I thought it made me look cool and grown-up. I think I was around thirteen or fourteen years old.
I wish I’d known then how much it was going to suck to quit.
The reason given by a few of my friends that said they’d never start smoking: It enhances a marijuana high.
I have zero personal experience to back their claim, it’s just what they told me when I asked when they became so stupid.
Nicotine makes you feel less anxious, yet clear headed. People smoke because it calms them down, but doesn’t make you woozy. I never knew more smokers than when I was in law school. Smoking and bitching seem to be the natural hobbies of the law student.
It also suppresses your appetite. I was always amazed, when I worked in the theatre at my university, how much dancers smoked. Actors smoke a lot too, but the dancers seemed to just about live on nicotine and nothing else. And this was dancers in nationally-known touring companies, not the students. I’ve hear models smoke tons, but I don’t know from personal experience.
I smoked my first cigarette when I was about ten or so. Part of it was curiosity, part of it was an urge to rebel. Ever see the South Park episode “Butt Out?” If not watch watch it at southparkstudios.com it’s comedy gold and sums up my teenage opinion perfectly. I didn’t want to be like the antismoking people (still don’t as a matter of fact). I didn’t really start carrying cigs around with me until highschool, when I used them chiefly to mask the fact that I was smoking copious quantities of quality cannabis. I became a regular smoker in college, and it was mostly for social purposes. It’s a great way to meet new people, and is an excellent conversation starter with women. Eventually it became a habit I really enjoy. The physical nicotine addiction is nothing compared to the very hard to give up fact that I like smoking. I’ve quit for several months at a time for varying reasons, and the nicotine withdrawal has nothing on the fact that I just genuinely enjoy smoking. It’s calming and helps me focus. In life, a lot of people don’t know what they want, or they can’t get what they want, or they get what what they want and it turns out it wasn’t what they expected. With cigs, you know when you want one, it’s usually easy enough to get one, and it’s almost always satisfying when you get one.
Missed the chance to edit my post. My girlfriend says she smokes because it’s and appetite suppressant and helps keep her thin.
Wow. I am not sure if your post could have been any more typical of an addict on the subject as to why they started.
I started doing heroin because I was curious and partly because I wanted to rebel, both reasons having a root reason of stupidity and or immaturity.
I became a regular heroin user mostly for social purposes, great way to meet new dealers and other people who are also pretending not to be addicted and will pretend to like me since if they befriend me they can score some stuff off me in the future. It’s also a great conversation starter with new junkies I happen to meet, “Hey baby, when was your last hit?” has became a staple of my pick-up lines.
And it’s not like my body’s physical addiction is anything compared to the fact that I love it’s mind and body numbing feeling. Mmmm nothing better than drowning all my problems, past present and future in some good tar injected to my veins. If I’ve had a stressful day of panhandling, dealing with the police or disgruntled family members, just need one good balloon and it all goes away.
I’ve quit for whole months at a time, but it’s just genuinely a fun activity for me to partake in. I don’t know why people say it’s so hard to quit, losers.
Some people can’t or don’t ever find anything they truly enjoy in life, but I have and it’s always oh so satisfying when I get a new hit.
:rolleyes: x100
EDIT: Oh and my girlfriend says heroin is the best way for her to keep her trim figure. Nothing else has worked as well and been as satisfying.
I bought my first pack as a rite of passage when I turned 18 (along with porn and lottery tickets). No peer pressure. I quite liked the high it gave me.
I’ve never smoked more than occasionally. I guess I’m one of those rare and lucky people who dodged the addiction (or it’s yet to hit me). It’s been 10 years, and I’ve smoked about… 10 packs, total, a few at a time. I’ve gone years in between.
Haven’t had one for a few months. The last few times I smoked a cigarette, I really disliked the smell and taste afterward; more than I used to. So I haven’t felt the desire to have another one.
