How did you quit smoking?

Going to try to quit (again) after 15 years of 2 pack a day. I already know I'm in for a long fight and I'm going to be a ***** to live with. What have you people tried? I'm very serious abut it this time as it is affecting my health. Any suggestions will be much appreciated.

I started brewing and couldn't afford cigarettes anymore. Actually went to a hypnotist one time and it worked for me but not the girlfriend.

To be fair, I still smoke, but when I want to smoke and can't, I fold oragami. It's calming and gives me something to do with my hands.

I used the patches. I did each step for 1 week. I figured if that didn't work, then I would just be getting addicted to the patches. It's been about 15 months now, and I am still smoke free.

I'm no help. I don't think I was ever addicted. I think it really was a habit in my case. Specific circumstances or behavior chains would make me want to smoke-- but if I never hit any of those triggers I could go for a pretty long time without realizing I hadn't smoked. No withdrawal, no 'nic fits'. Just the occasional 'what is missing here' feeling and getting used to new way I feel when I'm getting drunk without the nicotine high.

When I stopped smoking I just stopped buying them and did that mainly by never going inside a gas station. You see my habit was to start the gas pumping and go inside. I'd wait in line, ask for a pack of smokes and then tell them the pump number.

When I stopped smoking I decided to change that behavior and that pretty much did it. Never by smokes and you can't smoke them. One thing I made a point of not doing is telling anyone what I was doing. I didn't want the whole 'good for you' preachy bull****.


Once in a while I bum a smoke or 2 off of someone when I'm loaded. Still enjoy the buzz that nicotine adds to the drunk. Can live without the smell in my hair though. With as much hair as I have it's a PITA to wash sober-- hung over it seems to take forever.

It's been a while. 2 years? I'd have to ask the swmbo.

The patch alone did not work for me. The patch along with "Zyban" did, even though I had no faith that it would work. In fact it was downright scary how easy it was. I was smoking almost three packs a day. It's been 11 years.

Don't think I'll go the hypnotist route, they kinda freak me out. I don't want to end up barking like a chicken every time someone says bullwinkle or something like that. Origami won't work either since I have very large and clumsy hands. I've heard that the patch can work and that might be an option. I'm actually a bit nervous about this since I work in the restaurant industry and EVERYONE smokes, but my health is way too important not to quit.

Weed! seriously, I quit cold turkey and had that to fall back on. Nothing like satisfying that urge to smoke by smoking!! Granted I have since quit that too and caffeine, and soda. Once you quit cigs you can pretty much quit anything.

Go cold turkey and just remember that once you get past a week it will soon be 2 weeks, then next thing you know its 30 days and before you know it, you will learn to hate smoking with a passion.

also try to get a couple new hobbies to keep you busy, it will help.

I quit cold turkey (well with about a weeks worth of help from the gum) just barely over 2 years ago. I had to get pissed enough about it and it was the money that got me there.
Good luck.

I have heard of Zyban. Never heard of anyone who tried it before, but that is also another option. Grass won't work because I just can't work when I'm high. Damn Evets, congrats. 11 years huh? Maybe the Zyban option. I would like to think that I have the willpower to do this thing cold turkey, but in reality I know that is probably not going to happen.

I knocked up SWMBO.:cross:

enderwig said:

I used the patches.

Click to expand...

I tried the patch and LOVED it. It didn't help me quit at all. It just made me trip. They say right on the label: "Users may experience vivid, lifelike dreams."

FCUK yes I experienced vivid, lifelike dreams. I would take a shower and put on a fresh one right before I went to bed. Crazy Crazy dreams! I would wake up not knowing what was real and what was a dream. The good dreams were great, but I'll be damned if the bad dreams didn't make me wake up in a cold sweat screaming!


But on a more serious note.....the only way to quit is cold turkey. Just stop. That was the only effective way I could do it. I quit for about 14 months. But then on our anniversary me and SWMBO bought a pack of swisher sweets and I've been smoking again ever since.

Chantix did it for me, after 20 years as a carton per week person.

I tried Zyban and the patch and hypnotism and just abotu everything else that came out. With all of those thjings I would slip up somewhere between day threeand day thirty, bum one smoke from someone and BAM 20 minutes later I had my own pack of smokes again.

Chantix blocks the nicotine receptors in the brain. So after the first week when it is time to put them down, I wasn't really getting a buzz anyway.

On day 9 I had a smoke withmy neighbor, just because, but all I got was this horrible tastei n my mouth. On day 11 I tried another one, same. On day 30 ormaybe 32 I met a girl in a bar, kinda cute, had one of her smokes with her and that was it. I haven't smoked since and I don't (now that I can smell it) like being around people who smoke.

