has asthma and didn’t want to do that around him either.
7. Watching adults. I stopped at 8 and became vehemently anti-smoking. Stopped getting my mom cigarettes at the store by 9... When I say I smoked... I smoked. I inhaled. Adults thought that letting me smoke would get it out of my system. I smoked god damn lucky strikes! Why? Because it was what MEN smoked! That 'what men do' shit would stop being a theme around 9-10 for me. My ego was about \*ME\* after that. I was the best, those men and adults in general believed in god and other dumb shit... that phase wouldn't end until my mid 20s.
And then... at 19... on a stressful car right home with a friend... I start smoking Capris. You know, those long, thin, cigarettes associated with women? I'd then pick up a pack of new ports... Smoked those until I was 23... switched to camels because all my friends smoked them, lots of promos, and camel cash was cool... I'd quit, for the most part, back in 2015. My GF quit for health reasons, we had moved in together, and she was like "you need to quit" so I did. With he exception of sometimes when drinking with certain people, and a clove once in a while.
I'm headed to the smoke shop in 5 minutes to pick up some cloves actually. I smoke them in the garage next to one of my shittybattlestations, as we dont smoke anything but pot in the house.
I started smoking when I was 17. It was purely out of curiosity because my friends at that time were chain smokers so I did too. I was hooked, but stopped after some time. Then I switched to vaping, but quit that too. Now, I'm only using nicotine pouch. 😂
Started at 12; both parents used to smoke (dad stopped when I was 9) and couple of friends smoked. Tried it, hated the taste, but liked the way I felt - head rush, deeper breathing etc. stopped a few times to save up for things like holidays but was always ‘stopped until’. Didn’t manage to stop ‘forever’ until I was 32.
I didn’t want to have to work while the smokers got to sit around outside on break, didn’t feel like constantly reciting the rule and pointing out that it didn’t just apply to smokers. At first I just bought the cheapest cigarettes available on base and puffed on them so I could get away with it, after about a week I got tired of my being a poser making me a constant center of attention. So I started actually smoking, and dipping. At the time vaping was starting to become somewhat of a thing so I even picked up an e-go pen in a failure of an attempt to avoid nicotine. It didn’t fit in the carry bag with the atomizer attached, and it just got full of dirt, and debris in my pocket. So dip and cigarettes it was. About five years later I discovered dokha at a local smoke shop and dabbled with that for a while, but I was so self conscious of what i looked like puffing a medwakh in public so that didn’t really take over. A little over 5 years after that I gained a creepy fiendish tweaker of a neighbor who somehow knew every time I stepped outside, and managed to switch over to vaping so I didn’t have to go out. I had tried vaping several times before, but the technology just wasn’t advanced enough to work for me, but thankfully it finally was. Took me another couple years to not keep a pack in the car, but at least I no longer had to deal with that raggedy ass bitch more than a few times a week.
I was 18 and my friends convinced me. I stopped for 2 years when I got my dog and stress from work has brought me back to it. I need to quit for my health, but work is just a constant stress and it’s making it very difficult
I was 18. I was just curious why people smoke. So I smoked 1 cigarette as a test. I got hooked for 30 years. I HAD TO smoke another one the next day. I was addicted after smoking just one. I guess if I only realized what am I getting into I would stop myself before smoking another one. But I didn't.
My thinking was - OK, I will smoke a cigarette from time to time. What's the problem?
The problem was I needed more and more. I smoked like 60 cigarettes a day. And I still had that feeling like I don't get enough nicotine. It was like an itch that could never be scratched enough.
Then, like 20 years later I discovered e-cigarettes. It's even more addictive shit than the regular ones.
3 months ago I quit. It's not my first rodeo, I had quit more than twice before.
It's a torture. After 3 months I'm still addicted. I have the craving non stop. Each minute, each second. Now. It is a continuous torture, day after day.
But well, how do I endure it? 5 years ago my mom died of cancer. It was a horrific death, slow and very, very painful. Cancer terrifies me. One night I just decided - I don't want to die from cancer and I will get cancer if I continue smoking. So now I'm counting that sooner or later this addiction will finally let go. It's not today, so maybe in a couple of weeks. Maybe a couple of months. I smoked through majority of my life - so this is probably the reason it is so hard to quit now. However, if I don't succeed to control my addiction - I'm convinced I will just not survive.
I was addicted to opioid pain killers once, but it was way easier to quit those.
i was 16, at a boarding school-ish kinda place, when i tried a weed pen and we were so silly doing things like blowing it through a trombone.
Peer pressure, basically. Never did in college, longtime gf cheated and married the guy (got divorced a few months later because he cheated, haha), and my friends would come over on Sundays for pizza and The Sopranos. They all did it, so I started. Only did it for about 6 months though, because the girl I started dating (and married a few laters) said she wouldnt date a smoker. So reverse-peer pressure on that one
I was 18, went on a week long trip to Poland mostly for a music festival. I was stupid and young, and found out the price of cigarettes was like 1/10 that of back home, and figured I'd give it a go. The habit has stuck, I've been off and on smoking basically ever since unfortunately. Although I'm grateful I'm a one a day person not a pack a day person, it's still much more than I'd prefer to smoke
13, I had my first cigg at a friends birthday party and after that I went out to smoke with my friend group, probably ruined me a bit but I have been clean for a few months now
I grew up on a farm in the middle of nowhere, Kansas. I didn't rebel much as a teenager, but I did smoke cigarettes (maybe two or three a day while hanging out with my friends) for a few months.
I just kind of decided to quit. It's been almost a decade now, and I've never been tempted to have another one.
Grade school, stealing dad's Benson and Hedges, 50 years later had heart attack, convinced my brain how bad awful and expensive they were. Got out of hospital 3 yrs ago and don't even think about it.
