Quitting smoking

After smoking 30 years Chantix worked for me. I thought I would smoke until my last breath I loved smoking so much. I Chantix for only 2 months, didn't need the suggested 3rd month. I haven't had a cigarette in 12 years. Had a mild craving only once or twice in all that time, even when drinking or eating out with smoking friends many times.

I am so glad I quit!

R1 here. To answer your question, I quit because Bloomberg raised the cigarette tax and I was just done.

Everyone can suck shit. I’m on zyban, trying to smoke twice as often without any joy. I get bitch slapped by my addiction once an hour - “go out and smoke now.” This is why I’m quitting.

I quit 5 years ago after about 23 years of smoking. The last 2 years I smoked I was already over it...not the smoking because I always enjoyed the fuck out of it till the very end, but the habit side of it (I was one of those smokers that if I ran out of cigs at 1 am, then by god, I was getting my ass dressed and going out to buy some). I was a DEDICATED smoker though not a very heavy one (10/12 a day...add maybe 5 if I went out at night) but like I said, I started to resent having the habit...cigs became increasingly more expensive and I would watch 80 year olds buying smokes and asking myself if I really wanted to spend the rest of my life feeding the piece of shit tobacco companies my money. The switch went off in my head and I realized I didn't want to be doing it much longer.

So I quit. It was an opportune time because I was dead broke and jobless, so I didnt have money to spare. I could never do cold turkey but I didn't use any other aid either...I just tapered off my cigarettes but I had a specific timeline when I wanted to quit for good. It was my 1st and last attempt to quit (don't listen to people that say quitting gradually doesn't work, it can, you just have to learn how to do it right, there's a whole method to it)

Anyway that's my story. It was actually somewhat easier than I thought but I think it helped that I picked the perfect time to quit for me. No physical withdrawals whatsoever either but like I said, I was a somewhat more moderate smoker.

I hate how part of our economy is based on getting people addicted to substances or gambling! And then, getting treatment for an addiction, is a whole nother $$$ industry!

I really want to quit (maybe kinda sorta) but yes. Perhaps I'll try Chantix.

I did real Allen Carrs s stop smoking book. It's very logical and helpful. Literally the day I said this is the day..I received some devastating news and I only lasted like 8 hours before going out and buying a pack.

I started smoking when I was ~ 14, quit right before I turned 30. I told myself: "I don't want to be in my 30s, still smoking cigarettes."

I smoked about a pack per day, maybe 25 per day if there were drinks involved.

Back when I smoked, it wasn't as expensive as it is now.

After a year of quitting, I bought myself a present. Budget was the amount of money I saved not smoking for a year.

The best thing about quitting is the freedom. When I quit, I was still working in restaurants. I walked outside into the night after my shift and I felt free. I wasn't rushing out to smoke a damn cigarette.

I quit with Chantix after years of trying the gum, patches, cold turkey. A miracle drug. Was still one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do but quitting smoking is something I can always be proud of.

I switched to swedish snus. Still tobacco, but nowhere near as harmful.

I quit smoking eleven years ago. I just gradually smoked less and less until I was done. The thing that worked for me was staying away from alcohol and men for a while. No drama No temptation.

The patch worked for me several years ago. I still keep some of the nicotine lozenges around in case I have a craving and want a little kick; I rarely use them anymore, though.

I smoked for 40 years. I quit for health reasons. I decided I wanted to stay alive longer. Quitting almost killed me. It was the hardest thing I have even done. It took me over a year to feel free of the addiction. I rarely miss it now.

R10 knowing what situations and things like drinks (alcohol/coffee) trigger your cravings and avoiding them as much as you can is super important.

I'm trying to quit too. Its a bitch, because I love it so much. Like R4 said, if I run out at 1:00 am, then I get my ass dressed and go get a pack.

Switching to the Vuse E-Cigs worked for me, their menthol carts are satisfying enough that I stopped craving cigarettes after being pack a day for about a decade. It isn't saving me any money really but I feel much much better so if harm reduction is the best I can do for now that's fine. I'm much happier, especially about not making a disgusting mess everywhere I go. Picking up cigarettes is still my biggest ever regret.

