What age did you start smoking?

Endurance Man

Alrighty, im very intereseted to find out what age people started smoking. If memory serves me right i was about 15 , im really ashamed of that tbh.

I am also curious about another fact, was wondering if you wouldnt mind adding this answer to your reply.
Did/do your parents smoke?
Thanks .

JungleBunny

Trying to quit myself at the moment.
Started when I was 14 :eek:

Both of my parents smoked but have quit over 3 years ago. I think my dad was smoking for about 30 years or so. He was a heavy smoker and did not find it hard to quit at all.

I wish it was that easy for me

AARRRGH

11.

Quit when I was 19.

Tis an awful, dirty habit. Think of the lungs god damnit!

biko

was 16

parents both smoked, in the car and house.

skipn_easy

12 but only about once a month for the next year or so. From about 13 onwards I was smoking 1 or 2 a day (but not every day), gave up for 2 years at 16, started again but never smoked really regularly - at most 5 a day, with plenty more on nights out.

Now, I don't smoke at all during the day, but will smoke close to 20 on a big night out. Neither of my parents smoked, none of my relatives smoke apart from my two brothers.

Eclipse

was about 15 I reckon. Neither parent smoked. 4 out of the 5 children smoked

joejoem

Its wierd, I smoke, and I smoked my lungs out all through my two week holiday, I got home on Sunday and havent smoked since. Dont feel the urge. Im smoking 9 years, and heavily.

threebeards

13 I think. I remember buyin 10 Carrolls and a box of matches. That was 19 years ago. I'd love to know how much I've spent since then on smokes. A quick calculation in the head says somewhere in the region of €20K :eek:

stagolee

smoked properly since i was 15 (a fair few a day every day) was having the occaisional one for a few years before that.
quit since i was 25 (i have the odd few blasts off someone elses when im pissed though).
my father smoked a pipe till i was about 12.

AARRRGH

threebeards wrote:

13 I think. I remember buyin 10 Carrolls and a box of matches. That was 19 years ago. I'd love to know how much I've spent since then on smokes. A quick calculation in the head says somewhere in the region of €20K :eek:

Yeah, Carrolls, they were the business.

I think we started smoking... "Gold Bond"? They were 98p for 10. We lit them in the local church (off the candles) and got chased by the priest down the road... LOL!

Ahhh life was so simple when I was young...

Dellgirl

i started when I was 14 and have smoked 20 - 30 Benson for the last 16 years.
6.25 x 365 = 2281.25 x 16 = 36,500€. :eek:

joejoem

Blingarella wrote:

i started when I was 14 and have smoked 20 - 30 Benson for the last 16 years.
6.25 x 365 = 2281.25 x 16 = 36,500€. :eek:

Prices have change a little. I wonder if you could work out an average price considering inflation n all for the last 10 years. Who is a mathematition?

stagolee

joejoem wrote:

Prices have change a little. I wonder if you could work out an average price considering inflation n all for the last 10 years. Who is a mathematition?

i would guess that considering inflation ,the euro changeover, and the interest that money would have earned had it been saved, it might well be scarily close to the original €36,500 figure

-oRnein9-

Smoked the odd one here and maybe 3-5 a day on weekends from age 11 - 14. Then it was about 10 fags a day from 15 til 17 and maybe 20 a day on weekends and when I was doing my leaving cert. just back from holidays recently bought 400 smokes in dublin airport came back with 20 after 2 weeks. Haven't smoked in a week though tryin to quit.

Neither of my parents smoke or ever have.

Sammyjo

I started smoking at 20 (im now 23), and am smoking about 20 a day. I know theyre bad for me, obviously, but i dont want to stop, so I know I wouldnt stay off them. I still love smoking!!

Neither of my parents smoked

jester77

Tried it when I was about 15, didn't like it.
Tried it again while in College, still didn't like it. I really don't get why people smoke or what the appeal is. It leaves a bad taste in your mouth, clothes smell, fingers smell and go a dirty yellow colour!
I remember many a time when I was a young lad and I was at a disco pulling a young one the taste of smoke from her would be the biggest turn off...
But if that's what looking :cool: is all about so be it...

pdunno

only started at 25, not one of my parents or sisters smoke!!

Been smoking since I was 12. Hasn't harmed me in anyway
Here's a recent pic

I still smoke 20 a day and love it. Really I do.

