Quitting Smoking

I didn't have any problems quitting, but I only smoked a few years. My wife used the patch, the gum, and a counselor... but in the end what really made her quit was just deciding she needed to. I think it helped that I did it at the same time. Anybody you can quit with?

I made it to seven days on nothing but willpower. Then the actual nicotine withdrawals kicked in and knocked me on my ass. If I had known what to expect I MIGHT have been able to beat them, but as it was, it sent me straight back to the cigarettes, and sent me back HARD. I cling to them even more desperately now and just the serious thought of actually quitting is enough to send me into a panic. I literally can NOT imagine life without them. It's fucking awful. Whatever you do that works let me know.

Chantix. I smoked for over 20 years and tried every available method to quit.
I took Chantix for 3 weeks in January 2008 and never looked back.
When you're taking it, your cravings just kinda disappear.

I haven't tried to quit (yet), but I imagine it's more difficult to when constantly talking about how you're quitting smoking and what you're doing to quit smoking and how you'll be successful this time with product _____. Notice how whenever a smoker quits, EVERYONE around them will know. Closet smoking cessation makes more sense to me. Inevitably friends will know, but Societal Pressures don't actually help, and are more often than not the result of simple moralizing. If people stress you about smoking you'll start to crave a cigarette to relieve that stress!

I had a relapse in 2006 after having stayed nicotine free for six years. It was one of those "I'll just have one to calm the nerves during a stressful time" types of deal. Sadly, cut to a year later, and I still hadn't quit. It only took the one. That is how powerful and how long lasting the addiction stays with you, that after six years of not having any nicotine in my system, it only took a couple of drags to have me completely hooked again. New Year 2008 I determined to put them down once and for all and have managed to stay smoke free. I won't make the same mistake again.

If anything, for what it's worth, I've found that cold turkey doesn't work unless you also change up the rest of your daily routines. What you eat. What you drink. How you exercise. Do you exercise? Even if these lifestyles changes only last, say, four or five months, if you can at least settle into a different routine for a while, it may give you enough time to be distracted from the nicotine cravings for it to become easier to stay off the smokes once you begin to slack off from a strict regimen. Distraction is the key. But don't fall into the trap of thinking that one cigarette won't hurt. As I already noted, whether you've been off them for 6 days, 6 months, or 6 years, one is all it takes to kick start that addiction back into high gear.

That stuff should eventually not even be considered a distraction. Otherwise you are just deluding yourself. Writing down A List Of Things To Do Other Than Smoke. Which indicates tobacco still bears some importance. And, well, when you can't smoke inside anywhere, it becomes daily routine to step outside for a 'breather'. It seems that quitting smoking is an exercise in healthful ignorance.

Of course tobacco is going to bare some importance to the person addicted to it, so, yes, you are purposefully deluding yourself into thinking that it isn't important until the one day it truly isn't.

I'm not sure if I've fallen completely off the wagon yet, but I am pretty close. However, I found the patch to be very effective in fighting off the nicotine cravings. Psychological cravings are a different beast. Also, it helps to not drink while you are in the early stages of quitting. Many of my false starts occurred because I got drunk and my willpower went out the window.

Just a word of warning -- I had a friend who quit smoking, then put on thirty pounds and died of a heart attack three months later. Granted, he was in his 50s, but don't overlook the other aspects of your health while kicking the habit. You'll feel the need to replace the cigarettes with some other fixation and food is an awfully easy one to choose.

My brother quit smoking by going to the gym. He latched onto that HARD for a few months and just fought his way through it. That was about 4 years ago, and he hasn't had a cigarrette since. He doesn't do the gym as intensely anymore, but he doesn't need to.

I quit cold turkey thanks to my mom having a heart attack brought on due to smoking. I was up to 2 packs a day. And had been for a few years. Make it past the first week and it gets easier. And since you can already drink coffee and liquor without smoking, you're on the way to awesomeness. I'm not going to lie and say the cravings will dissappear completely but they will start to come less and less. Also, work out if you don't already. It will suck, but once you get used to working out it definitely helps. Keep alot of nuts and fruits around as well to snack on. I put on like 20 pounds in a month after quitting and had to work out like a motherfucker to lose it.

