Any smokers trying to or thinking of quitting?

[standsonshiftingsands]

I need to quit. The very odd thing is - I'm 45 and I only started smoking about 2 years ago. I don't really know why - it just sort of grew from the odd one when studying/out. Now it is up to 10+ a day and I don't like it. Tell me what worked for you…..

Hello stand
I stopped last Sunday. I'd smoked forever, I stopped when i fell pregnant, and started when i went back to work. Stopped again 4 years ago, started again last summer when i was stressed with a project. SO this is it for me, i now know that i can't ever have 'just one', it always escalates and i wind up full bore; 20 a day. (I'm 39 btw)
In answer to your question, i just stopped. The first few days were hard, i was very emotional and ratty, but i feel ok now 10 days on - i am loving food a bit too much though so am going to the gym everyday

I think I will have to just stop. This cutting down malarkey just doesn't work does it?

OK...I am 67, and have smoked for the best part of 50 years [gulp]. I've had all sorts of unexplained health problems in the last few years, which I'm sure is down to the fags. I think the writing is on the wall, and after many, many false starts, and short quits, I'm now on day 13. Cold turkey. For me, that's the best way - nicotine has a really bad effect on me, so can't tolerate NRT. The first few days are a bit tough.

Much as I'd love a cig right now, I know it would make me feel so awful, that's what is keeping me on the straight and narrow. You just have to make your mind up and take the plunge....come and join me!

Try a vapestick!! Worked for so many people I know! Good luck.

I seem to have quit this year using a vape thing. Two in fact, so one's always charged. I swear using a menthol liquid when I had a cold last week kept my sinuses open...

Idid the NHS course and stayed stopped the first time I tried (we could choose whichever aid we wanted after trying them). Hoping you're all going to stay stopped and don't have to go through the withdrawal again; it's really worth stopping to be free of the addiction and in charge of one's money.

I would normally say try an e cig but as you haven't been smoking long and this is your first (?) attempt at stopping, I think Allen Carr is worth a try.

I have smoked "socially" (what a misnomer) since teenage years but have always been able to smoke on a Saturday night and then not touch them for a month. Recently though I have been buying my own (never really done that) and smoking in the car!! (Window down, frantically spraying air freshener afterwards) I have been really enjoying them and I am in such a habit now! I don't really enjoy a cigarette just around outside in the cold just for the sake of smoking. If I can do when I am doing something else I like it! Bananas! I am 38, and have to stop.

I smoked 20 a day for 20 years or so. I was getting shooting pains in my legs and was terrified i would have a stroke if i didn't stop. I tried willpower, nicotine replacement, nhs cessation course and zyban. They all helped me stop but none kept me stopped - i lasted about 3 months after the nhs course plus zyban (which was awful btw).

What worked in the end was the Alan Carr books. Couldn't stand his writing style but his books did flick that switch in my brain so that i didn't want to smoke any more. Can't tell you quite how it worked but i haven't smoked for over 5 years now, and it was actually an easy choice after reading to stop, none of the sense of self deprivation that i had before when i quit. I did start again briefly after reading the first book but only got a few chapters into the second when i stopped again and that time stayed stopped.

Is anyone else feeling very 'down' after stopping? i'm moody, irritable, tearful.... it really isn't taking much to floor me at the moment

That's normal namechange and can take a while to go, but it will. Aside from the nicotine, some of the other chemicals in fag smoke are MAOIs (antidepressants) so it's not surprising really. I think it takes a couple of weeks to get them all out of your system.

Hang on in there and be kind to yourself, you're doing really well

Plenty - you've just cheered me up, thank you! I'm packing on the pounds too which also isn't helping!