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Were you a heavy (1 pack cigs or more a day) smoker? Yes. Close to 2 packs a day.
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How long has it been since you quit? Since 1986.
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What caused you to quit? A scary racing pulse while doing a fairly easy mountain hike in Southern California at age 23. My body should not have reacted that way, and I decided my heavy smoking might have something to do with it. Also moving from Wisconsin, and a smoking-oriented culture, to smoking-unfriendly California helped me to quit. All of my smoking friends were back home, and most of my California buddies didn’t smoke, so I had a great support network in place conducive to successful quitting.
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Do you still crave tobacco and smoking? In times of great stress, I still do wish for a cigarette.
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If you do still crave, how often do you think about it? Maybe about 5 or six times a year. Only when upset about something.
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If you do still crave, what helps you get over it? Crafts, artwork, doing something useful with my hands. A brisk walk or workout can help too.
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Do you feel that you may someday fall off the wagon? I did quit once before in my late teens, for one year, and started up again with a vengeance after a bad breakup. But this time, I think I’ve quit for good. It’ll be 22 years on August 19th.
- Were you a heavy (1 pack cigs or more a day) smoker?
Yes - How long has it been since you quit?
December 7, 2006 - What caused you to quit?
Cancer (mine) - Do you still crave tobacco and smoking?
No - If you do still crave, how often do you think about it?
n/a - If you do still crave, what helps you get over it?
n/a - Do you feel that you may someday fall off the wagon?
No
- Yeah, averaged a carton a week. Lucky Strikes Filtered. Not long tho’, maybe three or four years.
- Almost 20 years.
- I’d get horrible coughs (and walking pneumonia once). Plus, it was expensive and kinda gross. And honestly, there was a bit of a class element to it as well. THe only people I knew who smoked were hipsters and rednecks.
- Not really. I kinda miss the rituals but that’s it.
- n/a
- n/a
- Nah, it’s been so long, it’s almost like I never smoked. I’ll even very occasionally bum one at a club and while I enjoy it, it makes me feel icky and I hate how my clothes smell the next day.
- No, 1/2-3/4 a pack per day.
- Ten years, nine months.
- Cost, health issues, and the feeling of being enslaved to the damned things.
- Nope.
- It might occur to me in passing once every six months or so, if I’m under stress or watching an old movie where everybody is puffing away like smokestacks.
- I don’t, but I used the patch to quit over a period of months. What helped me the most after that was to develop a deep, abiding hate for cigarettes.
- No.
1. Were you a heavy (1 pack cigs or more a day) smoker?
Roughly 2 packs/day.
2. How long has it been since you quit?
25 years (almost exactly)
3. What caused you to quit?
Tired of the smell and cough
4. Do you still crave tobacco and smoking?
No, not really
5. If you do still crave, how often do you think about it?
Never.
6. If you do still crave, what helps you get over it?
N/A
7. Do you feel that you may someday fall off the wagon?
Nope. I’m quit as quit can be.
- Were you a heavy (1 pack cigs or more a day) smoker?
I smoked a pack a day for a few years, but had recently cut back to 3-4 packs/week. I smoked, in total, for about 9 years.
2. How long has it been since you quit?
Three weeks today. Eee. fingers crossed
3. What caused you to quit?
Funny story. I got that horrible flu that everyone has been coming down with and I literally couldn’t breathe enough to light a cigarette. I went to Urgent Care to get a note for my employer and while I was there I was reading one of those laminated posters they have on the wall. It was all about preventing heart disease and near the bottom it mentioned that the #1 thing you can do to improve your health is to quit smoking. Shit, I thought… that’s gonna be easier than the whole exercise/food thing! (Still working on both of those) And since I didn’t even want a cigarette for the next few days due to my flu, I was able to codeine sleep my way through the worst of it.
- Do you still crave tobacco and smoking?
Yes. It was a comfortable habit and it gave me a sense of familiarity that I miss.
- If you do still crave, how often do you think about it?
About 3-4 times a day on a good day. About every 20 mins on a bad day.
- If you do still crave, what helps you get over it?
My closest friends are still smokers. I sit near them when they smoke sometimes and just… breathe. It helps a bit. I also make a concerted effort to inhale and exhale deeply (when I’m alone), realizing that sometimes I think I just missed inhaling air with purpose.
