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Tips and personal experience on stopping cigarettes.

2K views 19 replies 19 participants last post by  puzzledheart 
#1 ·
I want to stop but I have no Idea where and how to start (stopping). The will is midly there but i dont know which path to take? Cold Turkey? Meds? Patches? Anyone has their story to share?
 
#2 · (Edited)
I guess only you know which path to take, because different paths work in different ways for different people. Only you know yourself and what could work better for you. If you use patches then you might have to deal with quitting patches too. My boyfriend stopped smoking and started using patches and he's been using them ever since. When he wanted to stop the patches too, it was difficult and had to use them again.

I stopped smoking when I got pregnant, and at some point after I gave birth I kind of smoked again for a short amount of time, just because I missed the habit, but it literally felt as I was poisoning myself and I couldn't stand the smell or taste anymore. It was giving me headaches and nausea. And I don't want to do this to myself.

You need real motivation.
 
#8 ·
I was on and off for years starting at like 15. I'd smoke while drinking or getting high at parties... pretty much from 15-23 was on and off. I could smoke regularly for months and months and then just stop without any problems or serious cravings. I don't smoke at all now (25). It just makes my body feel like shit at this point.

It's mostly a mental/habitual thing. After 3 or so days of not smoking your body isn't physically addicted to nicotine anymore and, as with most addictions, it's just all in your head after that.
 
#11 ·
I quit smoking and now vape. I can vouch for it.

The health benefits are great (no more lung/chest pains; better breathing), its also much cheaper. Instead of paying $100 a month on cigarettes, I spend about $20 on vaping products (new atomizers/batteries + liquid). Once you get the hang of it, its so much better.
 
#12 ·
Hey, first and foremost you got the foundation of leaving cigs behind-- recognizing it's a problem. While I'm not an avid cig. smoker ( would smoke occasionally on and off back when depression wasn't managed), but my dad was for almost 42 years-- about one and a half packs a day. I also used to be a stoner with my own pipe and everything for a couple of years, but I stopped as well. How he and I stopped, and in my opinion how you stop anything all comes down to this--

You got to stop liking it. I know. That's so vague. But that's really all it takes. Somehow, you're going to have to get yourself to stop liking it. Maybe it's that really shitty smell. Maybe it's the amount of money you toss away per month for doing it. Maybe it's the hassle in the day and the time you waste either thinking of smoking a cig/smoking one. Something has to click. Otherwise, you'll never stop. My dad was in love with smoking-- so he was a bit different from you, and he didn't recognize the problem. It was only when he picked up the habit of jogging that he realized he could hardly run for 5 minutes because his lungs were so terribly damaged. He tried to smoke again, and ran. And running just didn't work. He then realized that he was done with cigarettes, he was done with how terrible his breathing was. Dropped 42 years just like that. Moved onto vaping w/o nicotine which is what he loves now.
Same here with weed. I used to be ADDICTED to weed. No joke. Weed and me were like a dog and its bone. Suddenly I made a connection. My grades are shit, my mental health is more shit, my already low energy is now nonexistent. All I was able to do was turn on the TV and stare. If I had to go to school, which i only went 30% of the time, I would throw on sweats, throw on a sweatshirt and not even brush my hair and leave. I realized I was fucking sick of this lifestyle. Weed would be fine every now and then, but personally-- I am not a person who benefits from daily use-- at all. So I smoked a few more times in a couple days, hated every puff, and said, "I quit. I'm sick of being a fucking potato that does nothing but cry for more weed and sea salt and vinegar chips." Threw out my pipe.

SO TLDR;
If you want to stop smoking, you gotta go cold turkey. It's something psychological. You're either all in, or you're not in at all. Best of luck. I reeeeeaaaallly recommend switching it over with vaping w/o nicotine. So much better tasting than both weed and cigarettes, honestly. My dad is proof and millions of others who have switched over are as well. @ _xxx_ really knows what they're talking about. Best of luck amigo, you can definitely do it.
 
