To ask you for the thing that finally motivated you to stop smoking ...and did it work ?

[Yoyokitten]

My Dad, born in 1919, started smoking at 12 years old, was totally addicted and could not stop.
He died at 57 of a pulmonary embolism.
Far too young.No one else in my family smoked.
So when I listened to a programme on Radio 4 this week called Tobacco and Me, it got me thinking.
I went to college at 17,and everyone smoked, so being an idiot I tried it too.
Hated it ,felt sick and dizzy so instead of rejecting it I carried on until it became a habit.
The thing that stopped me smoking was that one night about 9.30pm, in the middle of winter I realised I was running out of cigarettes.
The nearest little shop was about half a mile away.
It was snowing, but I set off.Got to the shop slipping and sliding, bought them and set off back home.
On the way back I slipped sprained my ankle and fell and sat on the fags as I went down, crushing them.
I sat in the snow laughing and crying.
That stopped me, and I never smoked another one 🤣.

I’m a bit like you. I ran out and I honestly could not be bothered to go and buy another pack. Never looked back - although I still think I’d like one when I see someone enjoying one in the evening with a drink.

I decided to give up before I turned 30 as I'd read you can get back to a health level of someone that has never smoked if you do it then (obviously bullshit)
I stopped the day I turned 30, just stopped.

I'm one of those annoying twats that can pick it up and put it down. I can smoke socially and then not touch it for months.

The only reason I don't touch it even socially any more is because my life insurance quote was so much higher. Need to go 2 years to get it reasonable again 🤣

I quit age 40 when I figured I probably should because it might make me sick eventually. I haven't been well since I stopped though. The nicotine was, unbeknownst to me, helping with my adhd and I quickly fell into clinical depression once it stopped. Been on medication ever since, but it never really works. I also developed sinus issues which I can't get rid of and multiple allergies ? mcas, because I'm audhd.

If there was a safe way of having nicotine I'd totally go back to it because I'm miserable now with untreated adhd, I've also put on weight and crave sugar constantly. I might live longer, but it's not a happy existence and I don't see the point tbh.

I gave up about 10 years ago. Not health reasons or anything like that. I just got up one morning, went into my garden for a cigarette, took one drag, looked at the cigarette and said out loud ‘I am sick of doing this, it’s disgusting’

To this day, I have no idea what made me think that, at that moment in time. I started vaping and have never had a cigarette since. I gave up vaping about 2 years ago and it was honestly the hardest thing I have done. It’s so much more addictive than smoking.

Pure bloody pettiness..... Chatting to a guy who I didn't like very much and he told me that he thought smokers were weak willed idiots. I was like "shut up...I can stop whenever I want". He told me to prove it so I did. Never smoked again. I suppose I should thank him but I still don't like him 😁

I am 36. I smoked on and off from 18 until I met my now wife when I was 29, she hated smoking and it was a bit of a deal breaker for her, so I decided to try and quit. I managed to completely cut it out day to day, but would still occasionally smoke socially but, gradually cut that out and didn't smoke for a year when I was 32-33, but then gradually started again.

A couple of years ago I tried vaping during a stressful period while I was studying for a masters and working full time in a stressful job and ended up getting even more addicted to that, I was doing it constantly and really starting to notice the effect on my breathing. I kept trying to stop cold turkey but struggled to make it much longer than a week.

I ended up quitting last year after I went on holiday and forgot to take any vapes with me and an Instagram video popped up about a car valeting/ detailing company that had been cleaning a vapers car, they were scraping this horrible sticky residue off the windows and it made me feel physically sick. I haven't touched a vape or cigarette since then, and that was August 2025.

I feel physically better, have started long distance running and although I get the occasional craving, I do miss it but know this is purely psychological and the benefits of stopping are huge. I don't see myself starting again.

Patches or lozenges?

My ExH smoked. Every time I tried to stop, the smell on him repulsed me, so I kept smoking as a way to stop me getting the ick. I smoked my last cigarette the day he left me.

Then he quit for his AP. Twat.

I was 15 when I started in the late 1970s, as it was cool and 'grown up'. I was 37 when I finally managed to give up and haven't smoked for 24 years. My partner is a non smoker and I was getting grief from my 12 year old at the time about smoking. I don't really remember deciding to give up, though I always planned to. I do remember my last fag though, on a Sunday evening after my shower. For nine months,( this was way before vaping was a thing) I used those little plastic sticks that you put a nicotine cartridge in the mouth bit. This really seemed to work for me, because I got the instant 'hit' in the back of my throat. Patches and gum were available but I never used them. Orange juice ice lollies helped and after about nine months I wasn't using either, If I knew I was going to have a drink with friends,I would always carry the plastic stick ' just in case ' , but used it less and less. I tried many times before that to give up, so I don't know why it worked this time. It was strange because I wasn't particularly planning to give up. Obviously glad I did now. I was crazy for cigarettes, practically a chain smoker so if I can do it..... Helps if you aren't going through a stressful time when you give up though.

I quit the day I found out I was pregnant, just after my 30th birthday. I wasn’t smoking masses by then tbh, maybe three/four a day? I started socially smoking again when DS was about 2, which didn’t happen much obv because I was with him most of the time! It crept up a little bit, but still only when he wasn’t around so would maybe have one every couple of days. I completely stopped forever when my mum died, she died of cancer very suddenly and I kept dreaming about having cancer and smoking. So one day, in May 2020 right in the middle of lockdown I quit and haven’t touched one since.

