Asklemmy

I used nicotine pouches for a year then cold turkeyed at day 365

You already have! Congratulations! That last one, was the last one. Throw away the rest, you're done.

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.

I quit smoking successfully a few years ago, after at least a dozen unsuccessful attempts.
Here's what was different the time I succeeded:

I changed my mindset. Basically, I told myself that I won't ever smoke a single cigarette again in my life, no matter how shitty that makes me feel.
The trigger for that mindset was a common cold that left me breathless for 4 weeks.
And the key to success was the realization that:

1.) I'm not addicted to cigarettes, I'm addicted to nicotine
2.) Nicotine by itself isn't all that harmful
3.) Whenever I have a craving, I can just chew a nicotine chewing gum
4.) Nicotine by itself isn't even that addictive

So I bought a whole lot of nicotine gum, and whenever I felt the slightest craving I popped one in.
After about 2 weeks the cravings subsided (cause nicotine isn't actually what makes you addicted).

I quitted few years ago already. I bought a pack of those peppermint like pills that contain nicotine to help stopping. They tasted so horribly bad I just had like 2 of them and quit smoking cold. So maybe go get some of those disgusting pills.

Both my parents were longtime smokers, my dad quit cold Turkey after 25 years. My mum quit cold turkey after about 45. They both seemed fine with it, maybe some nicorette gum at first but they dropped that quickly. With my dad having 20 years smoke free ahead of my mom, his health is way better. He is active. My mom needed some heartwork done.

I used chantix back in the day, but it also required me basically not leaving the house for a month to really get there. When and where I quit for the first time (I would later start dating a smoker and relapse, then quit again), smoking was still allowed indoors and I had a huge association with drinking and smoking. Same for certain other places and situations. I basically had to do everything I could to avoid those. It got easier with time.

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).

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 months later she was still using it, and gave up and started smoking again.

Probably helps that I had quit drinking by then as well. Pretty hard to drink and not smoke, for me.

I hear sucking on a lollipop can help.

Talk about placement

Cold turkey is what works for most people but if you tried it and failed many times don't be afraid to use nicotine replacement in some form, medication ( I used Champix and I've quit successfully 3 years ago) or even therapy. You'll find online a lot of people who say that you only need willpower which is true if you have it but just depressing if you don't making your situation after numerous quit attempts worse and worse.

There are plenty of websites with concrete plans and tips on how to do it, all of them with good advice but you have find out what works for you and what doesn't. There are also some apps that can help you track your quit process, the health benefits of quitting and reward you.

Since you told nothing about your previous attempts if you had any or how long youve been smoking and why you want to quit I can only give some general advice:

Every day you don't smoke is a win. You need to find out why smoking hurts you, why stopping smoking would help you. Choose a plan, stuck to it and if you fail learn from it.

Nothing worked for me until Covid came and I've stopped seeing my friends who smoked. Best of luck on your endeavour!

Two ways.

1. Get a crutch and pretend you quit.

This can either be vaping, snus, nicotine pouches, the patch, anything.

2. Cold Turkey

Quitting one morning by just never smoking that day.

That's all I know.

I had tried multiple times previously, but when I stopped using snus (tobacco in pouches you put under your lip) for good these are things that helped me succeed:

1. I actually wanted to quit (this is the most important one. If you just feel like you should quit and don't actually want to. It's gonna be really rough).

2. I set a deadline for myself. For me, that deadline was during a family vacation so I planned for myself to get through the last box of snus before the vacation was over. I had a single box of snus that was already opened and a week long vacation (a single box used to last me maybe 2 days normally). This made me ration it out so I had a natural decrease in amounts used before I quit.

3. I distracted myself from things that would normally make me want to grab a snus. Some were harder to avoid like when having morning coffee or when I had just eaten a large meal, but those could be substituted with chewing gum, breath mints, etc. I had also just recently started dating again at the time, so my daily routine was almost always different from the norm, which made ignoring the cravings a lot simpler.

And honestly, from there it was just staying true to my goal and making sure to be proud of every milestone. Even now, 5 years later, I made sure to be proud of being 5 years clean.

And you will think about it every now and then. Especially in situations where you normally go for a smoke, your brain will occasionally go back to "ahh, shit, a smoke would be nice now". I still have those moments when I have stressful situations, have been out drinking, or just randomly from time to time.

If you really want to quit, you can do it! I believe in you!

Quitting isn’t very hard if you've got a valid reason, determination and, most importantly, you set your mind properly. Don’t do “strong will” quitting where you force yourself to go through painful experience of quitting, but you don’t fully understand why you have to. Your mindset is the key - if you start to truly believe you don’t need tobacco and there’s not much that you sacrifice by quitting, it comes naturally and you can call yourself a non-smoker from day 1. You must be certain that there won’t be any reasons to feel there is something missing, you no longer have your daily ritual, you don’t have chat with smoking coworkers or you don’t know what to do with your hands. No matter how hard it sounds to imagine now, as a non-smoker you cannot care less. The typical imagination on how hard it is to change habits or how nothing is the same after that change, you must remember that your mind projects that to you in a very hyperbolic way. Same goes as the physical aspect of nicotine addiction - some say that your body would absolutely freak out if you suddenly remove nicotine from it. For the most part, this is utter bullshit. Yes, you can totally perceive nicotine hunger, but it’s there only for as long as there’s some nicotine left in your body. You only need 10-14 days to get rid of all of the nicotine and that’s it. In practice the hunger isn’t even as bad as smokers typically make it out to be. The mental addiction is much harder, because if you stay addicted and keep feeling as you were robbed out of something you liked, you can go back to it even after long time, even if cigarettes taste like shit and make you sick to the stomach and you want to vomit and poo at the same time.

