# Why did you start smoking? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 25, 2009, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-you-start-smoking/494312 "2009-04-25T12:44:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-you-start-smoking/494312/1 "2009-04-25T12:44:22Z")
And when? For me, it was at the age of twelve. My sister convinced me that I’d never fit in with the cool kids unless I smoked. Tobacco and pot. Also, I’d need to skip school, shoplift, and drink. Cigs were 53 cents per pack in those days. After about a year, I’d given up that stupid lifestyle. After about another year, my best friend Brad talked me back into it. Desperate for peer approval, I took it back up again. In those days, tobacco and pot were just what you did. It was more normal to smoke than to not smoke. By college, I was a career smoker. 35 years later, it’s no longer cool, but I still do it. I’ve taken up the habit of quitting every week, though. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-you-start-smoking/494312/2 "2009-04-25T12:57:27Z")
I took it up at the age of 18 'cause this girl who I had a HUGE crush on smoked. Still didn’t get me into her pants, though. ☹ Gave it up sometime in 1999, about 10, 12 years later. Still occassionally smoke the ganj, though. Since I don’t drink, gamble, cheat on my wife, etc etc etc, it’s really my one vice. That and Mexican food. :drool: ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-you-start-smoking/494312/3 "2009-04-25T13:32:32Z")
I didn’t start smoking till I was \*\*counts on fingers … takes off socks, keeps counting … goes back to fingers \*\* 25 – I was in grad school, finishing coursework and looking at taking comps that summer. When I was a girl, you had to take all four comprehensive exams – two two-hour exams and two four-hour exams – within a two-week period. So I started smoking, which I continued to do at a two-pack-a-day pace for 19 years, not quitting till '99, when cigs went to $2.50/pack and I did the math on what I’d be spending on cigs, per annum, if I didn’t quit. ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-you-start-smoking/494312/4 "2009-04-25T14:15:58Z")
I was 18, out with my friends all the time, frequently drunk, everybody else smoked, so eventually I did, too. Smoke-free eight months and counting, as of now! ---
**Author:** ![Hung\_Mung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@Hung\_Mung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hung_Mung)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-you-start-smoking/494312/5 "2009-04-25T14:35:01Z")
Because I liked it and I still do. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-you-start-smoking/494312/6 "2009-04-25T14:41:31Z")
Previous thread on point: [Why did you start smoking? - In My Humble Opinion - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=298184) ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-you-start-smoking/494312/7 "2009-04-25T15:36:07Z")
My dad smoked. My brother started smoking when he was 18 (maybe?) so I did too. It was plenty easy for me to get free cigs from my bro and dad but at the time it was also easy for a mature-looking 17-year-old to buy cigarettes at the store. When I went away to college I was horribly lonely and missed home…and my home smelled like smoke…so I started smoking even more. I actually kept my habit a secret from most of my friends and of course my parents. I don’t have any smoker friends still. I never did it to be cool - I just liked doing it. ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-you-start-smoking/494312/8 "2009-04-25T15:37:49Z")
I needed something to do with my hands when I wasn’t drinking. The habit was short-lived, however. This was when I was 20 or 21 or something of the sort. ---
**Author:** ![Jettboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/85e7bf/32.png) [@Jettboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jettboy)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-you-start-smoking/494312/9 "2009-04-25T15:56:28Z")
Started when I was 14; quit permanantly at 38. I thought it looked Brando/James Dean supercool when I started; I was also very shy so it gave me something to do with my hands (other than fidget or play pocket pool) and an excuse to break conversations into small pieces. ---
**Author:** ![Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/soul_brother_number_two/32/3515_2.png) [@Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soul_Brother_Number_Two)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-you-start-smoking/494312/10 "2009-04-25T16:06:33Z")
To cover up the smell of weed on my clothes. I was 15. ---
**Author:** ![Hockey\_Monkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a183cd/32.png) [@Hockey\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hockey_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-you-start-smoking/494312/11 "2009-04-25T16:15:15Z")
I started when I was 19 because the guy I was dating at the time smoked. I quit last January when I was 36. I wish I had never started. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-you-start-smoking/494312/12 "2009-04-25T18:57:08Z")
I started at 17 for the usual idiot teenager reasons: others were doing it and it seemed to help you fit in and look cool. Quit about 6 months later when I realized I didn’t really enjoy it, it was expensive, and following the crowd into stupid behavior made little sense. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-you-start-smoking/494312/13 "2009-04-25T19:22:00Z")
Junior high- so that’s about 12. Thought it was cool. Quit 16 years ago at age 24- it was awful. I have never jonesed so hard for anything in my life, and I know from jonesin’… 😉 When I started, cigs were 75 cents a pack and you could get them from vending machines. I don’t know how anybody can afford to smoke now- I was up to almost 2.5 packs per day when I quit. ---