7. Do you feel that you may someday fall off the wagon?
I’m definitely concerned. I quit for several months a couple of years ago and then had to take an unplanned and stressful car trip to visit my dad who had suffered from ARDS** brought on by pneumonia and a stubborn refusal to see the doctor until he couldn’t walk. Oh, the irony of smoking 2 packs of cigarettes during an 8 hour drive to see someone whose lungs are failing. 
**He’s mostly recovered now (has some memory problems and gets winded easier than he used to) and he’s very proud of me for quitting again.
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Were you a heavy (1 pack cigs or more a day) smoker?
Yes, about 1.5 packs a day -
How long has it been since you quit?
1 year -
What caused you to quit?
A frank conversation with my doctor, some serious looking at myself and a Chantix prescription -
Do you still crave tobacco and smoking?
Tobacco no, smoking…occasionally I miss being a smoker, but not the actual smoking part of it. -
If you do still crave, how often do you think about it?
Once every six weeks or so? If that. -
If you do still crave, what helps you get over it?
Remembering how much better I feel, hearing coworkers who smoke cough that nasty wet sounding cough. Remembering how colds seemed to linger - I had a cold last week and it’s gone this week. A year ago, it would have lingered for another three weeks with the coughing. -
Do you feel that you may someday fall off the wagon?
I don’t think so. Knowing how much better I feel and how much I’m not spending on them, not to mention how stinky I’ve realized it is - and I didn’t realize when I was smoking that I probably stank that much.
1. Were you a heavy (1 pack cigs or more a day) smoker?
By the time I quit, I was at 1/3-1/2 a pack a day. Before that, I smoked a pack daily but tapered it down a little.
2. How long has it been since you quit?
March 2005 so it’s been three years, give or take.
3. What caused you to quit?
Couple things. One was that my son was getting older and, even though I kept my smoking to when he wasn’t around (hence the decrease to 1/3 pack) I knew he’d be old enough to know that “Daddy smokes”. Also, I was interested in a lady who was very much against smoking. We were married last Sept so it paid off 
4. Do you still crave tobacco and smoking?
Yup.
5. If you do still crave, how often do you think about it?
Not real often. Usually when I’m relaxing and just remember the feel of it in my fingers and the taste of it. You’d think that stressful situations would make me want to smoke but really it’s the idle times.
6. If you do still crave, what helps you get over it?
Quitting sucked. Hard. Not just mentally but the physical effects were terrible and I felt like absolute shit for weeks after I quit. My lungs aches, I had trouble breathing, I was wracked by dry coughs, etc. Fuck no, I ain’t doing that again.
7. Do you feel that you may someday fall off the wagon?
Nah. I’ve had my chances and was even once out with my wife visiting friends where she said she’s “understand” if I had a cigarette since they all smoked. Smoking isn’t something you really do on accident and I think I can stop myself before I’m puffing away.
Although now I want a cigarette :smack:
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Were you a heavy (1 pack cigs or more a day) smoker?
Around a pack a day, give or take. -
How long has it been since you quit?
Since the first week of January. -
What caused you to quit?
Thinking about all the money I was burning that I could be using for other things. Also, standing outside smoking in the winter in Maine is just pathetic. -
Do you still crave tobacco and smoking?
Not the tobacco, but the act/ritual of smoking. -
If you do still crave, how often do you think about it?
Only if I’m VERY stressed/frustrated/otherwise emotional, and only because I’m used to the habit of walking away, going outside, lighting up, and calming down. -
If you do still crave, what helps you get over it?
I just remind myself that I no longer smoke. -
Do you feel that you may someday fall off the wagon?
Nope, because falling would be an accident, and I’d almost certainly jump. Honestly, I guess I’m strange because as much as I liked smoking, I didn’t really have a hard time stopping. People even commented to me that I must be “cheating” because I wasn’t miserable or bitchy. I smoked most of a cigarette a week or so ago with a coworker. I don’t consider that falling(or jumping) off the wagon any more than I would consider someone who tries their first cigarette a “smoker”. I was not physically addicted at that time, and that one cigarette did not cause me to want another. I would have to make an effort to start smoking again, in other words.