FranknFurter

*totally* embarrassed now lol
I had my first at age 9, and was on about 8 a day at age 10 LOL
hell, if I do somthing i really *do* it lol....

im 28 now, sheesh, that means iv been smoking... a LOT! lol

Megatron

I started Smoking when i was about 22 or so, just sort of started with a few while out on the lash.

20 a day since then ( 30 now).

Both my parents smoked, but my mum gave about 4 years after i was born,
my dad gave up about 15 years ago.

out of 3 brothers 2 sisters , only 1 brother smokes and 1 sister.

Mossy Monk

started at 14 or 15 and after 10 years of smoking stopped 3 weeks ago \o/

both parents smoke

azezil

Never so much as taken a drag, seeing what did done to my sister was enough to turn me off ever considering it.

(cought her when she was 16, made her eat the pack and repeatidly smacked her head against the floor.... ah such loving parents)

Tar.Aldarion

wondering why somebody would start at 22+?
one day ya go,'hmm i think i will start now' or just because your friends do?

Mossy Monk

my brother started at 22

county

think i was about 16,28 now and still do it,need to give it up big time

Kernel32

I was 12 when I started but it took a year or two to build into a full habit. I was 24 when I stopped. My dad never smoked but my mam did smoke but not consistently. She would smoke for a couple of years, then stop for months, then back on them. At one point my mother, myself and my two brothers were all heavy smokers. Then we all quit over the course of a few years. Now my younger brother started back on them after about 5 years of being off them.

Dizzyblabla

I started when I was 16... I liked the Dizzy spells! My mom smoked til she was pregnant with my older brother, she hasn't since... That's 30 years!

Endurance Man

Hmmm, interesting, thanks for all the replys .
This smoking buisness is just such an evil swisted circle .
I think it starts with your parents, iv have found with my many m8's that smoke, that most of there parents smoke. The info above would also give you that impression, most of your parents smoked, im sure that is transferred onto you.
You then begin to smoke at a young age becuase your m8 does and your buckle under peer pressure, not helped by the fact that you probably already crave them to a very small degree .
You then smoke, pass it onto your children and the cycle starts again.

This is just the way im seeing it, i could be very wrong :rolleyes: .
Very interesting

rainbow kirby

I don't smoke... was scared off by seeing my grandfather in the last stages of emphysema when I was 9 years old. My little brother smokes though, he's smoked since 14 (he's 18 now) and he's on Niquitin now trying to give them up because he's getting repeated chest infections.

popinfresh

I was smoking since I was 12, but only once a week kind of a thing back then. I started smoking regularily around 15/16. Then I quit last week. I had to, I was on 50 a day, and I'm unemployed ATM. I just went cold turkey.

Oh and my dad used to smoke but he quit a year before I started.

TomTom

Started at 11, silly eh... I was not a completly regular smoker until i was 12 or 13. My parent had a shop and pub so access to them was easy. Was off them for 4 moths this year but got wated on holidays and went back on them. Want to give up again but need to get into the mindset to do it.

Rb

popinfresh wrote:

I was smoking since I was 12, but only once a week kind of a thing back then. I started smoking regularily around 15/16. Then I quit last week. I had to, I was on 50 a day, and I'm unemployed ATM. I just went cold turkey.

Good luck with it, hope you can stay off them.

I started smoking socially around the age of 15, by the time I was 16 I was smoking 10 - 20 a day.I'm now 19, still smoking around 15 - 20 a day but have an intention to quit before Christmas.

Our man in Havana

What would you think would happen if fags were unavailable? How would ppl cope?

Nightwish

I have never ever touched a cigarette. I abhor them. I hate being in the company of a smoker. Everything about cigarettes disgusts me. My BF gave them up cos he knew how much I hated them. bless

Rb

Bond-007 wrote:

What would you think would happen if fags were unavailable? How would ppl cope?

It'd be like dawn of the dead, except alot more violent.

Jimi-Spandex

13. 8 coughy years now.

Tried to quit a few times. To be honest I don't really harbour any intentions of quitting soon. What really gets on my nerves is people telling me to quit.

Do people really think I've gone eight bloody years without reading the packs? Damn well I know it'll kill me, I know i smell like an ashtray, I know it stains my teeth/ages my skin, harms my baby if i'm pregnant and I know that moany ****ers are offended by my habit.

There's no, I repeat NO need to remind me.

Rb

Well, if you enjoy smoking and want to discuss the enjoyment of smoking without having to put up with people reminding you of the effects of it, support The Smoking Room .

