# Poll: for Smokers who have Successfully Become Non Smokers, How Did You Do It? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 9, 2012, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-smokers-who-have-successfully-become-non-smokers-how-did-you-do-it/608978 "2012-01-09T22:38:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Indian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@Indian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indian)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2012, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-smokers-who-have-successfully-become-non-smokers-how-did-you-do-it/608978/61 "2012-01-10T12:03:22Z")
Sheer willpower. Quit boozing also same way 6 months before that. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2012, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-smokers-who-have-successfully-become-non-smokers-how-did-you-do-it/608978/62 "2012-01-10T13:35:41Z")
> [@malkavia](#): > > Holy cow, I haven’t seen that name in yeeears. Do you know where Mr. Frog is these days? Unfortunately, no. We were pretty friendly back in Live Journal’s hey-day, but I haven’t run across him anywhere in the Internet in years. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2012, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-smokers-who-have-successfully-become-non-smokers-how-did-you-do-it/608978/63 "2012-01-10T13:52:16Z")
I decided I would give up, then did it. Some of it was the kind of _if I can do this for a day, then I can do it for two days, etc_ type of reasoning, but most of what made it possible was that I had resolved that I truly wanted to stop. IMO, some of the patches, gums, sprays, fake cigs, etc make it harder (or at least, for some people) - you’re being conditioned to believe that _smoking is really, really hard to stop, and you just can’t do it! (unless you buy our product)_ There’s an ad for Nicorette spray on UK TV at the moment that sounds like an advert for cigarettes - speaking softly and lovingly about the cravings you might get after food, or with a drink, or in certain social situations - and how you’re just too weak to resist them. It’s obscene, and I believe that it does at least as much damage as good. (I’ll see if I can find an online version of the ad later, when I can get at YouTube) ---
**Author:** ![kiz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7feea3/32.png) [@kiz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kiz)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2012, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-smokers-who-have-successfully-become-non-smokers-how-did-you-do-it/608978/64 "2012-01-10T13:57:41Z")
> [@kayT](#): > > One other thing I meant to say: be careful about replacing your habit with a food habit. I started eating hard candies, and then I began taking coffee breaks to replace cig. breaks, complete with donut, and before I knew it I had gained about 15 pounds. So beware! The three times I’ve quit cold turkey this is exactly what happened. Everything tasted so different from how I’d know them that I was like a drunk in a liquor store. I gained so much weight those three times that the irrational part of my brain convinced me that it was better to smoke and stay within a normal weight range than to quit and become obese. I started smoking again those three times, and the weight dropped off. (I realize this is an irrational reason for not quitting, but there you go.) ---
**Author:** ![Moonlitherial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@Moonlitherial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonlitherial)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2012, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-smokers-who-have-successfully-become-non-smokers-how-did-you-do-it/608978/65 "2012-01-10T13:57:47Z")
I voted for Other and I’m afraid that my solution doesn’t translate well. I cut down dramatically when I was pregnant with my son and managed to quit just before he was born. I decided I wouldn’t smoke while I was breastfeeding and then before I quit that I got pregnant again with my daughter. By the time she was weaned I didn’t really want to start again. I relapsed during my divorce but only for a couple of weeks. It took about 15 years though before I could drink without wanting a cigarette in my other hand, for some reason those two activities were tied together pretty closely. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2012, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-smokers-who-have-successfully-become-non-smokers-how-did-you-do-it/608978/66 "2012-01-10T14:21:46Z")
I quit after one session with a hypnotist, back in 1983, ending a 9 year 3/4-pack per day habit. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2012, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-smokers-who-have-successfully-become-non-smokers-how-did-you-do-it/608978/67 "2012-01-10T14:34:58Z")
I quit cold turkey. At the time, I was working two jobs and had kids and animals, and I plain didn’t have time for cigs anymore. My husband quit with Chantix, which must be a really impressive drug, because I would never have believed that man could quit. ---
**Author:** ![Azeotrope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/0ea827/32.png) [@Azeotrope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Azeotrope)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2012, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-smokers-who-have-successfully-become-non-smokers-how-did-you-do-it/608978/68 "2012-01-10T16:33:45Z")
Cold turkey, and lollipops because of the oral fixation. I was in college and couldn’t have afforded nicotine gum or patches. ---
