I got tired of breathing like shit. I quit using a vape. I found that vape was more addictive, however, easier to quit. I could vape inside unlike cigarettes.
One thing that helps is getting fruit, for me it was apples. I would eat one when I was jonesing. It may take a few times to fully quit, so be aware of that and don’t beat yourself up if you slip. Exercise helps too, it releases endorphins and is a great distraction.
Me quitting smoking was a side effect of an anti-depressant I was on called Wellbutrin. One day I just didn’t smoke and that was 580 days ago. I stopped Wellbutrin a year ago and just never had the urge to go back to either.
Bupropion, formerly called amfebutamone,[15] and sold under the brand name Wellbutrin among others, is an atypical antidepressant that is indicated in the treatment of major depressive disorder and seasonal affective disorder and to support smoking cessation.
Prescribed as an aid for smoking cessation, bupropion reduces the severity of craving for nicotine and withdrawal symptoms[53][54][55] such as depressed mood, irritability, difficulty concentrating, and increased appetite.[56] Initially, bupropion slows the weight gain that often occurs in the first weeks after quitting smoking. With time, however, this effect becomes negligible.[56]
The bupropion treatment course lasts for seven to twelve weeks, with the patient halting the use of tobacco about ten days into the course.[56][9] After the course, the effectiveness of bupropion for maintaining abstinence from smoking declines over time, from 37% of tobacco abstinence at three months to 20% at one year.[57] It is unclear whether extending bupropion treatment helps to prevent relapse of smoking.[58]
Overall, six months after the therapy, bupropion increases the likelihood of quitting smoking approximately 1.6-fold as compared to placebo. In this respect, bupropion is as effective as nicotine replacement therapy but inferior to varenicline. Combining bupropion and nicotine replacement therapy does not improve the quitting rate.[59]
In children and adolescents, the use of bupropion for smoking cessation does not appear to offer any significant benefits.[60] The evidence for its use to aid smoking cessation in pregnant women is insufficient.[61]
I had no intentions of quitting but I have a high stress job, was going through a nasty divorce, and was having unhealthy thoughts, so I went to therapy and started anti-depressants. The quitting smoking part was literally a side effect I wasn’t aware of at the time, and I just realized one day I hadn’t had a smoke in like 3 days. It surprised the hell out of me.
…and yes, smokers STINK. If anything, get your sense of taste and smell back. It’s awesome. After smoking for 20 years, I had no idea how stinky I was all the time.
Was a smoker for over thirty years. Switched to vaping thinking it would help me quit- it made it worse.
By this time I feared I was destined to die painfully of lung cancer. So…. Nothing to loose, right? It was here that I came up with my ridiculous plan- a Hail Mary of sorts-
My plan, was that I would switch back to analogs for about 6 months to ensure I was over the vape, and deeply back in the comfort-zone of my addiction, then I would pull the rug out from under it by getting on the Wellbutrin smoking cessation program.
Basically, it went like this:
For goo and comfy with my pack-a-day habit, then picked my start date to quit. In this day, per instructions, I started taking one pill every morning while still smoking. Then, after three or four days- it goes up to two pills a day. But you’re still okay to continue smoking a week later. Meaning, don’t worry if you are still smoking this deep in- it’s part of it and is totally fine.
After about a week and a half. I would wake up and forget that I usually needed a smoke. So I’d smoke- many hours later. After a few days of this, it became a chore. Also, it was kinda gross and did nothing at all for me, so I just…. stopped.
Essentially, this is how it works as it was explained to me:
Before you smoked, your body created the joy endorphins (whatever they’re called) and all was fine. However, after a while and enough nicotine, you stop making this naturally and just get it from the nicotine.
And this is why quitting is a BITCH!
In the first few weeks of quitting, your body hasn’t re-learned how to start creating the joy juice yet. So you’re going without. This is the anxiety, anger, jitters, etc… in a word:
WITHDRAWL.
This is where Wellbutrin comes in. It helps the body create the serotonin or whatever until your body can keep up on its own.
I was able to stop the Wellbutrin after about a month and a half.
Since then, I have lost my best friend of thirty years to an overdose, our 15 year old dog died in my lap, and my mother ended up in a coma 3,000 miles away while I had a massive sinus infection and was told under no circumstances could I fly to her.
Not a single urge to smoke through any of that.
