How did you STOP smoking?

[FiestaST]

I have an "issue" whereby I am incredibly judgmental of smokers.

It is what it is, I own it.

An end of an era.

 

[RaptorSA]

Yeah, nicotine is brutal mistress…
Same for me, but I did quit a few times, but started again sigh. It’s expensive now and actually quite stupid to continue, simply given the inflated cost of habit. The only benefits actually lie in the nicotine part, not the smoking section hehe. Very soon I’ll be 50. It’s probably time. When they pull another plandemic, I’ll get some patches))

I bought some nicorette's yesterday, just in case.
I was adamant not to use them, but....

Thank god I did because at some point my brain was basically telling me it was going to die so one of them combined with some pacing around the garden took the edge off a bit. Thanks to the AI prompting, I also learned that if you use a nicotine gum correctly about 90 mins before bed, you can bypass most of the insomnia issues and vivid, restless dreams that many people get as your brain rewires.

I think it works, 'cause I tried it last night and slept like a baby.

 

[Jean Claude Vaaldamme]

I don't think nicotine is the problem, the habit is more of a problem.
I have been vaping for many years and quickly reduced the nicotine to 0%. That was easy. Trying to stop the sucking and blowing smoke and keeping your hands busy is the real problem.
I have started putting nicotine in my vape juice again, just because the juice taste better, but at 0.5%. Its almost nothing

 

[borro]

I bought some nicorette's yesterday, just in case.
I was adamant not to use them, but....

Thank god I did because at some point my brain was basically telling me it was going to die so one of them combined with some pacing around the garden took the edge off a bit. Thanks to the AI prompting, I also learned that if you use a nicotine gum correctly about 90 mins before bed, you can bypass most of the insomnia issues and vivid, restless dreams that many people get as your brain rewires.

I think it works, 'cause I tried it last night and slept like a baby.

I tried that, but it set off insane heartburn each time. And patches way too pricey. Should probably move back to Russia each winter again, going for a smoke outside in - 30 sure makes one cut down hehe. Smoked very little there. Each time I came back it was like cool I can smoke while I work again… chaining.

 

[RaptorSA]

I have an "issue" whereby I am incredibly judgmental of smokers.

It is what it is, I own it.

An end of an era.

Trust me, smoker's couldn't possibly care less.
People can s**t on smoking all they want, but only true smokers know that there are, or were, incredible societal benefits to the habit.
This was especially true if you were in the rat race, in an office environment.

It's also now one of the reasons I want to quit. I've been working at home for 6 years, so those benefits are long gone... the pigeons outside don't give a flying f**k about my pointless smoke break.

 

[borro]

Trust me, smoker's couldn't possibly care less.
People can s**t on smoking all they want, but only true smokers know that there are, or were, incredible societal benefits to the habit.
This was especially true if you were in the rat race, in an office environment.

It's also now one of the reasons I want to quit. I've been working at home for 6 years, so those benefits are long gone... the pigeons outside don't give a flying f**k about my pointless smoke break.

 

[Mike Hoxbig]

I did recreational drugs in my younger days, for about two years, if I recall correctly. Coke, khat, that kind of stuff.
Nothing crazy, but things that are supposed to be considered highly addictive if you do it over such a long-ish period...

Quitting that was an absolute no-brainer. Barely an inconvenience.
Everything I suspected never happened.... but smoking, smoking is the motherf**ing boss of all addictions. It still feels unreal that I'm even attempting this, but dear lord, even if I'm OK dying from it, I physically don't want to keep feeling like this on my way there. I got s**t to do, and this habit has now finally gotten to the point where it's not enhancing my daily experiences, it's actively crippling me and has become an annoyance.

I've been inadvertently blessed with genetics from my mom's side that makes me look younger etc. than I am (I only got 10 new chest hairs in my mid-40's, true story). So I need those genes to do their thing and repair some damage while there's still some time.

Find a motivating factor. Whenever you feel for one, think about that. For me it's my kid being 6 while I'm 43. I need to be around at least until he graduates university, I did it for him not me. 8 months free so far, my longest stint of quitting yet. Still get the cravings but don't think I'll ever go back to it.

My doctor prescribed a 6 month repeat of an antidepressant called Voxxra. Apart from putting me off cigarettes it also helped my mood, which definitely helped with the irritability of quitting.

Just an FYI for anyone else this might help. Champix was previously removed from the market for a few years as you might know. It's now back, but rebranded to Cabrexxa. It works but obviously check with your doctor first...

 

[Splinter]

I got COVID. Haven't had a cigarette since then. Amazingly, haven't had the desire for one either. Been over 3 1/2 years now.

 

[RaptorSA]

I got COVID. Haven't had a cigarette since then. Amazingly, haven't had the desire for one either. Been over 3 1/2 years now.

I haven't even had a head cold since 2019.
I'm going to be so utterly f**ed when I finally do get COVID or some other modern Flu strain... eish.

 

[dabean]

I got COVID. Haven't had a cigarette since then. Amazingly, haven't had the desire for one either. Been over 3 1/2 years now.

COVID made KFC smell/taste like petrol to me.