I finally quit back in August after thirteen years. My first two attempts were cold turkey failures. This time I went with the gum. I've been doing very well lately, but getting to this point has been difficult for me and my family.

In case it helps, here are some first hand observations about quitting with the gum:

-Not all gums are equal. If you really hate it, pick up a new brand. I chew the Target generic original flavor (no flavor). Every other kind I've tried fucking sucks.

-The gum chewing experience is unpleasantly intense for the first week or so. It's like chewing pepper and can make your stomach upset. You get used to it and sort of learn to like it.

-Your smoker friends will rag on the gum. It's easier for them to keep smoking if they feel the quitting aides are just as bad. "But you just get addicted to the gum" gets thrown at me a lot, even by my own mother. This is absurd. Smoking will kill you, while the gum just makes you look like a wise-ass. Trade up.

-Once you get into the gum, fucking indulge yourself. The instructions want you to stop chewing after nine weeks. I chew about fifteen pieces a day (more when I'm busy or drinking) and I'll continue for as long as I have teeth.

-The gum cost a little under what you'd pay for a carton of smokes. This is criminally discouraging.

I guess that's it. These are things I wish someone had told me, anyway. Good luck to anyone who's quitting!

I'll just add that if a low-self-discipline idiot like me can quit, I bet you can too. Hang in there.

Nobody likes a quitter.



I kid. Good luck. If you are as cheap as I am the economy can help. Run up the math re: what you spend on cigs and set that money aside (at least mentally) for a vacation, comic books, gym membership, whatever.

I smoked for 9 years. After the 4th year, when they dropped the prices to combat the black market, I started up towards two packs a day. I was a merciless smoker. i could smoke three cigarettes on in the time it took to get to work every day, and the drive was 15 minutes. I even went to the three packs a day thing on the nights I'd stay out until the sun came up.

Then I heard of Zyban.

You take two pills a day, while continuing smoking. You then, after a week of double-pilling, you go down to one pill, and decide on a day within the month you will quit. I chose the last day of the month, so I continued smoking the regular two packs a day, with the quit date approaching.

the first few days NOT smoking were a little hard, but after that, it's smooth sailing. I often got "You're just going to get addicted to the pills, but I never felt any kind of addicition, and often forgot to take them. after about two weeks on these pills and NOT smoking, I just gave up the pills.

Almost ten years later, I haven't had ONE smoke. It's a pretty good streak that I'm proud of. An old friend once told me that there are two kinds of people in the world: Smokers, and people who have never smoked a cigarette in their life. I consider myself a smoker who hasn't had one in close to 10 years. Keeps me honest in a way, I guess.

In any event, Zyban fucking works.

Also, I got the idea for Zyban from www.quitnet.org.

I'd suggest registering on that site and use the tools available, including the Quit Clock (or whatever they call it now). It simulates what you've saved in $$ and life-expectancy.

Weed. Once you get up to 20 or 30 joints a day you wouldn't be able to find a cigarette if you were already smoking it.

I smoked for about 8 years heavily (15-23) and quit cold turkey back in 2003. It was pretty tough at first, but if you stick with it, it'll be the best thing you've ever done.

And stay on the cold turkey path. You don't want to latch onto some other bullshit like Chantix or nicotine gum or something. Just fight through the rough stuff, one day/moment at a time, and before you know it you'll feel better than you ever have.

Try to focus on how nice it is to BREATHE.

I'm sure you've been told, but as you're quitting (if you stay on the path) you'll start to feel like you're getting sick and your cough is getting worse. That's normal. You'll start hacking shit up like you never have before, and you'll think "but I've stopped smoking, wtf?"

Also, some positive things:
-in a few weeks and continuing for months, you'll begin to smell and taste like you can't believe. You'll wonder how you went so long with dulled senses
-Your lungs will feel great. You could be out of shape and yet, going up a few flights of stairs won't leave you so winded
-You should feel like you have more energy and a better outlook on things (that one takes awhile).

I smoked regularly from the age of 15 up until I was 31. I quit almost 3 years ago. Cold turkey after using the patch for a day and a half, it sucked for a week -10 days, blah blah blah one day at a time and all that. I never did get this new healthy feeling and renewed sense of taste and smell I was promised.

