What Makes a Person Take up Smoking?

Published on September 22, 2004 By JillUser In Misc

I am truly intrigued about what makes a person take up smoking. I don't know any person that liked it right off the bat. So why work at learning a habit you know is so bad for you? What is the appeal.

People deny that it had anything to do with peer pressure. If it isn't peer pressure, what is it? Please, if you have an explaination, share it. I am not being judgemental and won't rip on you for commenting. I am just simply trying to understand because people I care about are so totally addicted.

Comments (Page 2)

kimk546

on Sep 24, 2004

I think it's generally peer pressure that gets people to try smoking. Family may have something to do with it, but perhaps there's more of a genetic disposition fueling that angle.

I'm pretty sure that smoking makes you look cool. It's silly, and we all know about the hacking cough, premature wrinkles yellowed skin, teeth and nails that result, but picture that mysterious woman sitting alone at the end of the bar lighting her cigarette, or the guy flipping closed his zippo lighter, cigarette dangling from lips.
Not to mention, it seems that, at least up until recently, everyone in the movies smoked, making the habit seem more acceptable, if not "cool."

Kudos to my dad and mom who've each quit after smoking full time for 20 and 40 years, respectively. Because of them, I'll never buy the excuse that it's "too hard" to quit.

Rightwinger

on Sep 24, 2004

I never understood it, either; if you're sitting around a campfire, and the wind changes, blowing the smoke into your face, you cough and move, right? Then why inhale the shit directly into your lungs?
My mom was almost a chainsmoker who died from renal complications of a stroke at 42. My dad was a three-pack-a-day man until he died of brain cancer at the age of 61. The cancer that killed him started in his lungs; they found it after he'd had a heart attack. To the end, he argued that it wasn't the 52 years of smoking, or the years and years of hanging out in beer joints, inhaling concentrated second-hand smoke. He maintain resolutely that it was the 4 or 5 years he spent working in a brake shop, making asbestos brake shoes. No sign of asbestosis was found in his lungs, I might add.
I don't smoke, never even tried it, honestly, and my dad never understood how that was, with my having two chimneys for parents. Guess I just dodged the bullet.

dharmagrl

on Sep 25, 2004

If that's true, why not just stop forever?

Because I like it, that's why. It's like a person who enjoys a beer every so often...they're not addicted, they're not an alcoholic, they just like the occasional drink. That's how I feel about smoking.

Welcome Guest! Please take the time to register with us.
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:

Richer content, access to many features that are disabled for guests like commenting on the forums.
Access to a great community, with a massive database of many, many areas of interest.
Access to contests & subscription offers like exclusive emails.
It's simple, and FREE!