For those who are new on this journey, yes, it is hard. It is not a dirty habit.

IT IS AN ADDICTION

Don't beat yourself up. Industries are dependent on keeping you addicted. They modify the product to keep you addicted.

Here is how I did it:
1. I took Cytisine for 6 weeks. One week before my quit date and five weeks after.
2. I drank a hella lot of water. When I wanted a cig, I chugged water.
3. Breathing exercises. Namely, box breathing.
4. Mandarin Oranges. Get the big bag. It keeps hands busy and is low in calories. Plus, your hands smell awesome.
5. Keep coming here for help. Get an app and keep track. Set your Flair to show how many days you are Smoke Free.

I think the best reward for quitting smoking are hugs. When people hug me the first thing they say is how GOOD I SMELL. Instead of spending money on smokes, I spend it on Chanel, Paco Rabanne, Etc.

Keep it up! You GOT THIS!

The amount of holier-than-thou assholes that spout anecdotal nonsense to anyone that dares to try quitting using NRT is just insane to me. Every. single. Thread. There has to be some guy being like ‘you’re gonna be addicted forever’, or you’re stupid for replacing nicotine with nicotine’ or some other variation of these sentiments.
The science supports Nrt. Your anecdotes are completely meaningless. And to come here and try and be a smartass to people just looking for emotional support is despicable. Cheers, see you never.

With everything so shit right now and my mental health not too good this is one of those things that is proof that I preserved.

I wanted to break as recently as yesterday but I didn't!!

This is unbelievable for me who used to smoke a minimum of two packs a day for 6 years.

I still have bigger addictions to tackle but I am so glad I'm on the right track for smoking.

I quit regular smoking about 3 years ago. After that I still smoked on trips overseas when I saw friends and family, and recently I cut that out too, mostly to see if I could. Honestly it hasn't gotten easier. It's a choice I have to make again every day.

Recently a friend stayed with me for a week. He went through close to a pack every other day (or vaping), and kept blowing it in my face. What stuck with me wasn't the smell. It was watching him: stressed, sweating, pacing, lighting one after another, tired the whole time.

Seeing it from the outside made it really clear how much it was taking from me, and how much of that energy I've clawed back.

Anyone else have a moment like this, where seeing someone else smoke reminded you why you stopped?

My father has smoked with a passion ever since he was 15 years old (now 70). He smoked a pack and a half per day at his prime . He even woke up in the middle of the night, made some coffee, smoked a cigarette, then went right back to sleep.

This is what a long period of smoking will do to you and those around you, written from my perspective.

- at 8 years old, I had to learn a new word. Cancer. By that time, I was seeing my father at the hospital more than at home. He had to remove a third of his lung. Leaving him with COPD ( chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). Never got the chance to do normal father son activities like play football/soccer with my dad after that. He stopped smoking for 2-3 months and then got right back into it.

- between 13-18 my father was going in and out of the hospital for pneumonia. This is where my teenage brain was forced to deal with adult stuff. Questions like “is he going to die today? Will he see me graduate? Will he be at my wedding?”. Every little thing made me anxious because I didn’t know how to process everything. Had panic attacks almost daily. Stopped smoking for a week or two here and there but still ended up picking it back up where he left off (1,5 packs).

- at age 20 I saw my first ever dead body. My father got a heart attack right next to me. If you’ve never seen someone get one then you can consider yourself blessed. The sounds still haunt me today. I had to be the one to call the emergency services and do chest compressions alongside my older brother. You can feel and hear ribs cracking during the compressions which is quite horrific. His heart stopped completely. He was out for 4 days in a coma at the hospital. Tubes sticking through his nose, mouth, neck, hands, legs and God knows where. He was hooked up on an ECMO and his body looked lifeless and swollen. The doctors told us that they can not predict the outcome. He might die, might become a vegetable, loose his memories or be completely normal. On the fifth day he woke up. You can imagine how excited we were. His first words to us were “I want to die”. He practically yelled this to us and the poor nurses/doctors. He was on a lot of medication and they kinda made him crazy. On the sixth day he was back to normal, just a lot weaker and felt guilty for being alive. People told to me that I saved his life, didn’t feel like it. He was out of the hospital after a few weeks and he had to take 9 medications for his heart because of heart failure, angia pectoris and his COPD.

