Do you smoke?

I tried it with friends when we were about 14 years old and I choked and coughed my head off, it saved me a fortune as I never bothered again. It's just a pity it never happened when I started chomping on chocolate....

I have tried it once or twice in my young days, but never took up the habit.

I was very tired being the only person not to smoke among my family and friends. In the 1970s and 80s it was consider odd not to smoke.

Here (Denmark) it is a standard question asked by all doctors - both GPs and hospital consultants, irrespective of what you or they suspect may be wrong with you, as is if, or how much alcohol you drink.

Other frequent questions are what illnesses or operations you have had, whether anyone in your family suffers/suffered from various hereditary illnesses, diabetes, etc.

Some of these questions are asked to help make a diagnosis, others for statistical or research questions. Gynæocologists require one to remember when one last had a period - by the this time (I am 70) I frankly do not remember so I usually say December 1999 and cross my fingers! It has the virtue of being a date I can remember, so the entries are consistent, and I think it is right.

I smoked from 17-21 and I don’t know why I never enjoyed it. I thought it made me look cool! I only smoked about 20 a week ( I am sure you could buy packets of 5 ). My parents smoked from about the age of 14 until they died aged 81 but lived the last few years suffering badly with COPD and my Mum had many heart attacks. My brother smoked aswell for many years and has just undergone surgery for mouth cancer, probably caused by smoking.
When I met my husband he smoked and I said I couldn’t carry on seeing him if he smoked so he said ok I will give up and he did. My 2 children are very anti smokers in fact my daughter said her baby couldn’t go to her MILs house if she continued to smoke, she struggled but she gave up.

I’ve never smoked, though my parents, and almost all of the extended family did. There were lots of family get togethers so I certainly did a lot of of passive smoking.
Some years ago, when teaching P7 pupils, I was asked to discuss the health dangers of smoking, after which the pupils had to design a poster to highlight said dangers. We had a good discussion and the pupils took it seriously. However, for some reason, I decided to highlight other aspects of smoking. I held a lit match to a £10 note, and asked if I should burn the money. Needless to say, there were shouts of ‘ No ‘. I explained that in some ways, that is what’s really happening when you smoke a packet of twenty cigarette. We then calculated how much it cost to smoke per week, month and year. They were quite shocked by the amounts. There was a multitude of suggestions as to what these sums of money could be used for - from everyday needs to luxury goods, and savings! In the end, most of their posters were about the financial aspects of smoking. It made me wonder if more emphasis should be put on the economics of smoking, as well as the danger to health, in the education system. The eleven/twelve year olds certainly paid attention.

I have never smoked and detest the habit. I am a lifelong asthmatic and would be stupid to start. My mum has never smoked but my dad smoked twenty a day for years - all his side of the family smoked apart from his mother and at family gatherings they would pass the cigarettes around like sweets. My dad started smoking in the fifties. - it was almost a rite of passage then, particularly for young men. I now know l suffered from passive smoking as even simple colds nearly always turned into bronchitis or other chest infections. However, in the seventies, the dangers of smoking to oneself were becoming apparent but the dangers of passive smoking were still not widely known. All l know is that when he stopped smoking in the house when I was eighteen, my colds were much less likely to turn into chest infections. My dad drastically cut down his cigarettes as he grew older to around five a day but could never completely give up. Unfortunately, he died of lung cancer in 2018, just shy of his 78th birthday.

I sm9ked for years and no major health problems.

I gave up in August 2019. Since then I've got knackered kidneys, and on dialysis, 2 hernias and a burst aortic aneurysm.

I should have stuck to the cigs.

i tried it at 16 when it was legal, did not like but started when i was 23 as my husband smoked, i gave up 5 years ago and i use a vape (more of a comfort thing). since i stopped i have had no end of medical problems...lol cancer twice - not smoking related, i catch every bug and virus that's going and i am always on antibiotics every few months and i have put on 4 stone that is proving very difficult to shift. lots of people i have spoke to have said the same thing about having different health problems since they stopped.

I'm 70, both my parents smoked 40+ a day, every body did then but surpsingly none of their 5 children have ever smoked although some of the next generation do (pleased to say not my two though)

My dad - who smoked about 50 untipped cigarettes a day - died at 47 from lung cancer. I've never smoked.

I gave up smoking in February 2021. My husband died on Christmas Day and I started smoking again the same day. Currently cut down to 5 a day and expect to be able to give up again before the end of the year. I was never a heavy smoker, no more than 10 a day, no idea how people find the time to smoke 40+ cigarettes a day!

Never smoked, didn’t start drinking till I was in my thirties and then only socially. Hit the bottle when I retired (to cope with anxiety and depression) but I’m now happily T total!

I’m so very sorry saetana. ?

Germanshepherdsmum

I’m so very sorry saetana. ?

Thank you

Yeah, I have always thought that it's a bad habit but then I tried to smoke this garanimals strain after reading some reviews on askgrowers.com/strains/garanimals-strain-review and www.leafly.com/strains/garanimals and now I'm obsessed with it, as it helps me feel better and more relaxed as well.

Reported

No I’ve never smoked can’t stand the stink on clothes etc etc, none of my friends do either, we only have one in our family that enjoys a smoke

I’ve never smoked although the rest of my family did. All my closet relatives died of smoke related illnesses. Although they did all live at least to 80 with no other conditions. Except my DF who died at 70 with lung cancer.
I often wonder what great ages they might have reached if they hadn’t smoked.