What Method Of Quitting Smoking Was Most Successful For You?

[Jessi]

I smoked 40 a day for over 50 years. I tried everything known but could not quit.

I had a heart attack about 2 years ago and the writing was on the wall "Quit now or your dead" but like a additive idiot I kept smoking. The Alan Carr book came very close for me stopping, I stopped for about 24 hours & then someone came for a work interview, he opened up his brief case and I saw a pack of cigs, then I was back on them.

My breathing got so bad I just had to do something a friend told me about the E Cigs, I must try everything was my thought.

The E Cig got me off the cigarettes, I havnt had one for 7 months. A few weeks after I started to use the E Cig a friend offered me a cigarette, which I lit up and the taste was disgusting, My thought was how did I suck on these filthy thing for over 50 years.

I am very happy vaping, this week I am going to cut down the nicotine level and in time will be dropping it to zero.

I joined this forum http://www.thailandvapers.com/

and the members on there are a great help in giving advice in what to buy and where etc.

Buy good quality E Cig it will pay in the long run.

If the mods remove the link you can PM me for it also you can PM me for a copy of Alan carrs book if you want it.

Make the change like millions of other smokers.

[55Jay]

I smoked 40 a day for over 50 years. I tried everything known but could not quit.

I had a heart attack about 2 years ago and the writing was on the wall "Quit now or your dead" but like a additive idiot I kept smoking. The Alan Carr book came very close for me stopping, I stopped for about 24 hours & then someone came for a work interview, he opened up his brief case and I saw a pack of cigs, then I was back on them.

My breathing got so bad I just had to do something a friend told me about the E Cigs, I must try everything was my thought.

The E Cig got me off the cigarettes, I havnt had one for 7 months. A few weeks after I started to use the E Cig a friend offered me a cigarette, which I lit up and the taste was disgusting, My thought was how did I suck on these filthy thing for over 50 years.

I am very happy vaping, this week I am going to cut down the nicotine level and in time will be dropping it to zero.

I joined this forum http://www.thailandvapers.com/

and the members on there are a great help in giving advice in what to buy and where etc.

Buy good quality E Cig it will pay in the long run.

If the mods remove the link you can PM me for it also you can PM me for a copy of Alan carrs book if you want it.

Make the change like millions of other smokers.

Well done to you! Me too, my first day vaping was my last day smoking cigarettes. It was an incredible feeling.

Medium was too strong for me, so I started with Low strength liquid. About 6 months later, I started mixing 0% liquid 50/50 with the Low and after a total of 10 or 11 months vaping, I was able to stop entirely. I haven't smoked or vaped in 6 months.

The hard part is over, now just the cutting down part. Good luck!

[optad]

Lots of good ideas and approaches here and i think that really is the key, you do have to find your own method.

I would say, as a recently reformed thirty year smoker, that apart from really wanting to give up that smokers should continually reflect upon and monitor their habit. It sounds a bit twee but really if you just forget you want to give up, it becomes as occasional conversational topic like the weather.

Forcing your self to focus upon it, means its cannot be ignored, and you get tired of yourself in a way. Personally, I just got a bit sick, flu or something and was able to distract myself to get one day under my belt, then two, then a week then the month and then your are almost there. Any method you choose requires baby steps but it is better on the other side.

After 15 years in Asia, it is crazy to see attitudes back in Australia for example. No-one smokes here anymore. Indeed the prices are more than a dollar per cigarette and it is almost banned everywhere but it has become truly passe.

I had to recall a friend in Thailand recently diagnosed with a tobacco related issue lamenting the prices in Thailand and he used to buy that chop/chop from the market.

Don't let that be part of the argument punters! Good luck to all.

[h90]

Lots of good ideas and approaches here and i think that really is the key, you do have to find your own method.

I would say, as a recently reformed thirty year smoker, that apart from really wanting to give up that smokers should continually reflect upon and monitor their habit. It sounds a bit twee but really if you just forget you want to give up, it becomes as occasional conversational topic like the weather.

Forcing your self to focus upon it, means its cannot be ignored, and you get tired of yourself in a way. Personally, I just got a bit sick, flu or something and was able to distract myself to get one day under my belt, then two, then a week then the month and then your are almost there. Any method you choose requires baby steps but it is better on the other side.