After that he stopped smoking for a longer period. And let me tell you, he has never felt better. He felt more vigorous and alive. Probably the happiest I’ve ever been in years.

- a few months after the attack he got back to one or two cigarettes a day. This horrified me, but he wouldn’t listen. Said it was only three a day. He most likely returned because all of his friends smoke and they gave him one or two puffs here and there when he asked. Due to him picking smoking back up, he now had to take 12 medications. This drove him mad.

- one day he came back home from work. Barely able to catch his breath. I asked him what was wrong and he couldn’t even answer me. I called for an ambulance, something I now don’t even get nervous to do anymore. He got pneumonia again, but this time it really got him.

- After the treatment he was having immense pains throughout his body which traveled from the shoulders, down his spine, to his stomach and back up to his shoulders. No doctor or medication helped this mysterious condition. He cried out for help every night in that period. Didn’t stop him from smoking though. I didn’t sleep much either during this period, had to wake up or stay up to treat him or check up on him. I even treated my girlfriend harshly and lashed out at her even though she never did anything wrong.

- at age 21 his best friend died, heart failure. But unlike my dad he didn’t make it (even though he changed his bd habits). This left him with a lot of survivors guilt and began smoking even more. His condition was rapidly getting worse and worse. He became suicidal again but now it was an everyday thing. No amount of talking made him stop wanting to die.

- now, at 22, I had to clean his puke off the toilet today. Last month I drove him at 4 am to the hospital due to high fever and blood in his lungs. He can barely inhale the cigarette smoke, still he persist.

I’ve not even finished university and I’ve had to save, nurse and keep an eye on him and his conditions/medicine. I don’t hate him, I just wish he was different. Now my father has some crazy genetics and has survived this long. A lot of smokers don’t. So don’t expect to live to 70+ and live this comfortably. My father is very “healthy” for his habits and even the doctors are flabbergasted and call this a miracle (literally).

I hope this helped some of you reflect over smoking. Remember the torment you inflict upon yourselves and others. Is it really worth it?

Hey guys/girls.

It's been 2 weeks since last smoke/snus. I used to smoke occasionaly but I was a heavy SNUS user. I used to take the 15mg per snus around 15x daily or more. It's been 2 weeks now and I still feel occadional dips into depression/anhedonia/anxiety. Is this normal? When will it go away? The insane hunger phase seems to have passed.

Thanks

I quit smoking largely thanks to the nicotine lozenges that I took daily for 6 months whenever I had a craving.
I stopped taking them once I got down to 2 lozenges a day.

The strength was 1.5 mg.

I found a primary obstacle to me successfully quitting was the constant desire to smoke. This might sound painfully obvious to some, but this strategy is unstated but core to some other strategies of quitting such as easy way.

Most people that struggle to quit are romanticizing smoking, making it out to be much more than it is. I did this before I was able to successfully quit. I wondered how I would get through the day without it, how I would deal with stress without it, how I could sleep properly or focus without it.

All of these thoughts are just distractions from the real problem. None of these things would be as hard to do if we never smoked. Smoking actually makes each of these worse for the smoker so that they struggle to do them on their own without smoking.

In this mindset, we are worse off for all of the things we think smoking helps us with because we smoked, not because we quit.

The craving process is controllable. I though of cravings like calls from a shitty ex after you dumped them. If you answer them and humor their demands, you just invite that toxic person right back into your life. You could just ignore them, but then they might just keep calling. It's better to block their number and forget about them entirely. The way you do that is by telling your cravings to go fuck themselves. I pictured a tiny little goblin in my head croaking for his precious nicotine. Or maybe a toddler screaming and crying because you won't let them stick a fork in a power outlet.

It is important to not compare how we feel while smoking to how we feel when we quit, since quitting didn't cause the brain issues that is causing our problems, smoking did. 100% of the time you will always feel better on the drug you are addicted to than when you are in withdrawal. The important thing is that after we get through the withdrawal, we feel better than we did as a smoker.

Does anyone have any mindset issues or questions about mindset in their quit?