I just came in here to make the obligatory recommendation for smokers who are trying to quit: reading the book “Allen Carr’s Easy Way to Stop Smoking” Available for free in your local library or for 12 bucks at any bookstore. Now that the search function is up again, just search the SDMB. You’ll find tons of glowing recommendations like these ones.
- Were you a heavy (1 pack cigs or more a day) smoker?
For about 3 months before I quit… before that 2 a day for a year or so
2. How long has it been since you quit?
15 years.
- What caused you to quit?
wanted to test my will power. 
- Do you still crave tobacco and smoking?
No - If you do still crave, how often do you think about it?
N.A
6. If you do still crave, what helps you get over it?
N.A
7. Do you feel that you may someday fall off the wagon?
No
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I smoked more than a pack a day at one time, but I was down to about a half a pack a day when I decided to quit altogether.
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It’s been one year and twenty days since I quit. (Hey, John Carter! Didn’t know we were suffering through this together!)
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What caused you to quit?
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A brain aneurysm convinced me to quit. I was waiting for test results and at the bargaining stage. I thought maybe quitting would make a difference.
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I miss the act of smoking on my front porch and I guess my system would still like a little nicotene.
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I don’t really “crave.” But I think about the act of smoking three of four times a day.
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If smoking is really on my mind, I have an artificial “cigarette” that I carry with me. It is menthol flavored and the draw on it is adjustable. It contains no tobacco and is not lighted. Also, my granddaughter has quit now. I can’t smoke as long as she doesn’t!
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Do you feel that you may someday fall off the wagon?
Yes, but not now. Not today.
1. Were you a heavy (1 pack cigs or more a day) smoker?
Yes - before I quit, I must have been on about thirty a day - (rolling my own, so harder to keep track of the number)
**2. How long has it been since you quit? **
I quit smoking nearly twenty years ago (having picked it up in my teens and carried it on for maybe four/five years or something).
3. What caused you to quit?
I just decided it wasn’t something I wanted to be doing all my life, so I stopped doing it.
4. Do you still crave tobacco and smoking?
5. If you do still crave, how often do you think about it?
6. If you do still crave, what helps you get over it?
At first, this happened a lot, but it’s diminished to almost nothing now - very occasionally and in contexts such as an evening in the pub, I get a very slight twinge of reckless craving, which I dismiss easily with the memory of how ill I felt after the last time I gave in to the craving.
7. Do you feel that you may someday fall off the wagon?
Not at all. I made the conscious decision to give up and I did so without any assistance from patches, gums, hypnotists etc - I came to the conclusion that smoking was a deliberate behaviour, and therefore one that I can and will deliberately choose to avoid.
- Were you a heavy (1 pack cigs or more a day) smoker?
Yes - 20 cigs a day - How long has it been since you quit?
6 1/2 years - What caused you to quit?
rising expense - Do you still crave tobacco and smoking?
No - If you do still crave, how often do you think about it?
n/a - If you do still crave, what helps you get over it?
n/a - Do you feel that you may someday fall off the wagon?
nope
Were you a heavy (1 pack cigs or more a day) smoker?
A pack a day, usually.
How long has it been since you quit?
About 18 months.
What caused you to quit?
Time. I hated the waste of time involved in smoking. When can I sneak in a cigarette? Where is smoking allowed? Do I have enough cigarettes to get through this event? Bah, a colossal waste of time and brainpower
Do you still crave tobacco and smoking?
Not at all. Sometimes I miss having that reason to go outside, though.
Do you feel that you may someday fall off the wagon?
No, I really don’t. I don’t miss it at all, and life for smokers in the US is going to become such a royal PITA that I can’t imagine wanting to go back to it. One exception, though: Purgatory Man and I have a deal that if either of us gets a terminal illness, that person gets to smoke.
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Were you a heavy (1 pack cigs or more a day) smoker?
At my worst, I was at a little more than a pack a day. -
How long has it been since you quit?
I quit for significant periods about seven times before it “stuck”. (I noticed that the trigger that always sent me back was anger. That FTW attitude.) I’m thinking the last time I quit was about three years ago. -
What caused you to quit?