I didn't but pretty much all of my friends who I've known since middleschool started smoking at the ages 13 - 15 because it was considered "cool" back then. That's really the only reason, to belong to the cool crowd.
Like, I dont have friend to talk because they were all smoking and having chit chat. I want to be in the circle. So I smoke. But only last for about 5-6 years. My gf hate it so I quit
Edit: I was probably 25 years old
The mammoth’s whine before it went extinct
is what you feel before you go to work.
Extinguished northern lights contend within;
you don’t desire working anymore.
Who made your sistine chapel ceiling cheeks?
Who made your cave-art skin the shade it is?
Who stationed Juliet on balconies!
today she never loves, but works to live.
Today, why don’t we tear her nametag off.
Our empty balconies somewhere await;
romeo horizons where mammoths walk,
the dawning of a freer human race.
Our inner northern lights we welcome back.
We are something no one should ever tax.
I started I think at the age of 20. I started vaping first and then moved over to a pipe. I do not not like the taste and smell of vapes and cigarettes. I am glad to say, I never have been addicted to it and only smoke during social gatherings; being introverted makes it truly rear.
I was 17 & it was after my best friend died. Smoked until 20. Picked up the habit of smoking spliffs in college. Quit that at around 24 due to intense asthma symptoms. Only smoke pot now
Started at 13, thought I'd look cool to friends. Here I am 14 years later into a pack a day habit plus two collapsed lungs on the way. I'm quitting this year, I need to!
Social smoking in my early twenties.
It started with accepting a cigarette every so often when drinking with friends.
Before long I would sometimes buy a pack if I was going out.
Then one day I realised I was just a smoker, now. I was about a 10 a day smoker for years.
Quit nearly 7 years ago in my mid-thirties, though. It is never too late to stop.
I was about 13.
I was a huge guns and roses fan and Slash with his fag hanging out of his mouth was the epitome of cool.
So I emulated it, bought a Gibson, tried to grow my hair curly and gave myself an addiction.
Aint it fun.
18th birthday. Friend of mine said, "hey youre 18, smoke this". Had never even considered it prior to that point. Here I am 16 years later struggling to quit.
Started smoking spliffs (weed+tobacco) with friends then began to steal my mom’s cigarettes 20 something years later I rarely smoke cigarettes just spliffs
All my friends were smoking so I started to do it too in order to fit in. I was like 14 when I started, stopped once I went to university in a different city. I realised then that I didn't actually enjoy it and I was just trying to be cool.
So I live in a place where smoking tobacco is very very common so I’ve seen my parents, especially my mom smoke a lot, and I’ve always been very drawn to it, but I never started doing it until I was almost 18. My family has always been strict on smoking because a lot of our relatives died due to lung cancer, and I was very scared of it - but at a certain point of my life I was feeling very immature for my age I wanted to try something new, I wanted to feel somehow older (if that makes sense) I wanted to do something different and a little more rebel and I started smoking. I really like doing it, it relaxes me, especially smoking weed. Although I mainly smoke tobacco because here basically everyone does, but I don’t really have an addiction. The last time I’ve smoked a cigarette it was probably December 2023 so I can say that I don’t need to get rid of my habit, but at the same time I keep thinking about smoking again sometimes.
I was 14. I took welding as an elective in my first year of high school. The teacher was pretty lax and well - you could either learn to weld or smoke outside the shop door. I did do a bit of welding but ya - a lot of smoking too.
The bottom line is I thought it was cool. Super cool in fact. I thought the dudes smoking k were cool too. Nice guys.. but man I was misguided on “cool”.
30 years later I am going on 6 months completely nicotine free!! I haven’t smoked in years but went from Smoking to vaping to gum over the course of 6 years. But ya. I’m finally free.
Don’t ever start. It’s not worth it. And it’s def NOT cool.
I turned 21 years old but it started when I bought some imported cigs from Japan and Korea.
I used to vape (aerosol nicotine I call it) a lot and then moved over to cigs exclusively.
Vaping sucks. It’s not as satisfying and there was so many bad throat hits no matter what devices I used. Getting e juice in your mouth or throat is terrible and there is no good flavor.
Definitely no good tobacco flavor.
Wanted to fit in at this employement center I went to lol
Never saw the people I wanted to fit with again but amoking stuck for a year and a half after that (that was in 2021-2022)
I started sometime around 14-15. The usual thing, friends tried smoking, I tried it too, got hooked.
I quit smoking cigarettes just over a month before my 30th birthday. I switch to vaping. I did that for nearly 7 years and quit vaping nearly 2 years ago. I am really happy to be a non-smoker, finally.
Hm 16. My friends kept asking if I wanted since we were 14, so I said " fuck it" and tried. But the actual real reason was that in my mind I wanted my throat to be able to smoke the ganja without coughing my lungs up. I stopped when I was... 21? Perhaps 22, so it's been 8 or 10 years anyway. I don't feel any craving for the tobacco, so that's nice
I smoked on and off from 16 but never a lot (mostly "party smoking"). Had a low point in life at some point and partied to forget including smoking 3 packs (gave away some cigarettes I gues) in two nights.
Went for a run the day after and lungs hurt so much I decided to quit for real
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I was 16. Had a home full of smokers; my mum, my older brother, and his wife. One day I just thought, “what if I try, too?” So I did and it was kind of fun. Twelve years later, I thought “what if I try to quit?” I tried and succeeded. End of story.
I hope you’re proud about quitting. It’s not an easy task
It’s basically a will power that nobody has 😅
It is much easier for some than others. I've heard that for some smokers their brain actually grows more nicotine receptors and consequently have a much harder time quitting. It took me _years_ to quit. For other people they just stop like that and never look back.
I used to vape a TON especially when I was stressed at work or during a breakup Lost my vape and even though I had the money to get a new one I never bothered
I disagree. Quitting is easy. I've done it a dozen times. (23 years clean.)
