Okay gang, here’s the deal. I quit smoking 8 weeks ago with the patch. It was pretty bad, but not horrible. Two weeks ago I took off my last patch. Ever since then, I’ve been crabby as hell and fiending for nicotine quite often. How goddamn long does this last?!! That’s all I want to know. Will there ever be a time when I don’t get those horrible cravings at all?
I am watching this thread with interest. Been smoking myself for too damned long. Some good quitting stories could be motivational.
“No one cares how pretty the souffle is, if the appetizer is turds-in-a-blanket.” Bill McNeil, NewsRadio
ARG! You want to know when it gets better?! You freak! You bastard! You… well, it’s not so bad now, really, just messing with you! 
Trust me, it gets better. Give it about a week or two. I had a reaction to the patch and am still doing okay.
But I hate to tell you that the “urge” goes on the rest of your life. From a friend of mine that stopped smoking almost 15 years ago he says that it still hits him every once in a while; hopefully, like him, you will have developed excellent coping skills. That is what saves you from taking that first “puff”.
Best!
Byz
Voted most sex obsessed. (Yeah, blow me smart ass!)
I have no answer for how long the cravings will last, because mine seemed to go away rather quickly. I just went cold turkey. I quit most recently (my second time) because I found out I was going to have a baby. (It’s been about a year and a half now.) And plan to never touch cigs again. (ahem, yes, I did say that the first time, too… but this time I mean it!!)
All I can say is stick with it, and ride the storm. The health benefits definitely make the tension worthwhile, and I don’t think the crankiness will last much longer.
Byz, I am happy to see you posting again!!
Chrome Toaster
Hi Chrome! I’m better now that I’m over jonesing for nicotine… Glad to see you too!
Best!
Byz
Voted most sex obsessed. (Yeah, blow me smart ass!)
I quit cold turkey 2½ years ago, and for the first week, I thought it was going to be easy. Then the cravings started, and were pretty annoying (!) for about 6 weeks. After that, it was mostly just missing the oral habit, which I dealt with by eating two rolls of lifesavers a day. I highly recommend something like gum or hard candy (forget about the calories; you are going to gain weight, no matter what you do).
After about six months, I had lost all desire. Once, my roomate was talking on the phone, and didn’t have a lighter, so he threw a cigarette at me to light for him of the gas stove, which I did. I was quite surprised at how truly disgusting that tasted, and I haven’t touched one since.
TT
“It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.”
–James Thurber
I quit January 2 this year. Cold Turkey, except for the cigars I still smoke (1 a day, usually). Even though I smoked over a pack a day, I was only cranky for 3 days or so. The cig cravings have gone altogether now, but the oral fixation is still there.
Then again, it probably was there BEFORE I took up smoking 
Patches, nicotine gun, all that stuff doens’t help if:
a) You don’t REALLY want to quit;
b) You are not truely convinced that the addiction is a MENTAL one.
Fight your mind, not your body - the latter is the easiest part.
Coldfire
Voted Poster Most Likely To Post Drunk
"You know how complex women are"
- Neil Peart, Rush (1993)
I quit smoking on December 20. I went cold turkey, no patch, no drugs. I did gain weight, but that’s because I just concentrated on not smoking and I ate what I wanted. After two months I went on a diet and have lost all but 3 pounds of what I gained. It’s still hard on occasion. I still get the urge, but then I think back about how long it has been and I won’t do it. You’ve done very well, don’t start back. The cravings will get less, but I don’t think the desire to smoke ever completely leaves you. I smoked for 23 years.
I’ve learned that if someone says something unkind about me, I must live so that no one will believe it.
Keep up the good work - it gets easier over time.
(After a few attempts that didn’t work, I finally quit smoking “for good” when I was 27 - that’s 25 years ago and still counting.)
Odd, I remember posting something about quitting just yesterday. Ah well, I guess I can do it again.
I dropped those bad boys 2 weeks ago. No gum, no patches, no drugs; no crutches for me. The cravings seem to be weakening and I can now sit in the congested bar all evening (and that’s a really good thing) without feeling a real need to fire up a smokey treat. I quit once before for about 5 years, too. I guess that was about 15 years ago.
The bad news is I got an e-mail yesterday from some guy who has lung cancer from second-hand smoke. He says if I don’t forward it I should keep in mind that what goes around comes around. so, I guess I’m going to contract a fatal case of lung cancer anyway. That’s fate for ya.
