Hello, please answer theses if your a smoker.# What were your early smoking experiences like?# What were your early associations with cigarettes?# Were cigarettes associated with being cool?# Did your friends smoke when you started smoking?# Do your current friends smoke?# Did you enjoy smoking initially?# How did smoking make you feel?# How does smoking make you feel now?# Why did you start smoking?# Have you ever tried to quit smoking? Have you succeeded?# How long have you smoked?# How often do you think of cancer or emphysema? What do you think about these smoking related diseases?# Describe your family’s impressions of smoking.
1) My earliest smoking experiences didn't involve cigarettes. I was obsessed with smoking. Both parents were non-smokers. Never saw a real person smoke (ie-not on TV). I lit and piffed on weeds, twings, paper, q-tips. Anything. When I was 9 somehow I got my hands on a few butts. I smoked away. Nowadays people talk about this light headedness they got when they first smoked or when they go a long period without smoking. I never had that. I inhaled and smoked every cig I could get my hands on and never felt that lightheadedness. Instead, I felt "normal," relieved. Relaxed.
2)I never associated cigs with being cool. Many say that, and frankly I think it's BS when they do. It depends on when that person smoked. Personally, I smoked in private for about 5 years. I didn't know to associate it with "coolness" because I didn't know anyone that smoked, cool or not.
3) I started smoking because I'd had a lifetime desire to smoke. Although I smoked randomly since I was 9, I got my first WHOLE pack of Marl Reds when I was 14. Although I despise cigs now, I can still remember the blissfull smell of that first fresh cig and the excitement of knowing I still had 19 others. As I said, my parents were avid non-smokers. Early on, they did not even associate with those who smoked. In my later years, I recall my father meeting a gentleman who smoked, but he was no allowed to do so on our property. My family are still baffled with my early obsession with he substance.
4) None of my friends started smoking when I did.
5) Some of my friends are smokers. Some are non-smokers. And I also have friends that only smoke once a year when they visit me. Apparently, I'm a strong and bad influence.
6) I thoroughly enjoyed smoking initially. The only thing I hated was how time consuming it was to hide it from my parents. There was not one thing that turned me off of smoking. In fact, after my first drag, I was already mind-consumed with how I'd get the next one.
7)Smoking made me feel normal. Functional.
I feel nothing when I smoke now. However, when I cut back, I feel non-fuctional. It's embarrassing.
9) I have no reason to have started smoking. I only recall the year (9yo) that I became obsessed with it. I made fake cigs out of paper, rolled them up, and kept them in a Crayola 8 count crayon box. It was winter. I would fake drag on them, and marvel at the vaper I exhaled because it was so cold out side. Couldn't wait to get my hands on the real thing.
10) I have attempted to quit manytimes. Obviously without success.
11) Although I puffed from time to time since I was 9, it was many more years since I would consider myself a regular smoker. I would say, I've been smoking for 24 years, discounting pregnancies when I quit.
12) I think of cancer and COPD frequenly, particularily during this last year when the doc informed me I may have cancer. Eventually his initial dx was squashed. My final follow up test is in Feb. I'm in my early 30s. It's been a jagged year. Since I feel like I basically have been given a clean slate, I feel now is the time to quit.
13) Many of my siblings now smoke. They started smoking when they were over 18, which bothers me. Unlike myself, they knew the potential risks when they started. Nothing bothers me more than an adult that starts smoking. It's not the same as a child who starts and is physically and psychologically addicted then has to fight to quit. I have little sympathy for people who start smoking as adults, when they clearly knew what they were getting into. Perhaps, a better way to put it is that I don't understand. I wish I had made it to adulthood without smoking.
Both my parents despise my smoking.
Turns out, however, that my biological father who was I was no raised with and did not know is a chain smoker. Interesting...
