I am planning to stop smoking in a few days (have the date set, getting ready for it, all that). I’m reading the Allen Carr book (probably the bestselling non-smoking book in history for those not familiar- he’s the foremost name in the “Cognitive Approach” to quitting smoking) and I have to say that whether I quit successfully or not using this book alone, I’d still recommend reading it; no matter how intelligent or well read you are it makes you understand ‘how smoking works’ more than anything I’ve ever read. Most meaningful to me is that a friend who was a heavy smoker quit five years ago using it and swears by it. (I’ve owned the book for years, have read the first few chapters five times or more, but this is the first time I’m actually more than halfway into it, and while it’s repetetive [by design I think] it really is very good.)
Anyway, I hope to quit cold turkey, by which I mean without any nicotine substitution of any kind.* IF I can’t, then I’ll go with nicotine replacement, because I’m at the “I’d piss on a spark plug point”- I’m 45, overweight, from a family with a really bad history to be playing with tobacco (my father died of a massive heart attack at 54 and my mother of lung cancer at 70, both of them smokers). I actually quit for three years after using nicotine patches as a jumping off point, but after I stupidly resumed (started smoking cigars at a party, the demon came back, ‘gonna buy just one pack and then quit again’, etc.) they just didn’t do it for me anymore, and I don’t want to try Chantix because of the bad side effects so many have, but if I do cave on the Carr/cognitive method I will try until I beat it. And since I’ve already given up whiskey and have never had an interest in Wild Wild Women this will be the trifecta.
That said, for those who’ve successfully quit- and by successful I mean ‘haven’t had one in a long time [no set limit, but more than a few days certainly]/don’t feel the urge [at least not overpoweringly]/have no intention of starting again’- how did you do it? I’m asking partly because I’m curious what worked best for others and partly because, well, I need some testimonials brothers and sisters… I know there are millions of ex-smokers out there but I need to hear some “Amens” and "You can do it brother!“s.
*I know that “I hope to quit” sounds defeatist, but I don’t want to 'write a check my ass can’t cash” since I’ve announced a couple of quit dates [once cold turkey, once using patches] that only lasted for a few days. This time I will not tell anybody “I’ve quit” until it’s a done deal for at least a couple of weeks. I can always be a preachy ex-smoker later.
I used the patch and I ran a lot. Quit either in 1998 or 1999 - I can’t remember which. I had a 10-year, pack+ per-day habit (Marlboro Lights, in case that matters). Helped that none of my family smoked and that I had moved away from my smoking friends a year or so previously.
Of course, you have to quit in your mind. If you’re still counting the days since your last (smoke, beer, whatever), you haven’t really quit, you know?
Not me, but my husband. When we were going out, my dad had emphysema and was in bad shape. I told my husband I wouldn’t marry someone who smoked, so he quit. It was 40 years ago, and cold turkey was the only way.
The psyching myself aspect seems to work the best, just the realization that “This can be done”. As mentioned, my mother died at 70 from cancer, but her sister who smoked more than she did quit cold turkey- no prescription, no nicotine gum, nothing- when she was 60 after smoking 2-3 packs per day for more than 40 years and is still alive and healthy at 87. And a security guard where I work quit after 40 years and that was several years ago, also cold turkey, so the simple factsit can be done and millions of people have done it- doesn’t take an Olympic athlete’s training are important things to keep remembering.
I used Chantix. It worked for me because it stops the nicotine from having any effect, and I’m a)too cheap to spend $8 a pack on cigarettes that do nothing and b)too proud to bum them off my friends or neighbors, so I just quit smoking. It did kind of make me insane for a couple of months (the Chantix, not the quitting), but it was worth it to me to stop smoking. What keeps me quit is the knowledge (from experience) that now that I’m not used to tobacco and the chemicals in cigarettes, I will violently puke if I smoke now.
Cold turkey but it took multiple attempts with as much as two years between relapses. Pretty close to two years clean now. The weird thing was that I was never a heavy smoker, but I was as addicted to those 5-10 a day as any two pack a day smoker.
I’m convinced that tapering off is by far the least effective method. I’m sure they’re out there, but I personally have never known anybody who successfully quit using that method and yet I’ve had doctors (who have never been smokers recommend it).
Carr really dissects it, basically saying that you’re deliberately keeping the addiction alive rather than just hitting it in the head. You’re no less addicted to nicotine once you’re down to 2 cigarettes per day than you were when you were smoking 30, so those last 2 are going to be just as hard as quitting the 30 all at once.
That said, I didn’t include tapering off as an option, so if anybody did use it, please add it. Because I could be totally wrong about its effectiveness.
Resolve. After smoking for 19 years, never heavy but at least 2-3 packs a week I decided that was enough. Two things helped; staying away from smoking friends and places and, perhaps most influentially, getting married to a non-smoker. I figured I owed it to her to get to kiss a nice fresh smacker.
Cold turkey, I’d tried numerous times on patches etc and had a couple of relapses on cold turkey too. But in the end it’s the best way, the first 24 hours can be tough but after that it’s really not so bad.
I woke up on a Monday in March a couple years ago with the purpose of quitting already reconciled in my mind and slapped a patch on my arm. Of the three “steps”, I started with the middle step because at that point I was a half-a-pack-a-day smoker.