Lastly, and for the record, I HATE typing this much, so- I REALLY hope this helps at least someone. And I’ll be glad to answer any questions for anyone wanting to try this themselves.
I progressively vaped lower and lower nicotine percentages until I was vaping 0% nic. Still did that for a couple weeks and then I quit vaping altogether.
It's nice to be able to separately quit nicotine and vaping, since they're both addictive.
I was homeless and scrounged cigarettes sometimes, one time I found one in a field that seemed good, but the smoke tasted and smelled like rotting fish. I quit right then and there. Maybe get some putrescine or cadaverine to put on your cigarettes. Or both.
Was admitted to hospital with a life threatening but unrelated health issue. Knew it would involve several weeks in hospital on intravenous medication and refused to be that person stood at the hospital entrance with a vape and a portable IV. So I went cold turkey whilst in hospital, I haven't had cravings since
I used to smoke, and then switched to vaping. I realized I was more addicted to nicotine than I was to cigarettes, but didn’t have a reason to quit. I was feeling mentally and physically well.
Anyway, one sunday about a year ago I was really lazy, and didn’t get up from the couch for the whole day, playing games or something. In the afternoon I realized I hadn’t vaped for the whole day and thought hmm, might as well quit now. Haven’t vaped since. I still smoke the occasional pipe (monthly or so).
My wife at the time was pregnant with our first child. I decided that if the kid wanted to smoke, he could make that choice when he was old enough, but I didn’t want him to grow up seeing that smoking was normal and usual. So I quit cold turkey, Easter Sunday, 1996.
Started smoking cigarettes around 12 years old, was addicted by 14, and at my worst I was chain smoking a pack of 20 Djarum Black Grande a day (those are the Camel Wides of clove cigarettes, btw).
At the end of 2019 and coming up on 40 years old, I finally made the decision to quit (2020 was gonna be my year! lmao). I started switching to an ecig for the last few months of the year, then only the vape after 2020 hit.
After a few years of vaping the lowest strength of VUSE pods, I switched to a vape pen that uses refillable pods and vape juice. I had my suspicions that I was more addicted to the act of inhaling smoke/vapor than the nicotine itself and switched to 0% nicotine juice as a test. No issues at all there, didn't miss the nicotine at all.
My health is way better, I spend a fraction of what I used to on my habit (one bottle of juice costs under$ 20 lasts a couple weeks), and I no longer stink like an ashtray..
BUT..
My addiction is absolutely still there - even without the nicotine. I still get irritable and cranky if I can't take a few puffs off my vape when I want. I do plan to quit vaping entirely at some point if I live that long.
I smoked for 20 years, 20ish cigs a day on average. For me quitting was all mental, using logic. Every time I tried and failed was the same thing: "I feel like I'm finally ready to quit", then back at it a few days/weeks later. I was always waiting for the day I was ready for it and kept telling myself that day was coming.
4 years ago I was finally honest with myself. I'm never going to be ready. I like it too much, that magic day is just never gonna come. That's when I realized that if I quit, the only way I would quit is when I wasn't ready for it, and if I quit when I'm not ready, today's just as good a day as any other. Logically I'd never be any more ready than I was that day, and if I didn't quit the day I realized that then I never would.
Haven't touched a cig in 4 years. Crave it every day though haha.
I find that the cravings get less frequent. When I just quit I'd yearn for a fag every hour. After a year it was about every day. Now it's every couple of days.
Sometimes though I'm surprised I didn't crave one for about a week. Pretty cool.
I was bed ridden for a couple months. No-one would wheel my bed out for a cigarette but they did give me patches. After 2 months I figured the hard work was done, and I was very low mobility anyway, so I kept up with the patches. By the time I was decently mobile I was completely off the chemical addiction and just had random intense, but brief, cravings.
It isn't scalable really. Not the easiest things I've done, but one of the easier things I did that year.
More relevant was my path from cigarettes to vaping. I would quit cigarettes until I got strong cravings. Then I'd buy 10, only 10, smoke them as normal then go back to vaping only. I found the craving for "real" cigs came fewer and farther between. I didn't mind letting myself fall off the wagon as long as there was some resistance to it, and I would immediately (after 10) get back on. I'd also throw up other barriers to cigs Vs vape, I'd vape in the house, but would force myself into the rain for a cig.
