Why did you start smoking?

[Jujubie]

Started probably because I grew up with it. Both parents smoked. Also, to hang out at the side of the school where all the cool kids did.

Started at 15 years old. Quit several times over the years (at most for a year) but always got sucked into that "I can have just one" and then I'd be right back up to smoking a pack a day. I quit again last year when I got pregnant. I am never going back. I know I can't have just one, and sometimes I really want that one, but I know I can't. I'm an addict when it comes to smoking. I smoked for almost 20 years!

I've been told by people that have quit for 10 years they still crave them every now and then.

I will never go back. First for my health, second I don't want my daughter exposed to it, and third $5.00 a pack is just too much! I'd rather do a weekly pedicure for $35!

[Azalee]

I will never go back. First for my health, second I don't want my daughter exposed to it, and third $5.00 a pack is just too much! I'd rather do a weekly pedicure for $35!

Cute baby, scary face lmao

[Taisaijin]

meh, it made feel "grown-up" back when i was 10...now i think that's stupid lol
but i still do it tho, im so used to it and i like it

[Fahren]

I started smoking because I was stressed, i hid it for a while then decided to say screw it if you don't like it gtfo although I quit couple months ago....then i started hanging out with my manager and he smoked and drank and well i already drank so i started smoking again...then he quit and I decided to quit to for health reasons then i quit then he started again while i quit twas a horrid time...

[Zalius]

Have been quit a few years now but I started smoking kind of late on (despite hanging around with the smoker crowd in school I never picked the habit up then - even when there were like 6 people huddled into a school toilet cubicle and 5 of them puffing away). Considering I hung around with the nicotine-fuelled metal heads - I never got any peer pressure to start from them which still surprises me these days.

I started because when I was back at uni doing my teacher training I was bullied quite badly by a clique of girls on the course who were fresh out of uni and I suppose felt threatened by the situation or something and wanted something to do to make themselves feel a bit more secure - so I was getting it in the neck from them a lot. On top of which it was a horrifically stressful course, coupled with the supreme horror of having to move back in and live with my mother for a year - so for a combination of those 3 factors: stress, wanting to piss my mother off big time, and wanting a way to get out of the bullying situation during lecture breaks etc... I joined the cloud of smoke outside the building on a breaktime puffing away.

I think there was also something with me needing something to do with my hands as well - until very recently I was a really bad nail biter, and smoking filled that needing something to do with my hands/mouth in situations while driving niche as well.

Quit because I never wanted to go into school stinking of smoke so couldn't have one on a morning before work, and once my commute to school died down, the car, which was the big place I smoked - wasn't as large a part of my life anymore. The one time I really miss a cig now is social situations where I feel uneasy and it's more of an emotional security blanket then - so I tend to wear a bracelet which I spin round and fiddle with as a substitute.

from now on im gonna phrase everything as if im talking to my psychiatrist

[Ivve]

I started smoking to mask the weed smell. It worked especially well because 95% of the time I smoked Djarums, so nobody ever questioned why it didn't smell like straight cigarette smoke. I hotboxed my car so much it still smells like weed and pinecone potpourri when it gets humid out.

[Titanss]

good question OP I don't even remember why

[Demosthenes]

I never touched a cigarette till my mother started accusing me adamantly and repeatedly of smoking. I started smoking out of spite. Figured if I was going to keep getting in trouble for it, I might as well do it. The irony here was, when I started she had no idea, and gave up accusing me a few months later. TOO LATE. I did quit though... many many years later.

[Elesirdur]

Ah spite, is there any action you can't be the basis of?

[finitek]

When I was younger I worked in many high stress jobs. I started smoking and it afforded me more breaks from my intense jobs. Did I try to reason why I started? No I did not. I smoked anything I could get my hands on. Ultimately I decided i needed to stop for health and life reasons.

It was the hardest fucking thing to quit ever!

Nicotine is worse than fucking Heroin. Mostly because you can buy some form of it legally in ever liquor store, gas station, and bodega in the free world.

I used to smoke shit tons while I played FFXI. You could wait for pops in an uncontested camp (in the old days) and grab a smoke etc. How I quit was not normal. I went cold turkey, and I hated it.
I mean I really hated it. How I started to feel while not smoking was fucking horrible. Then I started to realize all the poison I had been voluntarily pumping into my body. I know I lost some lung capacity from my years of smoking. That thought alone allowed me to focus my hate.

I started to hate the thought of smoking so much it became a mantra. Granted the majority of my co-workers and friends still smoked. I quit EVERYTHING. No Pot, no cigs, no cloves, no pipes, no cigars. NOTHING!

It was HELL!

You may end up feeling worse than ever, but you need to hold out hope. It took an agonizing 6 months for me to completely lose the desire to smoke. There are even games coming to the DS that will help you to quit smoking (NO JOKE)!

Quit if you want to. No one can make up your mind for you. If you love smoking more power to you. I don't mind people who smoke in social situations, just be prepared to be lonely when no one joins you for cancer sticks outside.

Sorry for the long rant. But quitting really is SERIOUS business.

Good luck.

[Azalee]

Wow. o.o;