I wish it had done something about tobacco. I’ve stopped 3 times in the past 30 years for a total of around 5 years.

My problem is that it’s always been cold-turkey. Just stopped.

Easy to say you can stop anytime when in reality you don’t.

 

[Splinter]

I haven't even had a head cold since 2019.
I'm going to be so utterly f**ed when I finally do get COVID or some other modern Flu strain... eish.

Your nicotine levels are so high even the germs get sick from it

 

[Splinter]

COVID made KFC smell/taste like petrol to me.

I wish it had done something about tobacco. I’ve stopped 3 times in the past 30 years for a total of around 5 years.

My problem is that it’s always been cold-turkey. Just stopped.

Easy to say you can stop anytime when in reality you don’t.

I had a couple of stints of quitting smoking before COVID blessed me. Each time was cold turkey. Longest I lasted was a year or two, but still had the cravings during that time.

Now the smell of tobacco smoke is pretty disgusting.

 

[Smiggles]

Drinking lots of water helped me.

 

[The_MAC]

I don't have much skin in the game, but I smoked for 3-4 years in varsity. Woke up one day after an insane house party, mother of all hangovers, my long-hair (at that stage) reeked of smoke, since that day I never touched a cigarette in my life.

Vaping creeped into my life recently, and then I asked myself, what the F for am I inhaling all sorts of toxic substances into my lungs.. Tossed that.

Recently, I stopped drinking all together. I realised drinking was slowly increasing with frequency and intensity, especially when I am on leave. I love beer, and it goes very well with the running.

Since I run a lot, drinking, smoking simply do not fit into the lifestyle - so I decided to cut it out, and quite frankly, cannot list one disadvantage at this stage, other than saying non-alcoholic beer tastes like piss..

 

[RaptorSA]

I just said that's it, I'm not smoking anymore and did, same as drinking. Not sure how people make things out to be so hard.
You just stop

Unfortunately, this is not how it works, trust me, I wish it bloody was.

Some people are genetically, and by extension, physiologically much more susceptible to the effects of nicotine.
Even long before I started smoking, as a kid I hated the idea of smoking but was always drawn to it. I suspect it had something to do with low dopamine receptor counts and some kind of epigenetic memory that knows smoking is the most accessible and sustainable way of plugging dopamine gaps or controlling stress responses. That's why it makes sense that depression medication and smoking cessation is linked.

Unfortunately, smoking isn't just a successful campaign by big tobacco in from the 50's to the 90's, it's been a thing people do for at least the last 7000 years.

It can even serve as self-medicating a neurochemical gap without you knowing it based on how your dopamine receptors function, their baseline, your stress responses etc. etc.
There are loads of mechanisms involved in it, this is just one of them:

 

[RaptorSA]

Recently, I stopped drinking all together. I realised drinking was slowly increasing with frequency and intensity, especially when I am on leave. I love beer, and it goes very well with the running.

Let's not even go there.
I'm right now in the middle of a compounded struggle with both smoking and habitual weekly drinking that has grown into another bad habit.... and unfortunately for me, the idea of just dealing with one and then the other during the course of this year has just been me bulls**ing myself.

They are fundamentally intertwined, so I'm in for a motherf**er of a rough time.
Boredom is by far my biggest enemy on that front.

 

[airborne]

25 years of not just smoking, but being completely and utterly defined by it.
I got off a call with my sister on Monday night and realised I had chained almost 5 smokes in an hour.
That was it.... I can't do this anymore.... I went full retard.

I've been ramping up from 15-20 smokes a day to almost 2 packs in the last few months... it's almost as if I've been unconsciously speed running towards quitting while smoking even more on the way there.
The brain can be a f**ed up thing.

Smoking at that level must make you feel like utter garbage?!
I've puffed one or two every now and then in the past and I can feel their effects on my lungs and general well being, smoking 40 smokes a day would absolutely annihilate me.

 

[RaptorSA]

Smoking at that level must make you feel like utter garbage?!
I've puffed one or two every now and then in the past and I can feel their effects on my lungs and general well being, smoking 40 smokes a day would absolutely annihilate me.

It does, but the body adapts.
Also, the less you smoke, the worse it feels 'cause you're not numbing nerve endings as much or as often so it hides a lot.

 

[gogga_]

I got TB for the second time during COVID lockdown. I was smoking all the **** cigarettes on the black market and my lungs revolted. It became a case of stop smoking or die. I chose to live. I've been smoke free for five years now

 

[saor]

I bought some nicorette's yesterday, just in case.
I was adamant not to use them, but....

Thank god I did because at some point my brain was basically telling me it was going to die so one of them combined with some pacing around the garden took the edge off a bit. Thanks to the AI prompting, I also learned that if you use a nicotine gum correctly about 90 mins before bed, you can bypass most of the insomnia issues and vivid, restless dreams that many people get as your brain rewires.

I think it works, 'cause I tried it last night and slept like a baby.

Can also think about it this way:

An addiction is an opportunity to sharpen your will; like a samurai blade put to the test. Do what you need to, but also don't be afraid of facing the uncomfortable feelings, acknowledging them, then putting your blade to the stone despite them.