I was 15/day avg so on a day stressful enough to make me fall off, that 10 would be gone in an afternoon.
I had known for years I needed to quit, and I tried multiple times with no luck. Then there was a bunch of things all at once that got me to want to quit.
A family friend died of complications from a life of smoking (I think it was emphysema), I was unable up keep up with my 3 year old daughter's level of activity, and while smoking at work one day a coworker walked past me and said something to the effect of you should quit. She was the first person that had said that and was not preachy about it. It was a very matter of fact statement with genuine care behind it. Later that day I found out she was a lung cancer survivor and former smoker. I made the decision to quit that day. I took off a week from work and locked myself in the basement. That was 20 years, 11 months, and 30 days ago. I have not smoked since.
I quit smoking cigarettes when the indoor smoking ban took effect 20 years ago in Washington state. I could no longer spend all night at a diner drinking coffee, smoking, and reading so it seemed like a good time to quit.
My budget has been a lot tighter due to having cancer, and so I more recently gave up vaping marijuana. I had been smoking marijuana since my teens and had switched to vaping it about 10 years ago for the sake of my lungs. The biggest difference in breathing quality was definitely the switch from smoking to vaping, I haven't noticed as much of a big difference since I quit vaping.
Either I don't have strong addictive tendencies or I don't know because I quit both cigarettes and marijuana cold turkey pretty easily. I struggled with sleep for a while after quitting marijuana, but that eventually passed after about a month and a half. I struggle with sleep anyway, and always have, so it wasn't that huge of a change.
I turned 40 and just stopped. Cold turkey. I don't want to die of lung cancer. When I got the urge to buy another pack of smokes I simply...didn't. If I didn't have any on hand to smoke then I couldn't do it. It was tempting at times but the real trick is to just not have the things on hand.
Buddy of mine also did this for his 40th birthday present to himself. Quit cold turkey and he's over 15 years clean now. He said stairs are so much easier now.
I have a friend that used this concept: He called it the 10 minute rule.
Anytime you want a cigarette, you know it wont actually do anything it just kills time. So in ten minutes (approx the length of time to smoke a cigarette) you would be right back where you are now. So if you could just wait, just ten minutes you would be in the same spot but didn't have a cigarette, and surely you could have one then if you still wanted it.
And when you wanted it, you did ten more minutes.
Eventually, those ten minutes till you want one gets longer and longer, and eventually you just don't at all anymore.
Found distractions like exercise the first few weeks and tried quite af few times before it stuck. I will note though, after I quit I got diagnosed with/started meds for adhd. Turns out most of my withdrawal symptoms were exactly the same as feeling my meds wear off while tapering into them…haven’t had a craving since the meds normalized. Probably would’ve had a way easier time quitting if I’d gotten that diagnosed earlier in life.
I got disgusted of full ash trays. Also it's a real pathetic feeling needing to go the gas station before work / on sunday whatever. My SO did not smoke and was disgusted by it I always brushed my teeth before we met. Oh my god I could go on with reasons why I quit, the only good reason was that is was fun from time to time.
nicotine pouches (like snus but only nicotine powder)
been trying to quit those fuckers for a few years though. I keep managing to stay off them for a few months until inevitably I get stressed and go buy a can and wreck my streak
I lived with my partner and two friends who all smoked at the time. We all decided to quit on new years day and by about 2am both of my friendship had started again and by 4am my partner had started too. Pure burning spite and superiority kept me from starting again.
It felt really good to my petty younger self to be haughty and superior, but I was definitely ungracious about it. My partner somehow managed to stay with me through that, they are a very tolerant person, and we ended up getting married and are still together now 19 years later.
My partner also quit about 10 years later using a vape. They outsourced nicotine dosage to me and I was manually mixing their juice, so I reduced it very very slowly. Each time I reduced it the frequency of puffs went up for a while then tapered back to the previous level. It took about a week to level out and about two weeks to use the bottle and I would then adjust again. It took most of a year to slowly land at zero but then it was done and vaping was only done with nicotine free juice and it only lasted a month or two after that. I would strongly encourage it as a less harmful version of smoking and as a reasonable quitting aid.
Cold Turkey. One day I just quit. It was hard for weeks, then every few weeks would get a little easier. A few relapses over the first 6 months and the key part here was to accept it and not give up. One smoke doesn't mean failure. You get right back on. By 6 mos it was bearable and by 2 years it was like I never smoked. Quit 20 years ago.