**Author:** ![Scubaqueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@Scubaqueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scubaqueen)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2012, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-smokers-who-have-successfully-become-non-smokers-how-did-you-do-it/608978/69 "2012-01-10T16:52:40Z")
i went cold turkey several times and got off them for a few years, then right back to smoking. eight years ago i quit cold turkey again, but this time attended a smoking cessation class sponsored by my employer. for whatever reason, it worked for me. admittedly, the attrition rate was ferocious. i think there were thiry in the class and four weeks later, there were about eight of us remaining - but we were bloody good buds by then. it operates a little like AA i suspect in that it provides positive reinforcement and reasons for quitting among us addicts. the biggest thing i brought from the class was learning how to modify my behavior. smoking _is_ learned behavior. reach for the phone? grab a cig. post-mealtime? grab a cig. pour a glass of wine or coffee? grab a cig - and so on. instead of reaching for a smoke when you do those things, do something different: drink a glass of water, take a walk, and so on. i ended up doing on-line jigsaw puzzles until my eyes crossed - but it worked. i broke the cycle and therefore the addiction. when i knew i had broken the cycle permanently was when i DIDN’T go back to smoking after i lost my job. short of a close family member’s death, i can’t think of a bigger stressor than that. today i can walk into a bar and not want a cigarette. in fact, these days i prefer a non-smoking bar. i occasionally light up a swisher sweet myself, but honestly, i haven’t had one of those either in nearly two years. it can be done. if i can, anybody can. i was a pack and a half a dayer back then and don’t miss them at all today. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2012, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-smokers-who-have-successfully-become-non-smokers-how-did-you-do-it/608978/70 "2012-01-10T17:07:42Z")
This is the ad I mentioned upthread: [http://www.tellyads.com/show\_movie.php?filename=TA12891](http://www.tellyads.com/show_movie.php?filename=TA12891) It is not in any way helpful in assisting with quitting smoking. In fact it more or less insists you _can’t_ quit. ---
**Author:** ![Lanzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Lanzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lanzy)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2012, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-smokers-who-have-successfully-become-non-smokers-how-did-you-do-it/608978/71 "2012-01-10T17:16:18Z")
Gave the rest of a pack to a friend, and just never smoked again. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2012, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-smokers-who-have-successfully-become-non-smokers-how-did-you-do-it/608978/72 "2012-01-10T17:28:19Z")
I do not smoke, but my father did. He quit by falling down and having to go into the hospital for six weeks, then not being released until there was a space available in a nursing home. The hospital was non-smoking, of course, and by the time he left it, the addiction had broken. I do not recommend this method. Previously, he had wanted to quit when he moved into the seniors’ apartments, but his short-term memory was already going at that point, and _he did not remember that he wanted to quit_. He was on the patch, but he’d forget and try to light up–eventually the nurses decided that there was nothing they could do, and they removed the patch and let him smoke. ---
**Author:** ![Bloodless\_Turnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@Bloodless\_Turnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bloodless_Turnip)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2012, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-smokers-who-have-successfully-become-non-smokers-how-did-you-do-it/608978/73 "2012-01-10T17:33:33Z")
Other - electronic cigarette. Once I got the e-cig, I never smoked again. ---
**Author:** ![shiftless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@shiftless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shiftless)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2012, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-smokers-who-have-successfully-become-non-smokers-how-did-you-do-it/608978/74 "2012-01-10T18:17:44Z")
I didn’t smoke, I dipped for 20 years, which I believe is a more effective nicotine delivery system tha smoking. For that the gum is perfect. I did have a nicotine gum problem for about a year but that was a lot easier to break. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2012, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-smokers-who-have-successfully-become-non-smokers-how-did-you-do-it/608978/75 "2012-01-10T20:46:54Z")
> [@Shakester](#): > > You’re totally wrong about it. I tapered off very slowly, using nicotine lozenges. I was not able to go cold turkey. I’ve known other people who did it that way, that’s how I came to find a way that worked for me. I should have been more specific. I’m referring to “tapering off” as using this method that a doctor once recommended to me- reposting from [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=417871&highlight=ankles+jesus): > [@](#): > > The first week, buy a pack of cigarettes every day. Take out exactly two cigarettes, and smoke the other 18. Smoke exactly 18, no more no less. The next week, buy a pack of cigarettes each day and take out 4, crumble them up and smoke 16, no more no less. The next week, take out 6 and smoke 14, and so on and so on. Here’s an important thing though, always buy that pack, never buy a carton, and even when you’re down to 2 per day buy the pack and throw most of them away, because if you don’t and you say ‘I’ll take out 2 to smoke today and save the other 18 to smoke over the next 9 days’ you’re going to remember they’re there and you’ll say 1 extra won’t hurt me… 2 extra won’t hurt me… and you’ll be right back to a pack a day. Now, when you get down to 2, keep smoking those 2 for about 2 or 3 weeks, then throw away one, and smoke 1 per day for a month, then stop that one. I acknowledge NRT helps some people. It got me off of cigarettes the first time I quit- but hasn’t worked for me at all since, and I think I’m now sick enough of them to do it without one. Interesting story (if only to me): the first person I ever knew who used nicotine patches, this 20 years ago or more when they were still prescription, was a secret service man. George Bush I was president and came to Alabama to fish; he stayed in a private house near here, but some of his overflow, including his son, stayed at the hotel, a Marriott Courtyard, where I worked at the time. (I