To add to my above post, I think a significant factor in my success was the way I “confused” my addiction with the multiple alternatives. I broke my old habit by trying all the alternatives, but not depending on any one at one time, and alternating them so as to never really get to form a habit. I don’t have anything like the routines and rituals I used to have with cigarettes when there were times and situations that ALWAYS triggered me to smoke.
I voted willpower alone, but what kicked it off was that I had a terrible cold/flu which made it impossible to get up to go outside and smoke (we didn’t smoke in the house) and I didn’t really care because I was mostly knocked out from NyQuil and couldn’t breathe anyway.
By day 4, I was feeling better but figured I’d slept through what is normally the roughest part of quitting so why go back now?
What helped me stay a non-smoker was something I read on this very message board. Someone said that quitting smoking was easy. You just had to decide that you would never put another cigarette in your mouth. I’d read a lot of books and dragged my feet for a couple of years (even successfully quitting for a few months) but when I realized it literally was just about keeping a tiny filter out of a 2" space in the universe (I’m estimating here), I relaxed a bit.
It’s been nearly 4 years now. I won’t lie. It took 3-4 months before I stopped reaching for a cigarette in my purse, 8-10 months before I stopped wanting to smoke (especially in stressful and/or social situations) but after that, aside from the occasional dream where I’m having a cigarette, I’ve no desire to light up.
Just passed 12 years.
I looked at myself the last year I smoked and found my “trigger” - in my case, I only “had” to have a cigarette when I was out. After I smoked my last cigarette in the pack, if I didn’t have any more, I had to run out and buy another pack NOW.
Admittedly, this is not the way to quit for everyone. I carried my last half pack with me for 6 months. And my Zippo lighter. So I was never “out” of smokes. And if I had the urge, I’d take one out, hold it, roll it through my fingers, put it to my lips, but I would NOT light it. And I’d keep my Zippo filled and ready to light at a moment’s notice.
For me it was the fear of not having another one, plus the ritual of preparing my smoking tools. Congratulations, Sampiro. Keep us informed. You CAN do it.
Chantix for me: I’d tried other options repeatedly and kept going back. I’m at almost 5 years off, and the slight irrationality I had as a side effect was well worth it (and I used it early, before they had all the warnings about possible mental side effects).
It’s very, very rare that I crave a cigarette now, and those are mental cravings, not physical ones. Like Alice The Goon, beyond how much better I feel, one reason I don’t even consider smoking anymore is knowing what my reaction would be. I have several family members who smoke, and when I visit family I often hang out outside with them while they smoke. After one night of that, my sinuses throb in pain. I can’t imagine what actually smoking would do to me.
Cold Turkey - smoked for 2 packs a day for 15 years and been off it for 10 years.
I got to a point where I really didn’t enjoy it any more. Shit was falling apart all around me and it was about the only thing I had control of, so I agreed to co-quit with Crunchy Frog (I think) from back in the day. I think we may even have agreed to it in a thread here somewhere.
I just stopped. I ate a lot of carrot sticks and apples and chewed through a cord of toothpicks and was about as irritable as I could possibly be, but after about two or three weeks I was pretty good. And I was a pack-and-a-halfer. Haven’t had once since.
Not too long ago I took a few drags off a friend’s sort of joking around and almost choked. I’m not sure which thought hit me harder: how could anybody stand that? or how fucking hard-core was I to suck down 30 of those a day?
I smoked for more than thirty years. In November 1998 I quit. I had tried a bunch of times before, and I think where I was failing was that I would “just have one.”
I used the patch for three weeks. It did not stop the cravings but brought them down to a level that I could handle. Whenever the craving would get a little hard to handle, I would figure out how many seconds it had been since my last cigarette.
After about two months, the cravings had stopped all together.
I am sure you can do it.
Cold turkey. But with a great incentive. I had a heart attack and I was convinced it was quit or die. That was getting on to 47 years ago, so I guess it worked. Of course, it was really quit and die later or die sooner.
I have a good friend who used nicotine gum. It worked, he stopped at least 15 years ago, but he said it was hard to give up the gum. My SIL quit cold turkey when my daughter said it was the sine qua non on marrying him.
