If you have given up smoking, How did you do it?

[irwtdt]

I really need to stop smoking, Not sure which way to go between patches, gum, ecig.

Anyone who has successfully given up, Which worked for you?

As PP said you have to want to do it and be prepared pyschologically.
I read Allan Carr's book but I wasn't ready. I'd tried at least 20 timess to give up before. Got to 40 and realised if i didnt stop now, I'd be a leather faced, grey, coughing old hag! With a mouth like a cats arse.
i used the nicotinell lozenges when I would normally go for one and became a rude recluse so i wasn't tempted by others! the social aspect was the hardest as all my colleagues smoke.
Took a good month or two to beat it but am 2.5 years smoke free!
And slightly plumper! but at least I have decent lungs now!!
good luck, it really isn;t easy. I still want one!

Alan Carrs book again. Can't remember how long I've stopped for but it's definitely over a decade now. Maybe once every year or two I get a vague reminiscent memory of enjoying it but that's it, it's been easy really. I also enjoyed the taste of food so much more after I gave up! Tomatoes especially. (I didn't actually eat more, just enjoyed what I did eat more iyswim). Good luck!

(Also before I gave up I had a really awful chesty cough and that put me off as I'm sure it was worse due to the cigarette gunk. It was grim).

Combination of champix and Allan Carr here too. Ten years this week (had my last cigarette at a significant age birthday party and they’ve just celebrated 10 years on otherwise I wouldn’t have a clue!) Have the odd dream, maybe once a year, that I’ve started smoking again and always so relieved when I wake up and realise it’s not true!

Hypnotherapy a whopping 18 years ago, not touched a fag since.

Vape for me - progressively cut down to 0% nicotine, then lost interest and gave that up too. Have no interest in ever smoking again (but I sometimes dream I've started again and am always very relieved to wake up and realise I haven't!! Anyone else?).

I’m another one who gave up after reading Allen Carrs Easy way to stop smoking.

I read it in august 2010, and have not had a ciggie since.

Ha - cross post, @Watermelonkindness! It's weirdly upsetting, isn't it?

Vaping and swearing. Then just swearing.

Can't do Alan Carr, the books are really badly written, boring and have fucking typos!

I gave up 4.5 years ago. I just stopped cold turkey but didn't drink for 3 months as they went hand in hand for me and I would have fallen off the wagon when pissed. Not had one since and don't miss it at all. O promised myself in my 20s that i would give up by 35. In the end it was 38 but I knew I didn't want you reach 40 still smoking.

DH who was a far more hardcore smoker than me gave up 3 years ago (I think getting high blood pressure that needs medicating in his 30s pushed him to make a change). He started by vaping and over time that tailed off and now he has given that up too.

@FetchezLaVache it really is!

Vaping never worked for me. I have too much of an addictive personality and so I'd end up vaping as much as smoking (or more because I could do it indoors) then then after a while, if I was out drinking I'd end up buying cigarettes and I'd go down that slippery slope again.

The only way I could do it in the end was getting the nicotine out of my system. I mostly went cold turkey during the day but had one of those plastic nicotine inhalers for when I was desperate and in the pub. Not the best, but I felt like it helped. Eventually I just stopped needing it.

To be honest though it was more to do with me being ready when I finally did it. I started smoking at 13 and quit at 36. In that time I must have tried to quit 100 times. Something changed in me though - I don't think if I'm honest with myself I really wanted to stop before, but this last time I really did so I felt like it was easier in a way. It's been over 3 years now and I just know I won't smoke again. The idea of it now feels so weird, whereas when I smoked, a life without cigarettes seemed like the most insane and unrealistic thing I could think of.

Whatever works though - we're all different. Good luck, you'll get there!

I used nicotine gum to manage my addiction while I quit the bad habit of smoking cigarettes. Then I gradually weaned myself off the gum. It was harder to quit cigarettes than to quit the gum, because I really enjoyed a cigarette with a beer.

I switched over to menthol cigarettes and then moved on to a mentho vape. I haven’t found a tobacco flavoured vape juice that I like, hence the menthol decision. Vaped for a year gradually reducing the nicotine strength. Just lost my dad so thought that might push me back on the cigarettes, I had one and hated it.

In the next month or so I will be on 0% nicotine. Best thing I ever did.

I didn’t get on with the big vapes, mine has a duck bill style mouthpiece, you might need to try both to see which you prefer if that is the route you choose.

Good luck!

