I am on 57 days of not smoking. In the end, I just let them run out and refused to buy any more. My boyfriend is quitting also and has been using the patch and gum but I just sucked it up and did it. I figured it couldn't be any harder than living through an anxiety attack. You can do it...just figure out what will work for you!! Hugs!!

Visit WhyQuit.com Lots of good suggestions, shared experiences. He is 100% pro cold turkey. I'm sure cold turkey is the best way for those who can do it! I was never able to go cold turkey. Whether you try patches, gum, or Chantix....you have to want the quit, you have to work it one day at a time, and you really need support. Nobody recommends the "cutting down method" because it is slow torture that keeps you in state of withdrawal BUT it may be easier to quit from 10 than 20 or 40. Some things I have changed - 1. Never smoke in house always outdoors or garage or something but stop smoking in your house. 2. Stop smoking in the car . Remove ashtrays. Work on getting the stink out. Tell self, if I really want a cig I can A. pull over B. chew gum or chew something C. let the feeling pass. 3. Post pone the first cig in the morning. How soon do you light up? Can it wait till after you make the coffee & feed the dog? Can you keep pushing that first smoke to later?
There are hundreds of helpful tips for quitting and staying quit. I wish you the best!!!! I never heard anyone say they were sorry they quit.

The only reason that any quit method fails - somebody took that one puff.

How is the not smoking going???

Not very well

I switched to nicotine free cigarettes, and went cold turkey on the nicotine, which I also feel is the only way. But before I did all this, I read Allan Carr's easy way to quit smoking... which nearly worked. And then I read his advanced, intensive long version.

I think everyone should read them, whether they smoke or not. I think he talks to you like a person, and he's been a chain smoker himself and got off the fags and he isn't lying to you about anything, or moralising at all. I found his viewpoint absolutely eye-opening. Absolutely eye opening.

But I did use the nicotine free fags, and they were a godsend. Smoking is what we do when stressed. What does not smoking cause? STRESS. So what do we need when we quit smoking? A fag! For 2 reasons. (a) nicotine addiction and (b) it's our self-soothe and has been for decades.

So I kept my self soothe. Which departed on its own quite frankly. I think about 2 months full time puffing, followed by a marked reduction and within six months smoking was just some dumb thing I used to do. I still had the odd fake fag, it was a safe thing to have in my purse if I went out drinking. If I succumbed, I could still light up. I felt... like I had a plaster cast on my clean break from nicotine. :D haha.

If I remember I bought 3 more packs of ciggies, it must have been feb 2011 and I quit in may 2010. So I was going to live in another town and I bought three packs, just in case of mishaps, to keep in the glove box of the car.

I think i threw them away in about 2013 after they'd sat there for a couple of years. I'd had one boyfriend breakup that had caused me to open one of those packs, and smoke a few, but I didn't need to finish the pack.

so... that's a kind of idea. When you quit nicotine without quitting smoking, you can every easily see that how you are feeling right now is 100% due to nicotine addiction. It's very clarifying. it's not the smoking, it's the nicotine. And who wants to be a junkie to make some rich bastard richer, while my life goes down the casie paying for it? Not moi, that's for sure. I'm not here to be a drug addict. if there's more to smoking than that, you can get that aspect of it from nicotine free ciggies.

Now the nicotine free cigs sound like a good idea but I've never seen them. Whay do I look and ask for?

well the ones I bought were honeyrose. I remember there were nice ones, and horrible ones. at the time I was buying them from a little indian shop in Carterton, but they're english, and you can get them off the net nowadays. I don't know what they cost but at the time they were costing me half the price of real cigs.

I have to add tho; I did it in the spirit of 'i can get used to this'.

When you go to bed on that fateful night, you destroy every cigarette you have with nicotine in it. When you wake in the morning, you are able to get out of bed (aren't lying there, locked in, because of the horror of getting up and gingerly walking around fearful of triggering that primeval cigarette scream) because you know you have a cigarette you can have, with your coffee.

Your brain doesn't register till after 11:00AM that day that these cigarettes 'taste off'. that they 'don't seem right'. That they 'aren't very tasty'...

haha. hahahaha. That's the nicotine monster whispering in your ear. He wants his nicotine.

But if you tell him to shut up, it's these or nothing so like it or lump it, in a very determined sort of voice, he sort of... gives up eventually.

Don't be fooled: this is still going to be a bad experience. You are still going to want nicotine. But because you're always having a ciggie when you have a nicotine withdrawal, you can clearly, clearly see that this problem you have is all about nicotine. it's just abundantly clear.

My deal was that if I needed to smoke for emotional reasons, I would continue to smoke nicotine free ciggies. if I didn't, if it was all an addiction, a con, and that when the addiction went I would not be interested in smoking any more? then I wouldn't smoke nicotine free ciggies any more.

Either way, I was not intaking nicotine ever again. It was beside the point. It was a con, it was not necessary.

So the logic held even in my darkest moments. Nicotine is not a necessary part of smoking, unless it's all a con to make someone rich while I die of cancer.

I have seen drops that is supposed to block the nicotine.

Quitnet is good site, at least it used to be. there is good suggestions at good posts , put in search at top right of this page. I cut down with patches then used small dose of chantix. will be 3 years soon.

I went CT , but thats not for everyone . Things like Chantix or Wellbutrin you can speak to your dr about. Gum and patch are also options . I would suggest researching . You just have to remember that NRTs will lessen the intensity of the craves, but you will still have to do the work to get through them . My biggest mistake was giving up on day 3 a few times. Its very true that its important to make smoking not an option no matter what , and get through each day a winner. Days add up to weeks, thenmonths and then years . You can do it. One day at a time .

Yes, once you quit, smoking is not an option. Not one puff. The telephone was an automatic cig, so I put licorice sticks by the phone.

The patch works if you are willing and can support them ie : not allergic
Step 2 needs to be longer for heavy smokers, step 3 is almost nothing , so if you're a heavy smoker
you may want to consider staying on step 2 for several weeks. If you cheat and smoke, removing the patch to smoke, you may find that you develop an allergy to them.
This is from my experience.
Champix made me nauseous, so I didn't eat too much, not a good idea.

The Florida stop smoking program allows clients a long time for support & patches & gum etc. A common pitfall is people quit support groups & prescriptions TOO SOON.
The cigarette companies have to support/fund quit smoking programs. Do everything you can to get help, do not despair, and keep trying!
Pfizer has a patient assistance program for chantix if you financially qualify. If you get approved, trust me you still need support groups because Pfizer support is non existant. Quitnow, WhyQuit, whatever you can find...American Cancer Soc....