Do you smoke?

lovingit

I can't believe I am the only smoker on gransnet.
Yes it is a filthy habit that is expensive and smelly and damaging to health but it,s my choice.
I am 74 on no medication apart from hrt,low blood pressure I walk 4/5 miles a day with my dog and swim 20 lengths 4/5 times a week as well as mucking out my friends horse twice a week.
I don,t smoke a lot maybe 6/7 a day but ladies I do enjoy it and have no intentions to stop.

I have finally stopped smoking in the last 5/6 years. It’s just not as enjoyable as it was. Outside smoking places can be a bit grim, and I loved ‘fancy’ cigarettes. I remember the last packet of Sobranie cocktail cigarettes I bought which was for my 60th birthday party.

I didn’t smoke for about 25 years from before I first got pregnant but started again in my late 40s. I used to dream about lighting a cigarette, and smoking with a cup of coffee. I liked smoking outside, or with glass of something. DH (no2) is not and never has been a smoker, and I’ve never smoked in our house. And I would never smoke in the car.

I was always a social smoker - I liked smoking and I liked sharing cigarettes with people. I was always surprised at who I met outside also having a sneaky cigarette! I still like the smell of a good cigarette, or a cigar.

I understand why people don’t like it, but I see a lot of people with other very unhealthy habits around food and alcohol (not to mention drugs like cocaine). I am 71, fit and well and on no medication.

(Don’t get me started on vaping, which I think is gross. I really dislike being developed in clouds of horrible artificial smelling vapour. And the frequency with which people need to sip on vapes to get sufficient nicotine is crazy. And such a shame to see so many children using them.)

Loved them

Had no idea cigarettes cost £15/16 per pack, I wonder how anybody can afford to smoke nowadays.

I tried smoking at school but coughed my guts up, so never continued. My dad was a heavy smoker and both my siblings smoked until they were pregnant or trying for a baby .
I hate smoking and the smell . We were recently in Crete and the almost everyone , Greeks and tourists were smoking and lighting up whilst others were eating . The tables were crowded together and it was impossible to get away from the smoke , ditto the beach .
We paid for a sea view room but our neighbours were constantly on their balcony smoking , spoiling our morning coffee or evening wine .

Apart from sneeking 2 or 3 from my mum's handbag and smoking them in the garden shed when I was about 12 , I've never smoked. It never appealed to me at all.

There are five of us siblings and only one started smoking. She gave up when she was pregnant. Our parents were both chain smokers and we begged them to stop smoking or cut down. The first thing on the grocery list when we were growing up was 60 cigarettes. Even at 6 or 7 we were regularly sent to the corner shop for a packet of fags for mum. Towards the end of the week when money was a bit tight the fags were bought before food so we had to make do with what there was to eat. There was always milk and bread so we never went to bed hungry but it certainly made a big impression on me.

By the time we had all left home mum was smoking 80 a day. She regularly fell asleep smoking and it's a wonder she didn't burn the house down. She was obviously unwell and died at 56. She never got to see her grandchildren grow up which still upsets me. Dad was also a heavy smoker and died too young.

Like I say Mum and Dad produced a family of non smokers. We were all passive smokers of course but so far no ill effects.

Granmarderby10

Oh dear Retread I hear that it’s possible to get something from a dentist to help with that “terrible gnashing of teeth” 🦷

I have a mouth guard, thanks! ☺️

My OH, an ex-smoker, is worse than me 😀

All my family smoked. I remember being sent to the shop at about 8 years old to get my Mum 5 Weights (imagine doing that today!)my Dad smoked Woodbines.
I started at about 15, smoking Consulate menthol cigarettes then moving on to other filter cigarettes. I gave up about 40 years ago. I worked from home at the time and it was a habit to light up whenever I picked up the phone. Therefore I started to keep my cigarettes upstairs so that I physically had to walk upstairs every time I wanted one. I also kept a record of how many I smoked each day and made an effort to reduce them every day. Once I was down to one cigarette I left it in the packet I kept it until one day I gave in and smoked it. I didn’t buy any more and haven’t smoked since.
They say there is nothing worse than a converted smoker and I’m her, I can’t stand anyone smoking near me!

I'm an ex smoker. I started at age 19 and stopped just before I was 40. Apart from the health concerns, I wouldn't be able to afford it now. I can't think why I ever started, except that all my friends smoked back then. Now, I hardly know anyone who smokes.

Whenever i have walked behind someone vaping it’s like being in the midst of a steam train. The amount of ‘smoke’ they puff out is astonishing. There isn’t enough evidence yet that vapes are safe.
When I decided to give up smoking 50 years ago, I just stopped. I know it can be hard, but not always, my mil who had smoked since childhood also decided to stop, then stopped that day and never smoked again.
What she did do was put her cigarettes money into a pot and when there was enough opened a savings account. She had never saved before due to low income and was rightly proud of her achievement.