I was so glad when I was done with smoking....the sense of freedom, the not smelling, the not keeping a distance from people because I knew I smelled like cigarettes, saving a fortune for better things, and knowing I was no longer destroying myself. My sense of taste came back after about 6 months pretty suddenly. I couldn't believe how amazing everything tasted. I went on an eating binge because I wanted to taste everything. I gained some weight but not not much because I was also more active than when I smoked.

I also think my hearing improved after a few years, though I've never seen any studies mentioning this. When you are smoking, you are starving every cell in your body of oxygen and nutrients, this decreases functionality while leading to disease.

Quit smoking and drinking almost simultaneously. I have hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and both habits were threatening my health. I was on Zoloft and Wellbutrin. One of them helped me curtail my smoking until I eventually quit. Having a pedantic, anti-smoking boyfriend at the time also helped. Another bad habit.

Everyone is different. Some folks can quit cold turkey; others need medication. Hypnosis can help others. Some people are simply unable to quit regardless. Good luck in your quest. It’s a difficult, nasty habit, isn’t it?

I took Chantix as well. The only side effect was chronic insomnia. Solved by taking a sleeping pill.

Any habit where you are giving money continuously to people that don't give a fuck about you is nasty. That said, I always enjoyed smoking, and didn't get too paranoid about smelling like it (lots of people I knew still smoked) nor found it gross per se (I always kept my place well ventilated, always dumped my ash trays every few hours). I just quit because I didn't want to continue to feel like a chump.

I haven't had a cigarette for a month! I've switched to Vuse for now, and have given myself till the new year to puff on those as often as I want. After Jan. 1st, I'll begin tapering off.

Congrats to all successful former smokers and truly best wishes to all those on the road to freedom.

I want to quit ONLY because it's becoming a PITA. A 3 hour movie in a theater, going on airplanes for a long flight are things I sometimes won't do.

I turned down a free trip to Italy last month because of the flight.

One or two American Spirit Periques a day. What’s $10 in Iowa, is $17 in Chicago. When did they get so damn expensive?

I quit in 2016. Just got tired of it after 20+ years and stopped.

R22 "I turned down a free trip to Italy last month because of the flight."

Yeah, it's time to quit. Damn.

Smokers are disgusting, and should die right at their 999th smoke. 20-30 years of waiting for their painful demise is too long.

I regret quitting smoking, it was so much fun.

I smoked for 30 years also and Chantix was brilliant. I had quit a few times (no medication) for many months, the better part of a year but would lapse back on holidays and then begin smoking again at home soon enough. I was always a situational smoker; I never liked the taste (or smell), and the idea, for instance, of a cigarette first thing in the morning was repulsive, but out for a walk, after a dinner, driving...these were typical situations where a cigarette was a comforting thing, a few inches of relaxation apart from all the rest.

With Chantix the effect was very swift. In less than a week I had stopped and have never had another cigarette in a decade since, nor have I been tempted. A couple friends followed my route in their own time and had the same result with no downside.

Finally bit the bullet!

It wasn't a conscious decision. I just didn't smoke one day (I had cigarettes on hand). Then didn't the next day. I then realized it (which is actually kind of unfortunate as now I think about it), but two weeks on, haven't smoked!

Has anyone had any bad experiences with Chantix?

An acquaintance of mine related that it worked brilliantly, but at the end of the second week he found himself standing on a bridge, seriously considering jumping. He realized it was a side effect and forced himself to leave.

It has never crossed my mind to quit, in 35 years

I cope perfectly well on long flights when I can't smoke, but immediately go back to 40 a day as soon as I am in my own comfort zone.

None of my health conditions are particularly exacerbated by smoking, I can easily afford it and enjoy it.

Well smell you R40.

For myself it was never about the money (I can afford to smoke even at $10 a pack).

It wasn't about my health (which is unfortunate/short-sided), but that is the truth. I'm relatively young (though smoked for 20+ years) so the worst of it hasn't hit me (yet?).

It is just a giant pain in the ass to smoke. I have to go around the block and then down 1/2 mile to the designated smoking area, where I will have one cigarette then walk the 1/2 mile back.

You think I'm joking, but I did this at my employer in Arizona at one point. I walked almost one mile RT to have one fucking cigarette. It just isn't worth it.

