Former smokers- how did you quit?

I got a call from the oncologist, who said, “The cells are cancerous.”

That was it. I never thought about cigarettes ever again.I never had a second of difficulty or withdrawal issues.

However, this is not a method I recommend.

Here’s a link to my previous answer to this, which contains a link to a prior answer. The short answer is: cold turkey and determination.

Good luck to you. You can do it. Attagirl.

Thanks Jeruba. I need it.

Crab to us if you have to. PM me if you want to crab privately. I’ll listen and give all the encouragement you want. I truly believe that sympathy helps make things better.

There’s no such thing as a convenient time to quit, any more than there’s a convenient time to have a baby. So now is the best time there’ll ever be.

Hypnosis but it took four times over five years also tried gum. Not easy. But last time, left the pack of cigarettes on the table and never had another one. That was 23 years ago—November 12, 1987.

@Tropical_Willie Nice!

Champix, I think US calls it Chantix. What a little miracle drug!! And stay away from situations with booze and other smokers!

I think hitting the gym/swimming/jogging/yoga is one possible way as there is nothing more disgusting as smoke after a fat sweaty workout. this worked for me , for a time. plus you get a natural chemical high which lasts longer then you think. It is however difficult to stick to a healthy routine and demands some commitment.
One of my friends followed the unconventional path of smoking her little lungs out until the meer sight of a cigerette sent her running in the opposite direction.different stroke for different folk, I guess.

Drink a lot of water and play back the tape at least once or twice a day. We had a guarantee with the company to return at anytime if you can’t stay off cigarettes for FREE re-hypnosis. Twelve from my department in a large company went together, class was 75 people total. One of our group started smoking again two years later, one went from three or four packs a day to five cigarettes a day, later he quit in a month or so….

Cold Turkey. You can do it! Exercise, chew gum, do what you have to do to distract yourself. You’ll fly it.

I bottomed on cigarettes when i was trying to ride my bike up a hill and wanted to vomit from my lungs. I had to walk up the hill because I couldn’t get a breath. There was a second hill and the same thing happened. I finished my ride and got to my car, where I promptly lit up as I started my car. Each cigarette that evening I kept saying to myself “why are you doing this, it’s killing you.”

I had to finish that pack, though, which was gone by about 9 o’clock the next morning. I quit my two packs of Marlboros a day cold turkey after that. August 22, 1988.

The detox from nicotine takes about 72 hours, which was painful and resulted in cramps. The hard periods are three days, three weeks, three months. But if you divert yourself by exercising, and reward yourself with something fun after a couple months, it will go easier.

GOOD LUCK!

Cold turkey.I just didn’t put another cigarette in my mouth.Yes,I know easy to say.I did want to murder someone if that makes you feel any better.;)
Good luck! You can do it:)

I’ve officially quit many times. A few, cold turkey. Didn’t last long. I’ve tried patches and gum. The first time I tried patches, I had been in the hospital for a week, so quitting was easy. I resumed smoking around 6–8 months later, out of stress.

The second time I used patches, I did on my own free will. The third quit was by using gum. This was ineffective for me because the gum was nasty and I craved cigs more. The fourth official quit (and hopefully the last), started with me having chest pains and needing to go to the ER.

I started patches again while in the hospital overnight and continued using the patches for about a month. I only did step 1 of the patches this time. I’ve been too busy dealing with other health issues to worry about cravings. But, when I do get cravings, I take the time to acknowledge it and nurture myself.

Other lifestyle changes have been helpful, too. I started a gluten free diet and stopped drinking alcohol around the same time as quitting smoking. Also, I got two iPhone apps to help me track my food intake and cig cravings. Both apps are available through livestrong.com. There’s also the web version. I find it helpful to OCD about other things besides the need to pacify my oral fixation (gosh I love a good cig!!). Plus, I find it helpful to use other pleasures for my mouth (e.g. I’ve been drinking more hot tea lately, different flavors).

Ok, so here’s what you need to know to be successful.

ADDICTION IS REAL!!! Yep, that sucks, but that’s the reality. The funny thing is that your brain does not let you realize that those cravings are a physiological reaction. Since it runs the show (your brain, that is) it has the power to trick you into believing any number of things, and the #1 on the hit parade goes something like “I don’t want a cigarette because I am addicted, it’s because I enjoy smoking”.

NEWSFLASH: Of course you enjoy smoking, you have become physically addicted to one of the most insidious substances on earth and your brain (like any good junkie) will tell you ANYTHING to get a fix!!!

So… once you have come to terms with the fact that the reason you have tried to quit and failed so many times before is not because you are weak or suffering from some horrific lack of character, but rather because your CPU will tell you darned near anything you want to hear in order to satisfy the craving, you stand a pretty good chance of winning the battle.

Believe it or not, the easy battle is the first one. You have probably fought it and won several times before. PUT THE DAMNED THINGS DOWN!!!! This doesn’t have to be a big show. Heck, leave a half a pack on your coffee table, because, guess what, the temptation will always be there regardless of how big a show you make of breaking the habit. Now, for the hard part of of the easy battle. DON’T PICK ANOTHER ONE UP (no matter what that junkie brain of yours tells you). Be truthful, you’ve done this part several times before, haven’t you?

The first couple of weeks SUCK. Deal with it! It gets a bit better. Now here comes the hard part. You think you are over “the addiction”, but the really insidious part is IT DOESN’T GO AWAY. The real battle is not “quitting”, but rather staying off nicotine for good. The hard battle is months, even years (yes I said years) later when you are sitting in a bar or enjoying some good times with friends and somebody lights up, and out of the blue the junkie part of your brain rises up like a zombie on crack and does everything from tell you lies like Its just one cigarette, you have already proved you can quit… to trying to convince you of something like Dang, given a choice between enjoying a cig and having wild freaky sex with a super model, the cig is looking like the best choice…

Well my friend, that is the battle you have to win. And it will come at you when you least expect it.

I have been an ex-smoker for damned near two decades, and yes, the junkie part of my brain to this day tries to rise up from the ashes (pun intended).

Here’s the bottom line: Don’t let the bastards win!... EVER!!!!!

I echo the Chantix suggestion. It was a miracle pill and I can’t recommend it highly enough! I’d tried quitting loads of times and it was always hard, but with Chantix, it was such a breeze and not a big deal at all. It basically weans you off nicotine while you’re still smoking and I found that I naturally smoked less as my quit date approached. My last two days of smoking, I smoked 5 a day without even noticing a difference (down from a pack)!

I used the patch and casses. The accountability helped me a lot. I was kind of cranky, but my incentive was between two and three hundred dollars extra a month, as I was a two pack a day smoker. At over four dollars a pack, well, you do the math,

Wow, cigarettes are $12 a pack of 25 in Alberta. I’m saving $350. a month not counting those party nights!