Asklemmy

You just don't smoke another one

That's how I quit anyway, no last smoke, no just this pack i already bought, just quit right now.

First time it lasted 6 months, the second time it's listed about 15 years

I tried quitting a number of times. Not easy, and demoralizing when you fail. You may have to try several times too.

When I finally did quit I had decided to put off my first cigarette in the morning as long as possible, reasoning that sleep was the longest I'd go without nicotine. One day I went the whole day.

A friend quit at the same time as me, using the gum. Six months later she was still using it, and gave up and started smoking again.

Probably helps that I had quit drinking by then as well. Pretty hard to drink and not smoke, for me.

My grandma quit using a program that basically attempted to break your habits.

She did things like:

-if you normally have a smoke break at noon, wait til 12:30. Tomorrow do it at 11:30 instead

-If you normally use a lighter, switch to matches, tomorrow use a lighter.

-On Monday, Wednesday,Friday switch to a different brand of cigarettes ... next week go the opposite days.

-Smoke, but every other drag put a pen in your mouth instead.

-Only allow yourself to smoke half a cigarette and then chew a stick of gum for the rest of the time you would normally smoke

-Alternate smoke breaks between smoking and chewing nicotine gum or using the patch (I don't think she used the patch so I'm guessing on that one).

And just a lot of things like that that didn't specifically stop you from smoking, but attempted to stop it being a mindless thing that you just do on reflex without much thought and made it so before lighting up she'd have to think about what the current rules are ... at a certain point, the habit has been broken and you don't seek it... it worked great for her. Was a 6 month or so process and then she never went back once she finished her last pack.

There was a whole program around it with those types of rules and things you'd do and time restrictions on certain days and stuff ... sorry, she passed a few years back and I can't ask her the name of the program.

Good luck! Just remember that even if you lapse, any length of time that you're able to smoke less or stop smoking all improve your overall health! Even if you have a setback, any time that you stop is still a win!

If you haven't already tried it, "The easy way to quit smoking" by Allen Carr has helped many people. I haven't tried his other subjects, but I recall his take on smoking in the book to seem relatively revolutionary to me at the time.

If I can offer you one piece of advice on quitting tobacco it's this: Understand that it may be possible that you don't succeed at quitting on your first attempt. That is okay. Most people don't succeed quitting on their first attempt. What is important is that you keep trying to quit.

There are many different strategies for quitting. Mine involved switching to vaping and mixing my vape juice so that I gradually weened myself off of the Nicotine two years later. Prior to that I tried using Rx Chantix which worked until my prescription ran its course. I also tried the gum with very little success, but that's not to say it won't work for you, it might. Explore your options.

This might help https://www.artofliving.org/in-en/happiness-program

Nicotine patches. It gives your brain what it wants with little to no adverse effects

There is a med called Welbutrin which can be prescribed for quitting smoking and it works really well. It's also prescribed as an antidepressant so one of my smoker friends was on it for that reason and they almost completely quit smoking without even trying to. Of course, it is not without It's sideeffects but among antidepressants it is one of the usually best tolerated ones. I'm on it for my depression now and the only issue I have is that it can make me really anxious, but I'm also on nearly the maximum dose where for smoking cessation you wouldn't be taking anything close to that amount.

I switched to a vape and progressively got lower nicotine amounts until I was at 0 and then stopping was easy.

I used chantix back in the day, but it also required me basically not leaving the house for a month to really get there. When and where I quit for the first time (I would later start dating a smoker and relapse, then quit again), smoking was still allowed indoors and I had a huge association with drinking and smoking. Same for certain other places and situations. I basically had to do everything I could to avoid those. It got easier with time.

Nicotine pouches

I think it depends what your goal is. If you want a less painful quit wheen yourself off it. If you want to be off them ASAP then cold turkey.

I had tried multiple times previously, but when I stopped using snus (tobacco in pouches you put under your lip) for good these are things that helped me succeed:

1. I actually wanted to quit (this is the most important one. If you just feel like you should quit and don't actually want to. It's gonna be really rough).

2. I set a deadline for myself. For me, that deadline was during a family vacation so I planned for myself to get through the last box of snus before the vacation was over. I had a single box of snus that was already opened and a week long vacation (a single box used to last me maybe 2 days normally). This made me ration it out so I had a natural decrease in amounts used before I quit.

