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Quitting nicotine sucks

rm082e

Member
I was a pack-a-day smoker for 13 years. I quit in 2009. It was very hard.

I used the Nicorette lozenge at the time and was on it for about 6 months before I managed to taper down low enough and quit. Throughout that time I would still occasionally buy a pack and hide them, try to have one late at night while my wife was asleep and take a shower before coming to bed, etc. I think the only reason I was able to finally get away from it was having a kid, and no longer having any friends around who still smoked. We basically had to become hermits and leave all our old friends behind.

So much of it I am repulsed by these days, but when we watched Mad Men, I would get a tickle in my chest every time I watched the actors smoke. Thankfully not many shows or movies have characters smoking anymore.
 

Shtef

Member
I would strongly recommend Tabex, they helped me stop smoking after 25 years of heavy smoking and so many failed attempts. They will kill your desire to smoke and after some time you dont need cigarettes at all.
I am not sure if they are available in USA tough.
 

IDKFA

I am Become Bilbo Baggins
Switched from cigs to vape like 10 years ago and then last week, took the plunge to cut off vaping since my blood pressure is whack.

Ho boy, this sucks shit lol.

Has anyone else gone cold turkey from cigs or vape?

I think I got this but always welcome tips.

Quitting vaping is a lot harder than cigarettes. Vapes normally have more nicotine and you smoke them more than a few cigarettes a day. The withdrawal is a lot harder and painful. I've tried both and getting off vapes was 2x as hard as cigarettes.

Nicotine gum worked for me. I took one when I had a serious craving and just before bed to help me sleep. Within a week I was good.
 

Raven117

Member
You got this man!

I used tobacco for about 15 years. Quit cold Turkey.

You have to realize it’s a fight with your mind in an incredibly acute way. Once I realized that, quitting became easier to me.

Here is what I mean. You are trying to quit… and you start having cravings. You start to rationalize… I can have one. Just one more to take the edge off. No big deal.

To me, once I realized that I had to fight that craving as an external force. To know it’s an unreliable narrator. That it was almost a third person in there. I could square up and fight it rather than thinking it was myself talking to myself.

I know that sounds strange. But maybe try it when you get a craving.
 

Laptop1991

Member
I'm vaping now and i like it a lot more than the tobacco that i use to smoke, i can't cold turkey though, i've tried and failed, it is really hard.
 

Superkewl

Member
never vaped but was a pack and a half a day smoker for 16 years. I tried to quit a hundred times but I finally managed to quit using the patch. It just weens you off the nicotine.

It has been 14yrs since I quit, however I still do get cravings from time to time, but the cravings are minor. Usually associated with things like just waking up, having a coffee or having a satisfying meal.
 
Giving up cigarettes was the hardest thing I've ever done. I used nicotine chewing gum for a couple of days which helped. It's definitely worth pushing through it though. It changed my life giving up smoking and I'd have terrible health now if I'd carried on. I hope you manage to give up.
 

shoegaze

Member
Pack a day smoker from 2006 to 2014, just decided to quit one day and did it. Was hard for first couple of weeks, but hadn't had a single one in 10 years. Started again half a year ago because of stress at work, smoked for 2 months and quit again, quit cold turkey, 6 weeks back.

It's literally just a wrestle with your mind, or inner voice. All these rationalizations come up on why you can have one, but you have to discard them.

Also, you have to decide to really quit, and not just pretend. Deep inside you know you haven't decided yet, and the cycle continues.

Try meditation, maybe it'll give you more awareness of how this addiction keeps perpetuating.

Good luck!
 

Uhtred

Member
I quit cold turkey after 27 years of smoking. It was the hardest thing I ever did. It took a good 6 to 8 months for me to not have the cravings or shakes. Alcohol Helped a little just ease the edge. I say ease because I still had cravings years later, and it took years for me to feel better physically.
 
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clarky

Gold Member
Just think of all the money you'll be saving.
Dunno about you but in my neck of the woods a Benson & Hedges pack costs around 17$.
SEVENTEEN DOLLARS.
You give the cashier 20 bucks and he throws back change 😄

I quit smoking in 2013 but I still casually vape.

I love all those gay fruity flavors 🍉🍇🍍🍑🍓
I packed in the fags(40 a day) for the vape about 8 years ago. I found the problem with them is there isn't an "end" if you will like finishing a cigarette. I could also get away with vaping pretty much everywhere so i ended up just constantly vaping all day. Until 2 of my teeth came loose and the dentist had to pull them out. Explained it was basically like smoking meth long term. So i jacked it in.

3 years vape free, but i needed that reason to quit.

Black currant menthol was my favourite btw.
 

John Marston

GAF's very own treasure goblin
Until 2 of my teeth came loose and the dentist had to pull them out. Explained it was basically like smoking meth long term. So i jacked it in.
If that's not a good reason to quit I don't know what is 😉

Sorry to hear man.

Vaping is still in its infancy and I imagine in 10 or 20 years more findings like yours will come up.
Like children born with the head of a Labrador.
 

clarky

Gold Member
If that's not a good reason to quit I don't know what is 😉

Sorry to hear man.

Vaping is still in its infancy and I imagine in 10 or 20 years more findings like yours will come up.
Like children born with the head of a Labrador.
Its all good mate easily replaced these days :)
 
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I found the problem with them is there isn't an "end" if you will like finishing a cigarette.
That's one of the biggest downsides to vaping. It's great for kicking the nicotine addiction if you get low % pods or juice, but it makes quitting the habit harder, because you can vape more often (basically nonstop) and in more places than you can smoke. And I personally found quitting the habit harder than quitting the nic addiction.
 
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Calico345

Gold Member
Switched from cigs to vape like 10 years ago and then last week, took the plunge to cut off vaping since my blood pressure is whack.

Ho boy, this sucks shit lol.

Has anyone else gone cold turkey from cigs or vape?

I think I got this but always welcome tips.

I started smoking cigarettes when I was 15 years old. I smoked a pack a day for 19 years. One night, I chain smoked like a motherfucker. No particular reason. The next day I woke up and my throat was in agony. Swallowing anything hurt. I was scared. I couldn’t even smoke a cigarette if I wanted to, which I didn’t. I had wanted to quit smoking around that time, but it wasn’t going well. Given the pain I was in, I figured I would take it one day at a time. I’d quit smoking once or twice before, and the first three or four days were always the worst.

I haven’t had a cigarette since. That was May 2013. I am still cigarette free to this day. My throat healed in about a week. Pain and fear about my health were finally the motivation I needed, along with the urge to quit. You can do it, especially if your health is at risk.
 
I quit in stages. First it was no smokes while at work. Then it's no smokes while driving (that sucked...everyone loves smoking while driving). Then it's no smokes while sober. The worst was going out to bars and such and then your willpower gets sucked away so I was annoyingly grabbing smokes from people left and right for while. But eventually I got to where I could drink and hang around my smoking friends and have no urge whatsoever to bum one from them. Was a good feeling.
 
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