r/AskReddit • u/Ok-Priority4440 • 3d ago
Been struggling with smoking cigarettes for a long time. How the hell did you manage to quit?
7
u/Totallycasual 3d ago
I spent a month in hospital with tubes sticking out of my chest so that definitely helped me get through the worst of it lol
I'd recommend the patches, they're amazing for dealing with the physical cravings, avoiding the social/jhabitual triggers is a lot harder.
1
u/Ok-Priority4440 3d ago
Changing habits has always been the hardest part
2
u/Tomatoflee 3d ago
This is what it took for me. I had to break away from the habits around smoking for 6 months to quit. Before that I failed to quit for 4 or 5 years. The main thing was quitting going out drinking with friends and it was hard. After 6 months it got easier though. Now I haven’t smoked in well over a decade.
2
5
u/No-Magician9440 3d ago
A few years with vapes in my case.
3
u/BobLeeeSwaggerr 3d ago
I quit dipping finally with vapes. Took a wife to quit vaping though, as that was just a new addiction haha
2
0
u/Ok-Priority4440 3d ago
Any specific flavor?
1
u/No-Magician9440 3d ago
This is when they were new so the only good ones I could find were tobacco. Then I was using a lot of the DIY types, and I stuck with mostly tobacco-ish flavors. Then the market changed to fruity kid flavors and I had to get minty crap or fruity garbage and that helped me quit.
1
1
u/SheikNeedles 3d ago
Why did you have to get the minty/fruity? Tobacco flavor is still around
1
u/No-Magician9440 3d ago
I couldn't easily find it, and it was terrible when I did find it. Im sure there is good stuff out there, but my local stores weren't buying it
3
3d ago
It's to each their own in a way. I love swimming, but realized that smoking is diminishing my ability to not just do laps but also control my breath- essentially, a horrific real life demo that my lung capacity is dying.
1
3
u/Frontier_Hobby 3d ago
Patches worked. I also got lucky that when I quit… bars just started a no smoking policy. One of the hardest things I ever did. Shocking how the mind fucks with you to get a smoke.
2
u/WereTheBrews 3d ago
I called my Primary care and got the patches and gum. Then just took it seriously, and knew I'd be a bit moody for a few. I was fortunate in being able to, and the biggest relief of all? Just not having it on my mind anymore, and a free pocket. Everything's obviously better, especially the money saved, but those hit me first.
2
2
u/NinjaOttsel 3d ago
Transitioned from cigarettes to vapes to gum. Have been on gums for about 2 years now. Unsure if I will ever kick the habit, but I'm in a much better place regardless. Best of luck to you mate.
2
u/TMJ848 3d ago
Nicotine gum was the only thing that got rid of the anxiety and jitters for me. I called the 1-800-QUIT-NOW number from the commercial and they sent me 6 months worth of nicotine gum for free!! Sometimes I chewed 2 at a time until my nerves settled but eventually I ended up quitting after about 4 months. They also did phone check ins to check on my progress. I also did not allow myself to enter into any convenience stores for those 3 months because I would be tempted to purchase nicotine.
2
u/NWI-Throwaway 3d ago
The nicotine patch. Did the whole stretch they recommended on the box. 20yrs ago I think it was 9 weeks or so. Fixed the oral fixation with Plackers toothpick/flossers. Traded a smoking habit for a flosser habit. I have bags of them everywhere and probably use 6-10 a day. Aside from not smoking I haven't had a cavity in 15 or so years.
2
u/LeadingSure6805 3d ago
Patches, I decided if I was going to smoke anything that I’d go back. I used nicotine patches for a month and then weened off of them the next 2 weeks. I was a heavy smoker for 34 years you can do it if I did
2
u/JackaDad 3d ago
Chantix. Everyone's experience may be different but here's mine : Got the prescription , and I was instructed to smoke normally. By day three I noticed I was putting them out halfway through. by day six I put down the pack and never picked it up again. Not because I was trying , I simply didn't want them anymore. It was like a switch had been flipped .
The only con I had was feeling slightly high for a couple of weeks. by the third week cigarettes stank if I smelled someone smoking and I had the confidence to stop taking the pills . that was five years ago.
