Asklemmy

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

I stopped a pack and a half a day habit of ~10 years cold turkey. It was either food or smokes.

As others have said, there is no effective short cut. Ultimately, it is all will power. At least it is easier now. When I quit, EVERYONE smoked.

Other people have tried gum and not had it help them. I find it pretty helpful for me so far. I'm now two weeks in and I only chew 2 pieces a day now. Only have it when smelling others' cigarette smoke triggers my cravings. Overall, I'm gonna try to quit the gum by the end of next week.

I will note that I seem to have way easier of a time with nicotine withdrawal than other people I've talked to.

Nothing worked for me until Covid came and I've stopped seeing my friends who smoked. Best of luck on your endeavour!

I quitted few years ago already. I bought a pack of those peppermint like pills that contain nicotine to help stopping. They tasted so horribly bad I just had like 2 of them and quit smoking cold. So maybe go get some of those disgusting pills.

Cold turkey is what works for most people but if you tried it and failed many times don't be afraid to use nicotine replacement in some form, medication ( I used Champix and I've quit successfully 3 years ago) or even therapy. You'll find online a lot of people who say that you only need willpower which is true if you have it but just depressing if you don't making your situation after numerous quit attempts worse and worse.

There are plenty of websites with concrete plans and tips on how to do it, all of them with good advice but you have find out what works for you and what doesn't. There are also some apps that can help you track your quit process, the health benefits of quitting and reward you.

Since you told nothing about your previous attempts if you had any or how long youve been smoking and why you want to quit I can only give some general advice:

Every day you don't smoke is a win. You need to find out why smoking hurts you, why stopping smoking would help you. Choose a plan, stuck to it and if you fail learn from it.

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 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.

I quit smoking successfully a few years ago, after at least a dozen unsuccessful attempts.
Here's what was different the time I succeeded:

I changed my mindset. Basically, I told myself that I won't ever smoke a single cigarette again in my life, no matter how shitty that makes me feel.
The trigger for that mindset was a common cold that left me breathless for 4 weeks.
And the key to success was the realization that:

1.) I'm not addicted to cigarettes, I'm addicted to nicotine
2.) Nicotine by itself isn't all that harmful
3.) Whenever I have a craving, I can just chew a nicotine chewing gum
4.) Nicotine by itself isn't even that addictive

So I bought a whole lot of nicotine gum, and whenever I felt the slightest craving I popped one in.
After about 2 weeks the cravings subsided (cause nicotine isn't actually what makes you addicted).

Get yourself a good nicotine vape rig. The kind that has a big tank so it'll last all day and you can use whichever flavoured vape liquid you like best. Switch to that 100% of the time, right away, no exceptions. Don't worry about how to quit vaping until you've gone without smoking for at least a few months.

It'll be hard, but not nearly as bad as it is if you try to quit both smoking and nicotine at the same time.

I read Allen Carr's book "easy way to quit smoking without willpower" and took a drug called Chantix (prescription drug here in Sweden and my first doctor didn't want to prescribe it because all I needed was willpower according to him). The book helped with the habits, the drug removed the cravings and I've been cigarette free since then. It was my third or fourth attempt, and it was BY FAR the easiest. Ignore everyone telling you to quit cold turkey, to have willpower or whatever else, and get Champix prescribed to you.

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.

Talk about placement

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.

I hear sucking on a lollipop can help.

I used nicotine pouches for a year then cold turkeyed at day 365

Two ways.

1. Get a crutch and pretend you quit.

This can either be vaping, snus, nicotine pouches, the patch, anything.

2. Cold Turkey

Quitting one morning by just never smoking that day.

That's all I know.

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

running is what did it for me

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

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.

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.

I quit cold turkey about 5 months ago after smoking for a decade. Might start again, might not. I still get cravings. If I do start again I'm going to make myself learn to roll them by hand instead of buying packs so that it's cheaper and takes more conscious effort.

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.

Find other ways to cope when you get the urge, ie vape etc

Or big balls daddy cold turkey it

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.

I'm not the guy to ask. That was taken yesterday.

If you find out, let me know, please. :)

Just stop!

But what helped me: often smoking is part of a daily routine or ritual, so mix up your routine. Take up a new hobby or take the bus instead of the car. Go for a walk after lunch. Giving up smoking is a big change, so don't be afraid to make big changes. Get new clothes. Make new friends. You have discarded your old identity as a smoker. Still smoking? Doesn't matter! You already want to stop - you're becoming that person already.

And don't be so hard on yourself if you have a smoke now and then. Be conscious of what situation or routine triggered the reflex, and change it in future. If you have a smoke every few days or weeks, don't sweat it, you've broken addiction as far as I'm concerned!

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!

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.

my accidental 2 step program: 1: switch to these "heets" and the "iqos" and smoking no normal cigs. 2: when i got sick and wanted to smoke i couldnt stand the taste of these things without vomiting. They basically ruined tobacco for me, i never touched a cigarette after that and i stopped smoking one and a half year ago :)