To all ex-smokers…

[ButteryNut]

How did you manage to quit?

Tell me your secrets, NRT? Knitting? Drinking water every time you got a craving?

I need to break the night out/smoking connection in my own head.

The first time I quit, I used the nicorette quick mist and was really successful with that. I stopped smoking for 5 years! Then I crept in to having the odd one if I went out with friends on a night out and had a few years of just smoking socially. Maybe 5 cigarettes a month on average. I was so annoyed with myself for starting up again though that I swapped to vaping.

Vaping has been really successful in stopping me smoking cigarettes. I tried a cigarette about a year ago (after a long time of vaping) and it was absolutely disgusting. I couldn't believe I used to love smoking. However, I've found vaping a lot harder to quit than smoking as it's cheaper, you don't smell, I can vape at home out the bathroom window etc which I'd have never done with cigs. I vape a lot more than I ever smoked so although it got me off the cigarettes it's an addiction all of its own.

I'm now down to vaping if I'm on a night out (once a month or so) and aiming to quit that for good but I genuinely think I'll have to decline any social events for a while to break the connection.

Vaping for me too. I’d tried everything, patches, gum, cold turkey and the Alan Carr book. Even tried acupuncture and hypnosis. I bought myself a reasonable vape kit and a load of flavours in the hope that I’d reduce my smoking and at some point I realised I hadn’t smoked for days.

Vaping. Stopped a 30 a day habit

I just quit. Cold turkey. Part way through a random weekday at work and I just felt like I didn't want to smoke anymore. God knows how many I'd still be smoking if that feeling hadn't happened.

Pregnancy!

I'd also have to quit being sociable to really stop. And no Alan Carrs brainwashing of feel sorry for the smokers didn't work. I did do 5 years after reading it but still had sociable fags.

I'd actually like it to be made illegal as I have no self control when around other smokers!

I quit after reading Allen Carr 15 years ago. There was a bit in it which said something along the lines of - Imagine the cigarette that is going to give you cancer is painted red. Would you smoke it? Well any cigarette you ever smoke could be the red cigarette and you won't know because obviously it's not painted red.
That really hit home for me. But apparently it's important to read the whole book and re read as necessary. Which I did. And it worked!

I just gave up over 30 years ago. I had been an at least a packet a day smoker. I didn’t go out to pubs or restaurants for a couple of weeks (you could smoke inside then). I found the routine harder to stop, eg having a cigarette after dinner, as I enjoyed that one.

I really liked not smelling of smoke and not coughing.

I’d say, focus on the positives and change your routine a bit.

Good luck. You can do this.

Pregnancy for me also! Although I vapes not smoked. It was difficult but I had to just keep distracted. Avoid situations that triggered the urge to smoke and start new habits/hobbies that didn't have the connotation of smoking with them.

That Alan Carr book where you chain smoke all the way through.

That was in 2004, and I haven't smoked since.

I’m another one who was ill. Flu-like illness and spent most of three weeks virtually comatose. Decided that I had gone three weeks smoke free it would be mad to restart. No cravings whatsoever. Not much use to the OP though but I’m eternally grateful for that illness.

Allan Carr book plus some private counselling. That was in 2005 and I promise you I haven't remotely regretted the decision. I know I'll never smoke again, never tempted.

Think of it as stopping something horrible not 'giving up' something special. And try to see that it's like wearing tight shoes all the time on purpose just to get the relief of taking them off. Ditch the shoes!

I stopped smoking when I collapsed with a bleed on the brain and was then in a coma for 63 days.The urge to smoke rapidly disappeared! Drastic I know, I don't really recomend.Still suffering badly with the physical problems.

My father died suddenly in 1995 aged 54 of a massive heart attack. He was overweight and smoked.
I quit overnight.
I joined a gym to loose weight and get fit and have never looked back.

Nicotinell patches. And also really wanting to quit, for good.

