AIBU to not understand why people start smoking?

[Mirrorwriting]

I’m in my 40s. Everyone my age and younger grew up knowing smoking will kill you and probably painfully. So why do people START?

I know they CONTINUE because they are addicted, but WHY start? Omg.

Is it that they watch old ladies aged 115 who say they smoked a cigar every day of their lives and thank, yes that’ll be me, not the 32 year old with smoking related amputations?

I read the previous quit smoking thread here and saw the WhyQuit website and still genuinely can’t understand why one would start.

Teenagers surely don’t think the yellow teeth and smell are ‘cool’, let alone emphysema and cancer. Is it simply rebellion. (Literally sometimes) cutting your nose off to spite your face?

A conscious act of self-harm/slow suicide?

Because I was 15 and it was cool as fuck.

I was a good girl at school, a swot, always did as I was told. Parents were overly strict and kept me on a tight rein until I was 17.

Smoking was one of the less damaging outcomes of the eventual rebellion when I was let loose during the late 80's naive, impressionable and very easily led trying to be cool and catch up with my street wise friends. Quit 15 years ago.

I'm fine thanks.

I started smoking when I went out drinking at university. I found that a pint of delicious beer and a Marlboro red went together like strawberries & cream.

Fortunately, I remained a ‘social smoker’ and quit in my 30s.

Because i was 23yo and moved to Italy. I quit at 32. Parents never knew

I've had friends die from TSS and taking the Pill. I've had zero friends die of smoke-related illnesses (i'm old).

Most people start when they’re in their teens, and teens aren’t well known for long term planning. When you’re fourteen and having fag in the park with your mates you don’t think about being thirty and standing out in the cold and the rain quickly getting your fix while at work, or being fifty and having prematurely aged skin and a permanent cough, or not seeing sixty five because cpod has killed you. When you’re fourteen you want to be cool, part of the group, you might even joke about or enjoy the idea of the dangers of smoking, but you’re never going to get old or ill so it doesn’t really apply to you.

No one knows really. I don't know why or how someone could eat an entire packet of biscuits in one go, or who would want to eat a whole pizza and the a huge tub of ice cream. Life is painful. We are all flawed. Try and understand that instead of judging.

Because I was 15 and thought I would live forever. I'm now 50 and still enjoy the occasional smoke with a cup of coffee or a cold beer.

I smoked when I was 16 and living in France in the mid-80s. No one was thinking about being in their 40s.

Because I was an angsty depressed teenager and neither expected nor wanted to live to old age?

Is it so hard to step out of your own mind or at least acknowledge that other people have different motivations and pressures?

Do you honestly think a random stranger on the internet saying smoking is bad is going to make people quit? I literally can’t even smoke a fag without the grim reality staring right at me on the front of the pack, but your words are supposed to do it?

Like I said I’m well aware of the consequences. I have no social life (haven’t been “out” since New Years 2014), no friends, don’t drink, haven’t had a shag in 3 years, spend no money on myself (apart from £13.50 a fortnight on dodgy tobacco), so do you know what? If I want a fag I’ll have one thanks.

Peer pressure.

It was cool and grown up and nearly everyone did it. I’m 48 and still occasionally smoke. Never was physically addicted though, I can go weeks if not months between fags.

So you spend time reading smoking cessation threads and forums for what purpose? Is this how you make yourself feel better about yourself? If so, fair play, it's relatively harmless in that respect, if very odd.

OP if you want smokers to stop smoking stop stressing us out. First thing we do when we're stressed is have a fag.

Is it just me but the going outside to have a fag with the other dirty smokers is quite good?

I was a rebel and at that time rebels smoked. Periodically given up but a life long smoker, I enjoy it, I keep away from other people when I do it.

When the inevitable happens and it will, I don't expect miracles on the NHS, just give me a bit of pain relief and I'll be on my way.

I've had a pretty shit life to be honest and it's one of the few things that makes me happy.

I used to self harm. I started smoking aged almost 23 after a self harm accident resulted in stitches. I started to have a cigarette instead of cutting as a cigarette wasn't going to get blood everywhere. I did see it as suicide roulette actually. I promised my mum I wouldn't try to kill myself again, I never promised I wouldn't die from a smoking related illness.
I hated smoking when I started, but cutting was drawing too much attention. I grew to like it before too long.
I seem to have acquired some self care from somewhere as I quit two weeks and 24 minutes ago. Not that I'm counting. If they still sold single cigarettes I'd totally have buckled several times by now.

I did as my friend did. I hated it but we all smoked with a drink. Gave up when it dawned on me it was a disgusting habit that cost a fortune.

does it really taste good? dog turd on fire ??

I'm 31. I started smoking last year at 30. It was deliberate. I felt very depressed at the time and thought I've spent my whole life doing the right thing and I just don't give a fuck anymore and might as well enjoy myself and if it kills me off so be it. Stupid yes. But I understand why I did it.

Smokers are entitled idiots.

“Entitled”? How so?

mistyblue hope there's gold at the end of your rainbow and light at the end of your dark tunnel.

creambun no I'm an entitled t**t actually.

FrenchDucks