If you've quit smoking or chewing, how did you do it?

[StrangeRanger]

I've been chewing off and on for ever and a day. I do really want to quit but have butt-kiss will power.
How did you quit? How bad was it? Any advice?
j

 

[amdhunter]

I started smoking crack instead. Ever since, cigarettes just didn't do it for me anymore.

 

[Skitzer]

Nicorette is your friend. Worked for me.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Quit cold turkey. Quitting smoking wasn't as hard for me as quitting sodas.

 

[Proprioceptive]

Fight Club...

 

[Ausm]

I smoked 2 packs/day for damn near 20 years and I quit. A lot of people try going "cold turkey" and I tried it and failed numerous times. In fact, I smoked more when I kicked up again. Tobacco use is both a physical and mental addiction so this is how I stopped.

1) Cut back gradually i.e. stop smoking in your house,car and breaks at work.

2) Limit exposure to places or people who are prone to light up. Just explain to them your're trying to quit smoking and not trying to be an asshole

3) Join a stop smoking forum support group

After 1.5 years I went down from 2 packs/day to a half pack/day. Make yourself a quit day and stick to it. I flushed my last pack down the toilet and in a weird way I felt liberated.

The first week is going to be a bitch but the dt's you get quitting smoking will not be that bad since you gradually cut down your nicotine intake. After the first month, you will fell much better and after 6 month of being smoke free you can safely hang around people who light up.

Good luck!

 

[FoBoT]

i quit cigs cold turkey
but i was only a 'social'/very light smoker and had only smoked less than a year when i quit
so it was easy, i just stopped buying cigs

 

[darkxshade]

I amputated the middle and index fingers of my left hand. Couldn't smoke a cig since.

 

[eits]

quitting isn't hard... it's not having a smoke when you're drinking with friends that the hard part.

 

[scott916]

I never smoked more than half a pack a day, but I just slowly cut out the places I would allow myself to smoke during the day. First I stopped smoking on the way to work, then at work, then after work, then while drinking.

I've never fully been able to kick the while drinking one, I still have a stog every couple months or so when I get nice and shithoused.

I'm sure it's different for those who smoke a pack a day or more, but for me that was what worked.

 

[destrekor]

do you actually chew? or dip?
Chewing just seems... not for me. I can handle dip, but I prefer snus, especially snus packets for the convenience and ease of use wherever I want. Awesome for class, don't have to disgust the ladies by having a spit cup. And works great at bars. Tobacco + alcohol at the same time anyone? Well, probably encouraging some kind of cancerous growth with that, but eh...

 

[Specop 007]

Chantix. That shit works.

 

[surfsatwerk]

Don't focus on quitting, instead focus on removing the number of activities in your day that involve smoking.

Ex. Don't smoke while driving, don't smoke after eating, etc...

Edit: I used to smoke at least a pack a day. Now a pack lasts me 2 or 3 weeks. I find the idea of quitting something I enjoy doing to be absurd. I choose to enjoy it in moderation to limit the negative effects on my health.

 

[NesuD]

Chantix. That shit works.

This.

I used it last summer. Haven't smoked since June 12th. Smoked for thirty yrs and tried numerous times to quit with no luck. If you can get past the side effects this stuff is probably your best chance to do it if you don't have the willpower.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

If you start smoking cigs that will decrease your chewing and dipping significantly.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

On a more serious note a guy I work with was diagnosed with stage 4 terminal (he's 36) stomach cancer from dipping. I guess he was swallowing some of it. It's sad.

 

[Linflas]

Never chewed but I smoked for 15 years. As for how I quit I just used willpower. I decided I wanted to quit, finished my last pack and have not smoked since October 1984.

 

[xeno2060]

If you Really want to Quit, You will Quit. If you come up with any Excuse at all then you really don't want to Quit. I quit Smoking and Drinking over a year ago. No Aid, I just quit.
I can Go to a bar or a party with people drinking and Smoking and I have no desire to do either. So if I can do it, anyone can do it, just make up your mind and Do it.

 

[ravana]

Cold Turkey

 

[Ausm]

I never smoked more than half a pack a day, but I just slowly cut out the places I would allow myself to smoke during the day. First I stopped smoking on the way to work, then at work, then after work, then while drinking.

I've never fully been able to kick the while drinking one, I still have a stog every couple months or so when I get nice and shithoused.

I'm sure it's different for those who smoke a pack a day or more, but for me that was what worked.

I basically quit the same way but I could never smoke if I had a drink to damn easy to fall off the wagon.

 

[Nik]

Quit cold turkey

This.

 

[Regs]

I also tried chantix. It gave me weird dreams, and some times mild insomnia so instead of gradually limiting smoking I quit suddenly only after a week using the drug. Chantix is like a forced slow withdrawal. Instead of quitting bluntly, chantix slowly eliminates the pleasures of nicotine so by the 4th or 5th day it feels like your smoking or chewing on a cars tail pipe.

If you tried to quit more than once, quitting turns more into a chore than a event.

 

[Liet]

I've been smoking a decade and have made several half-assed attempts lately. But as Xeno said, if you don't REALLY want to quit, you're just not going to quit. I knew every time I tried that my heart wasn't really in it. The simple truth is that I enjoy smoking, and despite knowing it's a dirty habit and seeing my girlfriend's disappointment, I just enjoy it too much.

If you ARE serious about it - the most important thing is not to just stop smoking, it's to identify the triggers that give you the urge to smoke... Just after sex, after a meal, on rainy days, while drinking, etc... You have to gradually disassociate those triggers with smoking.

EDIT: Also, I found that the hardest part was fighting through the first few minutes of an urge. If I made it through that, I could go without a smoke.

 

[PatrickBateman]

3 days of the gum followed by tootsie roll pops and will power

 

[SooperDave]

I could tell you my story like the others have but I don't think it will
do any good. The common things among all these methods, cold turkey, chantrix, patches/gum etc. is the desire and will power to follow thru. Until you develop the will
power no aid can help you.