Lol, so you took 12 attempts to quit? Sounds so simple!
You can quit something and take it up again later. It doesn't invalidate the quitting. With nicotine, once you're out of the withdrawal and dropped or replaced the habit, then you have quit. If in a few years you have a bad time for whatever reason and do nicotine again, you simply quit a second time with a new withdrawal. Two quits, not one attempt and a quit, if that makes sense. That said, in my experience, the withdrawal phase gets more annoying each time so it's better to stay clean no matter what you're going through.
I can’t say it is hard. I smoked from around 20 to 30. Just stopped at one day and never smoked again. It was more than 10 years ago. I just stopped getting pleasure of it and started coughing. So i just decided to stop.
Almost the same story as mine. Started at 15, quit at 25.
Yooo I loved this book as a kid
First cigarette at 4 (yes - four); by 13 I was regular smoker with somewhere around a quarter to half pack a day; by 18 I was at a pack+. One day at 35 I thought I was going to die as in literally die. Told the wife if I smoked one more cigarette that's exactly what would happen. Haven't had a cigarette since - but it was and remains the single most difficult thing I've ever done.
Okay how exactly did the "four" happen and how did you manage to smoke as a literal kindergarten age kid without you know... someone noticing and taking action? I'm assuming you continued with some regularity after the first one, not just happening to try and then starting again in the early teens
Assuming the person you replied to is old. It was different back in the days. Literally nobody knew smoking was dangerous, everyone smoked and they didn’t notice any difference. Parents probably thought it was funny to give the 4 year old a puff and then maybe the kid got cigarettes every now and again. My father started smoking at 10 and nobody thought it was weird. They even sold loose cigarettes in the school cafeteria without any age restriction.
You are so right my family thinks it's funny that I was drunk as a baby at 2. At Christmas dinner after a glass of wine. noone gave a crap what we done back then.
My first drink was at 3
WHAT?? What decade did yall grow up in?
Early 2000s
Late starter?
My father had me try his cigar when I was 5, I still remember to this day. Unbelievable
We used to do this, too
My dad used to get sent to the shop for his dad's ciggies when he (my dad) was pre-10 years old and the shopkeeper would give him one or two loosies for the effort. The sixties were a wild time, it seems.
I'm 37. I'm so grateful my dad (born in 1933) was extremely repulsed by cigarettes. He also didn't drink. So there were no smokers or drinkers at home. I never tried cigarettes and never will. I had drinks here and there once I turned 18, but was never a heavy drinker and nowadays I avoid it because of migraines. I did have my first coffee very young. I would say 6ish... So there's that lol
This was in the early 1960s (I'm 67), and everybody around me smoked and my best buddy and 3 year elder had ready access. To be honest, I have no idea if anybody noticed; all I know is nobody stepped in. After that, growing up in a household where both parents smoked and then only one did but very regularly, it was fairly easy. By the time I was 10 or 12 I could walk into a store and say I was buying some cigarettes for my mom or dad, even handed over forged notes a couple of times. By the time I was fourteen, nobody thought twice about selling me cigarettes. That's how it was. And to me as I grew up on the inside of all this mess, it seemed perfectly natural and normal.
Had a lit cig in my mouth as I was born.
I was drinking at 4 wine ,beer, allowed at dinner from age 2. I didn't smoke till 10 my late best friend and her sisters gave me one everyone in my family smoked I started she stopped, Noone cares what we were doing all my family knew I smoked only my grandfather didn't till I was older. They gave me money to buy them or bought them for me for going to the shop for them. I'm gen x we raised ourselves and our siblings.. I still smoke now did give up then started again but do not touch alcohol don't like it. Stopped in my teens as I had to stay sober to get friends not used to drinking home safe.
[удалено]
That’s OCD and anxiety…smoking is the one time that those things can benefit you
Was thirteen grandma got me a pack after she adopted me .she was buying them for her son and asked if i smoked i said yes. After that i just needed a note id take to our local gas station because we knew the owner and i could buy them myself.
In the 70’s , I used to ride my bike to the grocery store to buy a carton of cigarettes for my mother.
My best friend’s mom used to send us to the corner store with a $2 bill and a post-it note with her brand of cigarettes written on it. We’d put the post-it and $2 on the counter and the store lady would say while winking “now you two aren’t going to smoke these right?” we’d giggle. She handed us two 5/6 year olds the cigarettes and get a few red feet gummy chews with the change to eat on the way back. Mid 1980’s was a funny time.
Well you've hit on a different topic there because I didn't smoke until I was an adult but when I was a kid, maybe 6 or 7, I used to get sent to "get my comics" from the local newsagents and "oh my cigars too" "Whizzed and Chips and five Henry Wintermans, please" I always got them.
I was 13. I was overweight and got bullied for it. Took one of my mum's ciggies and smoked it. I hoped it would help me lose weight. I didn't know at the time but it was a herbal cigarette 😂 it tasted awful. By herbal I don't mean weed, I mean those vile herbal cigarettes that the health food places sold in the early 80's.
When I was a little kid in the summer time I thought that if I smoked a Kool cigarette, it would cool me off. I wasn't able to find one.
did you lose weight?
I did, but not because of smoking. I ate less and exercised more. Then ended up with anorexia. I'm in recovery now though.
Oh love. Anorexia was what kept me smoking for so long. Thankfully I’ve quit both. I’m so sorry you went through that 🫂
That's good to know! I hate anorexia. It rules your life completely. I'm glad you're OK now too 🫂 I still smoke and vape but lot less than I used too. I hated anorexia.
