Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Fun with Polls Do you smoke (take 2)?

I voted "no, never have", even though technically, I'm somewhere between that and "but I used to".

I experiemented a little bit in high school, not because I was ever pressured so much as I was curious. I was a good kid, but like many, I got a thrill out of the occasional act of rebellion, no matter how small it might be. So when my fast-compared-to-me 14 year old best friend would sneak cigarettes, we'd go out for a walk to the park and smoke one and feel oh-so-cool. <g> But we're talking a handful of cigarettes over the course of a year or two. I gave it up when I gave her up -- by age 16, she was doing things that I was decidedly uncomfortable with (stealing, cheating) and I ended the friendship. That was the end of that.

In college, I became a "social smoker" for a while. Again, no pressure from anyone, it just seemed a fitting past-time when you were out drinking and dancing. I never bought them myself -- I'd just accept them from friends if they were offered. If I was with smokers, I'd do it, too ... if not, I wouldn't. That activity ended when my boyfriend (now my husband) started grad school at my university and we moved in together. I stopped socializing with that particular crowd, and since I never wanted to be a *smoker*, I just stopped doing it.

I do find it interesting, though ... getting a faint wiff of someone else's smoke (say at an outdoor event) doesn't really bother me that much, but I absolutely *hate* the smell of it in my clothing and hair afterwards. I've always said I could never really be a smoker for that reason -- it just turns my stomach! And having someone sit down next to me with that smell on them is a nightmare.

Interesting poll, Y!

Kathy

I don't smoke and never have. I hate the stench; I worked as a nanny for a family where the dad smoked. I would come home and all my clothes would reek, as would my hair. They live across the street from us and when their front door is open the scent wafts across the street. Their little girl, who was then 3 or 4, had asthma. Every morning I had to administer three shots of two different types of inhalers into her mouth, and despite that, she would cough like crazy. Sometimes when their windows are open I can hear the dad (the smoker) coughing. Makes me sick just thinking about it.

My grandpa smoked; he picked up the habit when he was in the army circa WW2. One of my earliest memories of him was of him carrying his inhaler around with him in shirt pocket. By then he had quit, but years of smoking had already done their job. He died two days before I turned four... heart attack.

Sufficed it to say, nobody in my family ever took it up after seeing what he went through.

If you want to quit, and plan to quit, what are you waiting for?

Hmmm I think I kind of sounded like Lois in The Phoenix, just then. But seriously. Why not? Your body will thank you and it makes for one less thing you have to do down the road...

Okay, I feel I need to clarify...no...correct this, if only to make myself feel better. I was making short of my reply (even though it ended up being pretty long anyway ).

The first time I tried a cigarette, I was 16 or 17. My friend and I were always avid non-smokers, but we were curious. We also wanted to be able to one-up those people that said "don't knock it til you try it" when we'd say it was disgusting. I didn't like it then. It wasn't until I was 19 or 20 (don't recall exactly) that I started smoking. I found out my best friend (different friend )had been smoking when she was hanging out with her other friends. It upset me quite a bit and I asked her to quit. We used to go for long drives and just talk the night away or sing along to the radio. So one night, shortly after I'd asked her to quit, we were going for one of our drives and she told me that she was going to quit. The half of a pack she had left would be her last. If you ask me why I said it, I still couldn't tell you, maybe I was curious again or thought it looked cool...I don't know. But I said, "Good! I'll help you smoke it." Maybe I wanted to help her get rid of it faster or something. I could just puff on it and not really inhale. Well she ended up "teaching" me how to actually smoke the cigarette (there's apparently a technique or two ) and I found that the cigarette (well, the nicotine, really) relaxed me and even gave me a little buzz, a light-headed feeling. My friend never did quit smoking and what's worse is, I started. Though, we would only smoke on our drives. It was our time together and our little thing.

Then my parents got divorced.

I didn't handle it well at all (in fact, I don't think I'll ever be as close to my mom again because of it ). With the divorce, the stress of school and some other emotional problems, I ended up dropping out of college (well, technically I "took a semester off"...and I'm finally back 3 years later ). Everything all together was kind of overwhelming and there was this little side habit I had of smoking. Well, the smoking ended up helping me a little. It took the edge off the stress and other 'traumas'.

Now, I'm much better emotionally, but I'm hooked. As much as I'm disappointed in myself for being a smoker, I'm just not ready to quit yet. But I will someday.

LOL El! I'll look forward to it!

Sara (who really didn't mean to get that emotional...or tell everyone more than they probably wanted to know about her life )

Yes, very interesting reading this one. And, you know, I kind of quite like that one. But then it's more woodsmokey than cigarette, I guess. Still...

