Anecdotally, I found that ease of quitting was inversely related to the amount of pressure I put on myself to quit. I smoked for 15 years and always vowed I would never be a self-loathing smoker. I think so little of my attempt to quitting successfully that every time someone brings up quitting cold-turkey I need to remind myself that I attempted to quit on multiple occasions. - I simply didn't feel bad when a strategy didn't work out.
Ultimately I weened myself off of nicotine by vaping and stepping down the concentration of nicotine over a long period of time. I quit vaping in early 2020.
Funnily enough, that's exactly how I stopped smoking. I smoked for around 17 years and had been trying to quit for nearly 15 of them. I did everything from pills to nicotine substitutions, hypnosis, and even that laser therapy. It would work for a time, but eventually, within a month or two, I'd be back to smoking.
Then, one day, I was in a really foul mood and just didn't want to deal with people. I ran out of cigarettes right at the end of the evening before bed and figured I'd buy some in the morning. Woke up in a worse mood the next day and decided to just stay home and ride it out. It is best for me to avoid people when I get like that, so that's what I did. The following day, I woke up in a better mood and was about to head to the corner store for a pack when I realized I'd already gone near 36 hours without one, so thought why not wait an hour. An hour passed, and decided to wait another hour, and then another, and another. Before I knew it, I was heading back to bed for my second full day being cigaretteless.
At that point, I decided to continue my smoke-free streak and just quit. It's been nearly 6 years since my last cigarette, and it was one of the best decisions I've made in my life.
Context: I'm a disabled veteran with severe PTSD, anxiety, depression, and mood disorders caused by TBI's. I have days where everything seems to act up all at once, and I'll self isolate because it's just safer for everyone if I'm alone during those times. Furthermore, I started smoking while in combat to help take the "edge" off, and as such, the nicotine addiction was extremely difficult for me to get beyond because it got wrapped up in my PTSD and anxiety issues.
Basically, what I learned from my many years of trying to quit is no matter how you "try" if you don't truly want to quit, you won't succeed. You have to want to quit more than you want that next cigarette.
Good luck to anyone out there still struggling to break a nicotine addiction. Stay strong. You can do it.
I turned 26 when I heard myself coughing like a 66 year old chainsmoker with cancerous lungs, found I was unable to run up stairs and out of breath after carrying groceries inside. I had to have a cig every morning so I would be able to have a shit at all, but if I did... that first drag sent me rushing to the bathroom, it got so bad, I had to light the first one while sitting on the loo, or i'd shit my pants.
That's when I found myself disgusted with myself. I stopped, I simply stopped. From 38 cigarettes per day to 0. I am so happy it worked, because I am a very easily tempted personality and tend towards addiction in anything that gives my brain pleasure.
It took a year before I completely stopped coughing and two years before I could run up those stairs again, but one day I simply realized "Oh my! I'm not out of breath. What... what happened? Oh, yeah I quit smoking! Damn this feels nice!"
You kinda do, though. I've been smoking for 13 years. And I've been smoking quite heavily about, 1.5 pack per day on average.
I tried to stop several times and it didn't work out. Then one day 10 years ago, I realized how crazily much money I spend on that "hobby" and how I'll need that money for my wedding a year later. And then I just stopped.
I used nicotine free cigarettes as a crutch for a while, but that was it. It was surprisingly easy, when before I was almost shaking during a 2 hour flight because of nicotine withdrawal...
What this boils down to imo is, when you really want to stop, you can just stop. Try to find out why you want to stop and don't miss the opportunity window. If I hadn't stopped that day, I'd probably still be smoking.
So you're agreeing. “one does not simply stop, because one needs to be really sure that they want to stop for some reason or another”. The desire to stop doesn't come from nothing, yet it's the vital ingredient for stopping successfully. Unless you have it, stopping is really hard.
The contents of your message aren't a “no”, they're a “yes, and”
I smoked for about 15 years, i used rolling tobacco and would get through 30-40grams in 4 days, im not sure what the conversion rate is but i was smoking easily 10-20 rollups a day. (Never really counted)
I tried to swap to vaping a few times but always fell back. I tried stopping cold turkey multiple times but always ended up going back even harder and smokk g more every time.
Eventually a friend got me on to a new vape, one of thos big cloudy ones that makes you look like a prick. But it had just the right feel, had good flavours and low nicotine content. (Lowest you could get).
At first i was vaping alot, loads. But the number of opportunities i had to vape was the same as when i smoked. So i would be beholden to that schedule daily. This meant my jicotine intake was drastically reduced and didnt leave me ratty because i was still getting some.
It seemed that as the days passed i was missing opportunities to vape more and more, until one day, i worked straight through without even thinking about it. Its been almost a year now and i just dont miss them at all.
I think that everyone is different and half the reason so many people struggle to quit based on advice from others is that we are all different, we smoke different amounts, we smoke for different reasons and different lengths of times and we all have our own tolerance to maintaining our will power.
For some, the decision to quit is enough and our resolve will be strong, for others we need weening and gradual reduction in order to quit. And everything in between.
What works for you or me may work for millions of people, but not for millions more. The best we can do is pass on our anecdotal experience like we both have and let people do what works for them.
im trying very hard to quit smoking weed... i know it's not the same as nicotine addiction but it's still a struggle. I smoked weed almost every day for like 6 years or something.
its annoying cus like i will be reminded of it constantly, weed culture is everywhere, memes and shows and movies and books. I get reminded and i want it, I get the urge and its hard not to smoke a little. i will go days or weeks without any but then I will fuck up and smoke again and suddenly i will be smoking every day again for a few weeks.
edit: i wasn't asking for advice, i have a therapist I am working with please stop trying to give me advice its not what I want or need and I don't like it, it makes me super incredibly uncomfortable. Its not helping. Thank you
Hey I've been there, and after reflecting on it, the truth is, (at least from my perspective), you don't really, truely want it yet. Don't take that as judgement, I'm certainly not in a place to judge, but I've kicked severeral multi-year addictions, and weed was one I had the pleasure of just "deciding to quit". For me quitting weed came with breaking a friendship of the longtime smoking buddy I had, though after getting off of it and reflecting, I realize he was just using me as a convenient spot to store his weed. YMMV, but I think you got this, and hopefully my experience lends some light onto your difficulties with quitting.
WTF is wrong with you. A stranger pours out their heart for you and you just stomp on it? Have the decency to just shut up and ignore it instead of going out of your way to be an asshole.
You are the one who presumed to know what I do or don't actually want. Thank you for your attempt at kindness but it really didn't come off like that to me. I think its best to end this interaction here as its not going to be productive for either of us. Sorry.
Edit: oh i thought you were the person who I was responding too but you are not.. in that case please leave me alone, thankyou..
My fella found this talk useful. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gnSEbLX94Tk
He used to smoke the mild stuff (low THC), but it's the cigarettes he's been struggling with. He's on his third attempt, but after using the technique (TL;DW: your brain doesn't understand negative commands, replace it with a positive command. Instead of "I need a joint", try "I need air" or "I need clarity" or whatever feeling you're aiming for) he's feeling a lot more positive that he'll stick with it this time.
I tried to get him to read the Allen Carr stuff, but he's not much of a reader. Other people swear by it though. It's available on a certain library beginning with z if you want to give it a taster.
Also learning a new skill can give you the same dopamine hit that your addiction does, so take up a hobby, learn a language, etc.