Honestly, I only started it out of boredom, and ended up quitting after about four years because I didn't care for how it made me feel. Sure, the buzz was fun at first, but after a while, you just smoke to curb the cravings, and by that point, I was happy to start cutting back. Switched to snus for a bit as I reached the end point, but that didn't hit the same, so I just ended up quitting altogether.
I got poor, and the vapes/smokes got expensive. That's really about it. I will say that after vaping, I'll never ever go back to cigs. Vaping is just better and there is no awful smell.
I’ve quit and gone back a few times over the last decade or so. Easiest time quitting recently was with zyns. Started with the 6 mg then to 3mg when I was ready. The rule was I’d put one in every time I thought about going to buy a vape. Weened myself pretty naturally.
Smoked throughout my 20s in the 1990s. Was off-and-on throughout my 30s in the 2000s. By the time I reached my 40s in the 2010s I was just over it. That said, I have picked it up two or three times since then (I'm 56 now) but put it down after one to three months. Always pick it back up during times of great depression and financial hardship - the worst time to smoke ironically. My husband is similar but gets hooked much more often and much more severely. Smokes for a month or two and then transitions to vaping for three to six months, lowering the nicotine until he's eventually vaping no nicotine. Goes a couple of years and then rinse and repeat.
Started taking my workout seriously, and didn't want to ruin all progress built in rest/recovery by smoking after a workout, and didn't want to smoke before a session to not smell like shit and be out of breath the whole time. Eventually I was up to working out once or twice a day and found i had zero suitable time left for cigarettes, and at that point I barely missed them anyways. I chilled out with my training but didn't pick up smoking again, even on my off days. I just reach for my phone instead.
In case anyone needs them here are some resources to help you quit from the American Lung Association . Quitting is hard and thankfully there are FDA approved therapies that can help like varenicline/chantix, bubpropion/Wellbutrin, nicotine replacement like gum, patches, and lozenges. If you smoke quitting is the best thing you can do to improve your health!
Wellbutrin nearly killed me so I'm not a fan of that path. I found nicotine pouches were the best way to wean off smoking/vaping. Along with addiction counseling and understanding triggers and halflives of chemicals and how they play with physical versus mental addiction.
The simplest first step is to separate the trigger "I need a smoke." To the actual action with a timer and gradually increasing the time.
Availability. I went menthol in the end because it felt easier on the lungs. Then it got banned in my country because it was extra heavy on the lungs. 🤷
Still smoke a bit of the ol' regular but down around 90%, use other nicotine products too. Damn that super toxic substance.
New Year’s Eve, a number of years ago. Wife and I went to a bar with some friends and rang in the New Year. I think she and I maybe smoked a pack between the two of us that night. Next day, both of us felt sick to our stomachs. Really nauseous, and just terrible. We didn’t get that drunk, so it wasn’t a bad hangover or anything. Anyway, just the thought of a cigarette made both of us even more nauseous. Flash forward a week, and neither one of us had spoken about not having smoked, and we didn’t want another cigarette. A week later, wife confirmed to me that she hadn’t had any at work. I said the same to her. Years later, we haven’t had any either.
Now we’re “ex-smokers,” who I think are the worst for smokers to be around. We’re hyper-sensitive to the smell and smoky rooms.
I quit smoking twice using medication and both went well. I started smoking for a second time after a few years because stressful circumstances so I had to quit again.
First time I used a drug called Champix that it was eventually retired, that one had a bunch of adverse effects but for the intended purpose it worked like a cheat code.
The second time it was another medication that I never learned its name. That one required a bit of effort but overall it made very easy to resist the urge for smoking. From what I heard this one requires to be below certain level of smoking so a heavy smoker would need to reduce a lot before starting.
I was a very light smoker (<4 packs per year) and decided to stop after a fishing trip this year. I stopped feeling the nicotine buzz and only tasted ash, so I decided it wasn't worth it any more
鴉PieFed
I got tired of breathing like shit. I quit using a vape. I found that vape was more addictive, however, easier to quit. I could vape inside unlike cigarettes.
One thing that helps is getting fruit, for me it was apples. I would eat one when I was jonesing. It may take a few times to fully quit, so be aware of that and don’t beat yourself up if you slip. Exercise helps too, it releases endorphins and is a great distraction.