A few weeks after I had stopped wearing the patch, I was out with my smoker friends at a bar. I reached for my friend’s lit cigarette and took a drag. I started coughing like an amateur, and I’ve never wanted another one. I couldn’t believe how foreign the smoke tasted and felt after having smoked for 15 years. At this point (2+ years not smoking), I’ve finally begun to develop an aversion to the smell of smoke–both fresh and stale.
I probably shouldn’t be here because I’m smoking again, but I’ve quit twice for long periods. The first time was after five hour-long sessions with a really good hypnotist – that quit lasted for ten years and was easy peasy, even after the first session. I would have stayed quit but for a lifestyle change that put me in contact with lots of smokers (in bars).
The second quit last for three years, and that was after reading Carr’s book. It truly worked. I finished the book and had no desire for a cigarette. The next day at work when my friend said “Smoke break!”, I went outside with her but had no wish to light up. I bought the book for friends and several of them quit.
My husband was a multiple pack a day smoker for 40 years. He quit cold turkey 15 years ago. He’ll smoke an occasional Swisher Sweet, but that’s it.
If Carr’s book doesn’t take, consider a hypnotist, or if there are no good ones where you live, maybe a hypnotist on tape (CD, DVD, whatever).
Good luck, whatever you decide. There are way more non-smokers than smokers now, so we know it can be done.
It unbelievably hard, but I just quit. I loved smoking, but I decided that I wanted children, and I didn’t want them to have a smoker for a parent (both for health reasons and because I didn’t want to set a bad example).
I can’t imagine that tapering off or a nicotine substitute would have worked for me at all. While I was certainly addicted to the nicotine, the physical withdrawal was over in about a week or so. It’s the psychological addiction that’s more difficult to get over - when you’re a pack or so a day smoker for over 10 years like I was, the habit is pretty ingrained. It sounds a bit strange, but I felt like I lost a part of my identity when I quit. I was no longer one of the dedicated group huddling outside the door in -20 degree winter, having a coffee or a beer just didn’t feel the same, etc. etc.
The thing is, you need to really, really want to quit or it’s not going to stick. I was lucky in that I got pregnant a few months after quitting, so for me, starting up again wasn’t an option. I think you need to identify a concrete benefit you’re working towards that can only be achieved by quitting smoking. It’s too easy to ignore the abstract idea that not smoking is good for you when you’re seriously jonesing.
It took me the better part of a year to get used to the idea that I wasn’t a smoker anymore. I think if I had taken just one drag of a cigarette in that time, I would have been back up to a pack a day almost immediately. It took probably another two or three years before I no longer had the occasional desire to light one up. I gained about 30 pounds in the six months after I quit, but lost those plus another 20 in the six months after that.
I’m not gonna lie - it’s a long road for most people. It’s so worth it, though. I feel about a thousand times better, my clothes don’t stink, and I don’t feel like a social pariah anymore. I wouldn’t say I’m that much ahead financially, though - I traded my pack a day habit for a two latte a day habit.
I quit smoking completely, going on three years now, with a combination of electronic cigarettes, snus, and dissolvable tobacco. I still occasionally partake in all three substitutes, but only occasionally when the mood strikes me. I can and have regularly gone days and at least more than a week without any of the three, and if I thought any were significantly harmful, I could easily stop using any/all of them forever.
If cold-turkey doesn’t work out for you, conventional NRT just doesn’t cut it, and your primary problem is the oral-fixation, I’d highly recommend the ecigs. If your primary problem is the “nicotine* addiction” then I’d recommend snus, or even better, dissolvable tobacco. (Brandnames: Stonewall or Ariva) If you can’t find it locally, PM me, and I can give you a link to a legit (your state’s taxes get paid) online source. (or another source, where you are solely responsible for reporting and paying your own state’s taxes…)
I *'ed “nicotine addiction” because in my case I think I was only minimally addicted to nicotine. Regular NRT’s didn’t do a thing for me, not even in concert with ecigs to address the oral thing. It was only with the full spectrum of the other psychoactive substances in tobacco (found in snus and dissolvables, but not conventional NRT’s) that I was able to quite easily quit smoking without any urges to do so. I even let the occasional visitor smoke in my house right next to me instead of banishing them outside, as long as they’re not gonna be chain smoking, of course.
Cold turkey, first attempt. 30+ years ago. One pack a day, but I had switched to very low tar & nicotine cigarettes some months beforehand to try to minimize withdrawal. Don’t know if it had any effect or not, but I quit successfully, so maybe.
Cold turkey for me too. I was experiencing some discomfort in my chest that scared me, so that may have helped, but previous attempts with the gum or patch had not worked for me.
The hardest days for me were between day 8 and day 13 (something like that). I just got so tired of being strong that those ended up being the most difficult. I got addicted to lemon drops for awhile, but those were easy to give up.
I’m glad you are giving them up. Best of luck. You can do it!
To follow up on my previous post, my mindset was that I could quit once, or I could quit many times. I only wanted to quit once. I never wanted to be the kind of person who had to keep struggling with quitting repeatedly. Once would do it.