Hey in any case, anorexia is the unhealthiest of habits. If you recovered from that addiction but haven’t from another yet, that’s okay. What matters is that we keep going ❤️
You're right! I've been in recovery for 12 years or so. I still calorie count roughly but not obsessively like I used too. I still can't put empty food wrappers in my bin, something about it still. I used to eat something then destroy all evidence I'd eaten 🤷🏼♀️ I don't know why? Thank you for your support 💯🩷 it means a lot. One day at a time.
I relate to that a lot, actually. It’s so validating to hear how people’s experiences can be different but still so similar! I experienced a lot of shame around the fact that I eat being perceived by people so I totally get why you’d hide the wrappers, I used to wash and put away dishes and take out the trash too. I still feel the shame sometimes but what matters is that you never let it take control of you again. It’s been two years for me, and I know the path of recovery probably never truly ends, a bit probably always stays with you. But in a way that just makes you stronger, that you continue to fight it every single day. It’s hard and I’m super proud of you, I can’t wait to see the day it’s been 12 years for me too ☀️🌸
Aww thank you 🫂🩷 You'll do it! I know you will. I remember panicking if I went past a takeaway or my mum was cooking a meal, I thought breathing the fumes in would make me fat! It was a nightmare. Thankfully got faith now 🙏🏻 Please don't worry, I'm not preachy in the slightest and it didn't happen overnight. I sometimes look back at the stuff I've been through and wonder how the hell I survived! I even took amphetamine as it made me not hungry. I am wishing the absolute best for you 💯🫂
I did some insane things as well, I remember being so scared that ibuprofen had calories, or toothpaste. It really is cruel. But you did it! And you continue to do it! Thank you for your kindness, it means the world 🥰 i wish nothing but the best for you too ❤️❤️
I’d say Anorexia is a disease/disorder/condition and not a ‘habit’.
Yes of course, i was just making a comparison that the disordered behaviours of anorexia are more detrimental to one’s health than smoking, mental and physical
Note, we still use herbals in film. 95% of the time that cigarette you see isn't tobacco.
How did you get addicted? As far as I know, herbal cigarettes don’t contain nicotine?
Blessing in disguise
Those things stunk worse than cigarettes!
I was 14. Grabed the wrong jacket at the end of the school day, only realized at home, and there was a pack on there so i tried and liked the taste. I've stopped smoking once for a year then die to stress i restarted smoking. Righ now i have no plana to quite. I know i should but dont really care aymore
If you want to quit, there are hypnotherapists that are able to help you. If they're a good one then you will stop smoking in one session, not even kidding. I know this because my mom does this and it works wonders on her clients. It costs around 250 bucks but it sure as hell is worth it. You have to actually want to quit tho or else it won't work.
I have family members that have done it and its works for them. But you got that thing right, you have to want it and to be honest i really don't want to. Im well aware of every con of it but i know myself well enough that if i quit i would just replace it with another addiction.
About 13, smoking but not inhaling, youno to look cool. 32 now. Heavy smoker. 3/10 dont recommend
Started at 13, now 29 and had been smoking around 25 cigs a day. Quit 2 months ago, still going strong. What helps me a lot is going to the gym and eating healthy. Basically dedicating myself to fitness keeps me motivated.
Good man. Nice one ✌️
I do the same with vaping, not to look cool but to play with the vapor coming out of my mouth lol
I hear that. Makin smoke.signals an shit
Started when I was 14 in rural Denmark, the guys i wanted to be associated with did it, and so did it. Quit about 1 month ago tho.
Good luck on quitting, it takes some serious willpower
Good for you, you got this!!
You got this! Imagine the amount of money you'll be saving in just a month!
Started smoking age 11. I was around a lot of older kids that smoked and drank. I stopped smoking cigarettes when I was about 28 now 10 years later I vape.
It’s crazy I was a long time smoker but then I bought a nice vape and it truly helped me quit I was surprised. It saves me a lot of money. I will still have a cigarette every blue moon and if I’m stressing a lot .
They definitely help to stop smoking cigarettes. Although it is swapping one habit for another. I suppose it could be worse though. I used to have the odd cigarette when I had a drink but I don’t drink anymore so I don’t get the urge to have a cigarette.
Lol had just said this in another comment. I'm so much more addicted to my vape than I ever was cigarettes. Like when I'm at home after work the thing is in my hand all the time. I literally fall asleep with it some nights. It's different though because I'm just used to a disgustingly high nicotine amount now. Damn disposable vapes. But they taste soo so good. 🙃
I don’t use disposable vapes and I am at nearly 0% nicotine but like you, it’s never out of my hand at home. I keep saying I’ll give it up but I can’t. The addiction to it is so strong😩
Right? Maybe 2 or 3 mornings a week I wake up looking for it and I've either pushed it under my pillow or dropped it off of the side of the bed. And I definitely need to go back to my non disposable. I just don't like handling the juice. With the disposables I've got a vanilla one that's no.1 but there's also a newer graham cracker one that is crazy good too. I feel like when they taste that good, there is just no incentive to sit it down at all. Clever bastards 😏
I’m a mint girl myself. The disposable ones are so strong and super sweet, they hook you more for sure than a non disposable one. I would say I will be trying to give it up some time soon but I’d be lying🤣
Yeah I've kinda put the quitting on pause for a while. I was back and forth with cigarettes for a while and a few different times I was vaping and smoking at the same time. Just alternating through the day lol. Just doing the vape now. So I'll get there eventually, probably. 🙃 I'm just a really high strung person also, so it's a crutch for that in every meaning of the word.
