How I Started Smoking...

Hi everyone! This is my first post on how to quit smoking, the easy and effective way. There aren't many visitors at the moment but I'm sure within a few weeks or so, the visitors will come crawling in. Alright, let me introduce myself. My name is Deco (nickname). I'm 24 years old male. I'm an undergrad engineering student. My smoking venture began in 1998.

At that time, I was 15 years old and smoked like 2-3 sticks per day. Reason? The so-called “image” and friends of course. My friends were smoking at that time. Not heavy smokers but they actually inhale the smoke inside their lungs. When I first started, I didn’t know how to smoke properly. I wouldn’t inhale the smoke inside my lungs. I will keep it in my mouth and then release it back again. There’s no point to smoke like the way I did, according to them. They guided me on how to inhale the smoke inside. The first time I inhaled the smoke inside, I coughed badly. The cough was so intense that tears were coming out from my eyes. Then I felt dizzy for a few hours. Couldn’t even walk properly but luckily I was in my house at that moment. I lay straight down on the floor where I was standing and closed my eyes to get rid of the headache/dizziness.

But after all that, the next day I smoked again. Why? The “image” that I was craving for was to be cool, macho and mature. Smoking in front of girls, in front of a crowd... I was willing to do anything for that “image” at that age. Then after a week or so going through the agonizing experience of smoking, the smoke started to “feel nice”. No more headaches or dizziness. With that gone, the “image” was the only thing left and it drove me to smoke more. Day by day, the sticks were increasing. From 2-3, it went up to 5-6 and when I was at my peak before quitting, it was nearly 20-50 per day. At that point, the “image” was no more. It was shear addiction.

Although there are many reasons, from my opinion, the “image” is the main reason people start smoking especially teenagers. When they face the agonizing experience during the first inhalation of the smoke into the lungs, they “motivate” themselves and willing to go through anything just to get the “image”. I can still remember an incident happened when I was in my 2nd year in university (I was 20 years old). We had an annual dinner for our university students in a hotel. We went to the dinner by bike and when we arrived, there were lots of girls outside the hotel getting ready to go inside. The moment we saw them, I realized something weird. There were nearly 20 of us and each and every single one took out a cigarette and lit it up. It’s all about the stupid “image” Funny isn’t it? Do you have any funny incidents related to smoking?