Sleepy

Started at 13, was on about ten/twenty a week until about 16 where that increased to ten a day and twenty on a night out. Quit for the year of my Leaving Cert because I was training to be a lifeguard. Started back on them in first year of college and started going out with a girl who smoked twenty a day. Was on twenty a day myself in no time and stayed there until last year when I moved into a non-smoking house so that I'd have to go outside for a smoke in the evenings. That's cut me back to about ten a day or so, which increases to twenty or thirty if I'm on a session.

And I don't want to even *think* about how much the habit has cost me over the years. I've had a number of attempts at quitting, all with varying degrees of success. Sometimes I've stayed of for a year (Leaving Cert) whereas other attempts have ended in a matter of hours.

shellby

i started when i was 14 i hated it then and i hate it now
both my parents smoke
i'm in the process of quitting i'm reading the alan carr book it's working a treat i actually cannot wait to stop smoking

Scarinae

I've only smoked about three cigarettes, didn't try them until I was 16. I very occassionally take a drag when other people are smoking, but I'm not that pushed

Flukey

Well I haven't started yet - except for passively - and have no intentions of doing so. I have more sense. There was a feature on the radio this morning about a study that has discovered that it can affect your sight in later life. That is one of many reasons to quit or, more importantly, to never start.

carbonkid

Remember smoking my first cig when i was 12 i think in a field behind my friends estate, a John player blue.
Dont really smoke anymore unless im really stressed or drunk, theyre way too expensive :P

Tar.Aldarion

Flukey wrote:

Well I haven't started yet - except for passively - and have no intentions of doing so. I have more sense. There was a feature on the radio this morning about a study that has discovered that it can affect your sight in later life. That is one of many reasons to quit or, more importantly, to never start.

ye a guy has gone blind or something for the rest of his life and they believe smoking is why.

Stephen

I tried smoking a couple of times as a muppet teenager but never liked the taste of 'em, so I never took it up, thank ****. My ould lad has been smoking for years, he's still on about 10 carrolls a day, but my ma never smoked and won't let him smoke in the house either.
I don't understand how anyone can actually start smoking at 22-25 like some people in this thread. Are you stupid?

dashX

Started when I was about 8. 10 Carrolls and a box of Patterson & Maguire matches for 98 pence. These days, whenever someone asks me why I smoke (as non-smokers tend to do for some reason) I always tell them it's because I was stupid enough to start.

Endurance Man

Started when I was about 8. 10 Carrolls and a box of Patterson & Maguire matches for 98 pence. These days, whenever someone asks me why I smoke (as non-smokers tend to do for some reason) I always tell them it's because I was stupid enough to start.

:eek: ,When you where 8 :eek: , dont even no what to say.

dublinshane

When I was 18 and at college - always wanted to try it. Started off with just an odd one in the pub and that but then became regular. Neither parent smoked but my younger brother started a year before me.

Wibbs

Started when I was 19/20. Always enjoyed the smell of a good cigar and pipe(ciggies I can take or leave tbh).

My father smoked and he died when he was in his 80s after a long and very healthy life(he had me late in life). An uncle of mine recently died in his 90s after smoking tobacco in various forms for nearly 80 yrs. Other relatives(on both sides) smoke and live well into their 80s/90s. No lung cancer, or other lung/heart problems in my blood relations in living memory, so I'm probably one of the lucky ones with the Keith richards gene.

That said most of them (like myself) would be pipe/cigar smokers who generally don't inhale so that would be a factor. You get the protective effect of nicotine(alzhemiers, parkinsons, colitus etc) with less exposure to the nasties. Also as a family the men are pretty active so that also may be a factor.

FranknFurter

dashX wrote:

Started when I was about 8. 10 Carrolls and a box of Patterson & Maguire matches for 98 pence. These days, whenever someone asks me why I smoke (as non-smokers tend to do for some reason) I always tell them it's because I was stupid enough to start.

Thank godess im not alone in starting so young.....
Poll results here are *very* interesting...

b

Red Alert

Yuk! I tried it when i was younger but went off it very fast.

toiletduck

Flukey wrote:

Well I haven't started yet - except for passively - and have no intentions of doing so. I have more sense. There was a feature on the radio this morning about a study that has discovered that it can affect your sight in later life. That is one of many reasons to quit or, more importantly, to never start.

*yawn* yes we all know it's not good, that not what the thread is about...

smoked my first when i was 12 and never touched them again till i was 18. i smoke about 5 a day now