this post was submitted on 05 Nov 2024
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any piece of advice is welcome, thank you :-3

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[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

The patches are good options in my opinion but ultimately I just needed to drop nicotine all together and have the willpower to say no.

Edit: the best piece of advice I can give is you have to be deadly serious about not smoking, anything less than full commitment is a failed attempt.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 hour ago

I dont have advice but best of luck with it!

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Here's my advice on how to really and actually quit: make the decision to quit, and keep making that decision. Every time you feel yourself thinking "just one more.." remake that decision to quit. This was the only way I was successful. Keep making that decision and keep reminding yourself about your decision. You can do it.

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 2 hours ago

The way I implemented this strategy was to make sure I had a single cigarette and lighter on me at all times. I named the cigarette, which psychologically helped prevent me from smoking it. I stuck that out for a few months until a friend smoked it in desperation. At that point I felt confident I'd quit because I wanted to, not because of random circumstance.

[โ€“] Acters 1 points 2 hours ago

I hear sucking on a lollipop can help.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 3 hours ago

I quit overnight by accident. Got high on shrooms, tried to smoke, was disgusting, friend told me it's normal when high on shrooms and people use them to stop smoking. Sounded fun, stopped smoking.

[โ€“] [email protected] 8 points 5 hours ago

My grandma quit using a program that basically attempted to break your habits.

She did things like:

-if you normally have a smoke break at noon, wait til 12:30. Tomorrow do it at 11:30 instead

-If you normally use a lighter, switch to matches, tomorrow use a lighter.

-On Monday, Wednesday,Friday switch to a different brand of cigarettes ... next week go the opposite days.

-Smoke, but every other drag put a pen in your mouth instead.

-Only allow yourself to smoke half a cigarette and then chew a stick of gum for the rest of the time you would normally smoke

-Alternate smoke breaks between smoking and chewing nicotine gum or using the patch (I don't think she used the patch so I'm guessing on that one).

And just a lot of things like that that didn't specifically stop you from smoking, but attempted to stop it being a mindless thing that you just do on reflex without much thought and made it so before lighting up she'd have to think about what the current rules are ... at a certain point, the habit has been broken and you don't seek it... it worked great for her. Was a 6 month or so process and then she never went back once she finished her last pack.

There was a whole program around it with those types of rules and things you'd do and time restrictions on certain days and stuff ... sorry, she passed a few years back and I can't ask her the name of the program.

Good luck! Just remember that even if you lapse, any length of time that you're able to smoke less or stop smoking all improve your overall health! Even if you have a setback, any time that you stop is still a win!

[โ€“] Evotech 3 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (1 children)

You just don't assume another one

That's how I quit anyway, no last smoke, no just this pack i already bought, just quit right now.

First time it lasted 6 months, the second time it's listed about 15 years

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 10 minutes ago

Did you swap it anything? My dad switched to eating peanuts

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 4 hours ago

I tried quitting a number of times. Not easy, and demoralizing when you fail. You may have to try several times too.

When I finally did quit I had decided to put off my first cigarette in the morning as long as possible, reasoning that sleep was the longest I'd go without nicotine. One day I went the whole day.

A friend quit at the same time as me, using the gum. Six month later she was still using it, and gave up and started smoking again.

Probably help that I had quit drinking by then as well. Pretty hard to drink and not smoke, for me.

[โ€“] BassTurd 12 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

I switched to a vape and progressively got lower nicotine amounts until I was at 0 and then stopping was easy.

[โ€“] MattMatt 2 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Same. I just kept diluting the liquid with 0% nicotine until, months later, I realized I didn't even want to vape any more.

[โ€“] BassTurd 1 points 3 hours ago

I think I bought 1 bottle at 0% and decided I'd rather have the money.

[โ€“] MisterNeon 58 points 13 hours ago (6 children)

I'm going to tell you what worked for me. There's a very good chance you'll hate it and I will get flak.

Cold Turkey.

You physically stop yourself from purchasing cigarettes and not ask for them in social situations. You make a line in the sand and never cross that point again.

[โ€“] Dashi 1 points 3 hours ago

Cold turkey worked for me. But it wasn't this big thing. One day I didn't want to go to the gas station to get more and that turned into, how long could I go? And now I smoke once a year on my friends birthday and HATE the taste.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 4 hours ago

Cold Turkey. Yes. That's exactly what I did, in 2014, after 20 years of smoking, and it works. You must decide, absolutely, NEVER AGAIN. Not even a brush close to smoking again. After a week, it was easier. After a month, it was a new way of life, and a much better one. You'll see.

[โ€“] [email protected] 19 points 11 hours ago

Cold turkey worked for me. Took me 4 attempts. I wasn't hard on myself for failure, I noted what happened (emotional trauma, stress, alcohol) and prepared myself for the next attempt.

I wanted to quit, so when I relapsed it's not because I wanted to smoke but because those little cancer stick bastards were trying hardest to kill me. But if they were going to be tough, I could be tougher. I found it easier when I could see the cigs as my enemy.

[โ€“] [email protected] 10 points 10 hours ago

Honestly, this is it. You have to want it, and you just have to do it. You'll feel "sick" for a while but you just have to muscle that out.

