To ask your best advice to stop smoking

[UsernameNotAvailableApparently]

I’ve smoked for nearly 20 years and I hate it.

Starting Stoptober from tomorrow and am desperate to be a non-smoker.

I tried the Allan Carr book in the past - lasted 24 hours the first time and about a week the second.

I’ve thrown away all my cigarettes and asked my DH to hide his and not smoke in front of me.

I’ve also had a ceremonial last cigarette and thought of all the best things that’ll happen from tomorrow.

Oh and I’ve got some niquitin minis.

Any other advice please?

Have something you do when you want a cigarette. Gum, cup of tea, walk 20 minutes

A couple of family members switched to vaping at the start of the pandemic. They're still obviously addicted to nicotine but they have it in a much safer and more affordable way now compared to the cigarettes. They insist it was totally easy compared to the other times they've tried to quit and feel better for it.

I gave up smoking 2 years ago and have never looked back. I went cold turkey as I researched and found that nicotine replacement just kept me in a constant state of withdrawal. Cold turkey meant thebworst was over in 3 days - i drank lots of orange juice as this helps remove nicotine from your body and is one of the few drinks which doesnt make cigarettes taste better!
I also recommend reducing caffeine and alcohol - any smokers will tell you a coffee and a smoke, or a drink and a smoke are the greatest things!
I used the NHS app to track money saved, and to store a list of reasons why i was quitting. I used to take it literally minute by minute when I had a craving - thinking to myself, oh ill go for a smoke in a minute, then after that passed oh I'll wait another minute until the urge was gone. Having a big drink of water when a craving hit was also really helpful.
The main thing is to be positive, and dont think that you're denying yourself anything - you're giving yourself a longer life, more money, more time with your children and freeing yourself from the anxiety that comes with an addicition.
Best of luck, its very hard but is so worthwhile - remember to reward yourself and just go minute by minute for the first few days - it will get better

I am not the best person to say but my mother gave up cold turkey but just having a big glass of iced water ( which she thought numbed her mouth a bit ) and a walk when she had a craving., she reckoned worked.

Thank you for the orange juice tip @Cantgetausername87

Morning all,

12 hours since my last cigarette and have to agree with the PPs who said that caffeine is a toughie - I didn’t realise how much I associated coffee with cigarettes until I had my morning coffee!

Feel a bit dizzy and ravenous but I have gone down the patch route for now so no real cravings. I know people say to go cold turkey but I smoked about 30 a day and last time I tried to go cold turkey I just wanted to pull my own skin off

I have gone down the patches you wean yourself off though so hoping that will help.

Thanks again for all the advice! Going to buy some orange juice today too.

@UsernameNotAvailableApparently - all best to you - when I try this will you give me best wishes too ?

I do wish you well.

I bought the Gillian Riley book. Didnt even want to give up smoking at that point, I was just curious about giving up.
Went for a long bath with the book, read a few chapters, got out of bath, read a few more, never smoked again.
No scare stories.
No pressure.
Just a deep understanding of nicotine addiction and explanation of the process.
Strips away all the myths you tell yourself and I found myself nodding and agreeing with so much of what she said.

Previous to this, I had tried patches, inhalator, gum, champix and zyban.

None of those worked long term.

The difference with the gillian riley book was that I actually enjoyed giving up, enjoyed the cravings

I smoked for over 20 years. I have it up more than ten years ago. Vaping was the only thing that did it. I switched to that, I had started to hate the taste of cigarettes, I used sweet texting vape juice. After about 18 months I stepped down the nicotine content of the vape juice. I had intended to step down to a nicotine free vape but I didn't need too. After another 18 months I was hardly using it at all. I always kept one around and I did go back to the vape a few times, we made a cross country move, that was stressful, then after 5 years when COVID hit I picked the vape back up again. I'm already starving to wean back of it. This is the longest I've been back on the vape since I quit smoking 11 years ago. That's the best advice on that I can give, nothing else ever worked for more than a few weeks or months

I bought a Juul and did that for a couple of weeks. It took the edge off the craving but it wasn't anywhere near as enjoyable, so after a couple of weeks I lost interest.

Well that went terribly. The tiniest bit of stress and I went out to buy cigarettes

I actually carried a pack of fags around with me and just kept telling myself 'ill have one later' and because I knew I had them, I didn't feel panicky if you know what I mean. I'd tried to give up before and didn't have any and that made me feel anxious .

Ahh, it’s a wee bit miserable but it’s SO much better than the misery and annoyance that you experience when you speak.

My Partner quit cold turkey. When I stopped, I turned into Regan from the Exorcist!
I ended up going to a stop smoking group and they would give dual therapy, which means you start patches alongside either lozenges, chewing gum, inhalators, or mist. I chose the inhalator.

I found this worked for me and really stopped my cravings. I think patches or chewing gum etc on their own wasn't enough for me to begin with.

Write down all the things you hate about smoking and read it when you feel tempted. I found my list recently after 12 years, I'd forgotten just how rubbish smoking made me feel and how I was planning my day around cigarette breaks.

Good luck. It's hard, but it's worth it.

@basiliskstare I don't know....it's an app, so if you can get apps it should be ok?

It's really magic, it's NLP based I think and I've really not had more than about 5 passing thoughts in 2 weeks of ooh I want one.

One day at a time. I quit 7 years ago and it was the best thing I did. I thought yo myself "I've managed an hour, I can manage one more" "I've managed a week, I can manage one more" now 7 years later I dint even think about smoking.

How about start vaping? I’ve started vaping instead. I reckon it’ll be easier to quit vaping than cigs

Don’t overthink it
Don’t get pissed
Yes to Allen carr

Good luck 🤞