To ask you to tell me what happened when you stopping smoking?

[Looobyloo]

I've smoked for 30 years but I'm coughing a lot more lately so have decided to try my best to give up on the 1st January. I'm also a runner (started 10years ago) so spend the end of my runs coughing and even cough mid run sometimes. Then I think what the hell am I doing! I'm keeping fit then breathing this filth into my lungs.

I'm pretty much an all or nothing person so think just going cold turkey will be the best option. What can I expect? Will I be grumpy? eat more? Anxious? Was it harder or easier than you thought?
Can you tell me your experiences of stopping please?

People need to stop scaremongering about vaping.

There's lots of info on CRUK website:

www.cancerresearchuk.org/health-professional/awareness-and-prevention/e-cigarette-hub-information-for-health-professionals

Cold turkey is the quickest and most effective way. After the first three or four days of withdrawal it's just a case of avoiding triggers (phone, after meals, first thing, whatever). I managed it after several false starts (learn to forgive yourself if you lapse) and decided one day that's it. Haven't touched a cig in 8 years now. The biggest change within the first week after coughing up all the gunk was that I could breathe deeply again! Higher energy levels as a result and you stop stinking like an ash tray. Good luck!

I gave up 6 years ago. I had smoked for over 40 years - at least 30 a day. I now vape. I am richer and I now run and cycle. I can't say I feel better as I didn't feel bad before. I haven't found that food tastes better but I definitely have far more disposable income

the consultant couldn't say for certain, though suspected the vape, he advised her to dump it immediately The consultant is a crank and should be nowhere near patients.

I had one hypnotherapy session years ago and have not smoked since. Every 3 months for about a year I'd smell someone's cigarette and get a craving that lasted about 30 seconds and once I'd ignored that I was fine again. I did put on a lot of weight though (5 stones) and had one hypnotherapy session for that. I then lost 4 stones of it in 3 months (the last stone took a lot longer).

I have a relative who went cold turkey this year and lasted 8 weeks before caving in. They have tried over and over but are now smoking again. I read something in a newspaper last week that said the NHS reckon you are more likely to permanently give up if you use an aid. I would recommed trying the patches.

Each time I tried to quit i made the mistake of not telling anyone just incase I crumbled then wouldn't feel so bad about smoking again. Tell someone!! Tell multiple people but try telling someone who you would feel awful disappointing. I told my parents who I knew would never let me live it down if I went back to cigs, they bought me a lovely vape for my birthday and that was that. It's been just over a year and I haven't smoked.

Like other posters have said, you either quit cold turkey or you go through other nicotine providers like vapes, inhalers, patches ect. Cold turkey absolutely does not work for me so I went through the vaping route.

If you DO get a vape don't sell yourself short on nicotine, on a previous attempt to quit I had a cheap vape and stupidly thought you should have the smallest amount of nicotine in it or else what's the point? Bad idea, ended up with mad nicotine withdrawal and went back to smoking anyway as the alternative seemed awful. This time I started on 16mg, quickly went down to 12mg for a while and now I'm on 3.

For the first month or so, you wouldn't be able to prise that vape from my cold dead body. I would not be parted with it, terrified to forget it incase I'd be caught out and need nicotine. THANKFULLY this stage ended relatively quickly and now I only use it like mad when I'm out drinking (because everyone I know is a god damn smoker), but I rarely go out so only use it a bit per day.

Good luck! You can definitely do it, change up a few habits that you associate with smoking and you'll be golden!

I tried cold turkey on my first attempt to quit...didnt last to long and was a bad tempered bitch..i got off fags using a vape which is good in one sense..i stopped smoking and had no real withdrawals..however, i found using a vape made me feel more chesty and guves me stomach cramps...so no im trying to ween myself of it!

I love being a non smoker after 15 plus years of fags. I absolutely love it. I'm so happy. Its the absolute best gift you can give yourself.

I wish you good luck in stopping smoking. I hope you won't have nasty withdrawal symptoms.

I didn't have any. No coughing, no weight gain, no insomnia. BUT: now I have a migraine almost each time I drink alcohol. Exceptions are a pint of beer after a country walk and a few sips of Limoncello after dinner. But wine, red or white, any quality gives me a mild migraine for which I have to take Sumatriptan.

I drunk when I smoked, you see, and wonder if nicotin did something to help absorb alcohol. I stopped this January, but the migraine side effect continues so far. So I drink very little these days.

