How do you stop smoking?

Need help. Smoking way too much, haven't been able to eat in almost 2 days. Father is getting surgery done right now removing growth from his throat caused by smoking.

Only interested from hearing from former smokers. People who have never smoked or have never been addicted commenting with "just quit" doesn't help.

Thanks.

Use patches. Does two things... first, it really does help with the physical part, and second, it is pretty dangerous to smoke with a patch on, so cheating requires more steps, and therefore more thought and more time to decide not to cheat.

don't use patches. read allen carr's book. i quit using that book. he'll explain why you shouldn't use substitutes.

Chantix. I smoked a pack + every day for 27 years...Started Chantix early August 2009..and by the end of August, I had quit. Haven't had a cigarette since or a craving.

I quit when I left the restaurant industry. I haven't smoked for like a month now. The more weeks that pass by the less urges I have to smoke. Hanging out in non-smoking environments helps too.

I quit smoking last November. I was just a half a pack smoker. I used the patch, I've been good since. It took a few tries before I was able to do it for real, but the mental image of my toddler saying 'daddy sick?' kept me going this time. Can't even toy with the idea of having just one, or else the house of cards will topple.

Wife quit too. She was a pack a day smoker, she used Chantix. She quit for pretty much the same reason I did. If you really want to quit, get a kid and feel truly guilty about smoking, I guess.

I managed to quit for 3 years with Wellbutrin, Zyban, whatever it was called. Quitting isn't hard...not picking up the next cig is.

It's always the same thing, once a trial rolls around, and I'm working 70-90 hour weeks, I'm chain smoking without even thinking about it.

Originally Posted by Sancho Panzo Christ

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don't use patches. read allen carr's book. i quit using that book. he'll explain why you shouldn't use substitutes.

another vote for the book. i quit very easily and didnt smoke for almost a year. unfortunately, i am not at the point where i have to have growths removed, so i started again

I quit about eight years ago. (2 1/4 packs a day.) Here are some things I learned in the process:

1. Quitting smoking is really learning to break a thousand different habits. You need to learn how not to smoke after meals, how not to smoke at the bar, after sex, etc. As silly as it sounds, you even need to learn how not to smoke in the spring, the fall, etc. Be prepared to deal with the cravings that arise in all the different contexts in which you normally smoke.

2. The odds are high that you'll fail in your first attempts. Don't get demoralized if that happens; it's extremely hard to succeed. Remember that even if you fail twenty times and succeed once, you win.

3. Resist the temptation to negotiate with yourself. For example, "I'll allow myself a cigarette if I have a bad fight with my SO, or if I have a tight deadline at work." If you do that, you will cause a fight with your SO or procrastinate at work so as to give yourself a tight deadline. In other words, don't allow yourself a cigarette under any circumstances.

4. Write out a list of reasons why you want to quit. Put it on your refrigerator or some other place where you'll see it regularly.

5. Be aware that you will reach a point where you want nicotine so badly that those reasons won't mean anything to you. At that point you need to be able to say "I'm not going to have a cigarette, even though I can't think of a single compelling reason not to have one." Once you cross that threshold, your odds of succeeding increase considerably.

Good luck!

Have a few drinks and smoke yourself stupid. Smoke an entire pack at once. You'll wake up the next day with a gag / nausea reflex to a cigarette, and won't ever want one again. Worked for me, but I only smoked for a year.

I am not a smoker, but I have dealt in the realm of addictions. I hear Allen Carr's book is indeed good!

I smoked for 30 years, probably.
Finally quit (I think for the last time) 2-1/2 years ago. I used Chantix.

I really think the best determinant of potential success, though, is whether or not one really, really wants to quit.

And it takes discipline.

I have a very addictive personality. Patches and gum didn't even dent me, but Chantix plus the smallest available dose of Welbutrin worked great.

Quit the first time after two and a half years at about a pack a day. Changed my habits - no more drinking, no more repeating the behaviors that I associated with smoking.

After five or six years, I picked it back up again because I started spending more time at one bar in particular, then started working there on occasion. etc. Back up to a pack a day for almost two years. After several false starts, I'm at a week smoke-free right now. I did it as part of an entire Get Control package - no smoking, no drinking (for now), no Cokes or sugar-laden foods, new exercise/weights regime, etc..

Spent one night at a bar hanging out resisting temptation. Didn't really have a craving today until I saw this thread.

I'm treating it like alcoholism - one day at a time, one situation at a time - saying no, proving that I am stronger than the damn things.

I first cut down the 'time-filling' cigarettes. I only smoked the ones I really needed for a while. I cut it down to about 2-3 cigs a day.

Then I gave it up. This typically involved increasing exercise and eating to accomodate.

This was the easiest time I've quit. I've cut it cold turkey before, but I'm no quitter.