any piece of advice is welcome, thank you :-3
Nicotine pouches
I tried quitting a number of times. Not easy, and demoralizing when you fail. You may have to try several times too.
When I finally did quit I had decided to put off my first cigarette in the morning as long as possible, reasoning that sleep was the longest I’d go without nicotine. One day I went the whole day.
A friend quit at the same time as me, using the gum. Six month later she was still using it, and gave up and started smoking again.
Probably help that I had quit drinking by then as well. Pretty hard to drink and not smoke, for me.
This might help https://www.artofliving.org/in-en/happiness-program
Nicotine patches. It gives your brain what it wants with little to no adverse effects
The problem with patches is you don’t satisfy the oral aspect of the habit so you may need to chew gum or sunflower seeds to replace the act of smoking.
Nicotine gum or pouches may seem like a simpler option, but you can up your dose frequency too much to be able to ween off effectively if you do not have the willpower to keep to a plan.
Gum and patch also means you can not use a patch after a while and mindfuck your reptile brain into thinking the gum is what it wanted and not the nicotine patch.
Talk about placement
Get yourself a good nicotine vape rig. The kind that has a big tank so it’ll last all day and you can use whichever flavoured vape liquid you like best. Switch to that 100% of the time, right away, no exceptions. Don’t worry about how to quit vaping until you’ve gone without smoking for at least a few months.
It’ll be hard, but not nearly as bad as it is if you try to quit both smoking and nicotine at the same time.
Just stop doing it. You won’t quit until you really want to stop, and then it’s actually kind of easy. You hear this from a lot of people who quit, that all the circumstances and programs and nicotine substitutes are kind of secondary to the mental aspect of it.
I quit by switching to vaping and then working the nicotine level down to nothing and then quitting that. Whatever you decide to do I wish you the best of luck (and stick with it!)
Same here. Fuck the naysayers who say cold turkey or nothing. Do what works for you.
For OP: One caveat to the vape plan is you’ll likely need to get a vape that’s refillable so you can customize the nicotine level. Juul/vuse/disposables typically only come in one, or at best, 2 nicotine levels, which prevents effective tapering.
Also, don’t fall into the trap of vaping places you wouldn’t have smoked (e.g. in your house/car). That can increase your nicotine dependency.
Good luck!
Speaking from my own experience here is my method.
- Start by accepting that you will suffer, but think of the suffering like having a bad cold or the flu. You’ll hate it but it will pass.
If you are quite a light smoker (handful per day) I would just quit and ride it out. If things get really bad allow yourself 1 but no more. You’ll be surprised how quickly the worst cravings go away after a week.
If you’re a heavy smoker take more of a run up to it, as follows.
Put off the first smoke of the day for as long as you can. E.g. if you usually smoke as soon as you get up then hold off until after breakfast. Next Day try for just before lunch, and so on over a week or so. Try to also put a gap between eating and smoking. Once you are down to a few a day then do the cold turkey thing.
The trick is actually not buying more cigarettes. If you have them till probably smoke them. But if not, that barrier helps.
I smoked from about 19yo until I was in my early thirties (about 1 pack per day). I also spent the nights smoking a lot of spliffs as well (that’s weed with rolling tobacco). Now I only smoke Weed when I go down to see my friends which is like twice a year. I bring back enough tobacco to make 3 or 4 small roll ups which gets me through the come down over the following week. Then it is done.
Quitting the first time is fuck hard but the cravings pass. Now I find it quite easy because I’m used to doing it.
Good luck. You can do it.
I stopped a pack and a half a day habit of ~10 years cold turkey. It was either food or smokes.
As others have said, there is no effective short cut. Ultimately, it is all will power. At least it is easier now. When I quit, EVERYONE smoked.
there is no effective short cut
As someone who quit by switching to vape pens, I strongly disagree. There are multiple studies that show a success rate of greater than 60% when using vaping as a smoking cessation device. The next closest method is 3%. 3 fucking percent! Guess who owns those methods? It’s the tobacco companies.
Just quit, there is no easy way than this. You just have to quit. İt will be tough but not from the nicotine itself, from the actions you had to take daily. That is the most hard to pass, but then you’ll learn to live in a new way without any addiction.
Not a smoker myself, but I can tell you what worked for my brother when he quit in college.
AC went out in his dorm during an August heat wave, and it took forever for them to fix it. He decided that it would be a perfect time to go cold turkey, since he’d be so miserable from the heat that the few days of nicotine withdraw wouldn’t really be comparably bad. And he said it was right, he didn’t think about it during the worst part, and by the time they fixed the AC, he was 90% of the way through the process.
So if you live in one of the parts of the world moving to summer right now, it might be worth a shot.
I switched to a vape and progressively got lower nicotine amounts until I was at 0 and then stopping was easy.
Yes. This worked for me as well. Smoked a pack or more a day for 14 years, within a year I just put the vape down. 10 year anniversary of last cig coming up!
Same. I just kept diluting the liquid with 0% nicotine until, months later, I realized I didn’t even want to vape any more.
I think I bought 1 bottle at 0% and decided I’d rather have the money.
Too many helpful comments here. My advice? Just lock in, bro 🗿
Based shi gang
While I have no personal experience with tobacco addictions, there is an interesting literature review of CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) and MBI (Mindfulness Based Interventions).