I know it's easier said than done, but it really is that simple. Just stop.

[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

I did the same and can confirm it worked. First two weeks will be the worst, then it'll be easier. Just be stuborn and aware that your will is stronger then a habit and that it doesn't have power over you. The urge to smoke will remain but at that point you need to be aware that even if you're convinced you want a smoke, it will taste really terrible when you actually do it and you will regret you broke your streak of non-smoking days.

[โ€“] MisterNeon 3 points 11 hours ago

I do confirm that cigarettes taste awful now.

[โ€“] Cthuwu 7 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

This is also the only thing that worked for me

[โ€“] Octothorpidiot 2 points 6 hours ago

This and a case of pneumonia for me. Grabbed my remaining cigs and vape accessories and threw them all away. Not one puff since.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 7 hours ago

If you haven't already tried it, "The easy way to quit smoking" by Allen Carr has helped many people. I haven't tried his other subjects, but I recall his take on smoking in the book to seem relatively revolutionary to me at the time.

[โ€“] [email protected] 35 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

I quit by switching to vaping and then working the nicotine level down to nothing and then quitting that. Whatever you decide to do I wish you the best of luck (and stick with it!)

[โ€“] [email protected] 16 points 12 hours ago

Same here. Fuck the naysayers who say cold turkey or nothing. Do what works for you.

For OP: One caveat to the vape plan is you'll likely need to get a vape that's refillable so you can customize the nicotine level. Juul/vuse/disposables typically only come in one, or at best, 2 nicotine levels, which prevents effective tapering.

Also, don't fall into the trap of vaping places you wouldn't have smoked (e.g. in your house/car). That can increase your nicotine dependency.

Good luck!

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (1 children)

If I can offer you one piece of advice on quitting tobacco it's this: Understand that it may be possible that you don't succeed at quitting on your first attempt. That is okay. Most people don't succeed quitting on their first attempt. What is important is that you keep trying to quit.

There are many different strategies for quitting. Mine involved switching to vaping and mixing my vape juice so that I gradually weened myself off of the Nicotine two years later. Prior to that I tried using Rx Chantix which worked until my prescription ran its course. I also tried the gum with very little success, but that's not to say it won't work for you, it might. Explore your options.

[โ€“] acid_falcon 2 points 7 hours ago

Yo that is what I'm doing. I appreciate hearing that, it's heartening, I used to smoke a pack a day.

I've been cutting my juice with plain VG/PG so I'm at half of the nicotine of the average juice.

[โ€“] Fosheze 4 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

There is a med called Welbutrin which can be prescribed for quitting smoking and it works really well. It's also prescribed as an antidepressant so one of my smoker friends was on it for that reason and they almost completely quit smoking without even trying to. Of course, it is not without It's sideeffects but among antidepressants it is one of the usually best tolerated ones. I'm on it for my depression now and the only issue I have is that it can make me really anxious, but I'm also on nearly the maximum dose where for smoking cessation you wouldn't be taking anything close to that amount.

[โ€“] Bell 1 points 5 hours ago

+1 Zyban (just a different name) helped me quit smoking years ago and then helped me quit vaping.

[โ€“] [email protected] 27 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

If you don't have the willpower or don't really want to, you will fail. It's nearly all willpower.

[โ€“] [email protected] 8 points 12 hours ago

*Crys in depression which fuels smoking more

[โ€“] Pacattack57 8 points 11 hours ago
[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

I've been trying to quit for 18 years now. I've tried gum, patches, toothpicks, welbutron (or something like that), but this time it's going a bit better. We switched to cheap disposable vapes (Kadobar was what was near the house) which is totally not 'quitting' but when picking a flavor, Pick a bad one. I've found I don't like it, it's way too sweet and that keeps me from wanting to smoke it too much at a time, but when that need arises (bad meeting, car trouble, bad anxiety) it does deliver nicotine which keeps me from buying a pack.

As a side effect, I went from spending around $400-450/month on cigarettes, to around $~~160~~80/month (my wife went with one she likes, but she's quit before and I think she could do it anytime).

Edit: I'm bad a math

[โ€“] [email protected] 12 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (1 children)

You have to want to stop. I smoked 13 years, stopped several times, but the final real stopping was not that hard.

What also worked quite well for me as a crutch were nicotine free cigarettes. I decided I'd smoke as many of those as I wanted. Started with 20 at the first day and it slowly reduced by itself over time, till at one point o completly stopped without even realizing it.

[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Say what. I feel like I'm addicted to the feeling of smoke being inhaled. Vapes reck me and I can't stop coughing.

What are these things you speak of

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

Oh, apparently they are called herbal cigarettes. Consist off some non tobacco leafs. Here in Germany they are sold in pharmacies.

[โ€“] j4k3 9 points 12 hours ago

IRL social network is a major factor.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 8 hours ago
[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Nicotine patches. It gives your brain what it wants with little to no adverse effects

[โ€“] Death_Equity 2 points 6 hours ago

The problem with patches is you don't satisfy the oral aspect of the habit so you may need to chew gum or sunflower seeds to replace the act of smoking.

