I went through about 2 packets of chewing gum a day. I tried the nicotine gum but preferred just chewing gum vigourously every time I felt like a cigarette. Good luck dude
My Dr. gave me a six-month prescription. The Chantix literature describes a 12-week treatment, but that’s not locked in stone. Some people stop the Chantix sooner, some use it for up to nine months and counting. It’s an individual thing.
You can go to www.quitnet.org. They have groups there called “clubs”. You have to register to check out the clubs, but it’s free. There’s a Chantix User’s Club and an After the Chantix Club, both full of informative posts and helpful posters.
I’m at 60 days smoke free today. Never, ever had a quit this easy or last this long. I cut the Chantix dose down to 1/2 last week, but I don’t feel like getting off of it just yet.
Good luck, whatever method you decide to use. I’m elated with the feeling of FREEDOM!
You’re not a smoker are you? I’m guessing you’ve never been a smoker. If you want to know what it feels like to try to quit smoking, take a deep breath. Now, stop breathing. It seems easy at first. You have all the oxygen you need for the first 10-20 secs. But, like Ghandi said, it is easy to preach of fasting on a full stomach. As you approach 30-40 secs, you will start thinking that you may want to take another breath. After about 50 secs, you will say to yourself that this is stupid, and there is an easy way to stop the suffering. After about a minute, you will take another breath.
What does this have to do with smoking? Your brain is very powerful. It will tell you what is important. It will tell you that you need to have another cig to live a normal life. And, since it is your brain, you will believe it.
It just really pisses me off when a nonsmoker tells me that if I don’t like smoking, then just don’t smoke. It is not that easy. It is a drug. Smokers are addicted.
If not smoking were as easy as not raising the cig to your mouth, there would be a shit ton less smokers.
I am, in fact, a reformed smoker. On and off for 10 years.
I realize it’s very difficult to quit and I struggled with it many times.
I know my point sounded like an oversimplification, but what I was trying illustrate is that ultimately it boils down to physically not smoking and if a person can jump past the patches and the pills and simply go cold turkey, then great.
Actually, I strongly suspect Shamozzle was a smoker once. I have met smokers who quit cold turkey and think everyone can. I quit cold turkey, but I know most people can’t. If I’d had to work that week I couldn’t have. I feel lucky I quit (two years ago now, after over a decade smoking hard and loving it), just like I feel lucky I don’t have to pay attention to what I eat to keep from getting obese. I could start smoking again any time. I think about it every day. But I remind myself, it’s the easiest thing in the world NOT to do something. Just be lazy. Anyway, for some ex-smokers, it’s like they think they deserve a fucking medal for no longer being a junkie. (EDIT: I do not mean Shamozzle, who has clarified while I was posting; I initially read the tone as drill sergeant-ish myself, but see that it wasn’t intended that way). It’s not some huge triumph of the willpower, and looking at it in that way will probably make it harder. It’s like cleaning out grout from between shower tiles; arduous, seemingly impossible, incredibly worthwhile when you somehow reach the end. I miss cigarettes, but I don’t miss being a smoker, not for one second of my hopefully increased life.
Carrying around a bottle of water with a “sport top” is what worked best for me, as it mimicked the act of smoking by giving me something to raise to my mouth and suck on. Besides, water is really good for you!
Also, I know this sounds silly, but don’t forget to DEEP BREATHE! Cigarettes themselves do not relax you, seeing as how nicotine is a stimulant. What is relaxing and stress-reducing about smoking is the deep breathing. Draw a slow, deep breath, hold it for several seconds, then slowly blow it out. If you need to (5 years later I even sometimes still do this myself), hold your fingers up to your mouth as if you had a cigarette in your hand while you do this exercise, but whatever technique you use, just breathe.
Wishing you the best of luck!!!
Another supporter of the cold turkey method here. Any time I want to smoke I eat a cold turkey sandwich.
Seriously, though; as a ex smoker who quit last October, I want to say that you people who quit for 5 or 10 years and then started again are bumming me out. This time I really thought I was done with it and I can’t imagine starting again. Seeing how easy it is for others even after all that time is scary.
I think the question of whether someone can quit cold turkey is one of how much punishment and suffering a person is willing or able to withstand. It certainly sucks, but it gets the job done.
Why suffer like that if you can take a pill and make it easier? This isn’t a moral issue, where you should just tough it out and if you don’t, you’re taking the easy way out. Quitting smoking is an absolute good, IMO. Very rarely in life is there a pill you can take that can solve a problem for you to such great benefit. This is one of those instances (for quite a few people, apparently). Why not let modern medicine help you improve your life? The scrip cost my BF $40/month. Cheaper than smokes in every way.
I wasn’t suggesting it was a moral issue. If the pills work, then great.
I was just thinking in terms of saving time and money and getting to the point, that’s all.