What are some things that helped you to quit smoking?

[petitedollbabee]

I’ve been a smoker for 5 years, but I had my last cigarette on Sunday (today is Wednesday) because I want to stop smoking, and the withdrawals are driving me a bit crazy.. I’m using low mg nicotine patches for this first week. Does anyone have advice or can provide links to things that helped them to make it through withdrawals?

Updates

6 mo

Thanks everyone for advice and tips. It’s been a week now since my last cigarette and I haven’t used nicotine patches for the last 3 days. Not really feeling any withdrawals now 😄

[Pyrofox]

Not my personal experience but my cousin in law (At least I think thats what it would be called) She stopped I think after becoming a proper part of my extended family. I never bothered to get the specifics but it wouldn't surprise me if that was a condition my aunt and her future husband at the times mom would have made. Seeing how my cousin as asthma mildly. And what I mean by mildly he's good in most situations even around like grills and stuff. Just probably best though not inhaling like cig smoke.

As to tips on how to quit. Well part of the ones I know more personally would be to start forcing if you are serious about quitting like cold turkey hard stopping prepare to almost hibernate through the withdrawls. As it can make you a bit sick. And to be clear the sickness is kinda a good thing and don't freak out if you have to cough up phlem. that's your upper like lung canals finally clearing. As a large part of the cost of smoking is ones upper lungs that you use to breathe technically got like little hair follicles in our lungs and in the like upper breathing tube these get clogged and heavy when you smoke a lot.

Part of the whole withdrawls and sickness is those are slowly VERY VERY SLOWLY getting unsticky. The trick and secret is to survive the like intial coughing and hacking. And eventually MAYBE if you are lucky you get to a point where it becomes a maybe once a day need to spit/hack up phlem.

If you can get past though the withdrawls and get to the point you are healtheir it is VERY VERY MUCH indeed if you are young enough you can reverse a lot of the damage. You might not get back to where its 2-3 mile running lung capacity but you probably can skip the need for breathing or eating through ones neck. Or the possibility of having a lung get removed.

[Billlewis]

The key to quitting smoking is to use another source to get your nicotine from. If you're stubborn, like a lot of people are, and say, 'Nope, I just want to quit everything', you'll still be smoking a year from now.

[petitedollbabee]

When you say another source, are you meaning things like nicotine patches, gum/lozenges?

[Billlewis]

I've used everything there is. Both the gum and the patches are useless, because you have to keep finding places to spit out the juice, and you can't swallow it or you'll get sick. Patches don't really work, either, because, number one, you control the dosage you're getting, and if you forget to take it off before you go to sleep, you'll be a zombie when you wake up.

[Billlewis]

The best way to quit is to switch over to vaping. Ignore the people who say vaping is just as bad, etc. That's a crock of shit. If you've been smoking for a long time, you may not be able to switch directly to vaping, because it's absorbed differently into your lungs, in which case you can use those nicotine pouches, like 'Ons', or 'Zyn', etc, until you've healed sufficiently to vape. That's what I did.'

[petitedollbabee]

I’ve tried switching to vaping in the past, did not go well. I’ve got asthma and for some reason vaping flares that up and I end up struggling to breathe, whereas smoking cigarettes has never flared up my asthma. Seems backwards, right? Ah well. Thank you for your advice. It’s actually very helpful.

[exitseven]

Tie this to something positive you are doing. Maybe you opened a savings account with all the money you would have spent on cigarettes

[exitseven]

Thanks for the MHO

[sage2021]

Ya know, smoking doesn't just cause lung cancer. They never tell people the other lethal medical conditions you can get just from smoking.

I finally had to quit a few months ago when an ultrasound showed I have an aortic aneurysm which could explode at anytime without warning and I will bleed to death.
When I asked my doctor how I got it he said smoking caused it.

I don't have a cough, so I never thought I had lung cancer, so I thought I was okay.
My sister died 5 years after she quit smoking when she contracted COPD. She was very sick. Bless her heart. I think she contacted COPD because everyone in her family smoked around her since she was young. So, their, and my, second hand smoke was in her house constantly and that's where she was.

I quit in 2015 because I had to stay in the hospital. Well, I had to stop! They put the nicotine patches on my back for me, and I didn't have any withdrawals.

As I wite this, I am still craving cigarettes. But the last one I had left such a bad taste in my mouth I said NO MORE!

They used to say if you get a craving, just sit and wait a couple of minutes and it will pass.

I don't know how you're going to stop, but I do know that millions of people have quit, so if they can do it, so can you.

[sage2021]

Also a good friend of mine quit cold turkey and never had withdrawals.

[Anonymous]

It took my sister getting pregnant to quit after failing multiple times. She ended up starting again a few years later, but only rarely. Her husband went cold turkey I believe (that or used patches for a very short period of time) and never started back up. I know a few people that replaced it with vaping. One guy whose parents forced him to smoke an obnoxious amount of cigarettes in a short period of time to where it made him sick and led to him quitting. Another girl who also went cold turkey and had to change when she went on break at work, stopped going to bars and who changed who she hung out with so that she wasn’t around it. I personally have never smoked so I can’t say what worked for me personally but that worked for them.