Me quitting smoking was a side effect of an anti-depressant I was on called Wellbutrin. One day I just didn’t smoke and that was 580 days ago. I stopped Wellbutrin a year ago and just never had the urge to go back to either.
I was curious. Apparently this is a known phenomenon, and that drug is also prescribed specifically for that purpose.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bupropion
I had no intentions of quitting but I have a high stress job, was going through a nasty divorce, and was having unhealthy thoughts, so I went to therapy and started anti-depressants. The quitting smoking part was literally a side effect I wasn’t aware of at the time, and I just realized one day I hadn’t had a smoke in like 3 days. It surprised the hell out of me.
…and yes, smokers STINK. If anything, get your sense of taste and smell back. It’s awesome. After smoking for 20 years, I had no idea how stinky I was all the time.
I can vouch for this word for word. Wellbutrin killed my desire for nicotine. Stopped the wellbutrin 6 months ago, and still no cravings whatsoever.
Nice work. :3
This helped me as well. ZERO cravings
Was a smoker for over thirty years. Switched to vaping thinking it would help me quit- it made it worse.
By this time I feared I was destined to die painfully of lung cancer. So…. Nothing to loose, right? It was here that I came up with my ridiculous plan- a Hail Mary of sorts-
My plan, was that I would switch back to analogs for about 6 months to ensure I was over the vape, and deeply back in the comfort-zone of my addiction, then I would pull the rug out from under it by getting on the Wellbutrin smoking cessation program.
Basically, it went like this:
For goo and comfy with my pack-a-day habit, then picked my start date to quit. In this day, per instructions, I started taking one pill every morning while still smoking. Then, after three or four days- it goes up to two pills a day. But you’re still okay to continue smoking a week later. Meaning, don’t worry if you are still smoking this deep in- it’s part of it and is totally fine.
After about a week and a half. I would wake up and forget that I usually needed a smoke. So I’d smoke- many hours later. After a few days of this, it became a chore. Also, it was kinda gross and did nothing at all for me, so I just…. stopped.
Essentially, this is how it works as it was explained to me:
Before you smoked, your body created the joy endorphins (whatever they’re called) and all was fine. However, after a while and enough nicotine, you stop making this naturally and just get it from the nicotine.
And this is why quitting is a BITCH!
In the first few weeks of quitting, your body hasn’t re-learned how to start creating the joy juice yet. So you’re going without. This is the anxiety, anger, jitters, etc… in a word:
WITHDRAWL.
This is where Wellbutrin comes in. It helps the body create the serotonin or whatever until your body can keep up on its own.
I was able to stop the Wellbutrin after about a month and a half.
Since then, I have lost my best friend of thirty years to an overdose, our 15 year old dog died in my lap, and my mother ended up in a coma 3,000 miles away while I had a massive sinus infection and was told under no circumstances could I fly to her.
Not a single urge to smoke through any of that.
Lastly, and for the record, I HATE typing this much, so- I REALLY hope this helps at least someone. And I’ll be glad to answer any questions for anyone wanting to try this themselves.
YOU can quit. You CAN quit.
Used vape to quit analog cigs, but NOT being around my friends who smoked analogs helped a shit ton.
I need to quit vape but just not ready yet. It'll happen, maybe in 2026 sometime
I progressively vaped lower and lower nicotine percentages until I was vaping 0% nic. Still did that for a couple weeks and then I quit vaping altogether.
It's nice to be able to separately quit nicotine and vaping, since they're both addictive.
I was homeless and scrounged cigarettes sometimes, one time I found one in a field that seemed good, but the smoke tasted and smelled like rotting fish. I quit right then and there. Maybe get some putrescine or cadaverine to put on your cigarettes. Or both.
What an excellent Halloween themed suggestion! Love it.
Similarly, the same method, of using a foul tasting liquid, is used for stopping fingernail-biting.
Was admitted to hospital with a life threatening but unrelated health issue. Knew it would involve several weeks in hospital on intravenous medication and refused to be that person stood at the hospital entrance with a vape and a portable IV. So I went cold turkey whilst in hospital, I haven't had cravings since
I moved to another town, and the new surroundings and job motivated me.
