Quit smoking!

[aap0410]

Good afternoon!

A little less than 3 years ago, I stupidly had my first cigarette. I had always told myself I would never smoke, but heck, I just turned 18 and since I couldn't vote that year, decided to explore my new options as an adult. Although it took me nearly 2 months to smoke an entire pack, I kept buying them and smoking then, until eventually I was at a half pack a day. Over the last two years, I've averaged 15 or less a day (usually about 6). About 3 weeks ago, a buddy and I decided to finally kick the habit altogether.

Neither of us fully quit, yet. He bought a pack the next day, I made it 2 weeks before I bought one. I'm here to ask for motivation to quit. I know I want to quit, I know why I want to quit, but I don't know how to quit or stay motivated to quit. I don't get any cravings until usually afternoon or late at night, sometimes causing me to have insomnia.

Has anybody else out there quit successfully? Any advice is greatly appreciated.

[Misctake7]

I was never hooked on smoking, but I used to be hooked on chewing tobacco. I never saw it as I had a problem because I didn't do it uncontrollably, but 2-3 times a day was my average for awhile. My girlfriend at the time was a smoker and I told her I wouldn't date a woman that smoked. She ended up going through the tough process of quitting. I decided that I couldn't make her quit smoking and I still chew so I stopped cold turkey and haven't looked back since. My girlfriend did have a tough time quitting and took it slow until she eventually just stopped all together. I consider my quitting chewing cold turkey to basically just be strong will power. That's what it will take to quit imo.

Good luck OP

[j1akey]

I quit almost 3 years ago and never looked back.

The first thing you need to do is want it bad enough. If you only play games with yourself and quit because you should or because they're too expensive or some external source of motivation you'll never kick it. You have to quit because you're really sick and tired of being sick and tired and really just don't want to smoke anymore. Once you actually decide to quit the rest is secondary and you need to come up with a strategy to make the the transition a little smoother. The strategy isn't a quitting strategy, you've already decided to quit.

Here's what I did;

1. Pick a day to quit
2. On that day you smoke as normal. Mentally prepare yourself that by the end of the day you'll be on your way to quitting.
3. Day 2 - Patch
4. Day 3 - Smoke
5. Day 4-5 - Patch
6. Day 6 - Smoke
7. Day 7-9 - Patch
8. etc.

Basically I kept extending the days that I was not smoking while mixing a single smoking day in. This gradually got me used to not smoking for longer and longer periods of time. At some point I forgot to grab my patches in the morning and left the house without any 'backup' so to speak and it wasn't a big deal. When that happened I just decided I wasn't going to mix the smoking days back in and just carried a patch around if I happen to need one and eventually stopped doing that too. I haven't had a smoke in almost 3 years and now the **** really just kind of disgusts me.

Whatever strategy you choose to go with, remember the main thing is that you actually need to want it. The strategy is just there to make it less painful.

Once you quit, remember you can never go back, nicotine is ridiculously addictive. You need to treat it like alcoholism and be aware that as soon as you have another cigarette down the road then you'll instantly be back smoking again.

[JackedPlusRich]

At the end of the day you just have to want to quit more than you want to smoke.

Think of your health, hygiene, aesthetics, finances and its pretty obvious that smoking is terrible.

The patches are great.

[StimFlow]

I've quit 3 years, 2 months and 9 days ago...(no, i dont track i just calculated it )

Was a chain smoker for about 15 years and had multiple unsuccessful attempts until I finally kicked it. j1akey is right.. you must have the willpower... without the willpower it will be nearly impossible to quit an addiction like this.. What worked for me is learning about the science of what happens when you quit.. why you get withdrawal... what is withdrawal... the psychological issues involved... how to retrain your brain to deal with the smoking triggers etc.

Take a look at whyquit.com It has a lot of info on all aspects of dealing with quitting and managing withdrawal symptoms.. That way you will know what to expect if you are going to make a serious attempt. I also read a book called 'The Nicotine Trick'. It helped me see smoking as creating a chemical imbalance in my brain... which was the source of cravings, and was a wholly unnatural situation for my brain to be in etc blah blah... It gave me plenty of motivation to continue quitting since I realised my brain was in a chemical imbalance from smoking.. I didn't care if it was scientifically accurate or not.. just needed it for mental support.