3. I distracted myself from things that would normally make me want to grab a snus. Some were harder to avoid like when having morning coffee or when I had just eaten a large meal, but those could be substituted with chewing gum, breath mints, etc. I had also just recently started dating again at the time, so my daily routine was almost always different from the norm, which made ignoring the cravings a lot simpler.

And honestly, from there it was just staying true to my goal and making sure to be proud of every milestone. Even now, 5 years later, I made sure to be proud of being 5 years clean.

And you will think about it every now and then. Especially in situations where you normally go for a smoke, your brain will occasionally go back to "ahh, shit, a smoke would be nice now". I still have those moments when I have stressful situations, have been out drinking, or just randomly from time to time.

If you really want to quit, you can do it! I believe in you!

From my experience, I would say it really depends on what kind of smoker you are.

I smoked on and off for over twenty years. I made strong associations with cigarettes in my college years. It was a way to get away, to be different, to meet new people, to relax, etc. Sometimes I smoked two packs a day, but more often a pack a week. I smoked the most while driving or after work or at the bar. My friends at the bar smoked, my girlfriends smoked, my coworkers smoked.

I read long ago that, for some people, nicotine fits like a puzzle piece into a receptor in their bodies. I believe I lack this receptor that causes biological addition and my smoking was due more to Pavlovian conditioning. I never had a morning craving. I never got "the shakes". I quit over a dozen times, sometimes for more than a year.

When I was finally ready, and I have to emphasize that you need to be ready, I actually went out of my way to not have a cigarette while doing the things I strongly associated with smoking. I knew I was ready and it was going to stick because I quit over the course of "Beer Week" (Beer Week is when all the bars in the city have beer specials and events and serve one-off or collaboration beers from around the world). It was the worst time to quit but also the best time to quit. It was a challenge. When my friends at the bar all went out for a smoke, I joined them - without a smoke. When I was done eating dinner, I'd go outside and just sit and think without the cigarette. I even went for a drive with a cigarette in my hand and pretended to smoke it without lighting it up.

Being ready to quit isn't about knowing it's bad for you. To be really honest with you, I quit because I was flirting with a super cute girl who happened to be a doctor (I still remember her name - Rose. Because Rose + Doctor Who). Everything was going great then I interrupted her so I could go outside for a cigarette. The disappointment felt by the both of us when I returned was the gut punch I needed. I still have that pack of cigarettes that I only had three smokes out of.

I've not had a single urge to smoke for nine and a half years now.

Or you could try hypnotherapy. Worked for my mom after smoking for over 45 years.

Both my parents were longtime smokers, my dad quit cold Turkey after 25 years. My mum quit cold turkey after about 45. They both seemed fine with it, maybe some nicorette gum at first but they dropped that quickly. With my dad having 20 years smoke free ahead of my mom, his health is way better. He is active. My mom needed some heartwork done.

First time I quit i was sick and cigarettes tasted awful for a week, so I figured if I had already gone a week without I might as well quit. Whenever I got a craving I thought about how disgusting they tasted with a cold, and imagined spongey lungs filling with black tar till I gave myself a shiver of disgust.

I started up again years later while traveling, then quit for good while visiting my parents for 2 months - I know I'm too embarrassed to smoke around my parents.

If you have children, remind yourself that you want to be around for as many of their achievements as possible.

You already have! Congratulations! That last one, was the last one. Throw away the rest, you're done.

Not a smoker myself, but I can tell you what worked for my brother when he quit in college.

AC went out in his dorm during an August heat wave, and it took forever for them to fix it. He decided that it would be a perfect time to go cold turkey, since he'd be so miserable from the heat that the few days of nicotine withdraw wouldn't really be comparably bad. And he said it was right, he didn't think about it during the worst part, and by the time they fixed the AC, he was 90% of the way through the process.

So if you live in one of the parts of the world moving to summer right now, it might be worth a shot.

