How do I quit smoking? -
The following is an answer I gave to an earlier post:
For me, the hardest part about quitting was removing all of the associations around smoking. Example, whenever I had a beer, I had a cigarette. Whenever I finished eating, had a cigarette. You get the idea. I purposely and deliberately -weeded out- all the associations I had with smoking until I only had a few. In other words, I consciously did not smoke after each of these other co-occurring activities, until the urge was diminished. Once this was done, I had already reduced my smoking to a few cigarettes a day. To completely quit, it was a combination of negative imagery and getting the flu. I imagined coating my lungs with a thick goo of tar and nicotine while I smoked. I was never able to smoke when I had a cold or the flu, so after 5 days of various orifice purging, I realized I could probably go another few days without. Bottom line for me: discipline of living how you want.
As for the stress, good time to involve yourself in a very detailed kind of hobby, like model rocketry or exercise like biking. If you can weather through the first few days, you-ll start to feel the benefit of being able to breathe without getting winded, and smell wonderful scents of nature and/or aromas of baking and cooking seemingly for the first time! Good Luck!
You are very welcome. Best wishes~
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cold turkey
go to jail for a week
I just recently quit. I tried the Nicorette gum, and they tell you to chew 1 piece every 1 to 2 hours for 6 weeks, then gradually ween yourself off of nicotine. I basically used it for a crutch until I was able to handle the withdrawal symptoms. So, I chews a piece here and there when I would get an urge to smoke. Dealing with the withdrawal symptoms wasn-t the hard part. It was the habits that come with smoking that were hard.
IE. having a smoking after eating, smoking while your on the phone, computer, etc.
You have to change your life around so it doesn-t remind you of smoking. If you can get through that, you can quit.
Also, you have to truly want to quit. Otherwise, you wont have enough will power.
Good luck! :)
Gradually, for me it took one year to quit..
i recently quit, usually i did smoke when i drank but now that i can drink w/o smoking, i quit completely~!
Try to surround yourself with supportive people during ts difficult time. And if you can go the first three days with one smoke, you have gotten over one of the hardest parts.
Everyone I know of that did it succesfuly (and I mean stayed off it forever not just a few months) went cold turkey.
Will power.
http://www.commitlozenge.com/