[midnightmoon05]

I took a puff back in HS. I was gross out by it. So that was that.
Chew gum? I don’t know.

my dad used to smoke … we moved to the states and he had to support us 6 with one income… that was a good incentive for him to quit completely.

have you done a budget how much is costing you? Hope that helps.

[Telekinetic-Potato]

I've heard that working out when you get a craving will do it. Specifically running. Might be a little impractical though 😂

I wish I had a good answer, nothing ever really got me addicted to the point where I couldn't stop. And I've done a bunch of stuff.

Maybe I'm weird, but I just feel, the craving, identify it's a craving and the knowledge that getting past the craving is one step closer to not getting them anymore is usually enough for me.

The longer the symptoms last, the closer you are to kicking it. I've gotten off cigarettes a bunch of times. You can definitely do it!

[GoodGuyBreakingBad]

If you are wearing them nicotine patches, make sure you don't smoke because it can be very dangerous for one to do. My aunt was rushed to the ER (Hospital) because she was wearing a nicotine patch, and she smoked and the nicotine in her system went to toxic levels, so just be careful.

[petitedollbabee]

Thank you for the warning. I’m wearing a 7mg nicotine patch, which is the lowest dosage that’s available here, and I’m not smoking while wearing it ☺️

[GoodGuyBreakingBad]

@petitedollbabee You are welcome, I know smoking is hard to stop, there is a medication called Wellbutrin is for depression but also prescribed for smoking so that is one thing to consider I know things are rough.

[GoodGuyBreakingBad]

@petitedollbabee Best Wishes :)

[Still-alive]

My mom just did it cold turkey one day. she tried everything herself, patches, gum, even music thats supposed to help you. but none of it worked. so she just stopped one day and never lit another cigarette again after.

Good luck! it ain't easy. one day at a time

[petitedollbabee]

I spent 2 weeks slowly cutting down my daily cigarette amount in preparation for quitting, but it’s still been so hard and I’m only on day 3 of no smoking. Your mom must’ve been truly determined to quit, I can’t imagine going through cold turkey withdrawals 🥲

[Still-alive]

Yeah me neither. but we are all happy she did so. she smoked around us as kids often growing up. But She quit just before all the grand kids started being born thankfully though.

[Still-alive]

Congrats! Keep it up!

[nonyabeez-wax]

Ngl, I used solitude to quit cold terky. I was unemployed at the time.

That being said; other things I also quit, like caffeine: I used Pepsi 12oz cans, went from 4 a day, to 3 a day, to 2 a day, to 1 a day, then 1/2, then done. Over the course of a month. Haven't had caffeine regularly in close to three years.

Sugary drinks I did the same thing over the course of a week.

It all comes down to self control.

Good luck, hope this helps.

[Danny_dan92]

Realizing that it is bad for me.




Constantly told myself that it will kill me. I was vaping, shit is so bad for you

[petitedollbabee]

I wish that reason worked for motivating me to stop unhealthy habits.

[Danny_dan92]

To be honest, it could be genetic

[Blueeyes81]

Desmoxin. It's an over the counter stop smoking aid. Hard to come by in the US but it worked better than anything else I tried.

[petitedollbabee]

I’ll look into that! I’m not in the US so I might have more luck finding it.

[Blueeyes81]

Sorry it's spelled Desmoxan. It goes by various other names depending on country.

[JackCarter]

Exercising helps I think
The main reason I had to quit was that I was getting gassed out real quick while running
Also watching scary and creepy videos of smoking consequences helped too!

[JackCarter]

You're doing good!
Good luck ✌️

[FunkyMonkee]

Try using chewing gum. Any time you want a nail, pop some gum into your mouth. Or, try nuts, instead.

[FunkyMonkee]

Groovy!! Glad to hear it! Depending on how long you've been smoking, it may take a while for your lungs to clean house but, I'm told marijuana helps clean them out.

[Nifrayu]

The patches are just going to prolonge your withdraw symptoms. The faster you get through them, the better.

[Anonymous]

why quit? smoking is one of life greatest pleasures
i chainsmoke more or less and every fresh one is as good as it was 35 years ago.
how many drugs can say that?
and after 39 years smoking i still haven't got cancer so doctors ere fullashit

[petitedollbabee]

I have a few reasons, one reason being money. I can’t keep affording $240 per week. And tobacco only goes up in price every year..

[Opinion Owner]

im a tobacco smuggler actually if you're australian, i smoke for 50 a week and i smoke a lot

[Opinion Owner]

brand new u. s tobacco in the original packet

[Opinion Owner]

what country are you in?

[Opinion Owner]

im a big believer that affordable smokes is a basic human right. Had to use the big brains on brad to make that belief a reality

[Anonymous]

I’ve never smoked, but I’ve talked to plenty of people that used to smoke, and the only thing that works is to quit cold turkey

[Anonymous]

Its 100% hard. I did it cold turkey. And quit drinking. 2 vices are harder. Did it for 3 years.

But it didn't last. I went back as soon as I started drinking again and around people who smoke.

[Nikki1989]

Willpower worked for me.

[LaFemmeFatale_1]

Never starting - helped.

[petitedollbabee]

Why comment.. 😂🤦🏻‍♀️

[davado88]

she is snide

[eagle1951]

willpower