I'm quitting smoking! Tips?

I was a smoker
i started smoking at age 11 and i am 36 this year . i quit 3-4 years ago .

i did it a bit different i was a pack a day smoker so when i decided to quit ,i quit cigarettes cold turkey but i went to smoking cigars ( much stronger and you dont smoke as many ) .. i smoked cigars until i got sick of the taste of them which took about 2 months and i never touched a cigar or cigarette since then .

i did however start dipping (which i did off and on over the years )
and im soon done with that as well getting tired of the taste . but i have been now for almost 4 years smoke free . it wasnt easy but it shouldnt be to bad for you you wernt smoking as long as i was ..

I have tried to quit (unsuccessfully) 3 times :weirdface I have been smoking for 18 years - the scary part is that I'm only 31 :O I quit cold turkey 2 times when I found out I was pregnant with my kids - that was the easiest, since I knew I wasn't only harming myself but possibly harming my babies. I wish I never would have started again. The third time I tried to quit because my kids asked me too - I almost made it a whole year. Stressful things happened and smoking was like my crutch. Plus my husband smokes which makes it that much harder to quit.

I wish you the best of luck because it IS hard. If you find something that works....LET ME KNOW!!!

I am doing better though...a pack lasts me almost a whole week now, and I used to smoke almost 2 packs a day :weirdface

i quit buying smokes and starting bummin them off everyone. noone at home smokes so i had to go the whole time at home with no smokes then after a short time everyone your bumming smokes off start to tell you no get your own pack. so you basicly slowly wean yourself off. plus everyone gettin a little pissed off at you everytime you try to smoke kinda helps you not want one. getting people mad and smokeing become one in the same.

good luck ive been smoke free going on 3 yrs after smoking for 16

I applaud your decision and wish you success. I, too am a quitter, 12 years ago after an eight year smoking stretch. I started when I divorced in 88. Anyway, a statement a co-worker and fellow quitter made a couple years before I quit prepared me for the road ahead. "even after 6 years (the length of time she had been smoke free) the urge has never gone away, it doesn't come often or strong but it is there." In the past 10+ years for me it has been true. Even to this day the urge comes upon me even though the smell of cigarette smoke makes me ill. I am not saying this to discourage,but it prepared me for whale lay ahead. I did the sucker thing, especially since I had a 45 minute drive to work and after about 6 months weaned myself off those but that was a breeze! I knew after the first 2 weeks of hell I would never restart because I would have to go through those first 2 weeks again! You will never regret quitting! Just post here anytime you need encouragement! Again, GOOD LUCK!

It's definitely not easy. I have been smoke free for 9 days now, Karl for 12.

What helped us both - we got sick with the flu. Every time we'd take even one puff of a cigarette, we would hack up a lung and we were both wheezing at night when we slept.

I can honestly say that I rarely think of a cigarette now. Every now and then a craving hits where you think "wish I could just buy ONE cigarette and not a pack and I'd be good". In fact, today, I almost did buy a pack so that I could have ONE cigarette and was going to put the pack away until I needed just ONE again. Thankfully, I talked myself out of that rediculous idea.

I'm hoping to be smoke free permanently. We're both doing cold turkey.

I had a co-worker quit for a year, but she chewed the gum daily - so she never freed herself of the nicotene addiction - she's smoking again now.

Here's my 0.02:
- Smoking is a mental addiction. You get so accustomed to having a few minutes in the midst of your "stress" to have a breather or some down time. It calms you down, helps you relax, so you begin to "need" a cigarette all the time. Slowly start substituting your cigarette cravings with a few minutes of slow and controlled breathing. Not only are you clearing those polluted lungs out (:gj:) but you're making the commitment to develop a healthier solution for your stress. You can find something else that you enjoy doing instead; just keep your mind preoccupied. Music? Art? Reading? Just do it (no Nike reference intended)
- Your body is the center of your existence. You've slowly been killing and destroying yourself from the inside out since you've started smoking. You've been ingesting formaldehyde and several other toxic chemicals just to have 2 minutes of stress relief in your day. Is this really necessary? Just remember that.
- You will smell better. Your food will taste better, and you'll physically feel much better if you follow through. You've decided you want to quit, so don't turn back on your commitment. Don't quit quitting ;). The benefits will be sure to deter you from going back to smoking. No amount of stress is worth your health, especially not by adding onto it with the yuckiest stuff. Stress is also related to 99% of all illness.

Just something to think about; hope it helps.
Good luck and good job on making the choice to quit:gj:

COLD TURKEY!!!!!!!!!!!!! what a stupid phrase that is....but it is the only way to quit. switching to dipping or gum or lozenges or cigars is not quitting. That is like switching to shooting up heroin because you get a bloody nose when you snort it. I quit shortly after I found out I was gonna be a dad(march 19th woot woot). I murdered some dum-dums but I used no substances with the exception of caffiene. I quit on my one year anniversary of being drug and alcohol free. One thing I will say for smokes, and that is they kept me sober, lol. I am sure I will always have cravings....people who quit often do for the rest of their lives. If you were to try any cessation aids I would use meds. Chantix will block the nicotine from your receptors instead of dosing you with it.


Be strong, don't be afraid to cry when it seems like too much, talk about it, talk to yourself, scream, sing, make weird noises at even weirder times, eat good food, run, smell stuff, enjoy some lollipops, when you want a smoke find out why(observe the thinker)....those are some things that have worked for me.

By the way we have $500.00 extra a month in our home when we don't buy smokes.....That just got me a nice LCD TV.

“Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I’ve done it a thousand times.” Mark Twain

Been smoking for around 9 years, been quitting for about 2. lol.

I DIIID lessen the sticks I smoke, from 2 packs a day to 10 sticks. Did it gradually though (-1 stick a day), cold turkey way drove me insane, especially when I see people smoking, even the ones on TV, it made me crazy. I used nicotine patches too.

It also helps if you have a girlfriend/wife to support you. Go jogging or something that will tire you out. I jump rope every other day for 15 minutes.

This january 2009 will be the 3rd, I think, year that I will make quitting smoking my new year's resolution :D

Good luck on your first and hopefully last attempt at quitting smoking haha.

The biggest thing that helped me quit was putting $5 a day in a jar every day and I spent that money on a new snake once I felt pretty comfortable off cigarettes.

Thinking about smoking was hard to get over, just becoming aware that you are thinking about smoking, and diverting that thought is a big step (if that makes any sense)...

Good luck, it's tough

bio lectures on how carcinogens cause cancer to happen is what did it for me. I didn't have all that serious a habit - like 5 a day - but quitting was still pretty damn hard. After we learned the details about how every drag is another roll of the dice (it's not exactly cumulative) I walked out of the lecture hall a non-smoker, and I was easily able to ignore subsequent cravings.

It's difficult not to become complacent and eventually relapse, but refresher research usually does a good job. Exercise also reminds me how much i like having fully functioning lungs, and therefore also helps keep me in line.