think that son was ‘W.’, but I can’t say for sure; at the time he wasn’t famous here.) In any case, some of the (not very secret) Secret Service guys hung out in the lobby with us, one of whom was probably in his late '50s and bummed a smoke from me. He said he was down from 4 _packs_ per day to 4 _cigarettes_ per day because of the patches. He said he’d guarded Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, and members of their families\* but had been sidelined to desk and surveillance duty that he hated by the time of Bush because he had become completely unable to run more than a few yards or walk up a flight of stairs without becoming hopelessly winded. The patches had enabled him to return from desk duty he hated to the bodyguard duty he liked, albeit a member of the family who was low-risk \*When I asked if he had any stories he could tell about them he gave me a polite “About ten thousand… but I kinda wanna draw my pension one day, so I won’t”. He did say (I couldn’t tell if it was with pride or embarrassment) that he wasn’t with Reagan when he was shot. The only story he told was one I later read an identical version of from Gerald Ford’s son Steven himself: this guy was one of the Secret Service agents who were playing cards with Steven Ford when Jimmy Carter was being sworn in, and when Carter’s inauguration was complete they put down their unplayed hands, said “See ya” to Steve Ford, and left. It was that sudden. (Ford Jr. knew it was coming of course.) [QUOTE=Shakester] When it comes to the intersection of individual brain chemistry and addictive substances, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Anyone who says there is… is trying to sell one. [/QUOTE] A more general tweaking of this- “Anybody who says there’s a one-size-fits-all solution to any complex problem is trying to sell one”- would be a great sig line or general ‘words to live by’ adage. ---
**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2012, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-smokers-who-have-successfully-become-non-smokers-how-did-you-do-it/608978/76 "2012-01-10T21:18:05Z")
15+ year ex-smoker. Quit with Chantix, and will be a year smoke-free in May. Still get a lot of cravings and in the interest of full disclosure, have bummed a cigarette twice in the past 8 months, both times at social events. The second time had me coughing and hacking like I’d never smoked, which was a great sign. Even with the cravings, I’ve no intention of ever buying a pack again. ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2012, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-smokers-who-have-successfully-become-non-smokers-how-did-you-do-it/608978/77 "2012-01-10T21:55:13Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Basically cold turkey, though I went through about two rolls of life savers per day for about six months. Oh MAN - for me it was Dum-Dums, you know those little lolly-pops? Man I was NEVER without a pocket full of those for about 6 months. ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2012, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-smokers-who-have-successfully-become-non-smokers-how-did-you-do-it/608978/78 "2012-01-11T02:40:23Z")
> [@ugly ripe tomato](#): > > Cold turkey, and lollipops because of the oral fixation. I was in college and couldn’t have afforded nicotine gum or patches. > [@zoid](#): > > Oh MAN - for me it was Dum-Dums, you know those little lolly-pops? > Man I was NEVER without a pocket full of those for about 6 months. Altoids for me - thank god I could get them by the case at Costco. Then my dentist looked in mouth and announced that if I were a horse, he would shoot me. I switched to sugarless mints - but I still am addicted to peppermint 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2012, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-smokers-who-have-successfully-become-non-smokers-how-did-you-do-it/608978/79 "2012-01-11T02:51:02Z")
Nicotine gum. Worked. Symptons ebbed after about a month. It was my first time to quit smoking, and this May will make 20 years smoke-free. Being around smokers doesn’t even bother me, although it really is a nasty habit. The real trick, I think, is _really_ to want to quit. And I mean REALLY. I’d smoked 16-1/2 years, but my reckoning I was getting close to 20 “pack years.” A pack year is based on one pack a day for a year. Smoke two packs a day, and in one year you’ve done two pack years. Etc. And an epidemiologist of my acquaintance told me the really nonreversible damage started after 20 pack years. I was getting tired of the expense anyway. Decided it really was time to stop. Good luck to you! You won’t regret it. ---
**Author:** ![Kiwi\_Fruit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kiwi_fruit/32/12_2.png) [@Kiwi\_Fruit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiwi_Fruit)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2012, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-smokers-who-have-successfully-become-non-smokers-how-did-you-do-it/608978/80 "2012-01-11T02:57:38Z")
I used patches for 4 weeks. The NZ Quitline programme allows for two lots of patches, 4 weeks at each level but for some reason the prescription I had would only allow the fill of the second lot of patches after a calendar month. What crazy shit was that? Anyhow, I used the first lot of patches and never bothered getting the second lot. I did have lozenges to use after the patches had finished, but I think I still have many boxes of those in a drawer somewhere and only had to use a box or less (36 lozenges in a box). Just two years since I stopped and have never wanted to start again. I had smoked a pipe for nearly 30 years, after 5 years or so on cigarettes. Couldn’t really stand cigarettes as they made my mouth really dry. A packet of pipe tobacco is now more than $50 so I can’t see me starting again. Each year the tax on tobacco goes up, making smoking really expensive to keep up and, we hope, too expensive for young people to start. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-smokers-who-have-successfully-become-non-smokers-how-did-you-do-it/608978.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-smokers-who-have-successfully-become-non-smokers-how-did-you-do-it/608978.md?page=5)