I accompanied an older friend to the hospital a couple of weeks ago, for a chest x-ray because of a nasty cough.
Conversation with the dr went like this:

Doc - "Looking at your chest x-ray, I'd strongly advise that you stop smoking."
Friend - "I have stopped."
Doc - "Oh? When?"
Friend - "Over 20 years ago."

STOP SMOKING. :)

I've smoked for 40 years, given up loads of times but always gone back to it. Giving up is easy, staying given up is hard.
My daughter had a little girl recently and I decided this is it, I don't want her to refer to me as smelly grandma when she's older!
My husband smokes and I can manage if there's no cigarettes, but obviously if he's here, cigarettes are here. We both decided that we'd give up together, so we've bought vapes and not had a fag since, though to be fair it's only been a week. Neither of us miss fags surprisingly, though if someone offered us one we'd bite their arm off!
We'd agreed not to buy any, as if you haven't got any you can't smoke them. I'm in awe of those who keep an unopened packet "just in case", it wouldn't work for us as we know if they were there we'd smoke them.
One thing I found helpful before is thinking "I'll buy some tomorrow ", then when tomorrow comes think it again. Think of it as not smoking today, rather than never smoking ever again for the rest of your life, less daunting.
Good luck

I stopped after a long haul flight of 13hrs and decided if I could do that then I didn't need to have a cigarette again it was tough but I did it.
Who wouldn't want an extra £60/70 in their purse every week if you get through 20 a day its a no brainer really.

I went straight to vaping..

First time round, failed, the vape I had was fairly crap (small pen type vape, very leaky not a good enough nicotine hit).

Second time round better vape (vape shop rather than garage/corner shop job), instant success.

Each time I wanted a cig I'd say 'have a vape, see if you still REALLY want a cig after that' and actually, every time, I didn't want the cig.

It DOES take your lungs a week or two to get used to stopping smoking and starting to vape, but that does go away, honestly. If its NOT going away, change the flavour of your vape, but initially, all the flavours will taste pants as you've no tastebuds due to smoking.

Get a decent vape, it needs to be comfy to hold and not leak/dribble/spit/ and give you a fast nic hit, or it will not satisfy the craving.

Be 100% certain you won't run out of battery, juice or coil particularly when out and about around smokers!

I've not had a ciggie in over 5 years now :D I've no intentions of giving up vaping because I like it, I liked smoking too but gave up on health grounds rather than because I genuinely wanted to.

Sorry if someone's already advised this as haven't had time to RTFT.
I would not recommend waiting til 1st Jan to stop, I'd do it before Christmas. You know Christmas will be tough, so if you quit before, things will only get easier. I gave up using Allen Carr, 5 days before I went on holiday, on the basis that it takes 5 days for nicotine to leave the body, and I wanted to free from it before I went.
Holiday where I'd normally smoke, was actually fairly easy. I did get cravings, but he goes through them in the book and they were easier to deal with.
I will say though, don't expect results straight away as it took a good 12 months, for the effects of 16 years smoking to fully leave my body. I took up running, when I quit, and for ages afterwards I would have to stop because my lungs would give out. I will never forget the elation, of the first run, where my body got knackered before my lungs! It was amazing, but a long time after I quit.
Good luck

I stopped 15 years ago with the help of the Allen Carr book. I highly recommend this. If you really take it on board and believe it will help you, then you can stop. I also had a little game on my phone which I used to play whenever I wanted a cigarette, it gave me a little break that cigarettes had previously done. Don't bother with patches etc, I don't believe they work.

Also, if you believe it is going to be too hard then it will be. Eventually you stop thinking about cigarettes. I very rarely think about them now and I would never smoke again. You don't want to be enslaved by this forever. Good luck.

No single method works for everybody. We need all the methods because everyone is different.

I stopped smoking cold turkey 7 years ago after having an awful cough and going for a chest X-ray. Honestly I was SO scared I had lung cancer I just stopped smoking whilst waiting for the results.

I suggest you educate yourself on the effects on nicotine on the receptors in the brain and on the body. It helped me to understand why I was feeling so shit with withdrawal. Not going to lie I found it very very difficult and I was a moody cow, more so than usual! I put weight on during the first year following stopping but this evened out afterwards and I dropped back to normal once o stopped stuffing my face.

I personally wouldn't recommend vaping after seeing in the news all the reports of the damage it causes. Each to their own but I tried to stop many times with patches etc but for me it worked to go cold turkey. You just need to accept that it isn't easy and you need to go through that shit to get to the other side. The alternative is to keep smoking and continue to cause terrible damage to your body. Good luck I hope you can quit and start allowing your body to heal.