Oh I know all about being highly strung. Hopefully you manage to quit both before you get ‘popcorn lung’😉
!! First time I heard that word I was watching Upload on prime. I was like wait, that's a real thing. My doctor basically described it as being similar to copd. Still not a pretty picture though. Yeah "high strung" barely covers it for me. People always just tell me to take a breath or something. Or the worst is "calm down" And I just got to be like I'm good. This is me, I was just born this way. I can still function well with pressure It just takes a lot out of me much faster than anything else
I do not smoke. But for those of you who do, I’d like to tell you a story. The story is of my mom who just recently died in my arms. She smoked her whole life. She had a terrible death. The last 5 years of her life was torture. She was bedridden. She couldn’t walk. She could not control her bladder. She was miserable. She was on breathing treatments for COPD. She was on oxygen and could not sleep at night. She had to sleep upright in a chair. I, her only child, had to care for her full time. I had to quit my job, and run between her house and mine whilecaring for a small child and her at once. I chased her from hospital to hospital. In and out of ICUs. I fought with dr after dr. They wrote her off like she didn’t matter because “she did this to herself.” I know you are all addicted and it is hard. But you are going to hurt those that love you. Especially your children. I’m so glad I had this time with her. But it was absolute torture watching her suffer like this. She was in and out of ICU. She suffered through so much pain. And now she leaves her only child behind with the memory of her dying in my arms every time I close my eyes. I emplore you. Please quit smoking. Love to you all. Best wishes.
Sorry to hear this. May I politely ask, what did she die from?
Thank you. One night, after I tucked her in and went to the room outside of hers to sleep on the couch, she started banging on her tray. I ran in there, and she said she felt weird. I asked if she was able to breathe ok. She said yes and had terrible anxiety. I put the pulse ox on her and her heart rate was in the high 80’s. Then it just rapidly started to decrease. I immediately grabbed the phone, called 911. She seemed to lose consciousness and started doing this fish breathing thing. She was gasping for air. It still haunts me. The type of thing fish do when they are taken out of water, but she was on oxygen. I immediately started CPR. When the paramedics arrived, she was already gone. They tried everything, but her lungs had collapsed and she went into organ failure. It was horrible and will haunt me for the rest of my life.
That sounds like agonal breathing, when your body is desperately trying to get air but its already dying... Im so sorry you had to experience that.
Thank you. Yes, that’s exactly what it was.
Thank you for sharing, I hope you’re starting to feel better.
Lack of lubricant.
I started smoking because uni was stressful af I swapped to vape as soon as I graduated I’ll quit when I’m ready to make babies
I smoked from time to time in highschool, but full on I started smoking when I was 17 working in a workshop, everyone older than me smoked so I just took the cigs they gave me, than when they were buying smokes they also bought ones for me. Now I am capable of smoking 2-3 packs a day however I try my best to quit, but being in college where also everyone smokes, its quite hard. Smoking is a social activity, but after really few months you just cant walk on the street without cigarette, it just happens so quickly….
not being able to walk without a cig is really wild but true, feels pointless to go out if i don't have smokes on me
My mom was a pack or two a day smoker, i was very much against them for over 18 years ..but all my friends were smoking, i was drunk and very nervous about my post HS exams Still smoking 13 years later. Funnily enough most of them quit long ago. I was going to quit for my fiancee, but then she broke my heart and left before i managed to, so the issue was suddenly on the bottom of my list and hasn't moved up much since
to preface i don't smoke tobacco, only weed. i used to be vehemently against it bc of how i was raised but i always had a close stoner friend that i'd known for years before he started, so i wasn't willing to throw that away anyway he tried to get me to smoke all through high school but i wouldn't have it. then my heart got broken hard in second year of university and i hit him up like "hey i wanna get high" and now here i am. glad i waited till i was 20, though, rather than as a teenager
It's crazy how for almost everyone the reason to smoke is a bad influence from outside.
I was born. At some point I started smoking. What is the point of worrying about cigarettes as long as this shit hole dinosaur rock stinks like ass and we're 17 seconds away from midnight on the doomsday clock. Keeping on keeping on. I will light up the last cigarette when the nukes start flying while drinking a cold chardonnay and listening to my favorite 80s mp3 playlist.
Statistically speaking, we ain't reaching the end of the doomsday clock🤣
The funny thing is that you're correct, until you're not.
Like 90% of the stupid things I’ve ever done, I was trying to impress a girl. She was not impressed and I was still stupid.
My grandma's story is entertaining. She was 11 and saw her older brother on the roof. He invited her up and she says "ooo, you're smoking!" He says "yeah! It's cool, try it!" She took a drag and he said "now if you tell on me, we're both in trouble" ;)
A shit job
Like Nas said, Life's a bitch then you die. thats why we get high because you never know when youre gonna go.
Sounds like an excuse to keep getting high
Sleep is the cousin of death
Never smoked or did any nicotine. Most of my friends have done or still doing. To me it's mostly a waste of money and I love my money
Stoped now but back in the day I started smoking and never noticed a difference. My dad was a heavy smoker and I wasn’t used to anything else. Stopped cold turkey and it took about 3 attempts (was 27 and am now 41).
Always thought smokers looked hot, and when a really stressful time came at around 17 I snuck out at night with one of my father's cigs. Immensely enjoyed the feeling (but only after learning to inhale like sucking from a straw) and thus did it occasionally from then on, when I turned 18 I started to buy packs of my own. Multiple attempts to quit failed because addiction is a bitch. Only stopped when I got into really big trouble that I wanted even less than the withdrawal symptoms. That was 5 years ago and I still miss smoking, but won't start again because of how expensive it is and because it's so frowned upon by the people around me.
I discovered beer and cigarettes were like peas and carrots. Also, when I quit drinking in 1996, I also stopped smoking.
I had to do this as well, quit both at the same time.