After 15 years in Asia, it is crazy to see attitudes back in Australia for example. No-one smokes here anymore. Indeed the prices are more than a dollar per cigarette and it is almost banned everywhere but it has become truly passe.

I had to recall a friend in Thailand recently diagnosed with a tobacco related issue lamenting the prices in Thailand and he used to buy that chop/chop from the market.

Don't let that be part of the argument punters! Good luck to all.

Well if you have done 1 week you are over the worst. After 2 weeks you have won. Of course still very dangerous to start again, loose focus on it. But it doable if someone really want.

And I total disagree with nanny states like Australia. I stopped smoking, but I hate any corrupt politician who claims to know better and tries to force me into things.

[mommysboy]

I quit by will power/cold turkey. Even then that wasn't the main reason, it was getting sick too much, and the thought of not being able to run anymore in the future.

I had tried before, but for some reason it was much easier this time. After 6 years I must admit I really genuinely missed cigs, it's a wonderfully enjoyable habit imho.

So I do use e-cigs which I hope are safer. I would never go back to cigarettes again. I think it is now very easy to stop smoking what with the advent of e-cigs although you will still be hooked to nicoteine, but a pretty small issue.

[mommysboy]

Thu 11 Sep 2014, 11:10 am

There needn't be any "debate" about "e-cigarettes." Everyone should be happy when anyone is able to quite smoking . . . by whatever means!

However, without getting into any "debate" about e-cigs, i would strongly caution people about being naive about what they are getting into. E-cigs are NOT a method of quitting smoking, they are merely trading one nicotine delivery system for another one that (that may "possibly" offer some advantages over smoking tobacco). The same can be said for gum, the patch and other forms of tobacco such as snuff or "smokeless" tobacco taken orally. They all have their advantages and disadvantages over smoking tobacco cigarettes, especially with regard to secondary smoke and fire hazard. However, "raw" nicotine causes hypertension, coronary heart disease, and "metabolic syndrom" which is the precursor to diabetes and other health issues. "Smokeless tobacco" reduces the risk of lung cancer while increases the risk of oral cancers. From what I have read, having lung cancer is a walk in the park compared to aggressive oral cancers.

Bottom line, sooner or later, one way or another, a smoker has to stop smoking, that is stop using nicotine, and never again pick up another cigarette lest he risk reactivating the addiction. Period. It hardly matters whether he stops smoking tobacco cigarettes, e-cigarettes, the patch, gum, smokeless tobacco or whatever. At some point the "moment of truth" needs to be faced.

"Tapering off" systems of quitting are as old as tobacco addiction itself and have been used for as long as people have been trying to quit. Some of these are quite ingenious. For example, while you are decreasing the number of cigarettes you smoke per day, store you pack of cigies in a place that is inconvenient to get to, wrap your pack in paper, and secure it with rubber bands. This is supposed to slow you down a little and give yourself the opportunity to "talk yourself off the ledge." Substitute nicotine delivery systems are just another method of tapering off.

If tapering off systems work for you, great! However, two things to keep in mind:

1. In the end, most people who quite successfully, do so "cold turkey" and tapering off systems don't work for most people.

2. Even if you use a tapering off method, sooner or later, that moment of truth, you you have go go cold turkey anyway. Sooner or later you can have any more nicotine from whatever source.

Good luck! Congratulations and long life to anyone who is even making the effort to do this!

"However, without getting into any "debate" about e-cigs,". What happened you then initiated one !?

[mommysboy]

Lots of good ideas and approaches here and i think that really is the key, you do have to find your own method.

I would say, as a recently reformed thirty year smoker, that apart from really wanting to give up that smokers should continually reflect upon and monitor their habit. It sounds a bit twee but really if you just forget you want to give up, it becomes as occasional conversational topic like the weather.

Forcing your self to focus upon it, means its cannot be ignored, and you get tired of yourself in a way. Personally, I just got a bit sick, flu or something and was able to distract myself to get one day under my belt, then two, then a week then the month and then your are almost there. Any method you choose requires baby steps but it is better on the other side.

After 15 years in Asia, it is crazy to see attitudes back in Australia for example. No-one smokes here anymore. Indeed the prices are more than a dollar per cigarette and it is almost banned everywhere but it has become truly passe.

I had to recall a friend in Thailand recently diagnosed with a tobacco related issue lamenting the prices in Thailand and he used to buy that chop/chop from the market.

