Did you or do you smoke?

[Changing4Best]

I am wondering how many of us smoke. If you did or do smoke, what made you start? If you have quit, what helped you to quit? How long have you smoked, if you do? Have you tried to quit, but failed? Have you tried to quit a number of times even?

Personally, when I was a young teenager, like 14 or so, under peer pressure, I started to smoke cigarettes. Later on, I even tried smoking some pot. I did that for a few years, but quit during my first year of college, when the affects of it seemed to be interfering with my studies and my grades. However, I did continue to smoke cigarettes until I was about 23, at which time I was finally able to quit after having failed at it twice before. I quit because I was becoming more health conscious and didn't want to be affected by what smoking does to your health.

I ask, because I wonder if any of us smoke or smoked due to having PTSD. Cigarettes seem to have a calming affect and so I would think that maybe we turned to them for that reason. I know that once I did start smoking, I did appreciate the soothing aspects of smoking them.

Tell me about your experiences with smoking. Oh, and just for the record, cigarettes cost about 50 cents per pack when I first started smoking. That was decades and decades ago, obviously! LOL...

PS. Added later, do you vape? If so, did you ever smoke beforehand, or have you only vaped? How does vaping make you feel?

 

[420kitty]

I have smoked marijuana off and on throughout my life since 16. I tried a cigarette once and hated it. Marijuana helps me a lot but the smoking was starting to get to my lungs, which I hated. I started eating marijuana CBD edibles and my coughing has gone down. I still smoke mj but only in PTSD emergency situations.

 

[asadafagahajakal]

I was in grade 12. It was a stressful one as I dropped out of two courses, and worried since I recently came out to a couple family members as bisexual, I was also worried about someone else finding out, possibly getting disowned. Had a lot of shit on my plate and cigarettes helped a lot more than booze. I vape now most of the time.

 

[Deleted member 541]

@SheilaKathy I quit smoking 13 yrs ago. It was my 8th or 9th attempt. I tried patches, hypnosis, weaning and cold turkey. In the end it was cold turkey.

I started smoking at age 8. I would steal them from my mother. My brothers did too, and we would go into the woods to smoke. At age 12 she gave me permission to smoke. My brothers were smarter than I was, they quit long before I did.

I now have emphysema from smoking for so many yrs.

 

[Changing4Best]

@SheilaKathy I quit smoking 13 yrs ago. It was my 8th or 9th attempt. I tried patc...

So sorry you have health problems because of having smoked. My husband had a massive stroke and several other vascular problems, most likely due to his lifelong smoking habit. He did actually finally quit when he was 67 and then he had the stroke about 6 months later. He always thought it was quitting smoking that caused the stroke, but I know it was because he took up candies to replace the cigarettes that did it. He had Diabetes, and candy, especially when one has it every waking hour, is deadly for Diabetics. He would not take his Diabetes medicine either.

Funny you should mention your mother and how that got you smoking. I forgot all about that, but I used to take puffs off my mother's cigarettes when I was something like 8 years old too. However, the day I took a puff off of one of my father's cigars, I thought I would die! LOL...

 

[Changing4Best]

I have smoked marijuana off and on throughout my life since 16. I tried a cigarette once and hated it....

Looking back on my mj days, I can see how it would help one, if one were in a "PTSD emergency." It probably got me through a few of those when I did smoke it, I have just forgotten the details.

 

[Changing4Best]

I was in grade 12. It was a stressful one as I dropped out of two courses, and worried since I recently...

Oh yes! I forgot to mention vaping! I never was able to try that, but I have considered it not long ago. I was thinking that there might be some kind of vaping substance that does not contain nicotine which would be interesting. I know, even now, years and decades after my last cigarette, I still feel like taking a drag some days, especially when I am stressed.

 

[asadafagahajakal]

Oh yes! I forgot to mention vaping! I never was able to try that, but I have considered it not long...

Maybe it's not the nicotine bugging you, just the pg. that's what tastes bitter and bugs most would be vapers lungs. Just stick to 100%vg and maybe 3-6% nicotine. That'll help you if you wanna try vaping again

 

[lostforgottensoul]

what made you start?

Cocaine. Seriously! I was 23 and a coke addict. Hadn't started on crack yet but my ex (whom gave me my first line, already had told me if he saw a cut on my body he would leave, and told me it was better then cutting...and it was) smoked and he said it calmed the nervousness/panic of it but kept the *I wanna do everything now* feeling. So, he gave me my first cig as well. Crack came later and then when I went back to Kansas to get clean off the coke & crack habit (doing almost a grand a day at the time - or at least a week) I kept smoking.

what helped you to quit?