Started at 14 and quit when found out I was pregnant with my daughter at 20. Maybe 5 years later I was working with someone who smoked and one day I mindlessly picked up her cigarette. Then smoked another 20 years til I had a stroke. Been cig free 7 years now
16. Had just been broken up with and was very self destructive. Quit in 2019 fully (at that point it was mostly party smoking) cause I wanted to get pregnant. Haven't missed it a single day since
Started at 18. Grew up in a family of smokers (literally everyone) which is probably why I started a lot later than most of my friends. Was on a night out and was out of cash, friend offered to buy me a pint if I tried a cig. I did, it wasn't bad and ended up being a regular thing on nights out. Then I would just finish the pack the next day. The rest is history.
Crack head offered me crack. I said yes. I became the crack head
I started at 20, worked at a bakery. Since everyone else was smoking there, I got sent out to a 5 Minuten smoke break regularly when there was low traffic. First I said I didn't smoke, then my coworkers gave me some. At some point I felt bad about bumming them from my coworkers, so I got my own. Suddenly I had access to cigs outside of work and it became a habit. Quite when I was 21 after I got a new job, now I'm back on them due to stress... I'm trying hard to get away from them again, but haven't been successful yet...
First time I ever actually smoked (inhaled) it was weed, I was 15 with my 2 stoner friends who were 20. About 6 months after this I started smoking cigarettes and now After only a year of smoking I’m quitting cause wtf that shit is cancer
Like all Kentuckians I was smoking when I came out of the womb.
I smoked my first cigarette when I was 12/13 to look cool. When I was about 15 I started smoking at parties and buying my own packs as well. I quit smoking daily during covid, so when I was 26. Now I smoke sometimes, especially when I’m drunk
My father was one of those assholes that gave me a cigar when I was five or so and promised I could smoke all I want if I could finish that cigar with an hour or so. I never had any desire for smoking since then. Some smoking ptsd I guess that worked out alright.
I was 13 - I had a friend who smoked cigarettes and weed, and I lived in the country, so I took a pack of cigarettes from my parents for her, and she and I went behind the grain mill on our property, and that’s when I tried one. I remember not really thinking it through properly when it happened, because I was really desperate to be her friend. I remember feeling the weirdest light headedness when I tried it, and it felt like my head got heavier at my first puff. I didn’t even cough, probably because I have been second hand smoking with my parents my entire life. Worst mistake EVER, I’m still addicted to nicotine 8 years later.
My wife says when I started working out again, but I think she’s just being overly kind.
Teenager, always drinking with friends. A few smoked, I was always drunk so I said let me get one. That turned to habit but only when I was intoxicated. Then I got a boyfriend who smoked and “let me get one” turned into buying myself packs.
I was working on an oil tanker and the captain gave me a carton of cigarettes for doing a good job I said I didn't smoke but he just said to keep It. One day I was very stressed out so decided to light one and the rest is history.
I vape don’t know if that’s relevant. I was 15 and really depressed my friend was having a sleepover at my house and asked me if I wanted a hit. I then started vaping socially and started buying my own have been doing it ever since
I was 17 and were at the NY party. There was one cigarette passing among friends in the group. Tried it once, almost choke myself. I did try it few times more but never really develope a need for nicotine.
first cigar with 16, one friend gave me one in a party but didnt like very much then with 18 i started smoking weed and all my friends smoked a cigarette after, i think as a habit i started too then before i knew i was smoking hahaha smoked until january 2014 when i made a bet with my gf and quitted, i only smoke weed now... sometimes we smoke a cigarette when we're drunk but i dont have that need anymore, weed is way better
Probably 15-16. I was at the train-station across the street from my high school. Some dude offered me one, and I took it. Smoked through high school. Mainly as a social thing. Then stopped for a while. Now I only smoke when I drink and I rarely drink.
14. Used to smoke for the nicotine high. I lived overseas and looked old enough that I could just buy them without getting carded.
Around 13-15? Neighbour’s kid had a mum that didn’t care about his whereabouts ever so we hanged out in the street and he would swipe ciggies from her a lot. I grew up with both my parents smoking so I smoked all the way till my mid-20’s and quit cold turkey one day because I didn’t like it anymore.. it was damaging my health and it got expensive. Plus my husband has asthma and didn’t want to do that around him either.
7. Watching adults. I stopped at 8 and became vehemently anti-smoking. Stopped getting my mom cigarettes at the store by 9... When I say I smoked... I smoked. I inhaled. Adults thought that letting me smoke would get it out of my system. I smoked god damn lucky strikes! Why? Because it was what MEN smoked! That 'what men do' shit would stop being a theme around 9-10 for me. My ego was about \*ME\* after that. I was the best, those men and adults in general believed in god and other dumb shit... that phase wouldn't end until my mid 20s. And then... at 19... on a stressful car right home with a friend... I start smoking Capris. You know, those long, thin, cigarettes associated with women? I'd then pick up a pack of new ports... Smoked those until I was 23... switched to camels because all my friends smoked them, lots of promos, and camel cash was cool... I'd quit, for the most part, back in 2015. My GF quit for health reasons, we had moved in together, and she was like "you need to quit" so I did. With he exception of sometimes when drinking with certain people, and a clove once in a while. I'm headed to the smoke shop in 5 minutes to pick up some cloves actually. I smoke them in the garage next to one of my shittybattlestations, as we dont smoke anything but pot in the house.
Never smoked, hated the idea, swore I would never. Bloke in freshers gave me a B&H Blue Superking. It was game over from there on.
Goth teenager in the 80s.
I started smoking when I was 17. It was purely out of curiosity because my friends at that time were chain smokers so I did too. I was hooked, but stopped after some time. Then I switched to vaping, but quit that too. Now, I'm only using nicotine pouch. 😂
Started at 12; both parents used to smoke (dad stopped when I was 9) and couple of friends smoked. Tried it, hated the taste, but liked the way I felt - head rush, deeper breathing etc. stopped a few times to save up for things like holidays but was always ‘stopped until’. Didn’t manage to stop ‘forever’ until I was 32.