No preaching from me. Chantix works. Read the labels, every substance you put in your body carries some risk.

Allen Carr's Easy Way to Quit Smoking. Read this book. Seriously.

I was a pack and a half a day smoker, and, like everybody else, had tried (and failed) numerous times using the "willpower method." I had also tried the gum. What I had not done is remove the brainwashing that is associated with smoking. Nicotine replacement therapies DO NOT help you quit smoking; if anything, they make it harder by reinforcing the idea that you "need" nicotine, or that it is some sort of a reward, when neither is true.

Honestly -- read the book. It changed my life. Quitting became, rather than a chore, filling my days with misery and a feeling of deprivation, a joy, filling me with great gratitude that I no longer felt like a slave to R. J. Reynolds. Honestly, from the very moment I extinguished my last cigarette, I knew I was a non-smoker, and I felt like a new man. The three weeks or so following my quit date remain three of the most amazing weeks of my life. There were no cravings. I noticed when my body said, "Hey, don't you usually have some nicotine about now?" But those feelings became a reminder of what I was freeing myself from, NOT a deisre to light up.

Sorry, I know that sounds a little fanatical, but freedom from nicotine has been one of the best things I've ever achieved. And I'm not the type of person who buys into soft science or modern "self-help psychobabble," if you'll excuse the saying. I'm a physician scientist in training with a huge dose of skepticism towards, well, most things. But I have become a firm believer in this book, and have purchased copies to give to 8 friends and family members who wanted to quit, and it's worked for 7 of them. I know data is not the plural of anecdotes, but that's been my experience.

And, hey, if it doesn't work, you're out, what, 10 bucks. That's two packs of cigarettes these days. And if it does work, you're free for life!

I know a few people who have had great success with medication. Talk to your doctor about it.

Chantix here. It worked as advertised.

Chantix worked best for me. However, I've relapsed and am now back smoking cigars for the time being...

A freind had a baby and I thought "I can have just one to celebrate". I was wrong, I'm a junky.

Also I think a big key is you have to want to quit. I mean if you don't want to quit and just go into it reluctantly you will find excuses and start up again.

When I quit ready. I was tired of all the money I spent, tired of the stained fingers, tired of hacking up half a lung in morning, tired of being a slave to cigarettes.

One of the best things I ever did for myself.

stever said:

Also I think a big key is you have to want to quit. I mean if you don't want to quit and just go into it reluctantly you will find excuses and start up again.

When I quit ready. I was tired of all the money I spent, tired of the stained fingers, tired of hacking up half a lung in morning, tired of being a slave to cigarettes.

One of the best things I ever did for myself.

Click to expand...

+1
I quit chewing after about 10 years. I did it because SWMBO Had me convinced that she had quit smoking. I did it for me and my kids as much as for her, but it took about 2 months of "Psyching up" One morning I spit out my last chew, and Haven 't had one since.
I don't know about smoking...or for you, but the urge to chew is as strong today (8 months later) as it was to begin with. The thing is...now...I've been fighting so hard not to; that a chew today would make the agony of the last 8 months a complete waste...and I'm not gonna do that.
I'm with ya mate, This sucks and it's a ***** to quit....but trust me the reward is well worth it.

Chantix for me as well. I was a 2 pack a day smoker who actually LOVED smoking. I quit because of the cost, not because of the health. I'm happy I did it in the end, now I go to the gym and don't wheeze.

Redweasel said:

, but my health is way too important not to quit.

Click to expand...

You are already on your way to quiting. This is the most important thing when it comes to quiting is you have to have a GOOD reason to do it and you HAVE TO WANT TO without those things youll NEVER be able to crush the HABBIT. Your addiction is MOSTLY in your head anyway and being able to say" I will not let this addiction run my life" is KEY. Good luck its not easy. I know you have a loooong road ahead. Praise yourself often for small steps write down goals and your rewards for making those goals. Also get help from your friends and family let them know your quiting it helps with the guilt factor.
use the gum for those REALLY HARD TIMES and prepair yourself for a life long fight.
Good luck
JJ

kornkob said:

I'm no help. I don't think I was ever addicted. I think it really was a habit in my case. Specific circumstances or behavior chains would make me want to smoke-- but if I never hit any of those triggers I could go for a pretty long time without realizing I hadn't smoked. No withdrawal, no 'nic fits'. Just the occasional 'what is missing here' feeling and getting used to new way I feel when I'm getting drunk without the nicotine high.

When I stopped smoking I just stopped buying them and did that mainly by never going inside a gas station. You see my habit was to start the gas pumping and go inside. I'd wait in line, ask for a pack of smokes and then tell them the pump number.