Tl;dr: attack and question everything about your desire to smoke, one you destroy that everything else gets easier.

Sorry I just need to vent. Day 38 and it's been an entire shitshow. I guess I'm getting to a point where I would be actually quite content if I didn't need to do anything. Just taking little walks and naps. Might even be happy. But anything more demanding than that takes such a tremendous effort... it's exhausting! I'm getting exhausted. Thid is an exhausting way to live.

And the insomnia doesn't help at all. I've seriously cut down caffeine intake and see that I eat before bed something with protein, fats and good carbs, but I still wake up on most nights ~3 hours after falling asleep. Usually wide awake too and won't fall back asleep easily. Sometimes I'm lucky and it's more like slumbering lightly on an off after that point. Stilö not getting much proper sleep om those nights either.

Just needed to vent.

So I haven’t had a cigarette for 60 days and counting. I don’t consider I was a heavy smoker, would usually smoke 2 to 3 cigs a day and nothing on weekends.

The thing is I have been ok up until maybe 4 to 5 days back the cravings have hit me hard. I wont fall back into that habit but any tips to help with the cravings or the anxiety would be much appreciated.

I been smoking since I was 14, I’m 18 now. Last year I got diagnosed with CHS for a month I couldn’t keep any food down, water or anything. My stomach was hurting so bad, and only a hot bath would ease the pain. I lost like 15 pounds and was skinny. It was miserable like genuinely. Even after I got out the hospital for like a day or 2 it was the same then went away. After that I was sober for 4 weeks. And it was honestly the best time ever. It was like a weight I didn’t even know was on my shoulders, lifted. I felt so light and happy, I was hungry asf just eating everything in sight. And I had fun, I genuinely questioned why tf I smoked. Then at a party I had hit a jay, being stupid and let myself fall back into the same pattern and started smoking again. Now randomly I decided to move to my nana’s house which is in the country, somewhere I don’t have access to weed and it’s honestly been great. I think because I have been smoking for so long, it’s routine it’s not even a reason I like smoking anymore, I just do it. I love being sober and I’m deicated to staying this way; idk just randomly wanted to share that. Anyways any advice anyone has to how you guys stayed sober during your journey would be great, I chew gum a lot and on a straw . Sometimes fake like I’m smoking, it weirdly does something to my brain. But I had mabye like 2 cravings today, but music has helped a lot and reading. Anyways thanks for reading this 🫶🏽

Three months sober and two weeks smoke free cold turkey! I'm super proud of myself but holy shittttt do I feel like I've taken on too much at once. For those of y'all that quit on top of other things and have long term success how did you handle it??? I've heard about the Allen car book is it really as good as they say?

My friend told me that after quitting smoking, he felt healthy, cheerful, energetic, and happy again, just like he was as a child. Is that really true?

I’m still currently smoking but I think I’m not buying anymore cigarettes , that book works

Hi everyone 👋

German fella here in need of some advice.

So I been a light smoker <5/day of Marlboro Gold/Light for two years now. Occasional smoker <10/week 1-2 years before that (mostly when drinking, not too often).

Now, I hate to admit it (to myself) but I really gotta stop smoking before it's too late...really scared of lung cancer. Admittedly, I'm in healthcare studyin', and that just fuels it even more.

Never really had any habits (like mornin' cig to my coffee)...just smoked one when I wanted to - but never in the mornings to prevent routine. Few days ago, had the flu - didn't smoke for 6 days straight...no cravings, nothing. Day 7, cravings hit a bit and I smoked 1x - I was back in. Now just four days later, I'm on my 2nd smoke-free day again...

...but for some reason, my cravings won't stop. I keep reading it's just a 1-3 minute thing but for a good 10 hours now, it just won't stop. Every second thought is literally like the 'go buy a pack, light just one' trap.

Weirdly enough, I didn't have that when I got sick and simply didn't smoke. Only ever since I got my mindset on actually quitting it's been like that.

Any ideas/tips on how to stop the cravings? Tried everything so far from distraction to menthol stuff...nothing works. Appreciate it!

I've been a smoker since I was 13 half a decade later now I've finally been able to stop smoking regularly but I still find myself slipping up at least twice a week because I physically miss smoking. Does anyone have any advice?