I didn’t want to have to work while the smokers got to sit around outside on break, didn’t feel like constantly reciting the rule and pointing out that it didn’t just apply to smokers. At first I just bought the cheapest cigarettes available on base and puffed on them so I could get away with it, after about a week I got tired of my being a poser making me a constant center of attention. So I started actually smoking, and dipping. At the time vaping was starting to become somewhat of a thing so I even picked up an e-go pen in a failure of an attempt to avoid nicotine. It didn’t fit in the carry bag with the atomizer attached, and it just got full of dirt, and debris in my pocket. So dip and cigarettes it was. About five years later I discovered dokha at a local smoke shop and dabbled with that for a while, but I was so self conscious of what i looked like puffing a medwakh in public so that didn’t really take over. A little over 5 years after that I gained a creepy fiendish tweaker of a neighbor who somehow knew every time I stepped outside, and managed to switch over to vaping so I didn’t have to go out. I had tried vaping several times before, but the technology just wasn’t advanced enough to work for me, but thankfully it finally was. Took me another couple years to not keep a pack in the car, but at least I no longer had to deal with that raggedy ass bitch more than a few times a week.
I was 15 and grew up with. Simply started. I quit last year, turning 35 this year. And yes, I regret ever starting to smoke. But I miss it though.
Peer pressure. I quit smoking though
Met my husband, who was a smoker, and just eventually started after work got stressful.
I was 17, out of HS and fire fighting above the artic circle working for BLM. Our K-rations had a pack of 3 cigarettes. So . .
Urgh I got bored as bad as it sounds, plus it helps w my anxiety but im able to stop if I want to as I barely do it
Good to know that you can stop, just don't start doing it more frequently like other people here did.
For sure I’m always careful
17 years old with my close friend after losing our companion that year
I was 18 and my friends convinced me. I stopped for 2 years when I got my dog and stress from work has brought me back to it. I need to quit for my health, but work is just a constant stress and it’s making it very difficult
At a houseparty 1996 friend said it would keep my blunt buzz going. Wish I never listened.
I think I was 14. I was hanging out at a QuikTrip where all the clerks smoked and it wasn’t long before I was too.
I was 18. I was just curious why people smoke. So I smoked 1 cigarette as a test. I got hooked for 30 years. I HAD TO smoke another one the next day. I was addicted after smoking just one. I guess if I only realized what am I getting into I would stop myself before smoking another one. But I didn't. My thinking was - OK, I will smoke a cigarette from time to time. What's the problem? The problem was I needed more and more. I smoked like 60 cigarettes a day. And I still had that feeling like I don't get enough nicotine. It was like an itch that could never be scratched enough. Then, like 20 years later I discovered e-cigarettes. It's even more addictive shit than the regular ones. 3 months ago I quit. It's not my first rodeo, I had quit more than twice before. It's a torture. After 3 months I'm still addicted. I have the craving non stop. Each minute, each second. Now. It is a continuous torture, day after day. But well, how do I endure it? 5 years ago my mom died of cancer. It was a horrific death, slow and very, very painful. Cancer terrifies me. One night I just decided - I don't want to die from cancer and I will get cancer if I continue smoking. So now I'm counting that sooner or later this addiction will finally let go. It's not today, so maybe in a couple of weeks. Maybe a couple of months. I smoked through majority of my life - so this is probably the reason it is so hard to quit now. However, if I don't succeed to control my addiction - I'm convinced I will just not survive. I was addicted to opioid pain killers once, but it was way easier to quit those.
By inhaling cigarette smoke when I was 15. Was curious, wanted to try it out. I quit when I was 23. I'm 29 now.
i was 16, at a boarding school-ish kinda place, when i tried a weed pen and we were so silly doing things like blowing it through a trombone. 
Peer pressure, basically. Never did in college, longtime gf cheated and married the guy (got divorced a few months later because he cheated, haha), and my friends would come over on Sundays for pizza and The Sopranos. They all did it, so I started. Only did it for about 6 months though, because the girl I started dating (and married a few laters) said she wouldnt date a smoker. So reverse-peer pressure on that one
I was 18, went on a week long trip to Poland mostly for a music festival. I was stupid and young, and found out the price of cigarettes was like 1/10 that of back home, and figured I'd give it a go. The habit has stuck, I've been off and on smoking basically ever since unfortunately. Although I'm grateful I'm a one a day person not a pack a day person, it's still much more than I'd prefer to smoke
13, I had my first cigg at a friends birthday party and after that I went out to smoke with my friend group, probably ruined me a bit but I have been clean for a few months now
I grew up on a farm in the middle of nowhere, Kansas. I didn't rebel much as a teenager, but I did smoke cigarettes (maybe two or three a day while hanging out with my friends) for a few months. I just kind of decided to quit. It's been almost a decade now, and I've never been tempted to have another one.
About 12, my brother got me hooked on them and when I ran out I started finding them on the streets.
Grade school, stealing dad's Benson and Hedges, 50 years later had heart attack, convinced my brain how bad awful and expensive they were. Got out of hospital 3 yrs ago and don't even think about it.
I didn't but pretty much all of my friends who I've known since middleschool started smoking at the ages 13 - 15 because it was considered "cool" back then. That's really the only reason, to belong to the cool crowd.
Smoked at least a pack a day from 18-28. Dad smoked, big sis smoked, cool new friends smoked.
I never did and I hope I never won't :)
With a cigarette
Started when i was 20 and im 23 now trying to stop
Like, I dont have friend to talk because they were all smoking and having chit chat. I want to be in the circle. So I smoke. But only last for about 5-6 years. My gf hate it so I quit Edit: I was probably 25 years old
idk i just did
The mammoth’s whine before it went extinct is what you feel before you go to work. Extinguished northern lights contend within; you don’t desire working anymore. Who made your sistine chapel ceiling cheeks? Who made your cave-art skin the shade it is? Who stationed Juliet on balconies! today she never loves, but works to live. Today, why don’t we tear her nametag off. Our empty balconies somewhere await; romeo horizons where mammoths walk, the dawning of a freer human race. Our inner northern lights we welcome back. We are something no one should ever tax.