LabRat

I'm among those who have never had even the slightest desire to smoke, drink, or take recreational drugs. Yeah, I was a boring kid. My idea of rebellion was to tell my parents I was going to see one movie when I really wanted to go see "The Empire Strikes Back" for the fifth time.

As for smoke, I react very badly to it. One sniff of an unfiltered cigarette and I'll get a sinus infection that lasts for a week followed by a month of bad coughing. I've always had very bad sinuses, suffering from chronic rhinitis, so getting near smoke is usually a very bad idea for me.

Funny that Las Vegas is one of my favorite places to vacation. The place is filled with smoke and I always come back with a suitcase full of smoky clothing.

Sara, thanks for the honest and revealing insight into why someone might start to smoke.

Oh, and my friend's Dad, who was both a smoker and overweight, died of a heart attack in his early 50s. It's no surprise, I imagine, that she's a pretty vigorous opponent of smoking - much more so than me.

Isn't it telling, by the way, how many people here know someone who's died of a smoking-related disease?


Yvonne

I don't smoke, and I never have. I tried a cigarette when I was about 7-ish. My mom had fallen asleep on the couch, a cigarette still lit in the ashtray, so I thought I'd try it. I haven't touched one since. I even refused to buy them for my family once I got old enough.

Both of my parents smoke, my brother and his wife smoke, and three of my four grandparents smoked. The other one chewed. I grew up around smoke, so it doesn't bother me as long as it doesn't get directly in my face, or there's a lot of smokers in a closed-in area. I was in a mobile home with 3 smokers once, one being my mom, and I had to leave after about a half hour because the smoke got to be too much, and made my eyes hurt and water. When they visit me, they go outside to smoke, even though I've never actually asked them.

I've had mixed reactions with pregnant women and smoking. I live 20 minutes from my in-laws (mother, brother, and his wife), and 10 hours from my mom, brother, and his wife. Both wives were pregnant at the same time. The whole family was after my husband's brother's wife to stop smoking during his wife's pregnancy. When I went up to visit my family for Christmas, I saw my brother's wife light up. Being in the habit of reprimanding, I made a comment to her. My mom turned to me and told me not to say anything, since it wasn't my baby. So I didn't say anything about it the rest of the stay. Her reasoning was that since she smoked all during her pregnancies with me and my brother, and we turned out fine (physically.. I don't put too much store into my brother's mental state ), I didn't have a whole lot of room to talk.

Sorry to hear that Karen, that would have bothered me a lot. I've heard (though it might have been just friends and me theorizing) that whether or not smoking is harmful to your unborn child is gentetic. If your mom got away with it, theoretically, you could. I've talked to women (like Karen's mom apparently ) who said they'd smoked throughout all their pregnancies and never even had one problem - not even premature birth, which I hear is one of the more common side effects along with low birth weight. I wouldn't want to tempt fate, not when SIDS is looming out there as a possible reaction. And besides, I already said I didn't want to smoke around my children...gives me the perfect excuse to quit! After 9 months without a cigarette, think how easy it'll be to *not* ever pick one up again.

Sara (who's wondering if she should start a little piggy bank here, considering she's put in *way* more than two cents )

Even though I don't smoke, I feel like I do becuase it seems as if everyone on my college campus does and I'm always breathing in the stuff. I absolutely hate it and I will that it would get banned on my campus.

Melisa

Well, the results confirm my suspicions, but I'm still amazed that we're skewed so heavily towards non-smokers. A whopping 85% have never smoked, and 92% don't smoke now? Wow!

I guess this might say something about the sort of person who's a fan of L&C, but I'm not going to analyse that any further, or I'll no doubt get into all kinds of hot water.

Yvonne

Interesting poll, Yvonne!

My whole family smoked! Dad, mum, three brothers and sister. I did from the age of 16 for a couple of years. Even though I grew up surrounded by smoke I hate it. The smell makes me sick and affects my asthma. I’m not sure if it was related to smoking, but my dad and one of my brothers died from heart disease. Both quite young - my dad 41, my brother 32.

Unfortunately it appears that girls around 16/17 are still starting to smoke. Girls especially dancers and singers think that they need to smoke. They believe that if you smoke and drink lots of coke/coffee you will keep your weight down. Agents don’t employ overweight dancers and singers!

Tricia

And do you know that second hand smoking can cause Lung cancer as if you smoked it yourself.

I hate to be gross but I hate cigrette smell too. They form boogers in my nose and irritates me so much until I can get to the washroom and clean my nose out. YUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They should make smoking booths for smokers that keep the cirgreet smokes inside. Non-Smokers wont have to worry about the reprocussion of a smoker's smoke.

