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Ex-Smokers. How did you quit?

Also, put however much you spend per day on cigarettes in a savings account everyday. You've already budgeted for it, so it will give you a good visual for how expensive smoking is. Then buy yourself something nice on the anniversary of quitting as a reward for doing something good for yourself
Good advice. Here in California it is very expensive these days. I have a $15 to $18 a day habit.
 
'er indoors quit cold turkey when she found out her father had lung cancer. Five years later she had to beat lung cancer herself (she is cancer free after having a lobe of lung removed - yay!).
My son (and likely 'er indoors too) bought me a vape for father's day a few years ago. I quit there and then.
A month later I was 'pressured' into having a cigar at a golf tournament (I was a cigar smoker), and I really did not enjoy it.
I've been lowering the nicotine dose steadily since, and am now on a dose lower than any cigarette.
I don't do any of the fancy flavours as I don't want to get addicted to that.

When I reach 0 mg. I'll just stop.
The vape helps with the 'hand to mouth' part of the habit. That can easily turn into 'sandwiches.'
 
I tried several methods which were unsuccessful (pills, patches, nicotine gum). What worked for me was cold turkey, 10 years ago (on year after my mom passed away from cancer, at 54). Motivation, to see my child grow. Motivation to not start again, I still remember that cold turkey, I never want to experience it again.
 
Started as a teenager and smoked for thirty plus years,quit cold turkey about eight years ago.I decided I'd had enough and that was that.

Now,for me, after a number of failed attempts over the years,a big part of stopping was that I'd quit drinking,etc. some twelve years prior....If drinking and smoking go hand-in-hand for you,your chances are slim after you've had a few and the other half of your old regular diet wants back in.

I remember hearing of a guy once who quit his coke habit one day when he thought to himself 'In the last year I put a brand new Corvette up my nose.And I was done.'
 
Remember that theres a good chance you'll fail the first time you try to quit and that's okay. You might cheat when you're out with friends and that's also okay. It takes most people multiple tries, I tried several times. Quitting is awful and cigarettes are designed to be as addictive as possible. Every cig you don't have is a good thing and eventually you'll be smoke free if you're making an honest effort to quit.
 
Started as a teenager and smoked for thirty plus years,quit cold turkey about eight years ago.I decided I'd had enough and that was that.

Now,for me, after a number of failed attempts over the years,a big part of stopping was that I'd quit drinking,etc. some twelve years prior....If drinking and smoking go hand-in-hand for you,your chances are slim after you've had a few and the other half of your old regular diet wants back in.

I remember hearing of a guy once who quit his coke habit one day when he thought to himself 'In the last year I put a brand new Corvette up my nose.And I was done.'

...Corvette up the nose and a Rolls Royce in each arm :-0
 
Amazing that peer pressure can make you do things like start smoking when you know better, but I fell into it in college. Quit several times easily, unfortunately reinforcing my belief that I could stop and start at will. Then one time I couldn't and it was really hard. Cold turkey with some oral substitutes, (hard candy, straws, etc) Stuck with it and managed to get off them for years. This was before the patch and other nicotine based quit assist products (or at least before I could afford them.)

Had a few cigars over the next decade without issue and then fell into the trap thinking clove cigarettes were free of nicotine (wrong!) and got myself hooked again nearly 10 years after a clean break.

Fast forward another 10 years and health and money required that I guit again. The patches and gum didn't work for me - just became another source of nicotine. Because of cost, I start rolling my own and finally decided to ween myself again. This time I:
1. Stopped smoking inside my house - every bit of inconvenience will get annoying and make the desire to quit stronger.
2. Stopped smoking in my car. Same logic.
3. Used the "just take one cig out of your routine) every couple of days, slowly reducing my dependency.
4. Once I got down to 2 or 3 per day, I just stopped. Again with the hard candy and other oral replacements.

It was s little rough for a couple days, but then it didn't seem so bad. I think the fact that I stopped using the national brands and was using the roll your own tobacco actually helped - I don't think it has all the additives the big boys use to keep us hooked. It really confuses me that this is a legal product in this day and age.

After 5 or so years, I can enjoy a cigar once in a while (like once or twice a year - maybe) and not get hooked (cigar mouth is a pretty good deterrent to want to smoke regularly!). It's been ten years again since I've had a cigarette and no desire to have another. I'm starting to get pretty militant about people who smoke in designated non smoking areas (even our outdoor light commuter train stops are supposed to be non-smoking) because the smell of a cigarette puts me off. I feel a little sorry for smokers as they keep getting forced to smoke "somewhere else" (I remember how annoying that was), but this is one of those things that affects the random people that happen to be in your vicinity.
 
I was never a dedicated smoker, but I smoked off and on in social situations for years. Then I got myself into a calamitous situation where I realized I had become addicted. After a few months of heavy smoking, I got the flu and couldn't get out of bed for over a week. I used that as my exit ramp and never went back. That was ~11 years ago.
 
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Thank you to all who liked my post. I hqd to quitor die soon.
I havent smoked anything for two weeks and im starting to feel a bit better.
To give you an idea how bad it was I cant bath myself.cant play.cant walk more than 100 feet.
I run out of air if I talk to much..

Must have oxygen 24/7
Before I die I want my chops back. I want to play my Bach Cello Suites again. Play my G&L L2000 in a funky horn band........
Im going to do it.
Please quit.
Smoking is not worth it.
Good luck.
 
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Motivation is all. My best friend and I both smoked profusely for decades. In March of 2018 he called and said, "Okay, I got the big C. You quit now, you hear?" So I did. He didn't, though - after the surgery he just changed brand.
 
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Cold turkey is the only thing that works. I quit maybe 6 years ago, hated every second of it but my energy levels went through the roof.

If you can’t do cold turkey, vaping is the only other way. Vaping is more or less harmless, you can have all the nicotine you need, and a million flavours which all taste way better than cigs. Just make sure you research it first, avoid cheap chinese trash and get a reliable ‘mouth to lung’ vape to start with. (there are different styles of vaping, mtl is a very similar experience to smoking).
 
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I tried and failed many times. My father suggested (and offered to pay for) hypnotism. It should have been harder, I'm telling you. That was over 20 years ago.