I grew up with parents who smoked and hated it. My father died from a smoking related disease and so did several relatives. I have never been tempted.

I have always tried to avoid places where people smoked.

Oh dear Retread I hear that it’s possible to get something from a dentist to help with that “terrible gnashing of teeth” 🦷

Smoking = yuk, never. I stopped ordering Avon from a neighbour because everything reeked of cigarettes...

Two of my SILs who are heavy smokers (still) and have COPD expect non smokers to adapt to.their snail pace when walking. I do it but have to grit my teeth.

I’ve only rarely drank alcohol over the past 30 years because my “circle” gradually changed and I don’t hanker after it, but “why do people start drinking in the first place?”…..well obviously because it makes them feel good for a bit, and especially if they felt crap before hand. And it is legal.

Smoking is a whole other kettle of addiction I started aged 14 (with my best friends encouragement) and we knew all the stats about the dangers even then 1975.
We bought tens of the well known menthol ones -quite expensive at the time but smoked other peoples when offered -though no one wanted ours😉
I continued smoking along with millions of others in work places, buses, etc even the post natal midwife and health visitor did this was 1980!
I stopped after my third “mild” heart attack and did it with vapes in 2017 not willpower.
I don’t care what they look like, they worked for me.
I wouldn’t touch tobacco now and they are prohibitively expensive to me anyway and yes everything smells nicer now but I always had a very very keen sense of smell anyway which can be a burden sometimes.
Most people I know don’t smoke either but I have sympathy and don’t judge or obsess.

I've never smoked fags or cigars, no e's or vapes or anything, totally anti-brigade, I think the entire thing - the filthy stinking drugs - are utterly vile, and I refuse point-blank to allow anyone to do it near me or anywhere on my property.

I've no idea how much they are, but I bet they're quite expensive!

I stopped smoking 39 years ago, when I was about 27. My husband doesn't smoke, and neither do our sons and their partners. My brother (76) still smokes, and whenever I see him, I change all my clothes as soon as I get home.

No, never even tried it.

Yes, Primrose and silverlining, the smell of smoke is all - pervasive. When I was teaching infants, we had a problem with reading books going home in book bags to certain homes and returning smelling terrible. We were able to hang them to air before we sent them home with the next child, but it was a perennial problem.

No. I tried to smoke one when I was younger to look ‘cool’ but hated it. My lovely dad died of lung cancer. He smoked Park Drive from being a teenager. He was so addicted he would even leave the ward to go and smoke in the day room (it was allowed back then) Now my lovely friend (61) also has lung cancer from smoking - she has struggled so much to give up, even now. I’m so glad none of my children smoke. But it’s an addiction like any other, and so hard to quit once it gets hold of you.

I smoked as a teenager. A lot of us art students did. I don't think I really enjoyed it. When I met DH he smoked too but I smoked about 5 a week. We both stopped when we had children. He found it much harder to give up than I did.
One of our DS began smoking in his teens but doesn't now.
It's just not acceptable any more, thank goodness.
I loathe the smell. I do have a friend who's younger than me and she and her DH smoke.
He has recently had to have his leg amputated and her skin is very wrinkled so she looks older.
My DH died from kidney cancer 5 years ago. Whether these things can be blamed on cigarettes, I don't know.
I'm very glad I don't smoke.

I vape on and off in the day, I use the small vapes that you fill yourself and you can dilute them down to very low nicotine content by mixing the vape liquid with 0% liquid. sometimes I go 6 hours without but if under great strain do vape.

It did start with a period of extraordinary strain when I was about 54, and I have subsequently cut them down to this "almost nothing" level and have no intention of giving up atm

I don't self judge nor judge others. People harm others in many different ways, and I drink almost no alcohol at all.

I’ve never even tried a cigarette. My father smoked and my mother attributed my regular bronchitis to it, he switched ti smoking a pipe but I always despised him for it. All my AC smoked in their teens, to keep up with friends, or probably to upset me, just as they all got tattoos because they know how much I detest them. I’ve only been out with one smoker and couldn’t bear to kiss him. Filthy, disgusting and such a stupid, stupid health risk and total waste of money.

When I was a teenager in the 1950s, I had a chest infection and was in a hospital ward with adults who were in various degrees of ill-health, many as a result of smoking. The woman in the next bed to me had a severe form of bronchiectasis, and died during the time I was there. She was 37. If I had ever been tempted to experiment with smoking (which I hadn’t) that ward would have put me off. The amazing thing was, the patients were allowed to smoke!

Gave up seven years ago, I did enjoy smoking though - sorry.

Used to, but not for a few years now. If I pass someone smoking in the street, I do enjoy a whiff of their fag, though….

Ex smoker here too expensive nowadays couldn't afford it. Stopped cold turkey, no patches or gum. I really notice the smell of smoke now on people, can't believe I went about smelling like that!!.