Non-smoker. Never smoked, can't imagine I ever will. Considering my respiratory distress around second-hand smoke (and discomfort around the smell -- the first half-hour of my recent airplane flight was pretty unpleasant, until my seat-mate's reek wore off (or I acclimated?)), I'd have to be nuts. When my allergies are in high gear, the smoke makes me cough and wheeze; when my allergies haven't been triggered lately, it's more of a mild irritant.

If you have smoked recently and are sharing an elevator with me, I will know. (I will also know if you doused yourself with perfume or cologne, but that's another story. ) I was thrilled when airlines stopped allowing smoking (sadly, the smoke does not STAY in the smoking section); and even more happy when California law changed to disallow smoking in restaurants.

I'm not a smoker.. hate the smell. All the same, if I have time before starting work in the morning, I'll go sit in the smoking room with the others, because it's too lonely sitting in the main part of the staff room. But that's about it.

This poll does remind me of some friends of my mom's -- they have a small yacht named the 'Six Pack', which they use to get to their small holiday home. Whenever people ask why they named it that, they say 'We used to smoke 6 packs between us, so we quit and saved the money, which we used to buy this yacht'

I have never smoked but I have always been around smokers. Now I have COPD from second hand smoke. THe bad thing here is if I'm in a room with a smoker for at least an hour I'll get pneumonia. So I try to stay far away from smokers. I hate the smell.

I voted No, but I used to. My growing up and young adult years occurred before scientists announced that smoking is harmful. At that time most kids just assumed that they would smoke because it was something almost all adults did unless it was against their religion. My parents did not smoke for that reason, although my mother would occasionally sneak a Kool. I smoked cigarettes, tiparillos (small cigars) and even a pipe when it was temporarilyfashinable. I ignored the fact that smoking aggravated my allergies. My husband and I quit cold turkey when our son (now 42) was born. We threw away our ashtrays and our house became a smoke-free zone. We've never regretted it and have had few cravings. I have to admit that I occasionally feel an urge to taste one of those tiparillos again, but it's only a passing fancy, and I never succumb. Now I can't stand to be around smoking and avoid smokers everywhere.

Jude

I have never, ever had the desire to smoke. Fortunately, my parents didn't smoke, so I didn't grow up around it. (My mom would throw up just riding in her grandfather's car, because of the residual smoke in the cushions and my grandmother on my dad's side caught his younger brother smoking a cigar with a friend when they were 8, so forced them to finish it and when they did, they both got really sick, which prevented my dad from ever wanting to try.)

I used to say I was 'allergic' to cigarette smoke, until some oh-so-helpful person (not!) informed me (rather sanctimoniously, I might add) that it is not possible to be allergic to cigarette smoke, that such-and-such has to happen for it to be classified as an allergic reaction. I maintain, however, that I am allergic -- if I'm around cigarette smoke, I get a headache almost immediately, and if I'm around it very long, I get sick.

Oh, and I wanted to reply to what LabRat said about getting used to Stuart coming home smokey -- smoke from fires is *entirely* different from cigarette smoke. I should know, I come from a family of pyromaniacs. <g> (Don't worry, Lab, we do it safely.) We have a fire in the fireplace from about October through May, we have candles all year round, and my brother juggles torches. None of those kinds of smoke bother me in the least.

Bethy

I earlier said:

And that's 100% true.

Funnily enough, though, my favourite Greek song is "To tsigaro", which means... "The cigarette".

Just thought I'd share,
AnnaBtG.

I don't smoke, never have, never even tried one. I was never even tempted to, which was fortunate, as I was diagnosed with asthma at the age of 28. On the other hand, I would never harrass a smoker about his/her habit. My mother-in-law apparently had an occasional cigarette when her husband was alive, but after his death took up the habit in earnest. She was a wonderful person, who showed me without even trying that, contrary to the stereotypic mother-in-law, it is possible to be popular with your son- or daughter-in-law simply by staying out of your adult children's business. I would never have insulted her by complaining about her habit. She died at the age of 83 from thymus cancer, which was almost certainly a result of her smoking.

Two of my children, for reasons entirely unrelated, took up smoking for a time. My oldest son picked it up from his girlfriend. Fortunately, a later girlfriend gave him an ultimatum -- it was her or the cigarettes. He chose her. My military daughter took it up because most of the other Marines in her unit smoked, but after she married (a non-smoker) she quit, fortunately.

I regard smoking as a bad habit and would never take it up, but I also know that once it is established, it is very, very hard to quit. Anyway, I figure an adult has a right to decide for him/herself whether or not to take the risk. Anyone who reads the newspaper, listens to radio or watches TV knows that it isn't good for him. My friends and acquaintances don't need me to inform them of the fact, and I prefer their friendship to making myself unpopular with them by rubbing it in.

Nan