I always felt a lot of guilt about smoking, so when the guilt outweighed the pleasure, I quit. Also, my family and husband never approved of my habit. I was always hiding it from someone. Once, I quit because I had a job that kept me running so hard I plain didn’t have the time! -
Do you still crave tobacco and smoking?
This time? No. -
Do you feel that you may someday fall off the wagon?
I never say never, but a couple of years ago I married a very heavy smoker (in fact, I fell off the wagon for a while when we were dating). These days, I notice that his smoke gives me a headache, his ashes dirty up our house, his coughing wakes both of us up at night, his habit wastes our time and money. I expect there will come a time when I’ll have to watch him die a painful death. It doesn’t seem that he has any intention of quitting, and I don’t nag, because I do understand, but it’s very clear to me how much better off we’d all be without it.
[ol]
[li]Up until the last six or eight months before I quit, I was a pack a weekday, more on the weekend for four or five years.[/li][li]I last smoked sixteen years ago, and it had been months since the last smoke before that.[/li][li]I had heart problems before I started. I guess I got through my self-destructive years. Moving to the mountains helped, either through a change of lifestyle. or a whole lot less available oxygen.[/li][li]No. Quite the opposite, actually.[/li][li]Not at all. Sometimes I’ll find myself “ashing” a pen, but the smell of smoking and smokers is quite unpleasant these days.[/li][li]In the early days, biking helped craving. Any exercise, really. Nothing like a good coughing spell to renew commitment to quitting.[/li][li]I can’t picture myself ever wanting to smoke again.[/li][/ol]
As a side note, I’ll quote the best advice I ever got about quitting smoking: “The only way to quit smoking is to quit smoking.” Not put another cigarette in your mouth. Ever. I was always kind of amazed by that clarity.
It sounds obvious, doesn’t it, but apparently it isn’t. I’m sure my attitude is severely biased by the fact that I just understood this when I gave up, but I’ve seen so many colleagues and friends make all sorts of elaborate plans and schemes for how they were going to give up smoking, only to fail when they tried - often on the lamest of excuses.
Complex plans have more potential points of failure than simple ones. Not putting cigarettes in your mouth again is about as simple a plan as can be.
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Were you a heavy (1 pack cigs or more a day) smoker?
Yes. -
How long has it been since you quit?
4 or 5 years. -
What caused you to quit?
Cost, health. -
Do you still crave tobacco and smoking?
I don’t so much crave tobacco as I crave a smoke. The habit, the routine, the ritual of it. -
If you do still crave, how often do you think about it?
Mostly if I’m around people who are smoking, or if I’m driving a long distance. I don’t find myself thinking “Wow, I could kill for a smoke” in general though when stressed. -
If you do still crave, what helps you get over it?
Nothing really, I just don’t give in. I chew a straw or something if I’m at a bar. -
Do you feel that you may someday fall off the wagon?
I could. But I remember how hard quitting was and that makes it a bit easier to not cave.
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Were you a heavy (1 pack cigs or more a day) smoker?
Yes. And for about 20 years. -
How long has it been since you quit?
5 weeks -
What caused you to quit?
Couldn’t breathe easy anymore -
Do you still crave tobacco and smoking?
Sometimes. But it’s getting better. I have been smoking since my eary teens, and there hasn’t really been a time in my whole life that I haven’t used smoking in times of happiness, stress, fear, boredom, whatever. So I expected the worst. But it isn’t at all that bad. -
If you do still crave, how often do you think about it?
Not as often as I did in the beginning. Maybe 1x per hour now? Not even that much. Sometimes I surprise myself - Hey! I haven’t thought aobut it in 8 hours! I have a lot of mind tricks that I use on myself. I’m like drug addicted jedi. -
If you do still crave, what helps you get over it?
I think: If I don’t do it this time, I never will. Also, I remember that no matter what my nicotine addiction would like me to think (that it’s cool, I can have just one, etc.) and that it’s actually disgusting and I am paying up the nose to die in an iron lung. I also remind myself that I don’t want to be that older smoker. Wrinkly, yellowed, constant smokers cough, etc. -
Do you feel that you may someday fall off the wagon?
I fear it. Looking at it from the one day at a time perspective helps. And knowing that big tobacco has been lying to the public for some time and using their own mind tricks similar to brainwashing on us.