My smoking has been in a downward trend for about the last year, but since work has become more stressful over the past month or so I've been using them as more of a crutch. Cigarettes might have to go for me pretty soon as a purely financial decision.

I have a little affirmation I read everyday saying "As of tomorrow, you will be a new man and stop smoking"


I'm down to a few cigs a day now, but if I have no stress and I get some exercise in, I don't smoke. I know the nicotine craving kick in, but then I run harder.

It really does help, you have to make sure you exercise too though.

That sense of humor will help, too!

the way I quit was slowly cut back over time. But when I did have a smoke, I had to have the worst brand of cigarette I could buy...for me that MacDonalds. It really works.

For a while, I thought this thread was about quitting smoking crack.

Oh, Mr. CrackPipe... I wish I could quit you

I found constant masturbation to be an effective, low-cost, all natural distraction.

This.

Still a social smoker here, always bugging friends for cigs whenever they are smoking themselves. Never had any trouble quitting. Quitting the other kind of smoking has proven neigh impossible for me though

Funny this thread got bumped, I'm currently trying to cut down/quit. I've tried cold turkey before and I'm simply too weak to go that route. So I'm not smoking in my house anymore, and I'm limiting myself to 5 a day(down from 20-ish). Fuck my health, I just can't afford it.

So, how did the quitting work out for people like Bancroft? You need to stop that, or give your friends money. Being a smoker nowadays is bad enough without people bumming off you. I had zero problems quitting* pot, and I used to smoke a cubic fuckton.


*I still smoke like twice a year when I'm incredibly drunk.

I started again briefly a couple of weeks ago because I was absolutely stressing the fuck out about work-related stuff. It lasted for about a pack, and I haven't had one since. Godawful week, though. One of the most nerve-wracking I've had to deal with in a long time, and my job's normally pretty gravy. So yeah, I nipped that whole "haven't smoked for a looong time" thing in the bud.

I've never smoked, but two of my friends who quit together said that the actual withdrawl sucked ass, but that it was the behavioral modification that was the hardest. They were so used to smoking after each meal, when drinking, when socializing, etc. that they literally hibernated for several months. The mere look at a bar made them want to smoke. You really have to change your habits and disassociate smoking with activities you enjoy doing. I can't imagine what your cravings must feel like, but I wish you all the best none-the-less.

I'm currently too broke for bars too, so that's a plus, I guess...

This is going to sound cheezy, but you have to not want to smoke.

Not that you need to quit, not you should quit, but you want to quit.

This is it, 100%, right there. Once you get over that hurdle, you can quit. If you don't truly want to quit, you won't be able to.

I can agree. When I quit smoking (after smoking a pack and a half a day for 13 years) I finally hated smoking. Still needed 6 weeks of the patch to get it done, but I can proudly say I have now not had a smoke in 3 years.

It doesn't sound cheesy at all, no worries. I might be fucked though. I like smokes.

So did I when I quit. I still do now, even though I haven't smoked in almost two years. You just have to convince yourself not only that you don't need them, but you don't want them anymore, even if you might still like the feel of smoking.

August 25th is my 1st year anniversary. I still have a hard time believing this.

I recently started again after almost ten years free. I somehow can't be a social butterfly without my Andrew Dice Clay hand mannerisms, it seems. But in all seriousness, I don't know WHY I did, but I did. I figure 5 a day max is alright.

Everything in moderation.


Fuck.

well, i am always smoking people up so they do not mind when i bum cigs. also, my tireless advocacy of smokers rights makes my smoking friends appreciative of me and my company when they are enjoying a fine tabacco produce. i am currently smoking a cubic ft (abbreviation for your measurment)
but definitely cant bring myself to play videogames or watch the latest episode of battlestar (i know, i know.. its over ) without it

Good work.

I know several people who have had incredible success with this book

I am the most pro-smoking person i know. (though really am against cigs that have chemicals in them besides tobacco). if smoking were not cool, lame people (parents, teachers, "health professionals" ) would not have to constantly tell us smoking isnt cool. i'm sorry, its just a fact. SMOKING LOOKS COOL.

Sure. And Corey Feldman used to think it looked cool to dress like Michael Jackson.

smoking has beel cool, sophisticated, 'bad ass' since long long long before michael jackson made one glittery glove cool, and smoking will be cool long after people forget about "MJ"