Allen Carr. Honestly think he should have got a knighthood. It is quite repetitive but I chose to just go with it and it worked. I did relapse a couple of times over the years - re-read book and it worked again.

@Allmyghosts I think it worked for me partly because you smoke while you read it so it took away any fear. If you don't want to quit at the end then you don't have to. I think the other reason it worked is basically because he's undeniably right in what he says. He just explains it really clearly, adds a bit of positive psychology and it works.

X

@Sadmelon easy when something like that happens, and it? I stopped the day I was diagnosed with lung cancer (I was luckier than your friend, I was one of the few that survived.)

I'm a similar way, a good friend has a strike and stopped straight away.

we both used nicorette chewing gum.

Didn't bother trying to quit until I was certain I was stopping. That mindset is the most important thing. Stopped cold turkey, disposed of all smoking paraphernalia as soon as I put the last one out. Chewed through about 3 packets of softmints a day for the first week or so, then after a couple of weeks the cravings died down.

It's all about your mindset. I absolutely despised smoking by the point I quit, so that was all the willpower I needed.

"I'd like to quit/I should quit/I'll try to quit" is a totally different mentality to "I am quitting". If you are still in the former, don't bother, because you still want to smoke too much to be able to quit.

I smoked an unfiltered Serbian cigarette on a night out. It was so harsh I felt incredibly ill for 2 days and then I couldn't smoke anything without feeling horribly ill. That was almost 10 years ago. Totally cured the addiction, and I'd been smoking a pack a day for about 20 years.

I tried quitting a few times and then had a moment of clarity after having a chesty cough and my cough sounded terrible and I thought wtf am I doing to myself.

Every time I felt like a cigarette I looked at a picture of a diseased lung and that worked for me.

Literally decided that I didn’t want to be a smoker anymore. Was having kids and didn’t want to be a mum who smokes. Every time I fancied a cigarette I asked myself if I wanted this cigarette or to be a mum. No contest.

Oh God I'm a terrible addict. I'd cycle miles to have a fag. Lust after one as soon as I got on the train. Between trains I'd run out the station. Wake in the night for one. Everything. But absolutely hated the smell. Had chest pains. Enjoyed probably 1 in 20. Hated others smoking. Etc. And found it difficult to stop. Until I found gum. And going by Carr's book you just have to realise you are an addict. I was happy to give up the stench and chew nicotine gum instead. And then one day I ditched the gum. This was pre-vapes being available. Not that I didn't find it hard. I just had to distract myself. Exercise is good, as it feels so terrible if you fall down. Bizarre that some can go to the gym and still smoke. I miss the enforced breaks. But as said it was so all consuming for me, it was just totally unhealthy. Mum smoked throughout her pregnancy, both parents smoked like troopers at home and never opened the windows. So I was probably always an addict. That said my Mum could just drop it on a whim. Now smokers are in the minority, and they smell worse than ever. That alone is something to avoid.

I had acupuncture 25 years ago and Ive never had another craving since. Apart from taking the desire away with the first session, the treatment also really relaxed me to the point where I could barely stay awake for a couple of days. I had two further sessions and the acupuncturist increased my energy levels both times. I smoked 20+ per day for 20 years but after the treatment it didn't even bother me that my husband still smoked for several years after I'd stopped. I do still really like the smell of cigarettes if I'm with a smoker bit it doesn't tempt me at all. I think the course of treatment cost me about £80 at the time which seemed a fortune back then!

The first week was easier than I thought it would be because you feel so much better. No CO in blood anymore. I was waking at 4am full of energy.

Drink water every time you have a craving and go to bed early with a book if you smoke in front of the TV at night.

Just take it one day at a time and the old tip about putting the fag money in a jar is a good one too.

I just did slow cold turkey. I stopped having a cigarette before 10 am. Then just kept pushing back to 12, then 3, then 5, then 8pm. Then I just stopped. It took about 6 months but that was over 35 years ago and I haven’t wanted a cigarette since.