A Dr telling me that I was going to be the youngest person with lung disease and on oxygen. More recent I had developed a huffing keyboard duster habit. It was something that wouldn't show on a popped drug test at work. It got real bad, 16 cans on one day was the most I did. It's why my dad moved back in with me. But, because of the huffing, my lungs were trashed and smoking wasn't helping. I got pneumonia twice in a year and each time I got a cold it went straight to my lungs. The first time I got pneumonia it started as a sore throat on Sat and Sun my oxygen was at 81% (which is super low). And an infectious disease Dr did a full workup on me in the hospital and said all he found was the Rhino Virus (the common cold).

Anyway, a pulmologist had a heart to heart about smoking and my lungs. None of them knew about the huffing but it doesn't matter as damage is damage. He told me I would be his youngest patient on perm oxygen if I didn't quit smoking. I was 34 at the time and he said that if I quit before age 35 then my lungs would repair some of the damage done. After 35 it starts to become perm.

I tried the Florida Quits thing. That sucked. I tried patches, gum, e-cigs, all failed. My therapist said a vaporizer is a better delivery system and he was right. In a week I weaned off the cigs and onto a nicotine vaporizer. 95% of it was breaking the psycological hold of having something between my fingers. It is still nicotin and not good for you but it is no longer smoke. My smokers cough stopped, the weazing that was said to be asthma stopped. In my last physical my lungs were fully clear and sounded perfect. I can feel, now, the heart racing due to the nicotine now. When I smoked cigs, I didn't notice it.

I plan to wean onto a nicotine free liquid and then off completely soon. But that's how I started and stopped.

 

[Changing4Best]

Maybe it's not the nicotine bugging you, just the pg. that's what tastes bitter and bugs most would be...

I've never tried the vaping yet, just thought about it. I don't know much about it, so maybe you could explain what "pg" and "vg" mean? I'm in my mid-60s now, so health is a huge factor in any decisions I might make concerning this. So, basically, I think I want to stay away from nicotine completely as they say it causes cancer and other health problems, so I don't want to take any chances in that area of my life. However, to be able to take a drag again, the calming affect, something in my hands, something in my mouth... that would be welcome.

 

[Changing4Best]

Cocaine. Seriously! I was 23 and a coke addict. Hadn't started on crack yet but my ex (who...

I'm glad your health has improved so much. You have quite some story here!

 

[Neverthesame]

I'm a leper smoker.
I have been one for 16 years. I average about half a pack a day, this is how much I've always smoked. Unless I was drinking, then I became a chimney. I've never tried to quit, as I "smoke em' cause I like em'." Both of my parents used to smoke. Mum quit when she was diagnosed with bowel cancer. Dad quit around 5 years after that.

I started after a co-worker gave me one for reasons I can't remember. Though I know I didn't ask for it, he refused to take it back. I put it in my pocket, then after work I put the thing on top of the tv and forgot about it.
One day while hanging out with a mate the topic came up. I remembered the one I had, thought "what the heck, why not try it?" Oops.
I was old enough to know better (17). It was also quite stale.

The only time I planned to quit was the result of a health issue that happened a year after I started. I caught bronchitis, bad enough to make me have to stop to catch my breath several times crawling up the stairs to the landing. It was miserable.
The following year I caught it again. I've never had bronchitis before I started smoking and here it was beginning to look like a chronic illness. My father used to get it as well, then chronic pneumonia, until he quit smoking. He's not had either since. He used Zyban to quit if I remember correctly.
Anyways...
After the second bout of bronchitis, I decided that if happened again I would quit (I meant it.).

Welp... I appear to have discovered the bronchitis vaccine. I'm joking of course.

I started before I got ptsd, I definitely use it as a crutch now though. Bloody expensive crutch too I might add.
When I started, they were $6.50CDN per pack, back when restaurants still had smoking sections and the ID laws lax enough that I used to be able to buy my own before I was old enough.
Now however, they are over $18. I don't even want to think about how much I've spent on this habit since it began.

Lately though, I have been considering quitting. I don't want to end up with emphysema, cancer, Erectile dysfunction myocardial infarction or some other damn thing. I'm also sick of freezing my butt off in winter just to shorten my lifespan a little more.