**Author:** ![Dusty\_Rose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ba8739/32.png) [@Dusty\_Rose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dusty_Rose)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2009, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-you-start-smoking/494312/14 "2009-04-26T00:50:03Z")
When I was 8 years old, my older brother had me hit his cigarette. (He was 13 or 14.) Then, according to him, I smoked too, so I couldn’t narc on him to mom or dad. Then after that, both my brothers would have me hit their smokes because they thought it was funny. I remember doing it for them and their friends, and everyone laughing… It wasn’t too much later that I remember being upstairs, but smell the smoke from the basement, and it would kick in that urge to smoke. So I’d head down there and have one. By the time I was 10 or 11 (sixth grade), I was smoking a half a pack a day, absolutely hooked. I’m 43 now, and still smoking. I’ve tried several times to quit, but have never pulled it off. Recently I seriously contemplated trying again, and the thought of quitting depressed me. (It’s an old friend now, I guess.) I know I need to, but honestly don’t know if I can do it. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2009, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-you-start-smoking/494312/15 "2009-04-26T01:39:23Z")
1. To do something forbidden in secret mostly (my parents AND grandparents are very much anti-smokers. Well, my grandfathers wouldn’t have been, having smoked most of their lives, only they both had died of cancer by then. So… yeah), and because at first it got me high-ish. Having something to do with my hands and face while trying and failing to be a social creature was/is a plus as well. Can’t put your foot in your mouth when there’s a cig in it ! 🙂 Still smoking, although I question the why increasingly often. I tried quitting a few times, but not nearly with enough motivation to go through with it for more than a few days - that, plus my SO and I never seem to do the “That’s it, I quit !” thing at the same time, so we mostly drag each other back down. ---
**Author:** ![Uncle\_Brother\_Walker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f08c70/32.png) [@Uncle\_Brother\_Walker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncle_Brother_Walker)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2009, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-you-start-smoking/494312/16 "2009-04-26T04:17:02Z")
> [@Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](#): > > To cover up the smell of weed on my clothes. I was 15. Ditto. But I was 13. I did manage to quit smoking during Basic Training, but that was a given. Went to graduation with a pack of smokes in my Class A uniform. At 28, I got stuck in a bad situation and took a hard look at my finances. I said to myself “I’m spending \*what \*on cigarettes?” I quit cold turkey that night. Two years later, I was bragging to a friend while in line at the grocery store about how I had been clean and previously couldn’t have passed a checkout counter without adding the phrase ‘and a pack of Marlboros’ as I paid. The clerk was a total automaton, bless her heart. She kept on going about her job. “…loaf of bread, stick of butter, pack of Marlboros…”. (They still kept smokes behind each register then.) I had just bought a pack of smokes. By 10:00 PM, I was walking to the store to make sure I had enough smokes for the morning. Dayum, these cancer sticks sure are tempting… At 38, I managed to quit after a surgical procedure and didn’t smoke again for about eight months until I took a \*horrible \*job at a law firm. High stress, no justice, typical ball-crushing job. Smoking was just an excuse to take five and get away from the literally screaming in your face lawyers. I still smoke to this day. 😉 And yes, I’m adamant about it. Deal with it or go away. Don’t preach to me. And yes, I know I’m killing myself. Wanna make something of it? Go away; the situation will take care of itself. Other than that, I’m pretty easy to get along with. Just ask my friend. ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2009, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-you-start-smoking/494312/17 "2009-04-26T04:32:14Z")
I started smoking I think mostly to hurt my parents (I was an angry fifteen year old). There was probably an element of self-harm about it too; I thought that girl who always cut herself was an idiot but I was taking up smoking in an age when everyone knew what it did to you. Anyway, I quit when I was 24. ---
**Author:** ![Annie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/858c86/32.png) [@Annie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2009, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-you-start-smoking/494312/18 "2009-04-26T04:46:23Z")
Started full bore about age 13, quit age 33. Why start? Anxiety. Tobacco ‘calms the nerves’-for about half an hour. Used to stay up late with my mom watching _Prisoner: Cell Block H_, both of us chain smoking (yeah, this was when I was 13. The 'rents had a laissez-fair attitude towards the kid’s vices. God love the 70’s) ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2009, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-you-start-smoking/494312/19 "2009-04-26T05:13:36Z")
I was 19, and my then-bf smoked. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Buttons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@Mr\_Buttons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Buttons)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2009, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-you-start-smoking/494312/20 "2009-04-26T05:31:30Z")
I started smoking (maybe 5 cigs per week?) to look cool w/ my friends. Then when I got a job at a supermarket @16, I got hooked for 2 reasons. #1: Smokers were allowed to go out every hour or so for a smoke, so if I’d light a cig I’d get an extra 4-5 10-minute breaks per 8 hour shift. (Dumb, I know) #2: If I ate during lunch, I’d be looking at spending $6-8 on a meal. If I smoked 2-3 cigs instead, it curbed my appetite until I got home (to eat my parents free food). A pack was about $1.80 then, so 3 cigs were like 25-30 cents. When you’re making $5.50/hour, that seemed well worth it. (Cigs were no problem to obtain, when you work at the grocery store and know the clerks, they’ll sell them too you.) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-you-start-smoking/494312.md?page=2)