Nicotine gum or pouches may seem like a simpler option, but you can up your dose frequency too much to be able to ween off effectively if you do not have the willpower to keep to a plan.

Gum and patch also means you can not use a patch after a while and mindfuck your reptile brain into thinking the gum is what it wanted and not the nicotine patch.

[โ€“] Anticorp 6 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (1 children)

Get a quality vape device. Start with 18mg tobacco flavored vape. Try to always vape instead of smoke, but don't beat yourself up if you smoke. Just keep doing it. Eventually you'll notice that you're vaping more than smoking, and some time after that you'll realize that you haven't smoked in days. At that point you're basically free. Throw your smokes away and keep vaping for a month or two or three. Then reduce your nicotine concentration to 12mg and keep vaping. Then reduce it to 6, then 3, then 0 mixed with 3, then just 0. You'll naturally quit within a couple weeks after switching to 0. You might want to switch off a tobacco flavor at some point during the process.

I didn't think I'd ever be able to quit smoking. I wanted to, and needed to, but I couldn't. I tried all of the other cessation methods and none of them worked long term. I tried the above and it fucking worked! The best part is that it wasn't hard. It all happened pretty naturally.

It's important that you get a good vape device that gives good throat hit and feels like a cigarette. Don't get a massive cloud machine, and don't get a rinky dink disposable device. Try to get one with a round mouthpiece that is the same size as a cigarette.

You can totally do this! If I can do it, then anyone can do it!

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[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 13 hours ago

Well, there are several methods:

*Cold turkey: just stop and ride it out. You can do things like chew gum to help deal with the cravings. *Medication: Talk to your doctor *The Patch: follow instructions on box. *Nicotine Gum: use as directed *Vape: not the best method, but works for people.

Not an exhaustive list

[โ€“] Grimy 5 points 12 hours ago

I overpressure myself, as if I was constipated, each time I get cravings. I basically make my body as uncomfortable as I can so it learns that cravings=pain.

In the past, I've used hand rolled tobacco to ween myself off. It's a lot harder to just grab a smoke when driving for instance. But cold turkey is best. I usually wait until I get sick before starting stopping since it tends to skip the nasty craving in the first few days. After a week or two, it gets much easier.

Remember, having a smoke every now and then will work until it doesn't.

[โ€“] morgan_423 4 points 12 hours ago

Not a smoker myself, but I can tell you what worked for my brother when he quit in college.

AC went out in his dorm during an August heat wave, and it took forever for them to fix it. He decided that it would be a perfect time to go cold turkey, since he'd be so miserable from the heat that the few days of nicotine withdraw wouldn't really be comparably bad. And he said it was right, he didn't think about it during the worst part, and by the time they fixed the AC, he was 90% of the way through the process.

So if you live in one of the parts of the world moving to summer right now, it might be worth a shot.

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

Here's my advice.

Rule #1: Avoid evironments that make you want to smoke (e.g. the bar, hanging out with smoker friends)

Rule #2: Get some drugs. Not the fun kind. Talk to your doctor and they'll likely prescribe you a low dose of Welbutrin or an alternative that you'll take for the first few months.

Rule #3: Don't be too hard on yourself. You're going to slip up. That's okay. You don't have to give up and start over.

Rule #4: Make it hurt (your wallet). If you buy a pack, have one cigarette, then snap the pack in half and throw it in the trash.

Rule #5: Replace your smoke breaks with another habit (e.g. going for a walk)

Rule #6: Learn to hate the smell. Wash your clothes, clean your car. Then, when you slip up after getting unused to the scent, you'll be fully aware of just how pungent that cigarette smell is.

God speed, comrade. It's a journey.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 10 hours ago

I used chantix back in the day, but it also required me basically not leaving the house for a month to really get there. When and where I quit for the first time (I would later start dating a smoker and relapse, then quit again), smoking was still allowed indoors and I had a huge association with drinking and smoking. Same for certain other places and situations. I basically had to do everything I could to avoid those. It got easier with time.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 11 hours ago

While I have no personal experience with tobacco addictions, there is an interesting literature review of CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) and MBI (Mindfulness Based Interventions).

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Alan Carr's stop smoking book is highly regarded, and encourages you to smoke as you read along, until by the end you won't want to.

Combine that with a NAC supplement (which doesn't do anything for withdrawals, but studies show it makes trying smoking again far more unpleasant for your brain which helps you stay off them.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 10 hours ago

Yes, I recommend the book as well. Don't ask me why though. I tried quitting smoking many times using many different methods but always failed. On a whim I got the Alan Carr book and read it. I read it in bursts over a month or two. There was nothing interesting in there. Nothing I didn't already know. I finished it and quit smoking. The next day I relapsed and smoked again. I reread the last few chapters and quit again, this time using nicotine patches. I quit the patches within a day because they made me feel sick. I never smoked again. It's been 7-ish years and I haven't had any inclination to smoke again. It went from one of the hardest things to one of the easiest things to do. I don't care if people smoke around me, it doesn't bother me anymore. I still don't know why the book works, but it did for me.

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