I finally quit with Chantix. I’d done all of the other methods and never had any success. With Chantix it was fairly easy, and I think the medication helped flip a switch in my brain so I’ve never had a craving or the slightest desire to start back up. The only side effect I had with Chantix was slight nausea for a few minutes right after taking each dose and maybe a few funny dreams. The side effects I had from nicotine replacement products were much, much worse. I hope the cold turkey + Allen Carr approach works for you and have no reason to think it won’t, but don’t write off the medications just because of the poor press they’ve received.
My husband quit cold turkey; no nicotine replacement, no Chantix, no self-help books. That heart attack must have been very persuasive. 
My girlfriend (now wife) told me I needed to quit (with “or I can’t go out with you” implied). So I did. Cold turkey, after about 20 years. Haven’t smoked now for 13 years. Wasn’t/isn’t that hard.
Wellbutrin
During the quitting process it kept me stable enough to recognize that I wouldn’t actually die if I didn’t have a cigarette right-the-hell-now. For the actual quitting I used advice I heard somewhere to just wait until as late in the day as I could to have my first cigarette, and then smoke normally after. Finally my first smoke was after dinner and after being stuck there for 2 weeks I said “the hell with it” and stopped. Never looked back.
The overwhelming majority of “cold turkey” responses here mirrors the government and university studies I’ve found. Nicotine replacement (NR) and prescriptions definitely help some people quit, but apparently for most it is strictly “quitting by stopping”, which is interesting.
One thing I’ve found a lot, first noticing it in Carr but then in numerous objective articles, is that much of the drive towards NR is driven by the companies that manufacture them. Apparently it is really huge money.
Hot shit! I found it.
15 years a smoker, now 20 years non. Older Daughter had just been born, and I did not want any child of mine to have any positive associations with te smell of tobacco.
Cold turkey, but I transitioned the habit to Halls cherry cough drops. I found the habit was harder to quit then the addiction - get in the car, light up. Have a beer at a bar, light up. Go on lnch break at work, light up. Etc.
Best of lock. We’re all behind you.
Tobacco substitute for me.
I’d already gone from tailors to rollies (packets of smokes to packets of loose tobacco) and cut down to about 15 a day, I would have admitted to 8 a day at the time.
When I decided to quit I just kept topping up the tobacco pouch with the substitute until I wasn’t getting a ‘hit’ but still satisfied the ‘habit’. It took maybe three weeks till I wasn’t smoking any real tobacco at all.
Then I stopped the habit and cried for two weeks solid.
Easy!
I suppose it was the tapering off method, but I’d tried patches & cold turkey & gum & hypnotism etc and this was what worked for me.
9 years in April.
Quit about 10 years ago. I used the patch and it worked perfectly. The physical cravings weren’t there so all I had to deal with was the habit and triggers. I don’t know if I could have done it while being jittery from withdrawal. I used the patch exactly as directed and was off it in a month or so as directed.
Chantix, almost one year now.
I lived Chantix. It fried my brain and made me apathetic. I could give a shit about smoking. Or eating. Whatevs.
I sort of still miss smoking but just passively. “Aaaah I remember how nice smoking was.” Then I smell the sweet scent of my own clean hair and I’m over it.
Btw my motivation was birth control. They don’t want you to be a smoker and 35+ while you’re on the pill, so my desire to keep having sex without having kids won over my desire to smoke.
I tried cold turkey, but I fell off the wagon. I tried the patch and it didn’t work at all. Right now I’m using an electronic cigaret. It’s been about 2 months since I touched a real one, and I’m gradually using the electronic crutch less. My doctor has given it his conditional blessing, as long as I continue to cut down and never go back to a real cigaret.
I said Willpower - cold turkey, but it was really a far more gradual process.
I went from cutting down -> not smoking around the new boyfriend -> not buying cigarettes unless I was drunk -> not buying cigarettes at all -> turning down ones that were offered. It took about 3 years altogether. I haven’t had a cigarette in about 15 years now.
In Australia, there is a big ad campaign that says “every cigarette is doing you damage”. I figure that means that every one you don’t smoke is a win, damage avoided. A lot of people quit cold turkey, all at once, but it didn’t really work that way for me.
I quit cold turkey 13 years ago…and started back 6 years later. But, it did work for me for that long at least. When I resumed (really stressful couple of months), I went back to super ultra light girly girl cigs and only about 7-8 a day insted of lights @ a pack a day.
I suppose that could count as partial success.
ETA: Good luck, Sampiro! I want for you to be around for a long time to come. 