Can. Not. Stop

[Deadsouls]

Help....
I'm at my wits end with the bloody smoking. I feel like giving up giving up.
Context: been smoking since 13. It's always been my go to for comfort when I feel overwhelmed or angry. Plus when I was in my teens I smiled cause I thought it was cool.
Over the years I've stopped on and off. Stopped for 5/6 years when I was pregnant/ breastfeeding etc.
Then stopped for a year.
Then 8 months. Now I'm smoking a few days, then stop for a few days.
Tried vaping but I'm thinking the hand to mouth is not helping the addiction. Patches, Alan Carr and so on.
I have a real love/hate thing going on with it. But more importantly it's sucks my energy away, makes me feel ill and lethargic and so on. Plus getting paranoid about cancer.
I get to a point where I think no more! I can't keep doing this. Then a few days later I think fuck it.
I don't know what to do anymore.

Why don't you try the vaping again?

I'm similar to you in that I've often given up for various reasons several times but always then started again. My most successful attempt was Allen Carr in 1997, I gave up then decided millennium new years eve to have a couple of cigarettes. That went well so I bought a packet a couple of months later because I thought I'd be able to control it.

Roll on to 2009 when I promised my dd I'd give up. That lasted a year.

I'd literally given up giving up but then I reached the same place you are. I thought I'd give the vaping a proper go and take it from there.

I started on New Years Day and it's been......ok. I've not missed my rollies at all, I'm vaping almost constantly when the dc aren't around but the nhs says vaping is 95% safer than cigarettes so I figure it's not so bad.

I think I've already broken the going outside habit, I'm barely thinking about a smoke - just my next vape. Maybe I've got an addictive personality but this is far better than the cigarettes and at some point I'll think about giving up vaping as well.

For the meantime though, this is the better/safer alternative and I've NOT smoked around 120 cigarettes this week.

Just keep trying to give up or try the vaping. Smoking is such a bastard!

You need to pretty much vape constantly in the beginning, as the nicotine intake is slower.

I struggled at first trying to use it like a cigarette, not having a good technique and using a cheap one.

Moved onto a spinner one with a kangatech EMOW and I've never wanted a cigarette since.

Having a drink was where it usually went wrong for me and I had no problems at all. I actually feel sick at the smell of cigarette smoke now and it makes me cough like mad (got a lung full at Christmas, when walked past family member smoking)

I'm now hardly using my vape anymore, charging it a lot lot less and feel so much better!

Oh three months for me and I have saved all the money I spent on cigarettes (minus vape costs) and have some lovely things instead :)

I'm now putting it into a pot for something special in the summer :)

Don't equate vaping with smoking, the addiction is to nicotine which itself isn't harmful. It's extremely harmful when delivered via lit tobacco. So what if you vape constantly? Part of the problem when you stop smoking IS the lack of hand to mouth experience, when that goes awol it feels like you're missing something. Vaping fills that void, relatively harm free.
After 30+ years smoking and multiple quit attempts I've settled on vaping as the next best thing to quitting altogether. I'd never be able to do that and be content. Best of a bad job, maybe, but after nearly 5 years vaping and off the fags I'm healthier and wealthier as is DW. Good luck getting off the weed tho.

Thank you for your replies. I do have a vape and it was working for a while, I guess I need to give it another go. I've quit a lot of things and fags is easily the hardest addiction to break. It's the staying stopped I struggle with right now.

I think I'll be writing your post in a few years. None of my quit attempts have lasted longer than a few weeks/months.

I've tried Allen Carr, patches, mints and vaping but ultimately I just like smoking. The last 3 times I've done cold turkey and that seems to work better for me after the initial few days. And it seemed easier the 2nd & 3rd time than the 1st strangely.The nicotine replacements just wind me up because they arn't a roll-up.

I don't have any suggestions, just posting to say I know how you feel. I don't think you should give up on giving up though. All the one's you've not smoked will have made a difference.

I loved smoking and didn't want to quit. Now I'm 7 months in, I was smoking 30 a day
I vape now, the smell of smoke is horrible to me and I can't imagine going back

when I first started the vape I went into my local vape shop and they were so helpful, maybe worth a try if you want to give it another go. I took the one I had in and said I just wanted advise on how to use it better, to quit smoking.

good luck!

Your do it when your ready :)