#13 ·
Wow - I hope people's BS meters are off the charts. Every once in a while as a medical provider I just have to post something. Here is your vaping post of the day. It is 5 truths about vaping (seriously, don't vape) - it is from Johns Hopkins, one of the top medical schools and medical centers in the world.

Vaping vs. Smoking? Kind of like speeding down the highway without a seatbelt vs speeding down the highway drunk without a seatbelt.

Denada.
 
#15 ·
This may be an unpopular take, but I really don't believe in nicotine patches or gum. IMO the emphasis on physical dependency with addictions distracts from the mental aspect, which I think is ultimately what causes the most problems. Sure there's a physical withdrawal with nicotine, but all that really does is make you uncomfortable for a little while and that's going to happen anyway if you quit a long time habit. The problem with quitting IME is that you can't actually smoke, which is frustrating regardless of your nicotine intake, because you're making a drastic change in your daily habits that are very likely to be associated with relaxation. For example, the hardest moments for me were when I would always smoke, like with my morning coffee, or when drinking with friends. That's obviously a sign of a sort of Pavlovian mental conditioning, not so much of physical dependency: I was used to smoking in these situations, so I kept having the urge to smoke whenever I did them. I reckon it's better to pick up a new hobby to have a distraction for moments like those, than to try to mitigate the problem with some kind of alternative nicotine intake. Distract yourself from the fact that you want to smoke. Especially effective IME is a new hobby that includes physical exertion: that can allow you to channel the bursts of nervous energy into movement.
 
#16 ·
source: "medicineman9s very good health tips"

If you want to stop smoking, there is probably no easier way to achieve this than by using an electronic cigarette. You can also try to gradually reduce the nicotine dosage in the liquid to get off the nicotine completely. Even if you do not manage to get off the nicotine completely, at least you will reduce your intake of poisonous substances by 99,999% something compared to regular cigarettes. You will also save 50% of your money, at least in the long run.
The "trick" is that you can still smoke, you still get the nicotine and the "flash" and there is still a lot of manual and oral "action" involved, so basically "nothing will change", except 99,99% of the poison is gone and also the bad smell. Furthermore you can "smoke" everywhere, also in bars etc. and people wont mind, because the liquid in electronic cigarettes smells good :)
INFORM YOURSELF before purchasing a model and then buy a good starter kit (consisting of TWO individual elecronic cigarettes). There are a lot of mistakes a beginner can make, so inform yourself before you buy a starter kit or certain models. Always buy 2 (TWO) electronic cigarettes and not only one, otherwise you wont be able to make the switch, because when your electronic cigarette somewhen runs out of power, guess what you will do when you suddenly have nothing to vape / smoke and your electronic cigarette is recharging...you are inevitably going to run to your regular cigarettes again. Then the regular cigarettes will draw you in again, so always buy TWO electronic cigarettes so you can always vape if you feel "the urge". Do not get discouraged if you pick a "lemon model" or if you make beginners mistakes, you WILL get away from regular cigarettes VERY easily if you find the right model, pick the right liquid with the right nicotine dosage and learn to avoid the usual beginner mistakes :)
 
#17 ·
I was a chain smoker for 23 years, and I tried to quit many times. A couple of things helped me quit:

I was really fed up and ready. My chest hurt, my face was gray/green, and smoking got in the way of everyday life. For example, I had to cook with one hand (cigarette in other hand), and I didn't even want to have a shower because the cig would get wet.

Nowadays the inconvenience factor would be even greater, as there are so many places you can't smoke (including, for some people, their own home).

The other thing was a tip I read about somewhere. You choose a date, maybe 2 weeks in the future. You commit to quitting on that date. For the intervening 2 weeks, you don't try to cut down, and don't even worry about quitting. Then when the day rolls around, you quit!

In my case, something happened to upset me that day, but I did quit the very next day, April 16, 1992.

That time it was easy, no cravings, no withdrawal, just done.

I admit that I did smoke again for 3 months, when I was living with a heavy smoker in the early 2000s. But I didn't feel addicted that time and it was easy to quit.

I hope that helps. Good luck!
 
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