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How did you stop smoking? What was your motivation, and how did you finally do it?

And how long have you been a non-smoker?

For me, at the time it was the realization that I cannot continue to smoke and continue to play the trumpet. My lung volume and strength really suffered. But instead of stopping to smoke, for many months I played less and less trumpet.

What put me through the phase of actually smoking the last cigarette and becoming a non-smoker again, was one of the books of Allen Carr, I don't remember the exact title. Looking back, it was awfully written, and I had to will my way through believing the narrative, but it worked. That was 27 years ago, and I didn't have one cigarette since, no cravings and no replacement either.

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  • I started smoking cigarette when I was just turning 17. Initially it was because "the cool kids" do it. Then I would do it to find interesting conversations with people (which I did). This went on for about a year until I accepted that I smoke.

    Later on in life, I also picked up weed; and even later on, coffee. Life was good, at least for a good while, before the accumulating anxiety creeped up on me. At this point, I was smoking between half to one pack a day.

    Finally, I decided to just quit cigarette. It didn't exactly take much effort to go against the craving (the weed helps, I guess). The hardest part was the lethargic feeling. Nothing I couldn't handle, tho. Cocaine withdrawal was way worse. Still, I needed for cups of coffee accompanied by a fat joint for each cup just tp get thru each day.

    After a week or two, I was able to taper down on the coffee and the weed. All was good then. Within the first few years, I would dream about smoking cigarettes every now and then, but I never have gotten some real craving or anything.

    This past couple of years, I was able to smoke cigarette socially when I meet with old friends and then live without any with no craving at all. The last cigarette I smoked was earlier this year.

  • I wanted to quit but couldn't. I read Allan carrs quit smoking book and how they described what the nicotine does did it for me.

    It helped finally understanding how the addiction works, and how I was constantly just trying to get to a normal baseline of living that non smokers just lived at normally.

    Ive tried vaping, gum, lozenges, cold Turkey, everything. Almost a year free from nicotine now, no regrets, not missing a damn thing.

    • I quit once using the Allan book, and everyone I know who read it has, but there is a catch: it will never work a second time.

      I quite by accident using much vilified e-cigs. Yeah there is some serious bullshit going on with the super high nic disposables the kids get a hold of, and with disposables in general. But just enforce the damn laws you already have and don't enshitify or even destroy the thing that probably saved my life 12 years ago!

  • I struggled with quitting for about 5 years, I felt my stamina get destroyed and realized how much it was costing me financially, so I tried several times. I got panic attacks, something I never dealt with before, the last couple of times I tried. Finally about 3 or 4 years ago I smoked my last cigarette, somehow I didn't get a panic attack. I don't remember the day because in my mind, to not smoke I can't be too serious about the importance of all of it, smoking is a ritual and if I allow myself to think about dates and anniversaries around quitting it will just drive me to it again. Smoking has to be something I don't think about at all.

    I still use nicotine. I'll have a cigar every now and then, I vape a little, but man there's something else going on with cigarettes. Quitting nicotine by itself is easy, even having some tobacco every now and then doesn't cause me to crave anything. I can go hours after waking up without vaping and feel nothing, whereas with cigarettes, I planned my entire day around smoking them and how many I had left. If I smoked a single one right now I'd be smoking a pack a day for who knows how long before I succeed again, I can't have a single drag off a cigarette for the rest of my life. Quitting cigarettes, even with nicotine to sate me, was hard as fucking hell. I don't know what they do to those things but they're addictive in some way beyond nicotine and it's a motherfucker.

  • Smoked for 8 years, a pack a day, sometimes more.

    One day I was suffering really bad from depression, that's when I suddenly decided that I've stopped smoking. The cravings were rough, but I powered through. A year and half later my life got much better, unfortunately at that time I picked it up again, for another year.

    I knew I shouldn't continue this habit, I actually hated it, but I became it's slave once more, a pack a day again. This time however, I had an aim of improving my physical and mental health. I joined a gym and went for daily runs. I noticed that after a run I wouldn't crave a cigarret for hours. After months of training, I increased my gym/running activity to 2 hrs and quit smoking at the same time. It was easier than before.

    Unfortunately again, I started using nicotine pouches thinking I wouldn't get addicted to it. For half a year I used it, before again starting gym and running and then quit nicotine altogether. Initially it was a bit rough as my mental health wasn't too good at that time, but now after a month, I don't even get the cravings either. Hopefully I won't Crack this time

  • I quit smoking when I became poor, unemployed, 10years ago. When there's no money you lose your addiction easly.

  • Smoked for 28 years. I quit on the day I moved into my new house in another state, and haven't had another one in over 2 years. The complete environment change helped immensely and I've not had any issues at all with quitting.

    I quit because it was ruining my health and I hated being out of breath all the time.

  • My story, and my motives, will probably be different from a lot of accounts posted here.

    I started smoking in 1988 and ultimately quit in 2009...so a run of about 21 years, which means I've been free from it for 14 years.

    My Story: My tobacco of choice was 'Drum' and I hand-rolled and smoked without filters. I liked Drum because it tasted great to me, I liked the idea of hand-crafting each and every cigarette I smoked, and it was a pretty cool party-trick to be able to produce perfect hand-rolls out of tobacco or whatever - where ever I was, I was always the designated roller. It was also WAY cheaper than traditional cigarettes - I could buy a can of Drum that would produce 250 cigarettes for $12 - and that was due to a loophole in the state's cigarette tax. Prior to 2009, the state only heavily taxed cigarettes, but not the individual supplies to make cigarettes (like loose tobacco). That loophole got closed in 2009 and the cost of a can of loose tobacco went up from $12 to $49 over night. I'd known for a while that I should probably quit, but I just never got to that mental acceptance of doing it, until this new tax came along. Ultimately, I decided I just wasn't going to pay that new tax and so I didn't really decide to quit smoking, I decided I was going to quit buying tobacco (which has the same end result). At first, I started cutting back, to make my remaining supply of tobacco last as long as possible. The lower my stock got, the farther back I cut down. At first it was limiting myself to 4 a day... then 2 a day (that I would smoke over 4 sessions), then 1 a day that I'd light and inhale a few times and put out and save for later. I stretched this out for months....and then one day it was gone. I didn't use any medical aids, I didn't use any substitution with something else. I just quit. I should also mention that I'd also always enjoyed cigars...and typically enjoyed about 6 cigars a year, but I'd decided to cut that out also. Shortly after quitting, I told myself that I'd treat myself to a cigar only after I could go 1-full-month without thinking about smoking. This went on for months, and I actually thought about smoking all the time. At first, several times a day...and then several times a week, and then eventually just once in a while. It actually took about a year after quitting that a friend and I were talking about it (he was quitting also) and I realized I hadn't thought about smoking for several months. Finally, I seemed to have fully broken both the physical and mental addiction. It was about six months after that that I decided to treat myself to a cigar. These days, I have about 3 cigars a year (all on special occasions) - which is a small enough number not to re-kindle my desire to smoke more.

    It's nice to be escaped from the habit, the financial burden of it, and the negative health aspects. The other great side effects: lower life insurance premiums, whiter teeth (and easier/quicker dental cleanings), clothes that don't smell like smoke.

  • I discovered the vape-world and I loved it! It was easy from there, now I'm more then 4y without cigarettes and 1y without nicotine.

37 comments