I used to smoke, and then switched to vaping. I realized I was more addicted to nicotine than I was to cigarettes, but didn’t have a reason to quit. I was feeling mentally and physically well.
Anyway, one sunday about a year ago I was really lazy, and didn’t get up from the couch for the whole day, playing games or something. In the afternoon I realized I hadn’t vaped for the whole day and thought hmm, might as well quit now. Haven’t vaped since. I still smoke the occasional pipe (monthly or so).
Having a reason to give up gave me willpower.
My wife at the time was pregnant with our first child. I decided that if the kid wanted to smoke, he could make that choice when he was old enough, but I didn’t want him to grow up seeing that smoking was normal and usual. So I quit cold turkey, Easter Sunday, 1996.
Started smoking cigarettes around 12 years old, was addicted by 14, and at my worst I was chain smoking a pack of 20 Djarum Black Grande a day (those are the Camel Wides of clove cigarettes, btw).
At the end of 2019 and coming up on 40 years old, I finally made the decision to quit (2020 was gonna be my year! lmao). I started switching to an ecig for the last few months of the year, then only the vape after 2020 hit.
After a few years of vaping the lowest strength of VUSE pods, I switched to a vape pen that uses refillable pods and vape juice. I had my suspicions that I was more addicted to the act of inhaling smoke/vapor than the nicotine itself and switched to 0% nicotine juice as a test. No issues at all there, didn't miss the nicotine at all.
My health is way better, I spend a fraction of what I used to on my habit (one bottle of juice costs under$ 20 lasts a couple weeks), and I no longer stink like an ashtray..
BUT..
My addiction is absolutely still there - even without the nicotine. I still get irritable and cranky if I can't take a few puffs off my vape when I want. I do plan to quit vaping entirely at some point if I live that long.
I smoked for 20 years, 20ish cigs a day on average. For me quitting was all mental, using logic. Every time I tried and failed was the same thing: "I feel like I'm finally ready to quit", then back at it a few days/weeks later. I was always waiting for the day I was ready for it and kept telling myself that day was coming.
4 years ago I was finally honest with myself. I'm never going to be ready. I like it too much, that magic day is just never gonna come. That's when I realized that if I quit, the only way I would quit is when I wasn't ready for it, and if I quit when I'm not ready, today's just as good a day as any other. Logically I'd never be any more ready than I was that day, and if I didn't quit the day I realized that then I never would.
Haven't touched a cig in 4 years. Crave it every day though haha.
I find that the cravings get less frequent. When I just quit I'd yearn for a fag every hour. After a year it was about every day. Now it's every couple of days.
Sometimes though I'm surprised I didn't crave one for about a week. Pretty cool.
I was bed ridden for a couple months. No-one would wheel my bed out for a cigarette but they did give me patches. After 2 months I figured the hard work was done, and I was very low mobility anyway, so I kept up with the patches. By the time I was decently mobile I was completely off the chemical addiction and just had random intense, but brief, cravings.
It isn't scalable really. Not the easiest things I've done, but one of the easier things I did that year.
More relevant was my path from cigarettes to vaping. I would quit cigarettes until I got strong cravings. Then I'd buy 10, only 10, smoke them as normal then go back to vaping only. I found the craving for "real" cigs came fewer and farther between. I didn't mind letting myself fall off the wagon as long as there was some resistance to it, and I would immediately (after 10) get back on. I'd also throw up other barriers to cigs Vs vape, I'd vape in the house, but would force myself into the rain for a cig.
I was 15/day avg so on a day stressful enough to make me fall off, that 10 would be gone in an afternoon.
I had known for years I needed to quit, and I tried multiple times with no luck. Then there was a bunch of things all at once that got me to want to quit.
A family friend died of complications from a life of smoking (I think it was emphysema), I was unable up keep up with my 3 year old daughter's level of activity, and while smoking at work one day a coworker walked past me and said something to the effect of you should quit. She was the first person that had said that and was not preachy about it. It was a very matter of fact statement with genuine care behind it. Later that day I found out she was a lung cancer survivor and former smoker. I made the decision to quit that day. I took off a week from work and locked myself in the basement. That was 20 years, 11 months, and 30 days ago. I have not smoked since.
I quit smoking cigarettes when the indoor smoking ban took effect 20 years ago in Washington state. I could no longer spend all night at a diner drinking coffee, smoking, and reading so it seemed like a good time to quit.