Do they have any aversion-type therapy for quitting smoking?
When I was in college, I developed an allergy to alcohol. Even one glass—half a glass!—will give me food poisoning: throwing up, headaches, chills. Now even the odor of alcohol makes me queasy, just from the association.
So, is there something you can take so that smoking would make you sick as a dog? Seems to me that might work.
Could you successful quitters let us know about any other effects you have encountered?
I am especially interested if any/some/all of you have picked up a few extra pounds and if so, how few.
I quit in '82, and I STILL get the occasional twinge for a cigarette. Like any addiction, you never really get rid of it entirely.
I used a 12 week process (this was pre-patch days). it involved cigarette holder filters that had internal baffles to capture the particulates, and air metering holes that got progressively bigger with each stage. I side benefit was you had to clean them every day, and so got a good look at all the crap you put in your lungs when you smoke. I used each filter for two weeks, and then graduated to the next one. By the time I got to the last one, I was mostly sucking air. I stayed on that one longer, just to finish off my carton, and then I was done.
The biggest problem I had in the beginning was no longer going through the physical motions of smoking, as well as not having a cigarette at certain times. ie, after meals, while on the pot, and after sex.
I did not notice an appreciable weight gain after I quit.
Best of luck, and congratulations! You ought to be able to buy a new car every year just on the cost savings! 
VB
Some people say that cats are sneaky, evil, and cruel. True, and they have many other fine qualities as well.
AAAAAAAAARRRRRRHHHGGGH!
Whew… glad I got that out of my system. Evening of Feb 14th I smoked my last smoke. No patch or gum, just the promise from my girlfriend that if I make it six months she’ll go skydiving with me. Not only did I give up smoking, but I started drinking my coffee black, taking vitamins, eating better and getting out more. Figure if I am going to create a new habit of not smoking I might as well do some other things good for me.
Most people don’t know that I am quitting. Only a couple of people in the office are aware, and they were surprised when I told them. I hope that means I am doing a good job not getting cranky. (Although, if the truth be told, I now secretly hate everything.)
Glad to see there are some others here who are quitting too. 37 days for me now…. And I still have yet to leave for work (or go home, or go for a walk, or finish a meal… ) without being consciously aware that I am not smoking. Sheesh.
Thanks for listening,
Rhythmdvl
Once in a while you can get shown the light
in the strangest of places
if you look at it right…
I quit in Sept, 2nd time, last time I quit for a year and a half but started back in a weak moment and was fully hooked again within the week. I used the patch, and the craving is mighty, and never completely goes, I think. It’s more like an alcoholic, you’re always going to be a nicotine.
You can do it though. Millions do, all the time.
It’s a challenge, sort of like climbing a mountain, but you save on the airfare and equipment. It’s definitely an endurance thing, all about facing a challenge, seeing the demon and coming through the other side.
“Patriotism is the last refuge to which a scoundrel clings.” Bob Dylan
After twenty-five years and one chest x-ray (no masses or lesions-actual quote), I stopped smoking on January 8th this year. I’m using Zyban, and I recomend it highly. (I tried the patch two years ago with no success.) Zyban really does lessen the urges. I’m beginning to think that 85% of my smoking (one to one and a half packs a day) was in my head.
Yes there are times when I want a cigarette. But they really don’t last long. I’m using my last week’s worth of pills now; what’s strange is that I’ve even forgotten to take the pill on several occasions.
You’d think that Superman would be a good person to invite to a barbecue but trust me, he’s not. I mean, sure he can cook the hot dogs fast with his heat vision, but they all taste of charred eye boogers.
I quit new years eve 20 years ago. It was about my fifteenth try.
It was cold turkey. I bet some girl I didn’t know that she would smoke before I did. Still don’t know who she is.
I think that quitting is a mental thing.
When you really get into your head that is when you can do it.No not drugs religion or anything like that more like your mental attitude.
I was a Electronics Tech and bartender at the time.
Smoked two packs a day.
No the urge does not go away. It does get weaker.
Before you actually light up think of all the time and effort you have gone through and ask yourself if you want to waste that effort.