Getting over the physical addiction was relatively simple when you know what to expect.. since, for example, you can minimize the pain by making sure your blood/sugar levels remain constant(e.g. by sipping fruit juice throughout the day) during the first withdrawal phase etc etc.

The psychological part is more difficult and requires the most attention imo(i.e. dealing with the smoking triggers..). I believe the most effective way is to mentally prepare for those triggers. Example: I always relapsed on previous quit attempts while getting drunk while partying... Thus on my last attempt I confronted that particular trigger(alcohol) head on by getting seriously drunk the first 3 days I quit(note that this was before I started my transformation lol). Please don't hate... I don't mean to say that you should do that... it is merely what I did(whether it was stupid or not)... Point is that confronting your triggers(drinking coffee, alcohol, whatever) head on is more effective than avoiding them until later in your withdrawal imo.

I also believe in hardcore cold turkey quitting. I often hear people say they want to quit smoking because they are sick of being a slave to tobacco only to see them continue their addiction with nicotine patches, gums, inhalers etc... That doesnt make any sense to me since it would be like saying they are going to quit heroin and then instead of smoking it, they start injecting it or vice versa... Nicotine is what causes the addiction... the tobacco is just a method of delivery. Dealing with the oral fixation of smoking is much easier than dealing with the actual nicotine addiction... so go cold turkey imo...

In a nutshell, that is what worked for me... but like dieting everyone has their own way.. this was mine...

[AdamTrueUK]

I quit my 30 plus a day habit just over two months ago, cold turkey, the same time I started to work out again. Several things spurned me on, but they may not be applicable to you, so I'll just talk about what I did that really helped...

Now, I'd tried everything in the past. Gum, electronic cigarettes. Never lasted more than a week. What's worked for me this time? Pressups.

In the beginning of Sept, I wanted to get back into shape, which coincided with a week off work on Holiday. But what was the point of building my body up to get fitter and stronger, when damaging the inside? So every time I fancied a puff I'd get down and push a set out and the endorphins really helped to kick that craving. Think about it, your first smoke of the day. Although When having a cig you feel like your body and head in particular is relaxed and floaty, it's actually because the nicotine gives you an adrenaline rush. Well, when you do a dynamic set of pressups that too gives you an adrenaline rush and when finishing you also get that floaty head rush. While it also sorts out that "tightness" and tension you feel in your head you get when you really crave a cig and your receptors are going nuts for one. Given I would usually have a cig at least every hour, not only did my number of pressups quickly go up I was getting even fitter for every cig I was giving up. When seeing the progress I was making not just in the growing numbers of pressups I was pushing out but physically how my body started to look and feel, it really helped to counter that itch to still have a smoke and motivated me more. I thought back to when I started. Struggling to push out 25 for my first set of the morning, while my chest rattled from all the cigs I'd had the day previous. Now, knocking out 70 in a minute, feeling pumped and invigorated and looking better for it each day.

When getting back to work the following week, because I'd gotten used to not smoking it was easier not to relent during break times and I continued with the press-up motto at home anytime I fancied once, although specifically doing pressups to kick back the craving happens only two or three times a week now.

[BigNickel]

Smoked for about 18 years, finally quit this year. The patch is fantastic! Took me about 1 month on the patch then I just stopped using them. I only get cravings when I drink, but I never act upon them. You really just have to want to quit, get angry, and go through with it. Just buy some patches and tomorrow morning put one on. Quitting is easy if you let it be..

[Armstrongha]

Damn sounds like if everyone else can do it we can to.

Going to try again to quit sometime next week.

Maybe with the help of some nicotine gum or something similar

[Bradcore]

I quit smoking a few years ago when cigarettes were considerably cheaper than they are now. I had been smoking for a good while at that point. You know how I quit? I added up what I was spending a year on cigarettes. I found I was spending around $3,000 a year on cigarettes. $3,000. That's a lot of money I was blowing to relax slightly and perhaps get health complications. I went cold turkey that day. Considering how much higher prices are today, I suspect smokers are spending a lot more than I did. I'm sure you can find better things to spend $3,000+ thousand on.