Don't let that be part of the argument punters! Good luck to all.

Well if you have done 1 week you are over the worst. After 2 weeks you have won. Of course still very dangerous to start again, loose focus on it. But it doable if someone really want.

And I total disagree with nanny states like Australia. I stopped smoking, but I hate any corrupt politician who claims to know better and tries to force me into things.

I agree completely.

[Soutpeel]

I quit by will power/cold turkey. Even then that wasn't the main reason, it was getting sick too much, and the thought of not being able to run anymore in the future.

I had tried before, but for some reason it was much easier this time. After 6 years I must admit I really genuinely missed cigs, it's a wonderfully enjoyable habit imho.

So I do use e-cigs which I hope are safer. I would never go back to cigarettes again. I think it is now very easy to stop smoking what with the advent of e-cigs although you will still be hooked to nicoteine, but a pretty small issue.

I have always struggled trying to stop and I guess its because I did enjoy it, but been off them for nearly 4 months, as using an e-cig now, granted its replacing one habit with another, but its certainly the longest I have ever been off cigarettes

[h90]

I quit by will power/cold turkey. Even then that wasn't the main reason, it was getting sick too much, and the thought of not being able to run anymore in the future.

I had tried before, but for some reason it was much easier this time. After 6 years I must admit I really genuinely missed cigs, it's a wonderfully enjoyable habit imho.

So I do use e-cigs which I hope are safer. I would never go back to cigarettes again. I think it is now very easy to stop smoking what with the advent of e-cigs although you will still be hooked to nicoteine, but a pretty small issue.

I have always struggled trying to stop and I guess its because I did enjoy it, but been off them for nearly 4 months, as using an e-cig now, granted its replacing one habit with another, but its certainly the longest I have ever been off cigarettes

The problem is, you can't stop, if you don't really want to stop.

I smoked 3+ pack per day. And I couldn't reduce that. So I thought with 3+ packs per day I must either stop or soon I will see the grass growing from the wrong side....

On holidays I still smoke. If you only smoke 1 week it is relative easy to stop again.

[fang37]

Stopped for good 35 years ago.

Received a course of acupuncture (3-4 sessions) from a reputable GP.

Irritable for 1 week but no desire for a cig.

[Neeranam]

Swedish Snuss then cold turkey.

[h90]

Swedish Snuss then cold turkey.

[Robby nz]

As a non smoker I shouldn't really be posting on here but what the heck.

Mate of mine told me his way of stopping smoking was to stop buying them.

He said he was able to bludge one of his mates for a while but they soon realized they wouldn't get one back from him if they ran out so one by one they stopped giving them to him.

He reckoned as long as he stuck with 'not buying them' he had it licked.

[MAJIC]

It's two years later,and I still haven't smoked Tobacco,the E-CIGS have also been made redundant months ago. I still feel like smoking most days,but the withdrawal symptoms only last a minute or so and then it's pidgeon holed in my mind until the next time!

[ThaiPauly]

CONGRATULATIONS MAJIC.

I have to do it now, I have tried every which way and failed.

I have three months worth of patches so I am gonna start going down that road tomorrow.

You are an inspiration and I hope I can follow in your footsteps

[MAJIC]

Fri 26 Sep 2014, 11:12 am

Hi IBM,

Congratulations on 5 months smoke-free, and for resisting those urges! It is very important to keep reminding ourselves that EVERY full-blown relapse begins with that first puff, hit, drink or whatever. That is not to say that "just one puff" in every and all cases leads to relapse (although in the case of nicotine, it is highly likely), but there is no relapse that ever happened without the first puff! Never take the first puff and you will never relapse!

I don't think eCigarettes are a "crutch." However, I was quite surprised to hear you say they contain no nicotine. I don't really no that much about them. Is that true? I was under the impression that they were just an alternative nicotine delivery system like the patch or like nicotine gum.

Can anyone clear that up?

The liquid comes in different flavours,and can be with or without Nicotine, it's big business on line,you can also decide what nicotine strength you want your e-liquid.You can say start at 25 mg which is quite strong, and slowly over several months reduce the nicotine down to 5 mg or 6 mg,at this point the nicotine content is very low,and a good time to kick the habit completely as the complete withdrawal will be easier! you decide at your own pace,when the time is right for you!

to quit

I was talking to a E-smoker a couple of weeks ago,who said he wasn't going to quit smoking E-cigarettes,which defeats the whole object,and is just exchanging one addiction for another, he also believed that E-cigs are not as dangerous as tobacco,which has not been proven or researched in depth as yet,for all we know at the moment it could be very dangerous. But the Guy forgot to mention Nicotine is a killer in its own right,and doesn't need to be smoked to be Poison.