Quitting isn’t very hard if you've got a valid reason, determination and, most importantly, you set your mind properly. Don’t do “strong will” quitting where you force yourself to go through painful experience of quitting, but you don’t fully understand why you have to. Your mindset is the key - if you start to truly believe you don’t need tobacco and there’s not much that you sacrifice by quitting, it comes naturally and you can call yourself a non-smoker from day 1. You must be certain that there won’t be any reasons to feel there is something missing, you no longer have your daily ritual, you don’t have chat with smoking coworkers or you don’t know what to do with your hands. No matter how hard it sounds to imagine now, as a non-smoker you cannot care less. The typical imagination on how hard it is to change habits or how nothing is the same after that change, you must remember that your mind projects that to you in a very hyperbolic way. Same goes as the physical aspect of nicotine addiction - some say that your body would absolutely freak out if you suddenly remove nicotine from it. For the most part, this is utter bullshit. Yes, you can totally perceive nicotine hunger, but it’s there only for as long as there’s some nicotine left in your body. You only need 10-14 days to get rid of all of the nicotine and that’s it. In practice the hunger isn’t even as bad as smokers typically make it out to be. The mental addiction is much harder, because if you stay addicted and keep feeling as you were robbed out of something you liked, you can go back to it even after long time, even if cigarettes taste like shit and make you sick to the stomach and you want to vomit and poo at the same time.

I’ve quit smoking multiple times, sadly you can go back to it after some time if you decide to experiment with it to maybe teach yourself to be “casual smoker” (which you won’t be, believe me), or like in my case smoking weed mixed with tobacco has put me right back in nicotine addiction. I’ve quit smoking 2 years ago now, I was sick of that shit.

Educate yourself about what smoking does to your body. Imagine it on every inhale. Make yourself really hate it. Set a specific end date in the near future (but keep it to yourself, you don’t need outside pressure). In the meantime continue thinking about how much you hate smoking. Then stop cold turkey.

If you miss smoke breaks with others at work or whatever, just keep hanging out with them but don’t smoke. If they ask about it, don’t say you are trying to stop, say you did stop.

Alan Carr's stop smoking book is highly regarded, and encourages you to smoke as you read along, until by the end you won't want to.

Combine that with a NAC supplement (which doesn't do anything for withdrawals, but studies show it makes trying smoking again far more unpleasant for your brain which helps you stay off them.

I overpressure myself, as if I was constipated, each time I get cravings. I basically make my body as uncomfortable as I can so it learns that cravings=pain.

In the past, I've used hand rolled tobacco to ween myself off. It's a lot harder to just grab a smoke when driving for instance. But cold turkey is best. I usually wait until I get sick before starting stopping since it tends to skip the nasty craving in the first few days. After a week or two, it gets much easier.

Remember, having a smoke every now and then will work until it doesn't.

Pretty old video now but it explains why you smoke and helps to stop.

Probably safer to use qbittorrent's built in search to find it.

I vaped for quite a while. Got a bit addicted to the tinkering and the juice hunting. It can be a fun hobby which probably makes it a bad way to quit if you're anything like me.

I worked myself down on the nicotine levels until I was at zero.

Relapsed back to cigarettes after not having vaped for a few months due to stress.

Finally stopped cold turkey. Didn't go back to vaping just decided it was time.

Things that ultimately helped:

• Having a reason to quit that I could remind myself of daily as an affirmation.
• My partner was also quitting, I needed her to stop and needed to be there to support her efforts.

If I was going to do it again, I'd probably look into Fum or something similar. Probably add some nicotine gum at the start to ease the chemical addiction.

Here's my advice.

Rule #1: Avoid evironments that make you want to smoke (e.g. the bar, hanging out with smoker friends)

Rule #2: Get some drugs. Not the fun kind. Talk to your doctor and they'll likely prescribe you a low dose of Welbutrin or an alternative that you'll take for the first few months.

Rule #3: Don't be too hard on yourself. You're going to slip up. That's okay. You don't have to give up and start over.

Rule #4: Make it hurt (your wallet). If you buy a pack, have one cigarette, then snap the pack in half and throw it in the trash.

Rule #5: Replace your smoke breaks with another habit (e.g. going for a walk)

Rule #6: Learn to hate the smell. Wash your clothes, clean your car. Then, when you slip up after getting unused to the scent, you'll be fully aware of just how pungent that cigarette smell is.

God speed, comrade. It's a journey.

I'm neither an expert nor do I smoke. But from what I heard, quitting smoking has two major points- one being the nicotine addiction your body has built up. The second one being your 'emotional addiction', I.e being used to smoking as a tool to decompress, socialize, take a break, fight boredom etc. which is embedded in your routines - this one might be harder to fight. Maybe try to identify those things and find alternatives, start installing different ways to cope and simultaneously take care of your bodily addiction via gums, patches, whatever is the right way for you.

Just stop doing it. You won't quit until you really want to stop, and then it's actually kind of easy. You hear this from a lot of people who quit, that all the circumstances and programs and nicotine substitutes are kind of secondary to the mental aspect of it.