Ex Smokers, can i ask a quick question please?

[AgentFelix]

How did you quit?

NRT
Champix/Zyban
Gradual Reduction
Cold Turkey/Willpower
Other - hypnosis/acupuncture etc

I'll be back in a few hours

TIA

Oh, in case it matters, I want to know if Joel Spitzer (Why Quit) is correct about most smokers quitting cold turkey. I don't have many ex-smokers in real life to ask.

[thebestpossibletaste]

I quit 7 and a half years ago, at first used patches but gave up on them after a few weeks and went cold turkey. I did spend a lot of time online or knitting to keep myself busy though. Haven't had one since - I know it would be a slippery slope.

[WreckfestAtTiffanys]

cold turkey for me too, but I was never much of a smoker really, no more than 10 a day at my worst. Social smoking was my problem, I have tried a few times since stopping 15 years ago (when drunk on nights out) and hated it.

Also, when you stop you realise how badly smokers smell!

[ChateauCollapso]

Alan Carr worked. Patches worked. Champix worked. My fault every time thinking I could have 'just the one' with a drink. I've now stopped again using e-cigs. They're great and haven't smoked a proper fag since Jan 3rd and feel much healthier.

[toiletbrush]

Thanks for starting this thread Agent. I have one cigarette left and Allen Carr on the Kindle which I downloaded about 6 weeks ago but haven't yet read...

I think today just might be the day, having read the positive messages on this thread.

[butterfliesinmytummy]

Cold turkey. Moved to a country where I didn't know any smokers, couldn't smoke in my apartment, no balcony, wasn't sure about rules on smoking outside and the weather was super hot and humid (singapore). Used to smoke a huge amount, could get through 20 in a day and another 20 in an evening if I was going out (Marlboro red or camel). I remember eating a pizza in a restaurant in France with a friend, we stopped eating halfway through for a fag break ... It was bad

Since then (1998) I haven't smoked one cigarette, have been offered but just not interested. I think I must have grown out of it.

[MushiMushi]

Going cold turkey, there were some pretty difficult moments right at the beginning. The worst for me was after about a week of quitting I started getting insomnia so I'd be lying awake at night driving myself mad with cravings. Also my partner and I broke up and I was suffering from depression. BUT throughout all the low points and cravings I just kept saying to myself, that I only had to experience each of these things once, and that once I'd hit rock bottom things would only start to improve, it was only temporary, and then after a relatively short time I'd be free forever. Every time I wanted to cave in I just had to remind myself that doing so would only mean I'd have to endure it all again, which was enough to keep me going. And seriously, my life might have been shit but having a cig was not going to make anything better. I think it actually helped, knowing that I was having such a stressful time, and coping just fine without smoking. Once you've got past the first couple of weeks you're laughing.

Good luck!

[scaevola]

Pregnancy, which gave the resolve for cold turkey.

[ChoudeBruxelles]

Cold turkey. Had tried other ways but they don't actually stop the nicotine.

[MushiMushi]

Oh I will also add, that I found the iphone app 'my last cigarette' brilliant help. You enter the details of how much you smoke etc, and when you quit, and it gives you info like how much you save and how much nicotine and tar etc is left in your system. Whenever I felt bad I'd just check where I was up to and it would make me feel great. I still check it occasionally....I'm on day 258 of being a non smoker and not smoked 5159 cigarettes

[MoodyDidIt]

cold turkey nearly 4 years ago but was only on 5 - 10 a day

also have slipped up once or twice when pissed

[AgentFelix]

Good luck toiletbrush

Mushi thanks for your post. I will come back and read it when I find I'm talking myself into smoking again. The amount of times I have got to 3 months nicotine free and then started again due to a petty argument with DP or because DS is trying my patience. I always tell myself it will help but of course it doesn't.

[CabbageLooking]

I set a date for quitting and before that tried to think very carefully about each cigarette I smoked and consider whether I really enjoyed it or not. Then I went cold turkey from the date set and had an inhalator if I found I was struggling (not for public use really; they look like a tampon).

[rednellie]

Cold turkey/pregnancy. 3 years ago, usedto be on 20 per day, rollies. I've had the odd relapse then just cold turkeyed it again!

[Yamyoid]

I've tried zyban, patches and the inhalator. Can't imagine going cold turkey. I probably liked the inhalator best because I was in control and have the nicotine fix in a very similar way to a cigarette when needed. But ultimately it's pregnancy that made me stick at it. It's now been 2 years (with the odd fag when out drinking). I think cost is the other factor for why I've not started again.

[Yamyoid]

Yy cabbage. I remember sitting on the loo in bars chuffing away on my inhalator!

[juneau]

Cold turkey for me. I just didn't want to smoke any more. Gave up in 2000. I literally never think about smoking any more and I know I'll never smoke again. Filthy habit. I can't believe I ever smoked.

[Mintyy]

Cold turkey. Had 5 serious attempts (of no smoking for more than a year each time) before I finally cracked it, and I believe I have now. It will be 5 years for me on September 20th.

Lets face it, stopping smoking is hard but its not that hard. If someone told you that the next cigarette you smoked was going to kill you, for certain, within an hour, you wouldn't smoke it.

[PearlyWhites]

Cold turkey/ willpower has been four years one month

[adagio]

Tried a number of things over the years - Zyban, Allen Carr books (big one, short one, and one for women); Allen Carr 'course' in a hotel; willpower (a few times) both 'cutting down' and cold turkey; stopped publicly but became a secret smoker - hid behind the greenhouse in a special coat and hat when DH in the bath; ran out of milk necessitating trips to local shop numerous times?!

Finally, got pregnant and stopped cold turkey - will never smoke now as I know full well that one fag will lead to the next and before I know it I will be smoking again, and now I have the baby I really don't want to be a smelly smokey mummy (or popping outside when I should be giving her attention).

In fairness, when I finally did stop it wasn't so bad as I expected,the growing bump was a huge incentive...

[carben]

Cold turkey on 1/1/2001 - had several attempts prior to that but my heart wasn't in it until the final one. Felt worse for months after as all the gunk left my body but now I cannot stand the smell - even in the street-and never ever crave one.

[acrabadabra]

Cold turkey. Helped that I'm lazy and by the smoking ban which closed my works smoke room and having to go outside the pub in all weathers.

I still consider myself a smoker even though I haven't had a fag since 2006. Don't think about it much at all now but for a few years I could often have begged one from a person walking down the street. Weird how in less than 10 years it's become so anti social.

[AgentFelix]

Yes it is anti-social now, not at all like it was in the early 90s' when I started.

I did stop when I was pregnant but found it very hard. Throughout I just thought of it as a non-smoking phase and I started again before I'd left the hospital. That was 11 years ago and I've had about 5 serious attempts at quitting since then.