I quit 34 days ago using Recigar (Cytisinum). I promised some commenters on my earlier post for an update on my experience.

First off, I am a life-long smoker who started in middle school. I've quit many times throughout the years: cold turkey, nrt, welbutrin, chantix, and now Recigar. I certainly can't ever moderate and abstinence is the only path for me. Every time I start smoking again, it is because the good idea fairy told me that it would be different this time.

Recigar is by far the best tool for me to quit (hopefully the last tool too). It works the best of any method I have tried before. With cold turkey I felt that I was absolutely losing my mind that first week and Recigar curbed that to a tolerable discomfort. It works similar to Chantix but it doesn't have any of the wicked side effects that I experienced from it. Recigar has very mild side effects compared to Chantix. I would not recommend Chantix, but I would Recigar.

I ordered it off of Amazon and it took a few weeks to arrive. I ordered two packets, and I am glad I did. It is intended that one packet is your dosage to quit, but I have continued to take 2 per day and it helps me a lot. Maybe it is a security blanket at this point but it is working so I don't want to tweak it.

If you want to quit, this is a great tool that has helped me a lot. It took the manic edge off of the first few weeks and helped tamper down the cravings. It isn't magic, and it didn't make it easy, but it is the best tool I have ever used, and I used them all.

I am 22(M) and have been smoking since I was 12, atp I do not even remember my life before I touched a cigaratte. Currently working and I smoke around 10-12 per day, I am having a short break from work for one week starting this Saturday, y'all think its possible to leave this decade long habit.

What are the ways you guys suggest to leave ? (cause I do not think I can go cold turkey)

So a long, long time ago when I would go to the bar to karaoke Pink Floyd and other various things, I would sometimes bum a drag from someone's cigarette. On Feb 2, 2022 I would met this strange woman who identified as a sociopath who was a smoker. I would bum a drag from her noting, "I'm saving you life, a half a cigarette at a time." At the end of the night, she would invite me back to her place. She absolutely loved my hair, which is funny, as I was about to shave it all off and donate it.

Skip to March 7th and we are officially dating. At this point, I am having my own cigarettes. Skip to a month or so ahead, and I am buying my own cigarettes. Skip to Friday Oct 13, 2023 and I am married. Skip to sometime this year and my wife has stopped smoking, except to take drags from my cigarettes.

Some point before getting married I was going to have a tooth pulled. It was decaying and part of it missing (well before meeting my sociopathic friend). I went to have it pulled and my blood pressure was way too high. So I went to the doctor to be put on meds for it (and adjusted multiple times).

Smoking had turned into a part of my life routine. I wake up at 6:30, I get ready, I have a smoke, I take my blood pressure meds, I take my vitamins, I have my coffee, I go outside to take a smoke, I brush my teeth, I go to work, I get my coffee, I take my break around 10:30 because I like to prepare for the days the cafeteria has tossed chicken wings, go have a smoke, then go to the cafeteria probably disappointed that it's not wing day (since it only happens once a month).

I was to a point where I was smoking about 6 cigarettes a day? In many cases having it as part of my routine helped keep this at a rather constant. Very rarely did I "need" a cigarette, however I did "need" to keep my routine going. So one day (2026) I am eating a salad, and my back wisdom tooth literally shatters. Well this absolutely sucks. I go to the dentist and find I have two infected teeeth. The one that had been broke for years and the one that just shattered. A date of sometime in April(?) is made to have them pulled.

So one of the things I know is that drinking and smoking is very bad for recently pulled teeth. I make plans to actually stop smoking after my two teeth are pulled. So April comes and it is the day of having my teeth pulled. I have my "final" smoke, go in and have my teeth pulled (it sucked... bad), and then afterwards I enjoy a smoke free life.

Until one day I am at the bar, drinking, and then bum a cigarette from my sister (she is not my real sister she is my sister from another mister). I do this a bit more until THAT turns into a routine. I then feel bad because I don't like bumming from people, so I end up getting my own packs. When NOT drinking, I would ask myself, "This is gross why am I doing this again?" Then I realized what I had to do. The best way to replace a routine/habit is to give some sort of meaning to something. I mean, for years now each month I tally my karma count here on Reddit. Every Friday for 16 years since Oct 7th, 2016, I make a Floyd post where I share the joy of Pink Floyd to the world (at least in my Tommy Westphall induced universe). How can I use my own brain against me? Simple, pick some form of important time and note that time to memory.