When I stopped smoking I decided to change that behavior and that pretty much did it. Never by smokes and you can't smoke them. One thing I made a point of not doing is telling anyone what I was doing. I didn't want the whole 'good for you' preachy bull****.


Once in a while I bum a smoke or 2 off of someone when I'm loaded. Still enjoy the buzz that nicotine adds to the drunk. Can live without the smell in my hair though. With as much hair as I have it's a PITA to wash sober-- hung over it seems to take forever.

It's been a while. 2 years? I'd have to ask the swmbo.

Click to expand...

same with me, i smoked for 5 years and one day i just up and quit. my SWMBO doesn't smoke and doesn't like it, but she never harped on me to quit, i just got tired of it one day and stopped.

i still smoke a couple of cigarettes a night. i'm not a 2-pack-a-day guy and never really have been (except on the occasional weekend night when i'm with other chainsmokers and i've had a lot to drink. i think most of them just get bummed out, tho)

i don't think i could fall back on weed...or origami. i have a bit of an oral fixation...i have to be talking, eating, drinking, smoking, kissing, singing, SOMETHING almost all the time...especially if i think about it.

now i need a snack...

I smoked for about 5 years. I quit cold turkey basically because there was nothing on the market in 1978 to help ya.

Never touched one again. I tried a cigar a few years ago and didnt get any pleasure out of it

Thanks for all the suggestions! Today is day 1 and I already hate sunflower seeds. I've got an appointment with my doctor tomorow and will ask about my alternatives. Thanks again.

Red, and everybody else who is quitting or has quit -- please, please don't think of it as a battle! That just reinforces your idea that there's even one single good thing about smoking. There isn't, and you know it. You've made the decision to be free of this addiction, so in truth, you've already won! Learn to look upon other smokers not with envy because they still "get to have" a cig, but with pity, because they still feel like they "have to have" one. Every time I think about smoking, which is fairly regularly (after all, I work in a hospital and research cancer), I don't think, "Damn, I wish I could have a smoke." Instead I think, "Damn, I so glad I don't have to do that anymore!" You can think that way, too!

Pining for a cigarette is totally self-defeating. Why did you quit? Because you didn't want to be a smoker any more. So why the hell would you want a cigarette? To pine for the one thing you're despirately hoping you'll never have again doesn't make any sense. You've made the best decision for yourself you'll probably ever make. Don't mope about it -- rejoice in it, and think how much money you've saved for grains, yeast, hops, and brewing equipment!

Ok, sorry. Rant over. This thread just reminded me how glad I was to quit, and how easy it finally was when I did it right. Really! Easy! I promose! Disclaimer: I swear, I don't work for the guy who wrote the book. Just a big fan of the method.

Redweasel said:

Going to try to quit (again) after 15 years of 2 pack a day. I already know I'm in for a long fight and I'm going to be a ***** to live with. What have you people tried? I'm very serious abut it this time as it is affecting my health. Any suggestions will be much appreciated.

Click to expand...

I quit cold turkey after 8 years of smoking. I know that doesnt help much, but I guess I was lucky and lacked physical symptoms of quiting.

e lo said:

That just reinforces your idea that there's even one single good thing about smoking. There isn't, and you know it.

Click to expand...

While I agree with your sentiment that it should not be a battle, I disagree with your assertion that there is nothing good about smoking. There's a lot bad about smoking, but nicotine has it's own feel and it changes the experience of other buzzes--- booze, grass, a summer's day. There is some good--- but that little good is wildly offset by the steadily increasing cost and incredibly high risks. In that, smoking is much like using coke.



And not directed at any one person:

I also have to disagree with several assertions that addiction = habit. An addiction is a chemical dependance and eliminating the chemical causes a withdrawal. A habit is a behavior, one that is able to be unlearned. Not all smokers are addicts. Habitual users who quit have to beat teh behavioral triggers but will have no real withdrawal. Addicts who quit not only have to learn to deal with their withdrawal but they have to unlearn the habits they have developed.



Finally:

I know it is hard for people who have beaten an addiction, whether it be smoking or booze or whatever, to talk about it without getting emotional. However, I'd ask those of you who have to try. Remember that there are facts about your addiction and then there are beliefs you hold because they worked for you. It is not a fact that your way of beating your addiction is the only way to beat it or even the best way. Nor is it a fact that everyone who smoked like you do was addicted or was not. When you discuss quitting and those who haven't quit try to separate your emotional responses from the facts. It's more helpful to share expereinces than to state your emotional beliefs as facts.