I smoked from roughly the age of 14 to 30. I loved it! Tried to give up many times (often under pressure from other people) and failed many times.
I read Alan Carrs book like many of the above posters. I didn’t manage to give up straight after reading it (not long term anyway) but the message definitely stayed somewhere in my mind.
I was dreading giving up. Was partly feeling pressure from DH. In the end I said I’d give up when we moved house (so I had about a months ‘notice’). I think the fresh start really helped me. I probably used half a pack of lozenges (so much better than patches in my experience). I can’t quite explain why, but this time I felt like a non smoker from very early on, whereas previously I’ve just felt like someone giving up. Unfortunately I think this mental shift was the biggest help and I’m not really sure where it came from (like I said before I didn’t even want to give up particularly on this occasion)
Anyway it’s been ten years now and in that time I’ve lit 2 cigarettes- both in the first year. One was whilst very drunk and I stubbed it out after a few puffs because I wasn’t enjoying it. The second time was about 4 months after I’d stopped and again I’d been drinking. I had 3 drags and this time it made me so ill I had to sit down on the pavement in the middle of Camden high street. After smoking for 15 years - and smoking 20 a day for at least 10 years I had a whiteout after a few drags. My head was spinning and I thought I was going to vomit! This is possibly what fully cemented my status as a non smoker. In my head I am definitely a non smoker these days rather than someone who has given up. My Dd actually asked me
The other day if I had ever tried a cigarette and it felt so so strange to say that yes I had (I didn’t admit to the full extent of it).
Annoyingly my husband, who was only an occasional social smoker started smoking properly in lockdown.

I wish you all the luck op. Get Alan Carrs book if you haven’t already. Lozenges and gum give a better hit than patches. When I gave up vaping was such a new thing I didn’t even consider it so maybe that’s a help I don’t know about. View yourself as a non smoker.

Another one for cold turkey.

Both times () I have meaningfully quit have been cold turkey.

Before both times I have tried gum and patches, but the amount of nicotine wasn't enough for that hit when you most associate it out of habit, like after a meal and or with a drink..

So I prepared for a few hellish days and kept telling myself I wanted to not be a smoker more than I wanted a cigarette.

And it worked. (For me anyway )

Only took twice because after a couple of years of not smoking the first time I was arrogant enough to the addiction to think I could manage a couple of cigarettes here and there like 'social smokers'

But was pretty much back up straight away to the previous amount of smoking.

I have not smoked for almost 20 years, but just thinking about it now, there is still a bit of a crave, and could quite happily light one up right now and be drawn right back in.

It's not a desperate compelling draw (like when you first give up), but it it is still there regardless.

But it gets easier

I found the giving up smoking timeline helpful.

It showed me that basically after 72 hours the physical stuff lessened.

I knew I could cope with to three tough days

It’s all about having your head in the right space. If you’re doing it for someone else, it won’t work, no matter what method you try.

I tried Allen Carr/ champix/ NRT/ vaping countless times.
This time I went cold turkey. I’m 12 weeks in but am confident this time it will stick because I don’t want to be a smoker again. The first two weeks being in hotel quarantine and unable to go outside helped! It made me wonder why we don’t have rehab for smokers but have it for every other type of drug.

Apologies for the lack of paragraphs in the above message. They were definitely there when I wrote it!

I agree with a pp that Allen Carrs book is awfully written - but it’s a fairly simple read too so you don’t need to suffer it long!

7 years ago, went cold turkey. I had to stop drinking coffee at the same time as it was my early morning and break rituals.
First month was horrendous after that you make new habits. Be careful with going out/drinking. Inhibitors + peer pressure can undo very fast your hard work

@FetchezLaVache

Vape for me - progressively cut down to 0% nicotine, then lost interest and gave that up too. Have no interest in ever smoking again (but I sometimes dream I've started again and am always very relieved to wake up and realise I haven't!! Anyone else?).

Yes. I thought it was just me being weird

E cig
I smoked 30 a day by the time I quit and had smoked for 20 years. Couldn't even go half a day without
Used the e cig and got through 24hrs with it permanently attached to my face and then thought "well, I can't smoke again now"
That was it

Allan carr book for me as well, read it and gave up for a month or so then stupidly started again. Waited a few months til I really wanted to again and that was it........been 16 years now and definitely the best £5.99 I have ever spent.

Cold turkey. I'd found out that I was pregnant with my first child so it was a no brainer.

Only smoked very occasionally anyway, but moved into an apartment where it was banned on balconies and no way could I smoke inside. Just stopped after a few surreptitious smokes hiding on the balcony and praying no one would notice,

I used a vape and it was the best thing I have ever done for myself. It's been 3.5 years now. I have the smoking dreams too BTW! As a PP said, you have to want to do it. Permanent change can only ever come from within, not from someone nagging you!

Never tell yourself you are 'giving up' or 'stopping' smoking. That implies a work in progress, something that has not yet been done. In actual fact, you became a non-smoker as soon as you stubbed out your last cig. That was the moment you stopped and gave up.

Whatever you do, don't keep any cigs in the house/handbag/hidden in shed. That is a recipe for failure. Besides, you are a non smoker and non smokers do not need cigarettes.

My friend did patches. If you follow the cut down process properly I dont think its that painful, apart from vivid dreams from patches.

I did cold turkey but that took a lot of trial and error. In the end it was a combo of

• alan carr book
• a wall calendar to tick off each day, I figured out the point I had to get past and just kept ticking
• clearing the diary of stressful events
• stocking up on healthy snacks

Once I got past 6 weeks it was in the bag so to speak. Been 12 years now!