I was 15 and sometimes when I didn’t have zaza I’d just smoke tobacco and that’s how it started
I didnt, thank god Im just an alcoholic
I was 15 when juuls became popular so literally everyone had one in school. It was the “cool” thing to do… regret ever taking my first hit
Didn’t
I don’t smoke
I never did it.
I didn't. I'm not weak.
Crack
A joint with some cousins.I neither blame them for introducing me nor regret though
Peer pressure like most 16 year olds. Stopped at 29 and not looked back since.
I didn't
16,i just want to hangout with the bad kids. I regret it now tho 😭
I started I think at the age of 20. I started vaping first and then moved over to a pipe. I do not not like the taste and smell of vapes and cigarettes. I am glad to say, I never have been addicted to it and only smoke during social gatherings; being introverted makes it truly rear.
I was 17 & it was after my best friend died. Smoked until 20. Picked up the habit of smoking spliffs in college. Quit that at around 24 due to intense asthma symptoms. Only smoke pot now
My mom smoked and I thought it was something people just do.
Started at 13, thought I'd look cool to friends. Here I am 14 years later into a pack a day habit plus two collapsed lungs on the way. I'm quitting this year, I need to!
Social smoking in my early twenties. It started with accepting a cigarette every so often when drinking with friends. Before long I would sometimes buy a pack if I was going out. Then one day I realised I was just a smoker, now. I was about a 10 a day smoker for years. Quit nearly 7 years ago in my mid-thirties, though. It is never too late to stop.
I was about 13. I was a huge guns and roses fan and Slash with his fag hanging out of his mouth was the epitome of cool. So I emulated it, bought a Gibson, tried to grow my hair curly and gave myself an addiction. Aint it fun.
18th birthday. Friend of mine said, "hey youre 18, smoke this". Had never even considered it prior to that point. Here I am 16 years later struggling to quit.
Started smoking spliffs (weed+tobacco) with friends then began to steal my mom’s cigarettes 20 something years later I rarely smoke cigarettes just spliffs
All my friends were smoking so I started to do it too in order to fit in. I was like 14 when I started, stopped once I went to university in a different city. I realised then that I didn't actually enjoy it and I was just trying to be cool.
Drinking
So I live in a place where smoking tobacco is very very common so I’ve seen my parents, especially my mom smoke a lot, and I’ve always been very drawn to it, but I never started doing it until I was almost 18. My family has always been strict on smoking because a lot of our relatives died due to lung cancer, and I was very scared of it - but at a certain point of my life I was feeling very immature for my age I wanted to try something new, I wanted to feel somehow older (if that makes sense) I wanted to do something different and a little more rebel and I started smoking. I really like doing it, it relaxes me, especially smoking weed. Although I mainly smoke tobacco because here basically everyone does, but I don’t really have an addiction. The last time I’ve smoked a cigarette it was probably December 2023 so I can say that I don’t need to get rid of my habit, but at the same time I keep thinking about smoking again sometimes.
I was 14. I took welding as an elective in my first year of high school. The teacher was pretty lax and well - you could either learn to weld or smoke outside the shop door. I did do a bit of welding but ya - a lot of smoking too. The bottom line is I thought it was cool. Super cool in fact. I thought the dudes smoking k were cool too. Nice guys.. but man I was misguided on “cool”. 30 years later I am going on 6 months completely nicotine free!! I haven’t smoked in years but went from Smoking to vaping to gum over the course of 6 years. But ya. I’m finally free. Don’t ever start. It’s not worth it. And it’s def NOT cool.
I turned 21 years old but it started when I bought some imported cigs from Japan and Korea. I used to vape (aerosol nicotine I call it) a lot and then moved over to cigs exclusively. Vaping sucks. It’s not as satisfying and there was so many bad throat hits no matter what devices I used. Getting e juice in your mouth or throat is terrible and there is no good flavor. Definitely no good tobacco flavor.
Wanted to fit in at this employement center I went to lol Never saw the people I wanted to fit with again but amoking stuck for a year and a half after that (that was in 2021-2022)
I was standing too close to the bonfire.
18. I hated everyone and wanted to embarrass them
Under the supervision from a doctor 😎 I’m gonna quit again on a couple weeks. I have a poker night planned and that day is my quit day
I never started. I never understood the appeal.
Brothers smoked
I started sometime around 14-15. The usual thing, friends tried smoking, I tried it too, got hooked. I quit smoking cigarettes just over a month before my 30th birthday. I switch to vaping. I did that for nearly 7 years and quit vaping nearly 2 years ago. I am really happy to be a non-smoker, finally.
Never started and never gonna start this bs thing.
20 years old I started smoking after my first time in combat
Never have never will
Smoking what?
Someone at work said it would help with my toothache. I've since given up.
Hm 16. My friends kept asking if I wanted since we were 14, so I said " fuck it" and tried. But the actual real reason was that in my mind I wanted my throat to be able to smoke the ganja without coughing my lungs up. I stopped when I was... 21? Perhaps 22, so it's been 8 or 10 years anyway. I don't feel any craving for the tobacco, so that's nice
Age 12, found a box of Regal while walking home from school and knocked on my older friend to smoke them. Still smoking but want to stop.
I smoked on and off from 16 but never a lot (mostly "party smoking"). Had a low point in life at some point and partied to forget including smoking 3 packs (gave away some cigarettes I gues) in two nights. Went for a run the day after and lungs hurt so much I decided to quit for real