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?

Peer pressure... I'm 25 now & I smoke about 4 a day if I'm stressed smoke more if I do go clubbing!

I'm with the OP on this. It seems a ridiculous waste of money and in the 90s when I was a teenager all my friends would pool their money together and buy a pack of twenty. They'd moan that I didn't contribute, and my answer was always "I'd rather buy some beef hula hoops".
I get that people have shitty upbringings but why mix addiction (fags/drink/drugs) into the mix, thus making you poorer and life even more shitty!

People have a choice, Mirror. I'm with you - never smoked, never wanted to. My mum died at 67 from cancer, and my sister at 58 from smoking/alchohol related diseases. So sad. But no point banging your head against a brick wall. There are none so blind as those who will not see.

I was horribly bullied as a young teenager. Then I started smoking (because my friends did and it was cool) and the bullies stopped bullying me because they thought that I was cool now because I smoked.

Actual true story. Teenagers are really shit at making rational life choices.

Teenage me tried smoking by nicking some of my dad's cigarettes (despite being strongly anti as a kid).

Thank christ he smoked Camels because I almost coughed up a lung on the first drag!

Consequently I never bothered again, unlike my of my school mates who had a few of their mum's Silk Cut and got hooked.

I had to stop reading the replies on this because it makes me want to smoke.

I'm an ex smoker now hurrah but years of trying to give up I kept asking myself the same, why would anyone start this!?

From being about 13/14 I was a stoner and when I couldn't smoke a joint I would have the odd cigarette that was laying around, amazing with a drink too and then all of a sudden one day I NEEDED one

I was 14, my cousin used to roll ciggies from Old Boars Head tobacco for her father; he couldn't do it as he had lost an arm in WW2 and she used to make a few extra for herself. The first time I tried one I went into a choking fit and thought I would never breathe again but it got better with practice. The sweet shop on the way to school used to sell individual Woodbines (couldn't afford a whole packet) and it progressed from there.

I tried giving up many times but finally managed it 55(ish) years later when I had a fall four years ago and was on traction in hospital for eight weeks. Haven't smoked since but still miss it sometimes and have kept a packet of Marlboro and a lighter tucked away just in case of emergencies.

Like many others, I started at school. I was being bullied and some older kids took me under their wing and they all smoked so I did it to fit in. Kind of an FU to the bullies when they saw me head off with all the “cool” older kids for a smoke.

I have never stopped though and don’t particularly want to. Part of that is not wanting to live until 80 or 90. I remember reading an article that said smokers are far less likely to get Alzheimer’s and the counter to that was because they don’t live as long. Well good, I don’t want to live long enough to get it!

As I get older, all the premature deaths I’m seeing around me are all healthy people who never smoked, rarely drink, eat healthily and exericise etc. In my personal life I have seen no evidence that not smoking extends your life. The only person I’ve known with lung cancer was the “healthiest” person I knew!

I’m happy to take my chances, smoke, enjoy a few drinks, eat what I like. If I go early i’ll Go happy!

Stress and more stress. Started as a teenager to fit in.
Started again age 40 after a horrific time in my life. I don’t want to. But when that overwhelming anxiety kicks in I start to panic and reach for a cigarette.
When I was happy I never thought twice about lighting up.
And I probably don’t care about myself much atm

I was 15 and they sold them for a penny each in the canteen at work. My new work mate pestered and pestered me to have one, telling me i'd love it, i gave in to shut her up and used to buy one every break, coughing and spluttering my head off. Within a few weeks i had a full blown addiction. I always regretted not being stronger and just saying no. Ended up smoking for the next 35 years.

I was 13. I'm pleased for you OP that at that age you were mature enough to avoid starting smoking. Perhaps you had some good guidance. I don't know. However, we r not all so lucky, or perfect :)

Ps. YABU