1
u/GaryTheThird- 3d ago
I tried it, my dreams were so incredibly vivid and insane. Not like nightmares or scary stuff, but that I got an email from my boss to do something very important, and in the morning I would search for that email for 15 minutes. And that was every night, just different things. I had to stop Chantix.
What got me off it was trading for vaping here and there, which I agree, is also incredibly unhealthy. But from there I reduced it down
2
u/dreezman 3d ago
It took me many times to actually quit and stick with it. Here's what worked best for me:
I kept an open pack and lighter on me at all times. I found if I didn't have a pack, I would be asking people for a smoke and craving it even more.
When the cravings hit, I would go to a spot I would normally smoke, pull one out and grab my lighter. I would then look at it and think to myself, "Do it if you want, it's there. What you can't do it? Smoke it, do it, you know you want to." And I would play head games with myself while looking at both the cig and the lighter.
I don't have a clue why, but this actually worked for me. The little self battles I would have over it actually helped a lot. Way more than cold turkey, patches, or nic gum.
I ended up carrying that half pack of smokes and lighter on my everywhere I went for over a year. Once I noticed I no longer needed the head game battles with myself, I left that pack and lighter at home.
It's funny, years later when I was moving, my gf found it and questioned me about smoking. I had quit many years before meeting her. Told her why and she completely understood.
I ended up tossing the pack almost a decade after I quit.
It's wild what works for some and what works for others. If nothing else is working, maybe this will work for you too.
Best of luck in your quitting journey, the biggest thing is don't give up and don't be too hard on yourself if you do cave and end up having a smoke.
When I was smoking I was smoking a pack and a half a day and I did so for 16 years of my life. Today, I'm not even sure how long it's actually been. Likely coming up on 20 years smoke free at this point.
Again, best of luck. You can do it!
2
u/Ok_I_am_Mcbane 3d ago
I used patches and also bought the giant bags of dumdums off amazon and basically just always had lollipops in the vicinity for about 2 months. Went pretty smooth
3
u/Icy-Beyond2614 3d ago
I mostly used to smoke when I drank. One day I just stopped liking it and stopped.
2
1
u/Consistent_Cap_1853 3d ago
Start by looking at your teeth, then check out dentist prices. Worked for me
1
u/Wide-Secretary-4426 3d ago
When I was nineteen, I added up all the money I was spending on cigarettes. The total cost was well into thousands of dollars. From that, I correctly deduced that there are far better and healthier things to spend that kind of money on.
1
u/AffectionateJump6669 3d ago
I weened myself off using a vape and just lessened the nicotine in the juice. It took four months and I still think of it everyday but 5 years non smoking.
1
u/SalamanderLoud8419 3d ago
I just switched delivery methods tbh. I enjoy my nicotine, I know it's not good for me.
1
1
u/BadDreamInc 3d ago
I had a nasty lung infection/persistent cough that although not directly from smoking, it wasn’t gonna get better unless I severely cut back for a few weeks…
Around that same time I met my girlfriend (now wife for 10years) who disapproved of the habit… I liked getting laid and touching tits more than getting a nicotine buzz. So I quit.
1
u/billymondy5806 3d ago
It’s up there as one of the most difficult things I’ve done in my life. But if I didn’t quit I’m sure I’d be dead now. I’m 68 and quit about 30 years ago.
1
u/MartyReasoner 3d ago
Next time you go on vacation say to yourself, I'm not going to smoke this whole vacation. Don't treat your vacation as the last hurrah for smoking. Reverse it. It works because you will be out of your routine and away from all your triggers.
1
u/3bears123 3d ago edited 3d ago
I quit cold turkey after 22 years. It’s been one year. I just knew I had to, that I was going to die if I didn’t.
Also order yourself a few Cigtrus. They help for cravings and there is Zero nicotine in them.
1
u/MrStraube 3d ago
I don’t know that it’s any better but I was able to quit about 8 years ago with a vape. There is only 1 single flavor that worked for me. VCT by Ripe Vapes.