Good Luck
I quit smoking New Year’s Day, 1999. Prior to that I had smoked two and more often three packs a day for 5 or 6 years. A couple of observations:
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If someone refers to the patch as a crutch, smack 'em. If some one refers to the patch as a crutch five days after they quit, stomp on their insole.
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I have not noticed that the cravings have gotten all that much weaker. What they do get is less frequent. But be prepared for sneak-attack ones for the rest of your life, and rehearse the way that you are going to resist them (falling to the floor into a fetal posisition and whinning “ohgodohgodohgdiwanttodiepleasepleaseplease” is a perfectly accptable stradegy.
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If you fall off the wagon and have to go back on something, go back on the patch. Theroetically, you could probably stay on the patch for the rest of your life without a tenth of the health risks that come from smoking. This was my original plan. To keep costs down, buy the big patches and cut them in halves or in thirds.
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Pay attention to your friends/aquantinces. There is a certain type of person who may be wonderful in all other respects but who hates a quitter. These people take two forms–the nagger: “Want a cigeraette? Mmmm, this is good. Sure you don’t want one?” and, worse, the sympathizer. “Oh, it must be hard. I don’t know how I’ll ever quit. Want a drag?” Aviod these people like the plauge. You can be friends with them again in a year.
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Put your pride on the line. Brag on yourself alot “I haven’t had a cigarette in X weeks”. Brag to your coworkers, your hairdresser, your dentist, the lady at the convience store you used to buy cigerates at, call your mother and tell her, tell telemarketers that call your house. Then, when you are tempted to light up, think of how all these people are going to know that you are a pitiful, weak, limp-dicked wuss. And they will snicker. ( I found this to be the single most effective technique)
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In my humble opinion, the “You have to want to quit” thing is bullshit that smokers use to justify not quiting/failing when they do try and quit. “I just can’t quit. I don’t really want to, and I can’t make myself want things, it just dosen’t work that way.” This is subversive. It offers an easy way out of quiting without losing face. I did not want to quit, I was not ready to quit. My best friend was orphaned at 21 because her mother died of lung cancer at 48. Forty eight seemed to young to die to me on a rational level–on the emotional level I still wanted to smoke, believe me. The patch allowed my to do what reason, not emotion, dictated.
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Remember, throwing out packs of ciggerettes that you find around the house (I kept finding them for a year) is not “wasteing” anything, it is saving your life.
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You can no longer afford to smoke. Once you quit, the $100 bucks a month you used to spend on the ciggarettes/patch is quickly absorbed into the budget seamle4ssly. But it dosn’t feel like you are buying all that much more stuff. If you start spending that hundred bucks a month again, it will feel like you are subtracting $100 bucks a month from the lifestyle you had before you quit smoking. And that just isn’t possible.
Oh well, these are some things that helped me. Best of luck to you and to any lurkers trying to quit who were drawn in by the thread title. It is not an easy thing, but being an orphan is harder–you owe it to any kids you have or might have on day to do your best to stick around.
I quit Jan. 1,1990. Hardest thing I have ever done. Cold-turkey is the only way to go.
The cravings lasted about 3 months. (I was a 3 pack-a-day man). I was unbearable to be around for a good 2 months after that. But it was worth it. I figure that at today’s prices, I’ve saved about a gajillion dollars. I no longer hack and cough, suffer from as many headaches or have trouble sleeping ( or burn myself falling asleep with a cigarette). I very rarely get colds or sore throats .
You just have to be honest about quitting. I kept telling myself that I would not smoke, no matter what, no matter how bad it gets. Eat whatever you feel you need to, do not hang around friends who smoke, and keep your hands and your mind busy!
Remember, the weight will come off, the cravings WILL stop, and you will feel so much better and you won’t have to spend THREE DOLLARS A PACK. Christ, when I quit, they were a buck!
I am a failed quitter.
I quit when I found out I was pregnant with my daughter and for 7 months afterward. I went cold turkey and it was easy because I knew I was doing it for a good reason. (my daughter…like my own health wasn’t good enough!)
The craving was always there but I was handling it well until I succumbed to “the smoker friend”. Hooked again in days, ARGHHH!!!
:::going outside for a smoke now:::
Looks like I’m going to have another kid.
Good luck to you!
A woman needs four animals in her life: A mink in the closet, a Jaguar in the garage, a tiger in the bedroom, and an ass to pay for it all.
—Zsa Zsa Gabor