Current Events > I am having the hardest time quitting smoking.

(+) Yeah! (+)

I went a week without smoking/vaping nicotine, then I ate something spicy and my urges to smoke suddenly came ten folds. For those that used to smoke, how did you quit? I am having the hardest time dealing the urges of wanting to feel "buzzed" rather than craving nicotine. I've tried substituting nicotine for weed, but that was too potent and wasn't nearly weak enough to give me the same buzz that I got from smoking cigarettes.

Dang...I wish I never smoked. Smoking was never cool.

When I use to smoke it was only when I was with friends or when I'm drinking. Was never a heavy smoker so when I quit it was easy. I smoke every once and a long while when the occasion is there. Best of luck to you.

The biggest thing that did it for me was when I stopped being around other smokers. I moved back in with my parents in my mid-20s and that got me away from it.

Chantix worked for me, but came with some gnarly side effects.

I only would recommend as a last resort.

TodorokiHayato posted...

I've tried substituting nicotine for weed

Thats so dumb lol

Will power. And gum helps too. Regular gum not nicotine gum because that shit is designed to get you addicted -- its made by a drug company.

While I never smoked, I knew a guy who did that was trying to quit. I'll tell you what he told me his method was, but I didn't know him long enough afterwards to know if it worked for him.

He had a 2 liter bottle half-way filled with water, and filled it up even further with used cigarettes. Whenever he got the urge to to smoke, he would shake the bottle up, give it a squeeze, and blast a gust of wind from the bottle directly into his nostrils. He said it always made him feel extremely sick and it would push down the urge to smoke.

GeminiDeus posted...

While I never smoked, I knew a guy who did that was trying to quit. I'll tell you what he told me his method was, but I didn't know him long enough afterwards to know if it worked for him.

He had a 2 liter bottle half-way filled with water, and filled it up even further with used cigarettes. Whenever he got the urge to to smoke, he would shake the bottle up, give it a squeeze, and blast a gust of wind from the bottle directly into his nostrils. He said it always made him feel extremely sick and it would push down the urge to smoke.

Interesting. Seems like a good method for building new synapses that associate feelings of wanting to smoke with something deterring so that you don't. I'm going to try mix in cigarettes with pee to make the smell more potent.

I switched to the vape. Took two tries, and both times, I immediately replaced 50% of my smoking with the vape and worked my way up to 100% from there. The first time I eventually slid backwards and ended up just smoking all the time again; but the second time, I successfully transitioned.

A couple of years later I started slowly working down the nicotine level. I initially started at 24mg but very quickly dropped to 18mg, but stayed on that for a long time before dropping to 12 which I also stayed on for quite a while. Once I started dropping below that, I dropped quite quickly to 9 then 6 then 3, which I also stayed on for a while. Then it was 1.5, 1, 0.5, and then 0; and when I switched to 0, the cravings stopped within a week.

I did end up picking the vape (but not the smokes) up again eventually, but that was after a few years without it, and was more a conscious "I've been stressed a lot, I need something that's work-safe (ie: not weed) that I can use to help with that" than giving in to long-lasting cravings.

It's a fucking nightmare.

I couldn't quit altogether. Best I could manage was cut down to one per day. And that took me a year.

I smoked a LOT for a decade and a half, starting around the time I was finished with High School.

It just came to me one night when I wanted last last cigarette before bed, and was about to head out to the gas station at midnight during the middle of winter when the parking lot and roads around my apartment were slippery in cold as fuck weather...

"Why am I doing this? Am I really going to let this company that's probably giving me cancer rule over my life like this? It's too fucking cold and it's midnight, and I have work tommorow... WTF am I doing?"

About two weeks later and maybe two or three packs later... I had quit forever.

Trumble posted...

