How long did you smoke and how did you quit?

[lightfoot]

Details plz.

[Nowty V]

Smoked from 1979 to 2004, used drug called Champix in UK active ingredient Varenicline to quit. It worked but the side effects are wack.

 

Took up with a woman who smoked 2008 and started again.

 

Used Champix again 2011 side effects worse.

 

Started again 2012 till July 2016. Used 1mg Nicotine mouth spray. to quit.

 

Still not smoking and have no intention of going through it all again. Still using the Nicotine spray cost works out about £10 for 12 days so way cheaper than smoking. Health and fitness much better.

 

Each time I've quit I joined a Gym, at first the going's tough, either Swimming or Kick Boxing. As the effects of smoking reduce, recovery times and fitness improve. You feel the difference and you feel good, the Endorphins help as well.

 

The spray tastes awful if you are still using cigarettes but once you stop the taste of spray improves.

 

I should and will wean myself off the spray.

 

The thought still flits through my mind to reach for a cigarette in times of stress or after some meals but it doesn't linger more than a split second and means nothing. I've been told this never goes away, even from 10 year quit smokers. If you don't want to smoke you don't want to smoke, it's just a residual nonsense.

 

The nicotine spray helped me get over the psychological and physical habits.

 

I can sit in a bar with smokers, even go outside with them while drinking, I have no urge to smoke.

Edited October 12, 2016 by Nowty V

[pureinheart]

Started smoking around 1978 quit in 1987- cold turkey no withdrawals at all

 

Started again in 1993 quit in 2008- patches, freaked out a little

 

Started again in 2012 quit in 2015- patches, hard core withdrawal thought I would die etc...

 

I can't start again because it would get in the way of my life...

[ASG]

Started smoking in 98, quit in 2007 - cold turkey. The first few days were a bit tricky and I was one edge, but other than that, it was peaceful

 

Starter again in 2009 and have not felt the urge to quit again...

[Raena]

Started smoking in 1986

 

Tried the patch - gave me such awful nightmares and my skin felt like it was crawling - had to stop - kept smoking

 

Tried the gum - didn't do a thing for me other than to make my jaw hurt - kept smoking

 

Tried Chantix - made it 2 days into the week you are supposed to quit and the side effects were so awful I had to stop it - nausea, vomiting, head spinning, felt out of touch with reality - kept smoking

 

Got pregnant - quit

 

Not long after, I had so much stress in my life I started smoking again and haven't tried quitting since. I know I need to, but I also know that I'm under too much stress to force it right now.

[T-16bullseyeWompRat]

Not that I want to quit, but I've read a lot of studies on psilocybin working wonders for getting people to quit. Based my own experiences, I think there is something there. For some reason it makes you not enjoy cigarettes at all! The taste and lung burn are like a million times worse. Like you feel it burning your lungs and the taste is so bad, like so bad it's like you're not smoking a cigarette.

 

Just Google "magic mushrooms quit smoking" And see for yourself how many it helped. There's a lot of studies out there on hallucinogens helping all kinds of addictions.

[topher]

Not that I want to quit, but I've read a lot of studies on psilocybin working wonders for getting people to quit. Based my own experiences, I think there is something there. For some reason it makes you not enjoy cigarettes at all! The taste and lung burn are like a million times worse. Like you feel it burning your lungs and the taste is so bad, like so bad it's like you're not smoking a cigarette.

 

Just Google "magic mushrooms quit smoking" And see for yourself how many it helped. There's a lot of studies out there on hallucinogens helping all kinds of addictions.

 

I was able to quit, albeit briefly, after a particularly insightful mushroom trip in which I gained newfound appreciation for health and well-being. Picked it up only after a month or so.

[Shanex]

Started at about age 15. A smoke ever now and then, then became a chain smokers because of college parties and many co-workers smoking in my 20s. Quit many months ago (not quite yet a year) because I am a vaper which greatly helped. I'm repulsed by the smoke now, vaping taste good and is nowhere as dangerous than everything an normal cigarette contains,

 

I want to quit vaping too, lay off the nicotine at all.

[ChatroomHero]

Smoked a bit in college. Smoked a bit from maybe 26-30. Started smoking a lot more for 10+years.

 

 

Quit twice with the patch. First couple of days I get a slight urge on the patch but forget about it right away. If I was used to taking 5 smoke breaks a day or smoking first thing in the morning, it was weird, immediately on the patch I found I wouldn't even think about smoke the first thing in the morning and by 3pm at work I would realize I didn't even think about taking a smoke break.

 

 

After a couple of days I have no desire to smoke. After weaning off the patch, I don't have the desire. If someone else smokes or something hits a trigger for me, if I fight it for 2-3 minutes I get past it and it seems to pass quick. If I don't fight it and think, "what the hell, I'll be ok with one or two" I know I'll go right back. Those 2-3 minute urges are the hardest to get past oddly enough.

 

 

The patch does seem to give me dry mouth a bit and I get vivid dreams, or at least makes me remember dreams right when I wake up that normally I wouldn't remember. I don't get nightmares and I find the dreams amusing.

[Michelle ma Belle]

I started to smoke the first year of high school and basically didn't stop until I was about 24. Although I smoked for a while I was primarily a social smoker. Whenever I'd smoke alone it was only a cigarette or two versus an entire pack most times whenever I was out at with my friends doing whatever.

 

I met my husband when I was 19 and although I knew how much he hated smoking, I continued to sneak cigarettes up until the year we got engaged. That's when he told me that he wouldn't marry me if I continued to smoke :/

 

And so I stopped. Cold turkey. It wasn't easy but I wanted to quit anyway and he gave me the motivation to do it once and for all.