I’ve quit smoking multiple times, sadly you can go back to it after some time if you decide to experiment with it to maybe teach yourself to be “casual smoker” (which you won’t be, believe me), or like in my case smoking weed mixed with tobacco has put me right back in nicotine addiction. I’ve quit smoking 2 years ago now, I was sick of that shit.

Educate yourself about what smoking does to your body. Imagine it on every inhale. Make yourself really hate it. Set a specific end date in the near future (but keep it to yourself, you don’t need outside pressure). In the meantime continue thinking about how much you hate smoking. Then stop cold turkey.

If you miss smoke breaks with others at work or whatever, just keep hanging out with them but don’t smoke. If they ask about it, don’t say you are trying to stop, say you did stop.

I vaped for quite a while. Got a bit addicted to the tinkering and the juice hunting. It can be a fun hobby which probably makes it a bad way to quit if you're anything like me.

I worked myself down on the nicotine levels until I was at zero.

Relapsed back to cigarettes after not having vaped for a few months due to stress.

Finally stopped cold turkey. Didn't go back to vaping just decided it was time.

Things that ultimately helped:

• Having a reason to quit that I could remind myself of daily as an affirmation.
• My partner was also quitting, I needed her to stop and needed to be there to support her efforts.

If I was going to do it again, I'd probably look into Fum or something similar. Probably add some nicotine gum at the start to ease the chemical addiction.

Find other ways to cope when you get the urge, ie vape etc

Or big balls daddy cold turkey it

I went cold turkey with the help of Wellbutrin. Best of luck!

Nicotine patches. It gives your brain what it wants with little to no adverse effects

From my experience, I would say it really depends on what kind of smoker you are.

I smoked on and off for over twenty years. I made strong associations with cigarettes in my college years. It was a way to get away, to be different, to meet new people, to relax, etc. Sometimes I smoked two packs a day, but more often a pack a week. I smoked the most while driving or after work or at the bar. My friends at the bar smoked, my girlfriends smoked, my coworkers smoked.

I read long ago that, for some people, nicotine fits like a puzzle piece into a receptor in their bodies. I believe I lack this receptor that causes biological addition and my smoking was due more to Pavlovian conditioning. I never had a morning craving. I never got "the shakes". I quit over a dozen times, sometimes for more than a year.

When I was finally ready, and I have to emphasize that you need to be ready, I actually went out of my way to not have a cigarette while doing the things I strongly associated with smoking. I knew I was ready and it was going to stick because I quit over the course of "Beer Week" (Beer Week is when all the bars in the city have beer specials and events and serve one-off or collaboration beers from around the world). It was the worst time to quit but also the best time to quit. It was a challenge. When my friends at the bar all went out for a smoke, I joined them - without a smoke. When I was done eating dinner, I'd go outside and just sit and think without the cigarette. I even went for a drive with a cigarette in my hand and pretended to smoke it without lighting it up.

Being ready to quit isn't about knowing it's bad for you. To be really honest with you, I quit because I was flirting with a super cute girl who happened to be a doctor (I still remember her name - Rose. Because Rose + Doctor Who). Everything was going great then I interrupted her so I could go outside for a cigarette. The disappointment felt by the both of us when I returned was the gut punch I needed. I still have that pack of cigarettes that I only had three smokes out of.

I've not had a single urge to smoke for nine and a half years now.

Or you could try hypnotherapy. Worked for my mom after smoking for over 45 years.

First time I quit i was sick and cigarettes tasted awful for a week, so I figured if I had already gone a week without I might as well quit. Whenever I got a craving I thought about how disgusting they tasted with a cold, and imagined spongey lungs filling with black tar till I gave myself a shiver of disgust.

I started up again years later while traveling, then quit for good while visiting my parents for 2 months - I know I'm too embarrassed to smoke around my parents.

Nicotine pouches

I'm neither an expert nor do I smoke. But from what I heard, quitting smoking has two major points- one being the nicotine addiction your body has built up. The second one being your 'emotional addiction', I.e being used to smoking as a tool to decompress, socialize, take a break, fight boredom etc. which is embedded in your routines - this one might be harder to fight. Maybe try to identify those things and find alternatives, start installing different ways to cope and simultaneously take care of your bodily addiction via gums, patches, whatever is the right way for you.

I quit cold turkey about 5 months ago after smoking for a decade. Might start again, might not. I still get cravings. If I do start again I'm going to make myself learn to roll them by hand instead of buying packs so that it's cheaper and takes more conscious effort.

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.

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.

Just stop!

But what helped me: often smoking is part of a daily routine or ritual, so mix up your routine. Take up a new hobby or take the bus instead of the car. Go for a walk after lunch. Giving up smoking is a big change, so don't be afraid to make big changes. Get new clothes. Make new friends. You have discarded your old identity as a smoker. Still smoking? Doesn't matter! You already want to stop - you're becoming that person already.

And don't be so hard on yourself if you have a smoke now and then. Be conscious of what situation or routine triggered the reflex, and change it in future. If you have a smoke every few days or weeks, don't sweat it, you've broken addiction as far as I'm concerned!