I smoked for 40+ years and I bloody loved it. Had no desire to give up.

January 2025 I had notification that I'd gone overdrawn earlier in the month than usual. A switch went in my head and I just knew I had to stop as it just isn't financially sustainable, especially as I've got one eye on retirement.

I stopped a couple of weeks later, cold turkey and that was it. To my amazement, I found it really easy.

The only time I missed it was on a subsequent Greek holiday where smoking is practically mandatory! Although we actually hardly saw anyone smoking on that trip.

DH gave up a couple of months later, also successfully.

I had a sneaky idea my then- boyfriend was going to propose and he smoked..Also my dad smoked ( and I already knew he was going to die of lung cancer). So I thought if I gave up then I could say my boyfriend had to as well.

ETA. I wasn't seriously addicted. Probs only say one or two packs a week. Plus some rollups

Being on a ship, where smoking was prohibited practically everywhere

I bought a vape, fully intending to go back to the cigs on my return, but never smoked again

I quit smoking about 20 years ago but continued as an occasional social smoker for at least another ten.

The thing that really stopped me was the thought that people are literally paying to increase their risk of dying from any one of a multitude of horrible diseases. When I saw people shelling out £20 a throw for a pack of things that quite literally give you cancer it dawned on me that this behaviour is worse than injecting heroin several times a day.

My ex was (still is) a heavy smoker and I find it repellent when people are so in thrall to an addiction that they are paying to hurt themselves.

I tried several things including being hypnotised which stopped the cravings but I still managed to restart 6 months later. I ended up stopping after I met dh who didn’t smoke. I was almost thirty and decided I would stop at new year and I just stopped. No patches or anything just went cold turkey.

I was a 20 a day girl for 20 years until a surgeon told me that the reason my broken wrist wasn’t healing was because I smoked. Switched to vaping for 10 years and gave that up when I developed a vapers cough AND then caught whooping cough. Couldn’t cope with wetting myself several times a day so got patches and stopped everything. Have been off everything for 2.5 years.

I come from family of smokers. When I was a teenager it was popular to smoke so I started early. It was peer pressure more than anything. One day I was sitting thinking about life a stuff and decided to add up how much cigarettes cost per year. Then 10 yrs, etc.
at the prices of housing and cigarettes then where I lived based on simple math I realized every 15 yrs I’d be smoking the equivalent of a 1 bedroom flat. I was horrified and stopped there and then.

I had been a smoker since I was 16, tried to give up a few times and even once did for 6 years but then started again after a break up and a wild girls holiday!
I finally gave up when trying for a baby. We’d been trying for almost a year and I was about ready to give up (trying). I had my last cigarette on the 23rd December 2010 and found out I was pregnant 2 weeks later. That was 15 years ago and haven’t touched one since.
I love your story though @Yoyokitten 😆

I stopped almost four years ago to the day - it was my Valentine’s present to myself! I was turning 50 the following year and decided that before I did I wanted to quit smoking and take up running. Smoked my last cigarette on 13 February, started C25K in April, could run 5K by July. (I no longer run as I developed plantar fasciitis which needed masses of expensive physio to sort out, I’m a - reformer -Pilates princess now.)

I’m a lecturer and have quite a few students who smoke which surprises me as it got to the point where it felt so “uncool” and embarrassing to be a smoker. I don’t know how they afford it tbh.

I had patches once when I was trying to quit and they gave me a tight chest. I also tried little tab things and they did the same. I've tried to see if there's any way of microdosing because the Americans are doing research into therapeutic effects of nicotine for a few things, but I haven't found a product yet. Perhaps I could cut a low dose patch into four or something.

20+ years of 20 rollies a day. My younger brother was in the throes of dying of cancer and one of the last things he said to me was that I needed to give up the smokes. About 8 months later I had a cold and the worst cough I’d ever had. Having a smoke was the only thing that gave immediate relief from the coughing fits but made the next one so much worse. It was in the middle of lockdowns and no one would help me…doctors, pharmacists, no one. I started with the vapes and haven’t smoked since. Ironically, I haven’t had a cold since either!

That was a little over 5 years ago. Trouble is, I’m more addicted to the vapes than I ever was the cigs. That will have to go at some point but I’m not ready for that yet. I do still get the odd passing craving for a cig but it doesn’t last for long.

I was in my late 20s and my parents invited me (at the last minute) to go to Bermuda on holiday. The thought of a long flight craving nicotine, combined with the thought of a glorious hot vacation free from cravings, made me stop. I went cold turkey - making sure I stayed away from places I could smoke. And that’s it - was free from the addiction after those tricky days.

Late 20s I noticed my lungs were being affected, colds would turn to coughs and last ages, I had a weird feeling like my lungs weren't filling up properly. Went cold turkey and never looked back..never missed it, within a year or two it was like I'd never been a smoker.

It was easy because I wanted to give up..that's what makes the difference.

Doing the couch 2 5k app. I run better now my lungs aren't full of crap 😂

That’s what stopped me, reading and re-reading his book.
I’d smoked for 25+ years, tried the patches, hypnotherapy etc but it was this book that did it.
I haven’t smoked or even considered it for nearly 20 years now.