My budget has been a lot tighter due to having cancer, and so I more recently gave up vaping marijuana. I had been smoking marijuana since my teens and had switched to vaping it about 10 years ago for the sake of my lungs. The biggest difference in breathing quality was definitely the switch from smoking to vaping, I haven't noticed as much of a big difference since I quit vaping.
Either I don't have strong addictive tendencies or I don't know because I quit both cigarettes and marijuana cold turkey pretty easily. I struggled with sleep for a while after quitting marijuana, but that eventually passed after about a month and a half. I struggle with sleep anyway, and always have, so it wasn't that huge of a change.
I turned 40 and just stopped. Cold turkey. I don't want to die of lung cancer. When I got the urge to buy another pack of smokes I simply...didn't. If I didn't have any on hand to smoke then I couldn't do it. It was tempting at times but the real trick is to just not have the things on hand.
Buddy of mine also did this for his 40th birthday present to himself. Quit cold turkey and he's over 15 years clean now. He said stairs are so much easier now.
Snus is a lot more convenient. Started with it to survive loooooong flights, then while on shift, until snus replaced cigs.
So did I. And now I both smoke and snus. 😄😅😭
But snus made me cut down smoking by like 90%, so there's that.
I have a friend that used this concept: He called it the 10 minute rule.
Anytime you want a cigarette, you know it wont actually do anything it just kills time. So in ten minutes (approx the length of time to smoke a cigarette) you would be right back where you are now. So if you could just wait, just ten minutes you would be in the same spot but didn't have a cigarette, and surely you could have one then if you still wanted it.
And when you wanted it, you did ten more minutes.
Eventually, those ten minutes till you want one gets longer and longer, and eventually you just don't at all anymore.
Nice, I'm going to try this with junk food lol.
Found distractions like exercise the first few weeks and tried quite af few times before it stuck. I will note though, after I quit I got diagnosed with/started meds for adhd. Turns out most of my withdrawal symptoms were exactly the same as feeling my meds wear off while tapering into them…haven’t had a craving since the meds normalized. Probably would’ve had a way easier time quitting if I’d gotten that diagnosed earlier in life.
+1, helped me a lot stopping smoking joints. Supposably a lot ADHD people smoke for neurmodulation/dopamine.
If I remember right the nicotine quit rate is in the single digits for adhd folks so I’d definitely believe it.
I got disgusted of full ash trays. Also it's a real pathetic feeling needing to go the gas station before work / on sunday whatever. My SO did not smoke and was disgusted by it I always brushed my teeth before we met. Oh my god I could go on with reasons why I quit, the only good reason was that is was fun from time to time.
nicotine pouches (like snus but only nicotine powder)
been trying to quit those fuckers for a few years though. I keep managing to stay off them for a few months until inevitably I get stressed and go buy a can and wreck my streak
I used spite.
I lived with my partner and two friends who all smoked at the time. We all decided to quit on new years day and by about 2am both of my friendship had started again and by 4am my partner had started too. Pure burning spite and superiority kept me from starting again.
It felt really good to my petty younger self to be haughty and superior, but I was definitely ungracious about it. My partner somehow managed to stay with me through that, they are a very tolerant person, and we ended up getting married and are still together now 19 years later.
My partner also quit about 10 years later using a vape. They outsourced nicotine dosage to me and I was manually mixing their juice, so I reduced it very very slowly. Each time I reduced it the frequency of puffs went up for a while then tapered back to the previous level. It took about a week to level out and about two weeks to use the bottle and I would then adjust again. It took most of a year to slowly land at zero but then it was done and vaping was only done with nicotine free juice and it only lasted a month or two after that. I would strongly encourage it as a less harmful version of smoking and as a reasonable quitting aid.
Cold Turkey. One day I just quit. It was hard for weeks, then every few weeks would get a little easier. A few relapses over the first 6 months and the key part here was to accept it and not give up. One smoke doesn't mean failure. You get right back on. By 6 mos it was bearable and by 2 years it was like I never smoked. Quit 20 years ago.
First reduced vape juice concentration, then started nicotine gum, then replaced that with regular gum. Now I don't even have cravings.
