[ Post a Response | The Sublime Desire of Cigarette Smoking ]
Posted by Tomcat I found this board the other day when I was looking around YouTube and came across the "Let's Think Back to Your First Cigarette" video. I usually lurk around all these boards, but after reading quite a few threads here, I find the discussions intelligent and thought-provoking, with no antis around! I want to start by commenting on the aforementioned video. At one point, you put up a slide which states: **You didn't listen to what your body was telling you, because it was more important to you to become a smoker.** I don't think this is true in 98% of the "start smoking" cases. In my opinion, *very* few people wake up one morning and say "Today, I am going to become a smoker", and run out and buy cigarettes and lighters and ashtrays and just start smoking right there and then. You decide to try smoking - for whatever reason: peer pressure, curiosity, intrigue, fascination. I think the reaction to your first cigarette falls into three categories: 1> You have a horrible experience. You inhale immediately and find the taste is awful, you cough uncontrollably, you become nauseous, you become light-headed and extremely dizzy, you vomit. 2> Your reaction is a "take it or leave it" reaction. You take a few small practicve puffs where you don't inhale and just blow the smoke out. After 4-5 of such puffs, you take a small puff and inhale, exhaling quickly. You may cough a little, but not badly, if at all. You don't become nauseous, you don't vomit. You do get the initial nicotine dizzy spell, and the taste is not awful, but just so-so. 3> You like smoking immediately. You may or may not inhale right away, but you take it slowly, and find no coughing, no nausea, and an extremely pleasant experience. Of people in the #2 category (me included - my experience later), probably you'll find a 50/50 split - half won't start smoking, half will. The ones in this category that do start smoking will depend on the reason for trying a cigarette in the first place. If amongst peers that smoke, that person will likely try smoking again, and again. Those that try their first cigarette alone that simply find the act of smoking to be exciting, sensual, "bad" or "risky", will likely try smoking again, and will probably become smokers. The rest will chalk it up to experience ("Yes, I tried smoking once, but it didn't really do anything for me") and won't start. Of people in the #3, nearly all of them will become smokers. They tried it, they liked it immensely, so why stop doing something you like that much and that gives you so much pleasure? As I said earlier, I am in category #2. Yes, I have a smoking fetish, but that is all I will say on the subject. I tried my first cigarette when I was 16. My mother smoked, my grandmother smoked, various aunts/uncles/cousins smoked (it didn't hurt that I had a crush on one of my smoking cousins - she was twice my age though!). But what really intrigued me was seeing all these young people my age, especially girls, walking around the malls and on the streets smoking (this is obviously before all the indoor smoking bans around today). School was always telling us smoking was sooooo bad. Then why were all these young people doing it? None of my friends smoked, but I had to find out what it was like. So I tried a cigarette, alone one morning in the basement of the house - the rest of the family was out until late afternoon. I had the "so-so" reaction. I took a few small non-inhale puffs, then inhaled a small puff. No coughing, no nausea, no vomiting. The taste was OK, but nothing spectacular. I had two cigarettes that day, back-to-back, so I was plenty dizzy when done with the second one. And that was that. I did, however, find smoking to be very exciting - to inhale smoke, to feel it in your lungs, to watch the smoke stream from your mouth and nose during an exhale. That alone was my reason for smoking again. So weeks would go by, and I'd sometimes steal a cigarette from my mother if I wanted to have another smoke. She smoked menthols though, and I hate menthols - it tastes like I am smoking a pine tree! College comes around, and I'd go out and buy a pack on occasion. I'd sneak to the far reaches of campus on weekend nights after dark, and have one or two cigarettes. Just me, my thoughts, the quiet, relaxing with a cigarette - no worries about school work, tests, etc. After college graduation, I moved to a new city where I had my job. I got there days before my job started so I could find an apartment. One day, I just decided that the next day I was going to spend as a "day in the life of a smoker". I bought a pack and the next day, lit a cigarette just after waking. I had one after breakfast, and at regular 1-2 hour intervals during the day, just like a "real" smoker. And again, that was it. I started my job and went back to occassionally buying a pack, and having 1-2 cigarettes at night after work. I was very much a closet smoker - *nobody* knew I smoked. Then one morning, I woke up and wanted a cigarette immediately. So I had one. Then another just before leaving for work. When I got home from work that night, I had another. And another. And another. I quickly settled in to a routine of 2 cigarettes before work, none while at work, and 4-5 at night. That would increase to around 10 a day on the weekends. I was developing a cigarette habit, and it really just snuck up on me. My wife and I started going out about two years later. She smoked just over a pack a day. Eventually I confided in her that I smoked as well. She asked me why I was keeping it a secret. Well, high school valedictorian, summa cum laude college graduate - and smoker? That wasn't supposed to happen, right? I was definitely afraid of what people would think of me. The antis were becoming a much more (pain in the ***) force at the time, and an indoor smoking ban at the workplace had just gone into effect. But she convinced me that I wasn't a pariah and I started smoking more outside of my apartment, especially when we were together and she had a cigarette. At work, when we'd go out to eat or to the movies. Eventually I was up to just about a pack a day as well. 17 years later, and we both still are. So that is my story, and illustrates how one can go from an occasional cigarette to a pack a day. Sorry for running on so long. I'd be interested in any thoughts on my "first cigarette" categories. Do you agree? Disagree? Were your experiences similar? Thanks, G
on July 30, 2007, 7:49 pm
Hi vesperae, all!
Now, people who experience #1 most likely will not become regular smokers, unless extreme peer pressure was the original reason for trying a cigarette and they must overcome their initial adverse reaction and start smoking to "fit in". Some do become regular smokers, most don't.
Responses: