Thread: Anyone here quit smoking successfully?

I think that I have quit more times than anyone else on the planet. I have had varied success and failures. Probably the most important thing I've come to believe is don't believe the advertisers. There is an entire industry that has evolved that is trying to convince us that it is too hard unless we give them our money. Bullshit. It is not easy, but we can all do it. To smoke or not to smoke is largely a psychological condition, believe it and do it. I have been smoke free this time for a year. The last time for five and and and. People quit smoking long before gadgets and drugs and gizmos were around. Do it, feel better, be healthier, and spend your savings on something else or put it in a jar and spend it on big things.

I am gonna give it a go on my birthday, end of September. Gotta do it.
I figure cold turkey for me. I am too stubborn to do anything else.

I smoked for 10 years, almost 2 packs a day and quit cold turkey. My philosophy was to carry around an open pack of smokes and slighter with me for the first month. This was torture for the first week. The second week was terrible too. The third week not as bad, and after a month I felt 'free'...... What carrying around an open pack of smoke taught me was that even though its always availed, I quit, and therefore I will not smoke. After a month I took the pack if smokes and chucked them in the garbage....

For me I needed to defeat the temptation. I knew quoting smoking was more then just fighting the nicotine craving but it was about having the will power to walk in to a convienance store and pay for my gas or buy a cup of coffe with out getting a pack of cigarettes.

I'm not saying this is the right way for everyone, but honestly, as tough as it is if you truley want to quit you can.... Chantix, patches, gum etc.... That stuff is a bandaid- if you want to fix the problem, fix it!

I'm the furthest thing from a reformed smoker... I for one loved to smoke... I don't get upset with people who smoke or smoke around me. But I choose not to smoke any more.... Make the choice, then do it. And If you slip up don't think you failed- everything u wanna smoke just remind yourself that you are a nonsmoker. It's works. YMMV.

Good luck!

i picked up the habit in my mid-30's to keep a girlfriend company and was immediately sorry. i quit in january of 1988, just put them down and never had much of an urge to start again. at this point in life i had also quit drugs and alcohol, so i figured i'd survive quitting smoking. at the same time i wound up with an inflammatory joint disease called reiter's syndrome and i was pretty sick for three months. don't regret stopping one iota. it's well worth whatever it takes.

I gave up - cold turkey - for about 25+ years. Just threw my fags and lighter out the car window.

Fast forward and I was suffering from bad back trouble, after dithering about the doc sent me for blood tests. When we discussed the results, he told me I had irreparable liver damage and 6 months to a year left.

I thought b*gg*r, went out and bought a bottle of champers and a box of havannas - might as well enjoy nyself.

Turns out my tw*t doc had been giving me medication that provokes false liver readings. Gave up the medication for a month, had another blood test, got the all-clear.

Been all downhill since then. Backache, smoke like a trooper, drink like a fish.

There's no justice in this world, believe me.

Regards,
Neil

I quit every night. Seriously though I have quit before just to see if I could. I used the patch for a month to get over the cravings. After 6 months I just decided I wanted to smoke again. That pill has worked for friends but what it is, is an old antidepressant (Adavan) I believe that has been rebranded because it did have that side effect for the depressed. I am not big on pills and read the side effects. You can still smoke on them for the first 2 weeks ? The whole key to quitting is YOU have to WANT to quit period ! It does not matter how. Choose whatever you feel most comfortable with and just do it. I am going to do it soon. I am getting to were I want to. So I can buy some hones :<0)

Well, I am back. Just ran out to the store!

I have other things I had rather dump the money into and am tired of gathering up additional crap as I go anywhere and ruining what is left of my health. I like my cold beer too and hate to think about a beer without a cig. I may as well join the friars.
I have young guys work for me and tellem to quit now While they are young! My doctor tells me everyone quits...eventually!
Also, everywhere I go, I seem to be one of few left outside smoking. Like an outcast or something. I remember when movie theaters had ashtrays on the seat arms.
Sort of a curse from our forefathers!

I have said it before.......Humans are a self destructing bunch. It's the negative side of free will.

I've not had a smoke in so long I don't count anymore. I have tried to quit three or four times. I've used patches and gum but what got me over was not trying to quit but deciding to STOP. There's a mental difference with quitting something and not doing/stopping and I found the stop works for me.

I took up martial arts 4 years ago and had been a pack a day smoker for 20 years prior to that. At my white belt grading about 6 months in I was panting like a cart horse just running across the hall, and decided then and there that I'd had enough.

I didn't give up cold turkey, I used the nicabate mini lozenges - they look like a tic-tac and you just sit them in the side of your mouth and let them dissolve (used to make one last around 2 hours). They helped with the physical habit.

The hardest bit though was the emotional or psychological habits I had developed around smoking over the previous 20 years. For example, every day for 20 years I had sat out the back and talked over the day with a ciggy with my wife. These I found hard to break, and the way I overcame them was to replace those habits with positive ones - for me they were physical: I'd pop a lozenge and go out and weed the garden for 20 minutes, or I'd drop and do 50 push ups if I was at the office etc. Something that took my mind off the habit and left me feeling positive.

A habit is just the repetition of an action over a period of time - I just replaced one (not so good) habit with several other positive ones.

Every week my decision to quit gets a positive reenforcement when I do MA training - I'm fitter than I ever was and have the lung capacity of a small blue whale!

Good luck with quitting - it is not easy but it can be done. You just have to know yourself and your triggers. If you can find a way to show yourself the benefits of quitting outweigh the benefits of continuing, you will get there. The trick is figuring that out.

James.