Give yourself the best headstart by reading Allen Carr Easyway. Anyone that I knew to have stopped ,had read his book and never went back on them.

I stayed out of people's way, but I also knew that it would only take a very short while for it to be out of my system.

Four months cigarette free and I reckon I'm that happy and grateful not to be smoking that I'll celebrate every month for years to come. No more being dragged out for one, no more cough (didn't even realise how bad it was until I stopped).

I don't have to part with nearly £10 for a pack of cough enducing crap .I'm more patient and easy going.I don't smell .

My aim is to start running. So op if you can run at all now, imagine what you will be doing having stopped !

I felt free.

Free of the panic to buy fags or tobacco... That last minuet scrabble to find change...

I felt free from having to have one when on the phone, out with a drink etc.

I had more money, and felt less guilty that I was hurting my body.

Op once the habit was broken over 15 years I've had the odd fag since.. Eg 2 when out partying. Which is v rare these days. Once I fell off the wagon.... And smoked for about 2 weeks.

Other than that at present I've not had one for about 2 years. But I don't think about them at all.

Freedom!!

I went on to the vapes to give up. Got down to 3mg for about a year then found out I was pregnant and have been off everything for the 3 months I have been pregnant.

The moods, oh the moods. Saying that it could have been pregnancy related! Didn't really eat a lot more. Cravings came and went a lot for the first month or two but I rarely even think of smoking/vaping now.

You can do it!

It is only since giving up that I realise (dp still smokes) how absolutely disgusting it smells and sticks to my coat if I leave it by the back door where DP smokes. yuck

I am so glad not to be a fucking slave to the nicotine products anymore too. Like a pp said, it's a feeling of freedom!

I decided to give up when I went on a holiday. Cut down a bit in the lead up and had my last cigarette before we left for the airport. It didn't bother me in the least and I think the different surroundings and routine whilst on holiday cracked it for me. Smoked 20 to 30 a day for 40 years. Honestly haven't been tempted once since [18 months ago now.] No vape, patches or anything. I had tried without success several times before and managed to give up O.K. but just couldn't keep it up for more than a few weeks.

To repeat, No single method works for everybody. We need all the methods because everyone is different.

My personal experience of Allen Carr is as follows:

Read the book, managed to quit for 2 days then relapsed. Went to the group (still led by Carr himself when he was alive) - relapsed before bedtime the same day. Took them up on their guarantee - you can go again if it doesn't work the first time - managed about a day and a half and relapsed again. There were people in that relapsers' group who were back there for the fourth or fifth time. I cut my losses at this point because although I could have gone back a third time (fourth, fifth ...) for free, the travel costs were not insignificant.

So Allen Carr did not work for me and I gave it a bloody good go. Nevertheless I know it works for lots and lots of people so I don't slag it off.

My personal experience of vaping is as follows:

I had to stop smoking for health reasons but didn't want to. I bought a vape (not even a very good one) and thought I'd 'practice' with it for a few weeks before setting a quit date. In fact I quit smoking completely the same day because it was so incredibly easy. 6 years on and I am still astonished that I am no longer a smoker. My health has improved dramatically, I didn't put on weight (I have since but that's another story), I didn't climb the walls with cravings. I accept that I am still somewhat addicted to nicotine, although nothing like when I was smoking. I have read extensively on the health risks of nicotine (very similar to caffeine) and of vaping more generally (estimated 5% of the risks from smoking, based on unknown long term risks from some flavourings). I'm happy with that because vaping gives me peace of mind - I'm relapse proof.

Nevertheless I know that vaping doesn't work for everybody so I don't plug it as the one true method.

All I would ask is that people don't spread misinformation about vaping. It's easily done because the press love a vape scare story but it makes the public health people tear their hair out. It puts people off switching, including the most heavily addicted smokers who have tried everything else already.

Long term smokers have a 50% chance of premature death, losing on average a decade of life. It doesn't matter how you quit, it just matters that you quit.

This video is by NCSCT who are the people responsible for training stop smoking services:

One thing I will add about having given up: no joke my hair is so much more lush.

It used to be fine and brittle, now it’s fuller, longer and glossier.

It’s almost as gorgeous as the barnet of that horse pictured above.

If you can afford it I would recommend the Allen Carr seminar every time; it seems to work for most but not all. Worth the try though.