 

Today I work for a very reputable cancer organization which means smoking is forbidden (obviously) and written in my contract. If I'm found to be smoking, my company has grounds to fire me.

 

That's enough motivation to continue being smoke-free.

 

[seekingpeaceinlove]

Started smoking 2001 and quit cold turkey in 2010 by using E-Cigs with no nicotine (only flavored vapors). I loved the idea of inhaling, seeing the (vape) smoke blow out, etc. No withdrawals. Within a few months, I stopped vaping as well.

 

However, to this day, I still have immense cravings for cigarettes but I will not light up again. Not even 1.

[TheParadox7]

I started smoking socially when I was 19, back in April 2010. I only did for three weeks, though, so it was very easy for me to quit cold turkey. I had contact a year after that, but then stayed away from it for good. I can't be around smoke much anymore anyway, since it causes the area being my chest and shoulder to ache from stress.

[LargoLagg]

Started smoking at 15, in my twenties quit half-heartedly a few times, then at 26 I just quit, for a little over 20 years.

 

Now I have a cigarette every 5 years or so. It's nice when I'm smoking, but it doesn't feel so great the next day.

[introverted1]

Started at 14.

 

Smoked 1-2 packs a day until late 20's.

 

Quit cold turkey and haven't looked back.

[anika99]

Started at about age 15. A smoke ever now and then, then became a chain smokers because of college parties and many co-workers smoking in my 20s. Quit many months ago (not quite yet a year) because I am a vaper which greatly helped. I'm repulsed by the smoke now, vaping taste good and is nowhere as dangerous than everything an normal cigarette contains,

 

I want to quit vaping too, lay off the nicotine at all.

 

I also switched to vaping and that is also something I would like to quit eventually, not so much for getting off nicotine (although that would be a nice benefit) but more because nobody knows what the long term health risks are of inhaling glycerin. The type used in vape is considered safe for consumption but that doesn't mean it's safe to be in the lungs so I still worry about my poor lungs. I know I shouldn't be putting anything besides air in them.

 

Vaping has given me some of the benefits of being a non smoker though. Better sense of taste and smell and no more nasty cigarette odor. Actually when I was a smoker I liked the smell of burning cigarettes and thought non smokers were just being drama queens and boo hooing over nothing but now that's it been over a year of vaping I hate the smell of cigarettes as much as non smokers do.

[Shanex]

I also switched to vaping and that is also something I would like to quit eventually, not so much for getting off nicotine (although that would be a nice benefit) but more because nobody knows what the long term health risks are of inhaling glycerin. The type used in vape is considered safe for consumption but that doesn't mean it's safe to be in the lungs so I still worry about my poor lungs. I know I shouldn't be putting anything besides air in them.

 

Vaping has given me some of the benefits of being a non smoker though. Better sense of taste and smell and no more nasty cigarette odor. Actually when I was a smoker I liked the smell of burning cigarettes and thought non smokers were just being drama queens and boo hooing over nothing but now that's it been over a year of vaping I hate the smell of cigarettes as much as non smokers do.

 

Similar story.. I've been talking to my doc about vaping and he's confident that glycerin is nowhere as cancerous as all that crap we inhale when we smoke. Sure, we don't have the ''feedback'' of vaping, and its potential health impact. But I am feeling generally better since 6 months now. I can count on my hands the cigarettes I've smoked since, usually during a few parties but I force myself to stick to my e-cigarette nevermind what others think about it.

 

Taste and smell have greatly improved, especially for a food/beer/wine aficionados like me.

[jnel921]

I started to smoke the first year of high school and basically didn't stop until I was about 24. Although I smoked for a while I was primarily a social smoker. Whenever I'd smoke alone it was only a cigarette or two versus an entire pack most times whenever I was out at with my friends doing whatever.

 

I met my husband when I was 19 and although I knew how much he hated smoking, I continued to sneak cigarettes up until the year we got engaged. That's when he told me that he wouldn't marry me if I continued to smoke :/

 

And so I stopped. Cold turkey. It wasn't easy but I wanted to quit anyway and he gave me the motivation to do it once and for all.

 

Today I work for a very reputable cancer organization which means smoking is forbidden (obviously) and written in my contract. If I'm found to be smoking, my company has grounds to fire me.

 

That's enough motivation to continue being smoke-free.

 

 

Getting cancer should be the main deterrent. My cousin was diagnosed with throat cancer. Smoked all his life. He is only 52. Too young to lose his voice, deal with chemo and face the facts that this may have spread to other parts of his body.

[Taramere]

I had occasional cigarettes in my early teens, then started smoking regularly at 18. I'd have lots of bouts of stopping that lasted for anything from 2 days to 3 months - but I always ended up weakening and going back to it. I finally stopped 8 years ago, and have zero desire to smoke now.

 

I think stopping permanently requires the kind of attitude shift that so often manifests as hypocritical and judgemental "reformed smokers". You've got to start to really despise the habit, I think. Which was difficult as I had friends who still smoked. I munched my way through a lot of nicotine lozenges (the chewing gum never worked for me - I don't really like gum, but the lozenges were a much better fit).

 

For me, it took more than willpower. It really did require that mental shift whereby I no longer associated cigarettes with anything positive. On the face of it, that should be easy...and I think especially now, when smoking has such a poor image.

 

A lot of work went in, almost a century ago, to encouraging women to start smoking. To associate it with freedom, rebelliousness etc. Those messages, put into circulation by Freud's nephew, soaked very deeply into society. I remember seeing this, a few years after I'd stopped smoking

 

 

it entrenched my determination to never again start smoking.