Quit Smoking: Tips

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

Bman

Guru
Location
Herts.
I've decided to do it. Already given up the "other" stuff, now its just the more addictive, harmful (but bizarrely legal), nicotine.

Ideally I dont want to take any medication to help (besides maybe patches or the inhalers).

How did you give them up?
Got any tips?
 

swee'pea99

Squire
Stop putting things in your head and setting fire to them.

Anything else I can help you with?

No, seriously though, it's all in your head (as you know, in truth). If you've really decided you want to stop, all you have to do is decide that you *are* going to stop, then stop. If you've really done it in your head, that's it. If you haven't, no amount of patches or puffers will make any difference.
 

upsidedown

Waiting for the great leap forward
Location
The middle bit
Bongman

I stopped nine months ago.

I kept myself very busy for the first 24 hours, and kept doing the "i'll go for one in a bit" thing.
Didn't tell anybody so nothing to prove, did it by stealth.

First couple of days when walking the dog i took a cigarette with me and lit it, inhaled only into the mouth then blew straight out, then chucked in the bin.

The craving lasts for 3 minutes, ride that out and you're ok until the next one, just keep telling yourself "not this time, maybe next time", and before you know it a week is over.

Don't worry about the weight, i developed a craving for chocolate ice cream, go with it you can sort the weight later.

Sorry for the long post,but it can be done, i had smoked for the best part of 30 years, packing up is the best thing i have ever done, can't stand the smell of them now.

good luck, if you don't crack it this time don't be hard on yourself, just keep trying.
 

rich p

ridiculous old lush
Location
Brighton
I think Tips are safer than non filter:wacko:

It is true - you just have to want to enough - everyone else is fluff. I got over the nicotine addiction in 2 or 3 days but the psychological barrier is the tough one.
 

Norm

Guest
Quitting is for losers. If you approach it as "quitting", that means that you are giving up something that you want to do, which makes it a lot harder, IMO.

You aren't quitting anything, you just don't want to have a cig at the moment.

Good luck.:evil:
 
OP
OP
Bman

Bman

Guru
Location
Herts.
My problem isnt so much the craving, but also the habit. Having something to smoke while Im on the PC. I feel getting out of that habit will be the hardest part. Ive already cut down *a lot* due to my daughter (I dont smoke while she's in the room).

Im not worried by weight. I dont really like to eat junk food (crisps, chocolate etc) anyway. We dont have any in the house! :evil:

trustysteed said:
change your cc name?

Thats next on the list - Just have to think of an alternative :evil:
 
I got up one morning, made a cup of tea, looked at my tobacco tin and said " I don’t need you any more" and that was it, all you need is will power.
A few weeks later and an x-ray my doctor told me that I have emphysema :evil:
Good luck
 
I have taken a different approach. I reserve the right to smoke if I want one - indeed I have a pack at the allotment and a pack in the desk drawer. However, today, I don't want to smoke. This was much more helpful than grand pronouncements about "Never smoking again!!!" and ritual Last Fags and all the rest of it.

One of my colleagues smoked most of the desk drawer fags and left me with one before she pushed off to another job, iirc.
 

Cubist

Still wavin'
Location
Ovver 'thill
Why no medication? I've stopped smoking by using prescribed medication (Champix) and to be honest I haven't looked back. Why make it hard for yourself? You have the motivation, which must be the ultimate priority of being around for your daughter a bit longer, and the cycling. Once you realise the benefits (which go on as long as you can keep listing them, even down to the fact that your armpits don't stink like they do when you smoke!), you won't want to start again.

I tried going cold turkey. I lasted abut two hours. I tried the patches, and one migrated from my shoulder to my wife's forehead in the middle of the night. She was a very strange green colour when she woke up. I tried the gum, and realised that it only saw me right between fags, so weak willed as I am, I'll settle for some help.
 

TVC

Guest
Another vote for Allen Carr.

Once you know the truth about smoking then stopping is painless and inevitable - and by 'the truth' I don't mean the cancer stuff, I mean the tricks and lies that surround smoking.

I read the book and stopped on 21st September 2001 and I have never had the slightest desire to smoke from the moment I read the last chapter.
 
I got on really well with the tablets (Niquitin Lozenges 4mg, then 2mg) but found that I increased my alcohol consumption due to not staying busy enough in evenings during the first two weeks...oops!
 
The methods of quitting vary as much as the personalities of the smokers. If you have very little willpower then medication may help; if you have a strong desire to quit and good motivation then quitting overnight may be uncomfortable but achievable. I quit that way 10 years ago after smoking for 25 years and never relapsed, not once. I kept a note of how much cash I was saving and within months I had the money to re-kindle hobbies and book holidays for my family.

Cold turkey is not for everyone but it can be done. As rich p says, the craving is fairly short-lived but the psychological effects endure. What do you do with your hands or what accompanies a coffee... in the end you have to re-train yourself to new routines. A couple of years earlier, I quit drinking the same way too and that was very painful. In the end you come out a different person and (I like to think) all the better for it, emotionally, financially and health-wise. Best of luck.
 
When my husband first met me he smoked. When we went out, he asked me if I smoked & he just never had/bought any more. He had smoked on his journeys as at the time he was doing long distance haulage. We've been married since 1981 & I don't think he's ever craved one. Perhaps he's frightened of me?
 
Top Bottom