R32 I'm retired and in my home Country they are $17 (£13.50) a pack, but I travel for more than half of the year.

In Southern Europe and West Africa where I spend most of my time you can smoke almost everywhere, even at home in the UK it isn't a problem.

I've never really enjoyed travelling to the US, and haven't spent much time there in the past 25 years. The restrictions on a perfectly legal activity seem onerous and oppressive.

[quote] I turned down a free trip to Italy last month because of the flight.

Damn! That is a commitment to smoking.

[quote] Has anyone had any bad experiences with Chantix?

Yes, people, including me, have had bad experiences with Chantix / Wellbutrin. Here's the DL thread on Wellbutrin.

I smoked throughout my twenties on and off, but had a weird relationship with it. I’d go through spurts of being a chain smoker, and then not touch them for months at a time; in some periods, I would only smoke in social situations. Generally though, it seems that I smoked when I was at my most depressed or emotionally distressed—looking back at it, it’s almost like I was engaging in a passive form of self-mutilation. To make it worse, I was born with a congenital heart defect and knew it was especially bad for me, but I didn’t care at the time. My grandmother smoked from age 12 and died an awful death from lung cancer at 60, so I also knew what that looked like up close.

I finally had to have open heart surgery shortly after turning 29, and I quit entirely a couple of months before that. I haven’t smoked cigarettes since. I will occasionally take a puff of a vape here and there for a buzz, but I can’t ever envision myself smoking cigarettes again.

Going on two weeks without a cigarette bitches!!!!

I have to admit posting this kind of made me just finally quit.

The first week (even though I was down to one or two a day) was surprisingly rough. Lots of coughing, sneezing, mild sore throat. Googling it, this is apparently normal after quitting but I wasn't prepared for it.

I quit on New Year's day, seven or eight years ago. Not because of a resolution but because I was sick with another chest cold and just said idiot, this isn't helping. So my withdrawal misery was buried within the cold misery. Surviving the change of habit took a hard month, followed by an increasingly easy six months. Now I seldom think about it.

Cigarettes are my best friend. Lol

It's been nearly three months for me now! (52 days to be exact)

The pandemic made me quit. It’ll be three years in March since I had my last cigarette.

I occasionally have dreams in which I’m happily smoking a cigarette.

I remember being at Bamboo Bernies in Chicago in the early 90s, and my friend and I being upset that they raised the prices of cigarettes in the machine to $3 a pack. That was more expensive than they were in the stores.

Congrats to the quitters, best thing you can do for yourself

I also had a miracle experience with Chantix — I’d smoked for about fifteen years and was up to about a pack a day and it was just too expensive, and also my bf had stopped a couple years earlier and resented me still smoking in our apartment . I mean I’d go to the window and blow it out, but still, it was dickish of me. Anyway Chantix had me done within a month, and the desire has never come back once. Its been thirteen years now. It’s ridiculous. I did have the vivid dream thing while I was taking the pills but nothing extraordinary. Even better I talked my mom into doing it — she’d been smoking my entire life, decades upon decades, and it worked exactly the same for her, I never thought she’d quit in a million years,

Bravo R36! Don’t turn back, keep going.

R36, there's an app (no doubt one among many) that I use called Quit It. Pretty simple. Tracks your quit days (I am 6 years, 11 months, 28 days, 5 hours and four minutes as of writing) and provides a percentage toward accomplished of health improvements as time passes and quitting adds up. I found it quite helpful in the beginning to open it and see what I'd be turning my back on if I caved. Over time, I forget about it. I can't remember the last time I opened it until today because I'm a non-smoker now.

Funnily - and am curious about other exes - I still LOVE the smell of a cigarette when I pass a smoker. Doesn't bother me at all. I did not turn into one of those righteous reformed. Anybody else love it still? Or loathe it passionately? Mind you, I don't like it in the house but truth is I don't know anybody who smokes any more.

I still love the smell as well R45 and I gravitate towards smokers to get a whiff.

I took wellbutrin low dose. You take it for a week or so before you quit, pick a day and quit. It was super easy. I just didn't give a fuck about smoking anymore. Then weened off the wellbutrin and I was done. I was never a heavy smoker. Pack a day for 20 years though.

Well done R39. Now you know there’s nothing you can’t do.