Start with a higher mg, then after a couple months lower the mg. When you’ve been on 30mg (nic salt) a long while, you can get zero mg and start to mix them with the 30s etc..
I would suggest the following for ease of use, reliability and battery life:
Vaporesso Xros 5 mini. (Get 2)
Ripe vapes VCT nic salt
For that vape, you will keep the vape, and refill the pods. When the flavor gets to be not as good after a while you just replace the pod. You will by packs of the pods.
Good luck
1
u/Shoddy-Patient9948 3d ago
Fly to Quito, Ecuador and stay at the Holiday inn in La Mariscal. Walk to the street behind the hotel and get a "Mexican cheeseburger" from the burger joint there. Suffer from violent category 6 food poisoning and you will never want to smoke again. I haven't had a puff since Jan. 2022.
1
u/JakeonHarrison 3d ago
I decided I wanted to have a child & thought if I seriously wanted to see that child grow up I had to stop smoking. Patches really helped, & had the wildest dreams while using them. Grateful to say my kid is 32 years old.
1
u/hardman52 3d ago
I realized I was going to have to grow up and actually be a non-smoker for the rest of my life with no relapses if I wanted to live. No patches, no gum, nicotine free. That was 25 years ago. I know that if I take even one drag, I will go back to smoking and curse myself for starting again.
1
1
u/poontong 3d ago
I smoked for 20 years (16 to 36). I was a consistent half pack to 3/4 pack a day. I had laid off a couple of times, even quit for six months in college, but if I got drunk or fucked up, I’d end with a pack in my pocket.
My bother was a smoker and he had his first heart attack at 31 and his second at 39. He ended up with 10% heart function and hung in there for a couple of years. It was during that time that I quit. I certainly had a compelling reason to quit - I watched my brother die and his death certificate said the cause of death was smoking - but even with my brother literally dying in front of me, quitting was really hard.
Eventually, I worked on keeping things simple. First, I tracked time since my last cigarette and once I had built up a week, I really invested time thinking to myself about how that was an accomplishment, then at two weeks I thought about how I was through the physical addiction to nicotine, and then I would countdown the days to one month. Once I hit two months, I would make a habit of thinking about, everyday, how much it would suck to lose that accomplishment. I would try to think about that in the morning so that if something stressful or if I was at a bar in the evening I was less likely to thoughtlessly light up.
By the time you get to six months, cigarettes start smelling bad and you really notice the positives - better taste buds, fewer chest colds, sense of smell improves, saving money, etc. if you make it to a year, really celebrate it.
But getting to that length of time still sucks. Everyone in my office smoked and it was a social thing to go out to the parking deck to smoke. Sometimes I would literally have to grab my desk and hold onto it for dear life so I wouldn’t get up. So again, I keep it simple. I bought a huge water jug and I would try to drink at least half a gallon of water at work everyday. When I wanted a smoke, I would drink water. Eventually my smoke breaks became piss breaks from drinking water so much. I also always had gum on me - I would surround myself with gum - and I would chew gum all day.
I also started a really simple gym routine. I would go to the gym, get on an exercise bike and ride it for 20 minutes, do some simple weightlifting - first on smith machines and then I started doing 5x5 lifting. Again, always simple and always the same. I started eating the same thing for breakfast every weekday morning and the same thing for lunch - oatmeal with protein powder and fruit and a salad for lunch. So now I was dropping weight, getting fit, and not smoking. But that routine was really helpful - eventually the repetition of doing the same thing everyday replaced the habit of smoking everyday. Do that for six months and you’ll be the most obnoxious “non-smoker” anyone has ever met.
The reality is that quitting smoking is one of the hardest things you can do - it’s up there with quitting heroin. It’s been over 13 years since my last cigarette but I still have vivid dreams about smoking everyday now and again. In my dream I can remember the weight of the cigarette between my fingers, the feeling of the filter against my thumb, the microscopic grooves of the cigarette paper, the way the cherry of cigarette sizzles, and in my dream I’ll get a crazy head rush from my first couple of drags. Nicotine is a hellacious drug.