I quit cold turkey. What helped me stop was I started working out again and noticed how bad smoking effected me. Also just keeping myself busy with random tasks helped me keep my mind off of smoking

When I quit nearly three years ago I was smoking about 1.5 packs a day. I was on the phone with my fiancee and she said "why don't you just quit". I told her there was one left in the pack and I would quit after that. From there I just took it one day at a time. I told myself I wouldn't smoke the next day, then the next morning decided I could go three days. After that I set a goal of a week, after that I challenged myself to go a month. I just kept extending my non smoking goal, which I think helped a ton. Instead of starting out saying I am done smoking forever, I started small and kept building on it.

Good luck, the feeling a few years later is amazing being able to breath clear and not stink anymore.

As bad as smoking is for the body- which is no secret- its equally as enjoyable for the mind and senses- otherwise who would do it? That enjoyability is what made it difficult for me to stop...and there was certainly a chemical addiction that I was constantly reminded of for the first 3 weeks or so of being smoke free. I smoked for about 10 yrs, at times upwards of 2 packs a day but when I quit I'd whittled it down to about 2 packs a week as I was preparing myself to stop. I tried pills and patches in the past to no avail, certainly gald to read about those methods working for other folks...for me the best method was to just stop.

Two things I'd have to say were the most difficult: being a non smoker who's closest friends all smoke, and the first 3 weeks. I combatted these issues by keeping a pack in the house and my logic was this: if I'm serious about quitting, I should be able to drink with my friends without asking to bum a smoke AND I should be able to look that pack in the eye and choose not to have one- since after all- I chose quit. I've heard people say that its as difficult as quitting heroin and having worked with heroin addicts I think that's a load of bulls**t...but it's a very difficult thing to quit, kudos & more power to all who wish to and have done so. I've been a quitter for a little over a year now.

Redweasel said:

Don't think I'll go the hypnotist route, they kinda freak me out. I don't want to end up barking like a chicken every time someone says bullwinkle

Click to expand...

See a trained professional.

I did, some years ago, 20 minute session. Not a freaky thing at all, you are always in control and vividly "present" and actively involved, actually.

Afterwards, it is recommended to NOT touch objects related to smoking for a while (clean up house, car, work desk beforehand!)

Typical two-three weeks of withdrawal time from the addiction. The session was expensive, BTW, but worth it.

I have to mostly agree with kornkob. I was smoking about 2.5 packs a day and enjoyed it, the buzz and all that.

A little over a year ago now, I began feeling the effects of smoking. It got so bad I decided I'd quit, I bought a box of patches and slapped them on.

Two hours in I realized I had smokers habits... My hand would drift to the left where I kept my smokes so I replaced that with sugar free (cause I wanted my teeth if I had a candy as often as a smoke) life savers just to reassociate the habit.

A week into it I wasn't reaching for the pack, I couldn't tell time by my urge to get out of my chair at work and I took the patch off after day 7 and was done.

Quitting smoking step 1: Want to quit. This doesn't mean "want to save money" or "want not to piss off my wife". It means wanting to NOT smoke MORE than wanting to smoke. Drugs, patches, hynotism, meditation or shock therapy will fail outright if you don't want that.

Step 2: Be aware of your habits. Breaking smoking triggers is much more important than stopping the nicotine.

30 years( hard to believe it's that long) just quit 5 weeks ago.

niquejim said:

30 years( hard to believe it's that long) just quit 5 weeks ago.

Click to expand...

Congrats, for me the first couple weeks were the hardest.

If you snore (like i did) or still have your tonsils, you could do like I did and go in for surgery! haha, I had my tonsils removed and my sinuses "drilled" out to stop snoring and not get so many colds, etc. Anyways, during the recovery time you will want anything but a smoke, trust me. Its been 2 weeks, no withdrawl whatsoever (and I withdrawl baddd when I quit.) Kill a couple birds with the same stone right?

I would venture to guess that many of the people that originally posted in this thread have picked up since this was first posted.

I quit over two years ago on 6/15/07. I don't have many urges though, but I get tested from time to time.

I quit using the patch and the gum over three months. I think one of the biggest helps for me was that I was not around smokers much at all anymore, socially or at work.

stever said:

Also I think a big key is you have to want to quit. I mean if you don't want to quit and just go into it reluctantly you will find excuses and start up again.

When I quit ready. I was tired of all the money I spent, tired of the stained fingers, tired of hacking up half a lung in morning, tired of being a slave to cigarettes.

One of the best things I ever did for myself.

Click to expand...

+1million I have tried because in MA they are $8 + a pack now.I just love smoking so I don't really want to quit.I'll go a while without it and then(like most people here) I drink 1 too many and just say F it I want one.

This is what I used. It took a few tries though. Working out also helps.


The Easy Way To Quit Smoking Allen Carr .pdf Ebook Download

thats the second time someone mentioned the book.So whats the secret?