A couple of years later I started slowly working down the nicotine level. I initially started at 24mg but very quickly dropped to 18mg, but stayed on that for a long time before dropping to 12 which I also stayed on for quite a while. Once I started dropping below that, I dropped quite quickly to 9 then 6 then 3, which I also stayed on for a while. Then it was 1.5, 1, 0.5, and then 0; and when I switched to 0, the cravings stopped within a week.

Reading this made me initially think 24 mg was A LOT. Then I looked at my vuze pod and it's not 5 mg but rather 5% at 54 mg/ml totaling at 104! Now I feel like a fool for unknowingly buying vape product thinking that it was 5 mg initially.
Torgo posted...

About two weeks later and maybe two or three packs later... I had quit forever.

This is a very helpful realistic timeline. Thank you. Assuming you have more willpower than myself, I'm probably going to estimate I'll fully quit in about a month and 10 packs later.

TodorokiHayato posted...

Reading this made me initially think 24 mg was A LOT. Then I looked at my vuze pod and it's not 5 mg but rather 5% at 54 mg/ml totaling at 104! Now I feel like a fool for unknowingly buying vape product thinking that it was 5 mg initially.

It should be noted that 50ish mg of nicotine salts is equivalent to a lower value of freebase nicotine. I don't know exactly what the conversion is, but the legal limits here are 50mg for salts, or 20mg for freebase (these legal limits didn't exist back when I was vaping 24mg; I wasn't using illegal products). Pod devices (and some liquids for refillable devices nowdays) use salts, whereas back then everything was freebase.

To be clear, those are all mg/ml, not total mg for a pod / bottle.

Its been a week since I had a cigarette
believe me I think I smoke the most on this board and the craving comes and goes tbh

im still dependent on nicotine however (ie nicotine gum AND stokers snuff) but its just not the same high/buzz from a good old rollie

going to eventually work on the smokeless habit as I truly dont want to live this way anymore

I read that cold turkey is the best way to quit, with support from experts and friends. I also read that chantax (sp?) works for some people and just chewing gum

there is a book by Allen Carl The Easy way to Quit Smoking
Ive never read it tho but interested

Quit a couple months ago and it was surprisingly easier than I thought. However turns out quitting a nicotine supplement is much more difficult. So far with the gum I've been able to cut half the dosage from 4g to 2g, so hopefully that's a good sign I'll get off it soon as well.

As for weed it has no real effect on my nicotine cravings, eating is the only thing that really does.

I had to stop drinking too and hanging around smokers for a while

I used a juul for a year but I quit that because I literally felt like I was dying. got even worse in the week I quit. had to stop smoking weed for that week too because the anxiety was so bad, and weed doesn't usually give me anxiety

My wife and I quit together cold turkey. Having someone do it with me helped a lot. If you can get over the first 4 weeks, you're good. This last time was my 3rd attempt at quitting. The other 2 times I really wasn't serious about it. I made excuses for me to have a cigarette. The last time we dealt with our cravings together and just powered through it. We had this app that helped. We could wrote notes in it and we vented our cravings by writing mean things to cigarette companies and to our brains for wanting a cig. The app every day would give an update on how our body was fixing all the cig damage. Things like all of the health changes. It worked really well for us. See if you can get a friend to quit with you.

I quit smoking when I moved to a place where you had to layer up to go outside to smoke, which was inconvenient. I just vape now.

You actually have to want to quit smoking. You really have to have the mindset to want to quit. The hardest part is getting past the triggers. I smoked after I ate, after I got in the car, when I woke up. Before bed. You have to power past all those. Get some gum (not nicotine). Have a piece when you crave a cig

I made multiple lifestyle changes all at once, and let myself break my diet before I went back to smoking. Haven't touched nicotine since 2017

For those that quit did you notice your skin texture improving?

I was a former smoker who quit.

First of all, this:

k1zzl3_82 posted...

You actually have to want to quit smoking. You really have to have the mindset to want to quit.

If you don't want to quit you won't.