Look it up!

[MAJIC]

CONGRATULATIONS MAJIC.

I have to do it now, I have tried every which way and failed.

I have three months worth of patches so I am gonna start going down that road tomorrow.

You are an inspiration and I hope I can follow in your footsteps

Good Luck Pauly, You can do it!

[55Jay]

CONGRATULATIONS MAJIC.

I have to do it now, I have tried every which way and failed.

I have three months worth of patches so I am gonna start going down that road tomorrow.

You are an inspiration and I hope I can follow in your footsteps

You are ready to quit now. You can do it. You must.

[Jessi]

CONGRATULATIONS MAJIC.

I have to do it now, I have tried every which way and failed.

I have three months worth of patches so I am gonna start going down that road tomorrow.

You are an inspiration and I hope I can follow in your footsteps

You can do it Paul, If I can do it anyone can.

Best of luck.

[ThaiPauly]

Cheers guys, I have made a good start to the day by changing my routine, the cravings are not as bad as I imagined them to be, I put my patch on before bed so it's working.

Fingers crossed, I have tried to quit countless times before, even managing 3 years once, but this dirty incideous monster lurks on my shoulder constantly

[ThaiPauly]

I'll have to change my avitar

[chiang mai]

I think the fear of stopping is far far greater than the actual act, ditto the expectation that you will suffer all kinds of side effects.

I was amazed when I stopped after almost 40 years of often 40 a day or more. I simply told myself on a Friday night at 10:30pm that this was my last cigarette and when I woke up I was a non-smoker and have remained so for the past seven years. I had absolutely no cravings or withdrawal symptoms and I've never had any desire for a cigarette since, I was amazed and put it down simply to the fact that I was mentally ready to stop.

Good luck to all who try, it's well worth the effort.

[MB1]

I stopped smoking for 4 months with an E Cig, never touched a real cig in that time, then I got banned from my local pub for 2 weeks for using the E cig in the UK, nanny state it is and Sam Smiths Brewery, I've been back on the real cigs since, <deleted>*k em I thought, tryed to quit my habit for health reasons and get a ban from the pub, oh and aint been back to the pub since...

As an after thought, try using the Nicotine patches,put 2 over your eyes and you can't find your cigs...

[canman]

I have been using a combination of E-cig and gum. E-cig when I am out for a drink and the gum the rest of the time.

[Jessi]

How are you getting on Paul?

[fang37]

Last cigarette - 1983

Method - ACUPUNCTURE administered by a medical practitioner.

It was a course - not a once-off.

I felt terrible during the withdrawal process but all other efforts failed. Maybe I was ready.

[MAJIC]

Cheers guys, I have made a good start to the day by changing my routine, the cravings are not as bad as I imagined them to be, I put my patch on before bed so it's working.

Fingers crossed, I have tried to quit countless times before, even managing 3 years once, but this dirty incideous monster lurks on my shoulder constantly

A bonus of giving up smoking is not having to stuff your pockets with cigs,rolling tobacco,papers,cigarette lighter etc,at first it's like going out without a lifeline,you will soon get used to going out with empty pockets,and when somebody asks for a "light" and you say (a little bit smugly) sorry I don't smoke,that's a big high!

[fang37]

When I was a smoker, I did not find the odour offensive. My then wife did. Did not stop me. My sister forbid me from smoking in her home.

Now, I understand although if someone else smokes, I say nuffin.

The cost of smoking today is unbelievable eg when I was smoking, a packet was USD1. Now, USD10?

A big cheer for smokers & drinkers. You subsidize a fair chunk of government spending.

[Soutpeel]

7 months now but still using an e-cig

[mmh8]

running, when you do it every day 5 or 6 times a week, the couging shit up bit gets old.

also the statistics are great, I've forgotten the details, but something like 20% reduction in cancer probability after 1 day of quitting. I'm back to any other non smoker equivalent except for living in bkk, and occasional work visits to malaysia, indonesia, China etc.