Um wtf Covered in Bees? The OP asked why people started smoking, and presumably, why they picked up the habit and I answered. Now you’re acting like I’m some sort of asshole for explaining why I smoke? To be fair, your little parody of my post could easily apply to some one with a history of heroin use, or any other drug, or gambling, or overeating, or playing video games. If the OP asked why someone used heroin, wouldn’t a post like mine, or yours without the sarcasm be a pretty good answer to the question? Exactly what part of my post makes you roll your eyes 100 times? The idea that physical dependence is not the hard part of quitting, that breaking the habit is? The idea that people generally do drugs because they like doing drugs? The notion that drugs could (gasp) have positive and negative attributes?
With all dues respect…
This (“I like smoking”) is the insidious lie the addict inside you is telling you. And it is a lie. What you like is relieving your addicted craving for a cigarette. That is immensely enjoyable.
I thought I liked smoking, too. I thought I loved it. I used to hold the filter tip of the burning cigarette next to my nose because I loved the smell. I had a cigarette going most hours of the day, I smoked 2+ packs of the 120’s.
But I am happy to say that I came to understand how my thinking had been distorted by my addiction. Once I recognized that, I was able to recognize that quitting wasn’t painful or upsetting or torture… it was a gift. A bit uncomfortable at first, but an amazing gift.
What I wanted before I quit was not to quit, but to not want to smoke, not miss smoking, not suffer if I stopped. I wanted to be the person I was before I started. And that’s what I got.
If you ever decide you don’t want to want it anymore, get this book. (615 reviews, solid five-star rating, and the same story over and over: I thought I loved smoking! I thought I’d never quit! It’s a miracle!)
Best to you - may you experience the wonderful freedom of leaving your addiction behind.
Thanks for all the answers. I’ve always been kind of interested/curious because for me, I guess I was dorky enough to take all the “Don’t smoke” messages to heart. I drink on occasion and have smoked the occasional joint (never got much out of it, though) but there just never felt like any real reason to smoke. At parties on occasion one does notice people smoking but I never felt like saying, “Oh, hey, me too.” It just felt like too great of a taboo. Well, harder drugs, too, but I don’t really see people just snorting coke on the side of the street. Not since the incident.
Thanks for your kind intentions. They’re a couple of things I want to clarify. There is no addict inside of me. I am the addict (a word that gets applied to so many different people, things, and situations that it’s nearly meaningless). Yes satisfying a nicotine craving is one of the most enjoyable parts of smoking. The “I can quit any time I want to I just don’t want to,” defense is rather true. You’re going to have a hell of a time convincing someone to stop doing something they want to continue doing. I think people often confuse “I can’t quit” with “I have mixed feelings about quitting.” People often relapse after having detoxed from their physical dependency on a drug. People often form very damaging habits out of things that don’t cause physical dependency the way some drugs do.
I was actually one of those pain-in-the-butt anti-smoking guys through college at a time when many of my classmates smoked.
I started, foolishly, as a bit of character business in a play I was in, not realizing how quickly it could become addicting. (My character would light up within a few seconds of each stage entrance. Nineteen light-ups per show, though most were not completely smoked.) I ended up smoking for about twenty years.
Quit about seven years ago.
I was a huge anti-smoking advocate as a kid. Constantly nagged my dad to quit, was very active in school campaigns against smoking, drinking, and drugs.
I smoked my very first cigarette out of idle curiosity when I was in Paris for the first time, back in 2002. I’d met an older Korean girl who smoked like a chimney, and being in Paris it seemed like the thing to do. I smoked one, didn’t like it, and then forgot about it.
Then about a year later my best friend returned from her exchange year abroad. She’d picked up the habit of smoking when drinking, and eventually I would smoke the occasional cigarette with her to keep her company. I discovered I liked the taste of cigarettes after I’d had a drink, so I started smoking more regularly when I was drinking. Then I discovered that I liked having a cigarette after a cup of coffee. Then I discovered that cigarettes tasted nice after a full meal. Still, I was only smoking an average of 3-4 a day, not counting drinking nights.
When I started grad school, I was pretty lonely my first month and noticed smokers congregating outside after lectures to chat. So then I started smoking after lectures in an effort to get to know people. Pretty soon I became a more regular smoker, but even at my peak I never smoked more than 10 a day (again, unless I had a night out drinking).
Nowadays I’ve cut back down to about 4-6 a day. On a rare night of clubbing I might end up smoking close to half a pack.