When I quit I used nicotine patches. Not the Nicoderm ones but the Target generic ones. Fun fact, they are identically the same product, created in the same facility, but the Target ones are half the price. This is not the case for other off brands. Anyways, the biggest hurdle was the cravings. How I got through it was telling myself that I am functionally getting the same amount of nicotine as I did when I was smoking. The cravings were all in my head. Once I realized that "I should go smoke a cigarette" was because of habits and not wanting the drug it was easier for me to stop doing it.

I also quit with chantix, and I didnt have very many side effects. 14 years smoking done in 17 days with chantix, and I could keep smoking while I took it!

WrkHrdPlayHrdr posted...

I was a former smoker who quit.

First of all, this:

If you don't want to quit you won't.

When I quit I used nicotine patches. Not the Nicoderm ones but the Target generic ones. Fun fact, they are identically the same product, created in the same facility, but the Target ones are half the price. This is not the case for other off brands. Anyways, the biggest hurdle was the cravings. How I got through it was telling myself that I am functionally getting the same amount of nicotine as I did when I was smoking. The cravings were all in my head. Once I realized that "I should go smoke a cigarette" was because of habits and not wanting the drug it was easier for me to stop doing it.

Those patches confuse me. When it has the nicotine amount at 10 mg for example, is that 10 mg distributed throughout the whole day or is it 10 mg of nicotine every hour? I bought those minted toothpicks like the previous poster mentioned and it's sort of helping me with the fixation, but I'll try patches too thanks.

Just limit yourself to smoking while in the shower or underwater. Win-win.

TodorokiHayato posted...

Those patches confuse me. When it has the nicotine amount at 10 mg for example, is that 10 mg distributed throughout the whole day or is it 10 mg of nicotine every hour? I bought those minted toothpicks like the previous poster mentioned and it's sort of helping me with the fixation, but I'll try patches too thanks.

I would guess it means 10 throughout the whole day. I did some googling and a cigarette has between 1 and 2 mg. So the 21 mg ones (step 1) should slowly release 21 mg of nicotine throughout the day I would think. It does work out to less than if you smoked a pack but you're getting it constantly as opposed to every hour or two when you go out to smoke.

MICHALECOLE posted...

I also quit with chantix, and I didnt have very many side effects. 14 years smoking done in 17 days with chantix, and I could keep smoking while I took it!

Side effects aside, I assume your experience was like mine in that you could keep smoking, but eventually lost that gratification that came from it? Once that was gone, no point remained.

TodorokiHayato posted...

I went a week without smoking/vaping nicotine, then I ate something spicy and my urges to smoke suddenly came ten folds. For those that used to smoke, how did you quit? I am having the hardest time dealing the urges of wanting to feel "buzzed" rather than craving nicotine. I've tried substituting nicotine for weed, but that was too potent and wasn't nearly weak enough to give me the same buzz that I got from smoking cigarettes.

Dang...I wish I never smoked. Smoking was never cool.

I'm happy to hear that you're ready to quit smoking.
That's probably the hardest step to take.

I'm not sure where you live, but many state governments do have programs available to help you quit smoking, including nicotine patches, lozenges, etc etc.
And, if you have a decent insurance, you may consider asking your healthcare provider for help (and they may prescribe things like bupropion if other options don't work out). I mean, you should talk to your provider regardless, but some options may be more financially viable with good insurance.

But, yeah, try looking up state government sites for help (or just try using a search with google with "state name, quitting smoke, government program", etc etc).

*saw that you were picking up patches.
If you've never used them, be sure to talk with the pharmacist for advise on how to use them properly (like hot shower, nightmare, etc etc).

Spurner posted...

Side effects aside, I assume your experience was like mine in that you could keep smoking, but eventually lost that gratification that came from it? Once that was gone, no point remained.

yep. It didnt make me sick or anything, I just didnt want to smoke anymore. I still had cigarettes on me and never got the urge. It was insane. A pill that made me stop wanting something.