a random question with a poll

I've never smoked, not even to try it out. Not something that ever interested me.

I have never wanted to or tried!!

I started smoking at 17 but stopped once I got pregnant at 21. I do slip once in a while specially if I'm in some sort of an emotional upheaval.

hmm, I started I think at 11 and well it was the cool thing to do and peer pressure didnt help at all, and I was mad that day and every one kept telling me it will calm me down and I guess in my mind I thought it was ok because well in a house with 5 people every one else had smoked (and still does)! I didnt really get addicted until about 13 so that was good and it was like a pack every 2-3 days, now I am lucky if i make a pack last 2 days!

I have thought about quitting and tried it once or twice but it never works, its so hard when every one in your house smokes the same ciggs that u do

I think I was 12 when I had my first cig. It was just something cool older kids did. As a teenager I smoked occationally. I quit when I was 16 and didn't feel the need for it until last year, when I was 26. I stopped smoking again in September, but Usva's getting sick and dying made me start again in November. Now I've been clean for more than a week. I hope not to go there again.

I've noticed I don't get physically addicted to nicotine easily. It sure makes me feel happy, relaxed and focused at the same time, but I never have any withdrawal symptoms. The habit is more addictive: stopping your work for 5 minutes and gathering your thoughts, having something to do when you wait for someone etc. But it just isn't worth it all: your health, money, rainforests, animal testing, smelling bad.

What happened to use to smoke but quit? I quit a year and a half ago and have no urges!

I haven't ever smoked and don't ever want to - I get addicted to everything (have you seen me with chocolate? ), so I'd never be able to quit smoking.

I have never smoked and hate to be around it. When I was 13, I was offered with the "try it, won't hurt you one time" deal - but I refused. Also around that age I witnessed what smoking can do - was in nursing home (visiting) and was a lady there who was trying to breath thru a hole in her throat - the sound and pain it caused from smoking scared me so bad that no way would I ever smoke in my life.

My ex-husband smoked and I hated it - I banned smoking in our house but still would get sick when he'd come back from his parents house and be smoking. My DH used to smoke - but quit about 10 yrs ago and has been smoke free and hates to be around it as much as I do. So our house, car, clothes, etc are smoke free and smell so much better - we both cannot tolerate being in a closed area with smoke more then 10-15 mins before we have to find fresh air.

I always say "if you don't start it, you won't ever have to struggle to quit it"



Now if only I could stop biting my fingernails

In my experience, most people regret ever starting and did when they were freshmen or sophomores in high school (or younger). Some people start in college but its mostly the 'I only smoke when I drink' ones who sometimes then start smoking all the time.

I've never met anyone who purposely started and intended on never quitting...

I used to smoke. I started when I was 16, because I thought it made me look cool and all my friends were doing it. I quit 10 or so years later because it was affecting my breathing. I haven't had a cigarette since, and in fact I can't stand to be aournd anyone who is smoking. It makes it very hard for me to breathe.

Never have, never will. I watched my grandpa suffer the last years of his life. He couldn't even walk to the bathroom which was only 10 ft away from the living room without sitting on his chair walker and using his oxygen

When I was 11, my Mom and Dad went to the doctor and came home not happy. They told me that Dad had cancer of the larynx and had to have his voice box removed. I just asked if he would be okay and they said that he would. He was not. He came home being unable to talk with a hole in his throat. I was the only one who could understand him so if he went to the deli for his ham I went with him as the interpreter. I watched him die slowly for the next 3 years. It wasn't until I saw the priest give him Extreme Unction that I believed he was really dying.

My Dad never saw me graduate from Cornell and get an MBA from U of M. He wasn't alive to walk me down the aisle or see his grandchildren.
I have never smoked, nor has my mother or brother. My husband never did, probably because he lost his father to smoking as well.

There was an anti-smoking ad on TV where the woman had the same operation and she was still smoking through the stomata. I cried every time I saw it and told our kids that look what smoking does to you and that is what it did to my father who would have loved to have such wonderful grandchildren. Neither kid smokes or even tried it (trust me, I would know from the smell) and they are 21 and 13.

Never smoked, never wanted to...

My grandpa has really awful asthma and my grandma is on oxygen due to smoking for so long (both quit ~20 years ago).

That and I start coughing if I'm sitting too close to a smoker.

Plus, my job would kill me if I started!

Never smoked and never will.

I remember visiting my grandparents every weekend when I was growing up and everybody there (except the little children) smoked. Everything that came out of my grandparent's house smelled so strongly of smoke. I remember commenting once that I didn't like the colour they had painted their ceiling and my parents telling me that it was cigarette smoke, not paint that made it that colour.

Even at that young age, I thought that if it did that to the ceiling, imagine what it was doing to your insides. That coupled with the fact that it made my eyes, nose, throat and airways sting meant I never, ever wanted to smoke.

You left out an option: I used to smoke but I quit.

I started at 12, and smoked for 24 years. I've been off them now for 4 years, and I'll NEVER go back.

Originally Posted by Rosiemac

I've never smoked and never wanted to try

Click to expand...

Me too!

I started smoking when I was in high school at 13. It was partly peer pressure, and both my parents smoked. I will give up when life is less stressful. Going through some pretty crappy stuff right now.

I started when I was 11, and I quit this last June.
I will still have a smoke with a beer, but I have beer maybe 2-3 times a year, so I'm happy with that.

I started when I was 18, but quit on and off for years. Most of it was stress or social smoking. Never truely enjoyed it though.

I officially began to quit 4 years ago. Had a one month relapse 3 years ago, but that's been it. Funny thing is, now it makes me ill.