Honestly, I only started it out of boredom, and ended up quitting after about four years because I didn't care for how it made me feel. Sure, the buzz was fun at first, but after a while, you just smoke to curb the cravings, and by that point, I was happy to start cutting back. Switched to snus for a bit as I reached the end point, but that didn't hit the same, so I just ended up quitting altogether.
I got poor, and the vapes/smokes got expensive. That's really about it. I will say that after vaping, I'll never ever go back to cigs. Vaping is just better and there is no awful smell.
I’ve quit and gone back a few times over the last decade or so. Easiest time quitting recently was with zyns. Started with the 6 mg then to 3mg when I was ready. The rule was I’d put one in every time I thought about going to buy a vape. Weened myself pretty naturally.
I used to smoke, i stopped by starting to vape. Its a great trade off health wise
Smoked for 20 odd years, switched to vaping, kept dropping nicotine levels until reached very low levels after a number of years.
Then my vape broke while I was away so I took it as a sign to stop.
Smoked throughout my 20s in the 1990s. Was off-and-on throughout my 30s in the 2000s. By the time I reached my 40s in the 2010s I was just over it. That said, I have picked it up two or three times since then (I'm 56 now) but put it down after one to three months. Always pick it back up during times of great depression and financial hardship - the worst time to smoke ironically. My husband is similar but gets hooked much more often and much more severely. Smokes for a month or two and then transitions to vaping for three to six months, lowering the nicotine until he's eventually vaping no nicotine. Goes a couple of years and then rinse and repeat.
Started taking my workout seriously, and didn't want to ruin all progress built in rest/recovery by smoking after a workout, and didn't want to smoke before a session to not smell like shit and be out of breath the whole time. Eventually I was up to working out once or twice a day and found i had zero suitable time left for cigarettes, and at that point I barely missed them anyways. I chilled out with my training but didn't pick up smoking again, even on my off days. I just reach for my phone instead.
In case anyone needs them here are some resources to help you quit from the American Lung Association . Quitting is hard and thankfully there are FDA approved therapies that can help like varenicline/chantix, bubpropion/Wellbutrin, nicotine replacement like gum, patches, and lozenges. If you smoke quitting is the best thing you can do to improve your health!
Wellbutrin nearly killed me so I'm not a fan of that path. I found nicotine pouches were the best way to wean off smoking/vaping. Along with addiction counseling and understanding triggers and halflives of chemicals and how they play with physical versus mental addiction.
The simplest first step is to separate the trigger "I need a smoke." To the actual action with a timer and gradually increasing the time.
Availability. I went menthol in the end because it felt easier on the lungs. Then it got banned in my country because it was extra heavy on the lungs. 🤷
Still smoke a bit of the ol' regular but down around 90%, use other nicotine products too. Damn that super toxic substance.
New Year’s Eve, a number of years ago. Wife and I went to a bar with some friends and rang in the New Year. I think she and I maybe smoked a pack between the two of us that night. Next day, both of us felt sick to our stomachs. Really nauseous, and just terrible. We didn’t get that drunk, so it wasn’t a bad hangover or anything. Anyway, just the thought of a cigarette made both of us even more nauseous. Flash forward a week, and neither one of us had spoken about not having smoked, and we didn’t want another cigarette. A week later, wife confirmed to me that she hadn’t had any at work. I said the same to her. Years later, we haven’t had any either.
Now we’re “ex-smokers,” who I think are the worst for smokers to be around. We’re hyper-sensitive to the smell and smoky rooms.
The Alan Carr book. I was a heavy smoker lol, it really works.
I started smoking because I worked in hospitality. Smokers used to get tab breaks whilst the non smokers didn't. It's shite aye, but that's how it is.
I now use those pouches, I find them when cleaning at work all the time so I rarely buy them.
Only time I smoke is when chonging joints
I quit smoking twice using medication and both went well. I started smoking for a second time after a few years because stressful circumstances so I had to quit again.
First time I used a drug called Champix that it was eventually retired, that one had a bunch of adverse effects but for the intended purpose it worked like a cheat code.
The second time it was another medication that I never learned its name. That one required a bit of effort but overall it made very easy to resist the urge for smoking. From what I heard this one requires to be below certain level of smoking so a heavy smoker would need to reduce a lot before starting.
I was a very light smoker (<4 packs per year) and decided to stop after a fishing trip this year. I stopped feeling the nicotine buzz and only tasted ash, so I decided it wasn't worth it any more