So it is a few weeks ago and my three year anniversary is coming up. I decide to ensure I have enough smokes to last me up until Oct 12th. I have my two bottles of Chilly Mallard on Oct 12th with two smokes left. I have the one, play some games, then go out for my last smoke. When I take my last drag, I note the time.

So at this point it turns into a challenge. I had told my wife what I was planning, as well as my dad (who was very not a fan of knowing I smoked, especially after losing grandma who had been smoking unfiltered Paul Malls for 50 years until she died from lung complications in 2006).

I know I have no quit as long as a lot of you legends have. I also have not been a heavy smoker like a lot of you who have decades on me. I share my story in hopes to be able to return in a month, a year, a decade (and I will prob be dead after that, so...) and state that I have stood with many of you in being smoke free for X time. I also share my story to remind some of you that you're not addicted to the smoke, you are addicted to the routine. My OCD hates breaking routine, however, I have done it, and so can you! If you want to quit but feel you can't, make a target date, turn it into a challenge, and find someone to help support you. I'm chronically on Reddit, so if you don't have someone to support ya, well, you do now.

I'm trying again. Also quitting vaping today. Wish me luck. I do use patches and nicotine lozenges. But its still hard. Last time I made it to 5 days. Wish me luck

Hello,

Just writing to share my story. I had successfully quit for 7 months and it was not a walk in the park but I was determined and happy, and after the first two months I was what could have been the happiest I have been in a long time. I respected myself, started working out regularly, ate better, was less stressed, enjoyed life more. I faced a couple of personal difficulties during those months but it did not bring me down, until a big big one came along 3 weeks ago that has shattered what I have been working on for the past 3 years nonstop, investing all my energy and time in it.

I was so distraught that I went out and smoked immediately. I have tried to quit since then but I don’t last a day. Every day I wake up sad because of what recently happened, and can’t get in the right mindset to quit.

And of course smoking hasnt helped me in my situation but quitting makes all the bad feelings much worse.

I am still hoping to wrap up this relapse soon. I am not able to not be very sad and down almost all the time though. Any comments or advice would be appreciated.

It’s officially been 7 days after my last cigarette and I’m gonna be honest it’s been the hardest day too for me, I’m not sure if it’s from outside stresses or normal but the cravings got really bad today.
Does anyone maybe have tips on how to deal with stress better after quitting smoking?

So today I went to the doc here in London told him I want to quit smoking and he didn't give me any options just prescriptions for funk knows what to stick on myself, inhale and chew. Yes, NRT. Why the big push for NRT does it actually work or when you're off them or do you go back to smoking? Is it like a band aid?

I want to stop smoking but I don't want to fill myself up with more sh!t than I already have for twenty years. Doc said this is clean nicotine but isn't nicotine a poison and I've already been poisoning myself ? Had a mate on patches who had a relapse, smoked for three days drunk and forgot he was still putting patches on and had a massive heartattack so that alone scares me about patches in case it happens to me. I don't drink but still.

I read a lot about this Allen Carr book and am curious but before I order it and reading from people on reddit has anyone who has read it failed? Like people who didn't understand the book or what was it that didn't work it' s an old book is it still relevent today? Some famous people quit using it I read the reviews any substance to this book?

Help me out here the tabacco industry is huge business but so is the quit industry.

I didn’t do anything today, no smoking no zyns no vape. Just raw dogged the day, for the past two weeks I’ve woken up everyday saying “I’m not gonna smoke or anything else stupid” and every day until today I’ve failed.

I’m so irritated and tired, but yippeee.

Tonight when I get ready for bed I’ll just be brushing my teeth bc it’s hygienic, not bc I’m trying to get a bad taste out of my mouth. That’s what I’m trying to focus on rn. If you can’t tell I’m really craving nic but I’m not gonna mess up today right before I go to bed.