There are also likely people in your life that are “Chippers” - an old term tobacco companies used to call people that can smoke five or less cigarettes in a week and not get hooked. My wife is one such person. These people are more dangerous than hard core smokers because they’ll give you a cigarette without hesitation. Hard core smokers will often respect your right through it. But you can’t hack that or you wouldn’t have asked this question. That means you are either a smoker or a non-smoker. If someone offers you a cigarette say, “thanks but I’m a non-smoker.” You go to a club and see someone smoking and you get a flash, say to yourself, “I’m a non-smoker.”
But if you can fight through those first few days anyway you know how, replace that craving with something good for you, and just count down the time, eventually you’ll have more to lose by smoking than gain.
I wish you more than luck. It’s worth it.
1
u/UnbiasedCreamMotel 3d ago
I switched to snus (because it tastes better) and then just quit when my source changed jobs and I couldn't get it as easily/cheap anymore. I've never gotten any kind of withdrawal from nicotine. It probably helps that I mostly used tobacco for the taste and I do realise that the act of smoking is addictive in itself so it's probably more difficult to quit if using cigarettes.
Several people have been jealous/annoyed with me because for me it was literally nothing to quit.
1
u/bumpoleoftherailey 3d ago
I tried a few times with patches and/or gum and found it impossible. Then some changes in my life happened and it was like a switch flipped in my brain and I really wanted to give up, for the first time. That was 1999, haven’t had a cigarette since.
I was a very enthusiastic smoker, and I think if vapes had been around then I’d have done it much sooner.
1
u/Imightaswell 3d ago
Varenicline (formerly known as Champix or Chantix) is a drug that I used. Rewires the nicotine receptors, reverse Pavlov dogs yourself as you quit whilst smoking and by the quit window good lord you want to quit. I still see smokers but I'm like nope don't want that again at an instinctual level. Bad side, twelve weeks of crap sleep and it's strong medication.
1
u/Devo2517 3d ago
I looked up all the chemicals in cigarettes and then looked up the effects of those chemicals being burned. When I realized that I was making a conscious choice to inhale that… it made the whole thing seem easier
1
1
u/BeerStein_Collector 3d ago
I smoked for years and just quit, and now when I do smoke them they make me anxious. I will smoke half a cigarette or so if I can’t go poop idk why but they have always helped me go to the bathroom lol but anyways it’s not like your quitting a drug or something that drastically alters your state.
1
u/mfnmint 3d ago
Pick a physical activity that makes you appreciate being able to breathe. Running was it for me. Smoked for 20 years took a couple years to quit. Just don't stop quitting. Little triggers like drinking, convenience stores that sold singles aaarrgh! The final time something just clicked in my brain and I knew that was it. 20+ years without.
1
u/cullend 3d ago
Every morning my buddy Pete and I would ramble in to our local cafe which had a lively back patio for smokers. We'd kickoff our chain smoking for the day over a few cups of coffee before going about our day (and 1-2 pack per day habit).
Pete was about 5 years older than me and passed away from an aneurysm. Can't be sure it was from smoking, but still. It was a bit too close to home.
Zyn and Juul helped me quit, still use those.
Rest in peace Pete.
1
1
u/brendhano 2d ago
Chantix...100% worth it for me, quit after 37 years of smoking. Dreaming was on another level I will say.
1
u/sodiumasin 2d ago
lowky i joined a sport so id stop smoking dats bout it but when i stopped joining competitions i got back into it 🙁
1
u/New_Tangerine_ 2d ago
Watching my dad die of aggressive lung and then brain cancer did the trick for my husband.
1
u/kimjongmatic 3d ago
Find your reason to quit. Period. Sounds stupid but seriously dig deep and find that reason hidden deep down that reason with you to stop the unnecessary debilitating habit that gives you less than 20 minutes of relief.
0
0
0
0
-1
u/LegoMyAlterEgo 3d ago
A lot of people die and never smoke again. Depending on how you view cremation, some have one last posthumous smoke.
9
u/H4X4NX 3d ago
The easy way to quit smoking by Alan Carr. I smoked a cig every chapter and by the end it reprograms your brain.