I’ve gone days without smoking and not suffered any withdrawal effects, other than the odd, brief craving. I suppose there are a lot of reasons I don’t quit for good - I enjoy it too much, I am under the delusion I am invincible, I convince myself that I don’t smoke enough for it to be a huge problem. It’s stupid, but there it is.
I am awesome.
I am intelligent.
When I started smoking I knew exactly where I was going in life.
I am happy and have never suffered from depression.
So, no.
See, as Stoid said, this is the drug talking. Only around 25% of people smoke, and nearly all the others really hate being around smokers and won’t hang out with them. Thus, you are cutting yourself off from around 60-70% of the population. it’s a terrible way to meet new people thus, and an even worse way to meet people of the opposite sex.
The 5# or so you gain can be easily lost again. The years it adds to your skin is very hard to get back. Most of the women I see around in the smokers area are heavier than average. Again, it’s an addicts excuse.
I think it depends on your social circle. When I was in grad school at UChicago, over half of my social circle were smokers. Most of my professors smoked as well. I have never encountered the degree of hysteria towards smokers that I have seen here on the SDMB. I have friends that don’t smoke and don’t like smoke, but they still hang out with the rest of us regardless.
Wow, I thought I was the only one who picketed the parents with antismoking signs as a kid. 
But here’s where we diverge. I never wanted to smoke because I could never get past what I saw as the essential physical ugliness of it. I knew nothing of the nature of addiction at the time.
I tried smoking around age 22, purely out of curiousity. My peer group unanimously advised me not to, but I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I found it to be immensely enjoyable, so I made a habit of it. I generally smoked around half a pack per day. I was never in denial about the deleterious health effects; I considered them to be part of the trade-off, and I considered the trade-off to be worth it.
After about four years I felt that my habit had begun sapping my vigor to an unacceptable degree, so I decided to quit. And I did. I bought a big pack of nicotine gum and wound up chewing maybe five pieces out sixty. Maybe it’s because I started after adolescence, or maybe it’s because I made the decision as I was moving to another city and hence replacing all of my routines, but I found that quitting was not nearly as difficult as people say it is. It wasn’t pleasant, but it wasn’t nearly the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. Yeah, I still get the occasional craving years later, but I’m fine with allowing the craving to pass without being fulfilled. During times of stress when that little part of me suggests that a smoke would really hit the spot, I convince myself that it’ll just make things worse, even in the short term. The cravings have gotten very mild and infrequent by now.
I suspect that companies hawking stop-smoking gums/patches/inhalers make more money from repeated failed attempts than from single successful ones, so they market them in a way that gives the prospective quitter permission to keep smoking. Not to long ago a commercial for one such product had the phrase, “Quitting is hard.” sandwiched between two other sentences. Another one told me that repeated attempts are often necessary to quit (so keep buying our product even if it didn’t work the first two times).
I’ve encountered similar anti-smoking sentiment elsewhere on the internet. I find it to be entertainingly knee-jerk.
Hmm, for me it was just something to do. Friends did it, and I was curious. It was a social thing and it was fun, having to find places to do it when were were underage, and later, taking breaks at work with people just to smoke and talk. I didn’t care so much about my health at the time, plus I knew I would never do it long-term or heavily.
I smoked off and on for about a year when I was 15, then stopped for 3 or 4. Then I took it up again when I was working with smokers and most of my friends smoked (and drank every night) - I smoked pretty steadily for a year, and then ‘quit’ with the intention of never doing it again. A pack usually lasted me a week, I never had the urge for more, and quitting wasn’t hard at all. I would get a bit of a craving for the taste of the cigarette when I smelled smoke, but it wasn’t a big deal, and I pretty much went cold turkey. I stopped smoking pot and getting drunk at the same time - because it’s not good for you, and because I don’t enjoy it enough to spend money on it.
I would never date a smoker (double standard! I would never date someone who got intoxicated a lot either, even though I did so heavily for a while myself). I had started dating my boyfriend at the time I was smoking, he doesn’t like smoking and he never knew I smoked.
Now cigarette smoke makes me cough and my eyes water uncontrollably, and I can’t stand to be around smokers who smell like ashtrays. Most don’t though, unless they have a serious habit.