Former smokers

SME1976

I started smoking at 15, quit cold turkey the day I found out I was pregnant with my first... I was 29.

As a matter of fact today is my 7yr anniversary of being smoke free.

lydiatina

i was practically a chain smoker,total slave to nicotine,would plan my day/trip even holiday (ie couldnt be on flight for too long) around cigarettes,but i stopped in janurary,using Allan Carrs easy way and am now free!!! i can happily be around smokers without wanting a cigarette i even quit while my partner at the time was smoking around me!! and it was easy using allan carrs method!! could not advocate it enough.

valerie521

I've quit a few times. I heard about a fix on the oprah show years ago and quit
for 7 years with that method. Then went thru a divorce and started smoking
again.

1/2 tsp cream of tartar (spice isle)
6 oz glass of cranberry juice or orange juice

Mix the two and drink just before bed, after emptying your bladder. Continue smoking. Within two
weeks your cravings will diminish and the taste will be horrendous (HORRIBLE). Need Willpower too !

When I quit for the last and final time- was Oct 2006 when I discovered I was pregnant.
(unless I"M HAMMERED drunk and then I have one or two for the night and never touch again)

lik_11

Quit cold turkey 10 years ago. Just decided one day that I was DONE- and I was. As someone else said, when I see the price of a pack now- I pat myself on the back!

You can do this, too- if you really want it! (Much like weight loss! )

twelker878

Had a stroke at the age of 49. Was told smoking for 30 years definitely contributed and if I continued the next one could kill me. Quit right then. Just quit. (I was in the hospital for 4 days so that helped). That was 1 1/2 years ago.

MegdKel

I quit 2 1/2 years ago, but it wasn't cold turkey, I only smoked a pack to a pack and half a week - so I would just try to not have more than a couple day and then one every other day or whatever. I made the decision to quit on my first date with my now husband and it probably took a month or two to get off of them completely. When I get stressed out I still want one, but I can't handle them anymore!

TheVimFuego

Allen Carr, Easy Way ... Did it cold turkey, never looked back after 20 years puffing away.

Seriously, I owe my freedom from smokes to that man.

^^^^^This exactly...I love being a non smoker

Good for you, you can't crave what you don't want and the Easy Way deprogrammed me very well.

It doesn't preach, it doesn't scare, it just dismantles every reason you think you need to smoke.

I'm a techie, I like logic and reason and this approach worked well for me.

I swear I could not tell you when I gave up, it's like another world.

yo_andi

I quit every day for five years. Loved ones' tears and pleas and begging didn't have any effect. I was coughing all the time, miserable, always sick with a cold or bronchitis or something. I still ran and played sports and so I was totally kidding myself thinking "See, I can do all this stuff AND smoke". But there was always this nagging voice in my head, urging me that I need to take back control of my life. One day I just didn't smoke. Haven't touched them since. Cold turkey, one breath at a time. You can do it.

wharkins

After thirty five years of smoking I quit two and a half years ago. I used patches for the nicotine withdrawal. But several other things really helped the process. The first was that I had been doing Kundalini yoga for six months or so before I quit. I believe that this was the actual reason I did quit. Kundalini yoga has an emphasis on breathing exercises. Being connected so strongly to the breath in a healthy way made smoking less and less appealing. The first few weeks I kept a bag of mixed pumpkin seeds (high levels of tryptophan),sunflower seeds, chocolate chips and raisins with me at all times. When brain fog set in I would grab a tablespoon or two of this and the brain fog would lift. This especially helped me get through my time at work. At home I kept my hands busy knitting. I also bought a tin whistle! It kept my hands, my mouth and my breath busy. I was certain that I would become a virturoso using it as a smoking substitute. I did not. It really helped though. There's a really good video on youtube called "Double Down Breath For Quitting Smoking" that's good for explaining the yoga breathing.

txcaveman

I quit dipping October 16th last year. COLD TURKEY.

jarrettd

Had unsuccessful quits, like 7 over the course of 15 years. Never lasted more than 4 months. Tried patches, gum, Zyban, hypnosis, etc.

Each time I quit, I learned a little more about myself and my relationship with cigarettes. My addiction was physical, mental, and emotional. I had to approach it on ALL these terms to finally figure out how to quit for good. (People who said "just don't smoke anymore" tended to piss me off...it isn't that easy for everyone.)

There is some good advice in the American Lung Association books they send you when you call a quit line. It sounds cheesy to tell yourself in a mirror that you want to quit, or to sign a contract with a loved one, or to write lists of reasons to quit, reasons not to start back, etc. But do it. You never know which little mind-trick will actually be the one that presses the right button.

See, I'm rebellious. I HATE being told what to do. The health dept's, docs, and government HAVE NO RIGHT to tell me what I should and shouldn't do with my own body. I have a constitutional right to be an idiot, right? I still think they blame more on cigs than they are actually responsible for, BUT I know, and so do you, that they WILL take your health from you, and probably your life. My hard-headedness told me lies for a long time, but I finally had to admit the truth.

I watched my mother die of small cell lung cancer. She was diagnosed 10 years AFTER QUITTING!! I am ashamed to admit that I would leave her bedside to go for a smoke, and watch her and Dad's heart break. I tried. I did. But until I lost her, and pictured my own husband and children having to lose me the same way, it didn't really stick. For months, I asked myself every time I'd light up "Is THIS the one? Is THIS the bullet in a game of Russian roullette? The one that starts the chain-reaction that becomes my cancer in years to come?" )

March of last year, I made my plan, and stuck to it. I still want one sometimes. I probably always will in times of extreme stress, or other unforeseen triggers. (I have most of them mentally mapped, and know how to dodge them.) But I love that my house and car smell fresh and clean. I don't walk around smelling like a wet ashtray (I'm embarrassed that I did for so long, everytime a smoker gets close to me!) My teeth are whiter, my eyes are clear, my lungs let me do things I couldn't do when I smoked.

You have to find your reason, and your path. It is YOUR quit. Best of luck. And whatever happens, don't stop trying to quit.

casperuk

Quit at 2am on Sunday morning (sat night) thats when I ran out and thats the last one I will ever have.

Having about 20 cravings a day at the moment but just ignore them and they go after a few minutes.

BrianSharpe

Quit about 20 years ago - cold turkey (smoked a pack a day for about 20 years.....)

abnerner

I smoked for about 5 years. Than my boss's dad passed away from lung cancer, having never had a cigarette and for some reason, it hit me hard.

I quit with a tiny bit of the gum but mostly cold turkey. I would still go out for "smoke breaks" and drive with my window down to keep my habits. This year November it'll be 3 years since I quit.

krisiepoo

10 years ago now... quit cold turkey and still crave somedays! Good luck to you!!

Going on 5 years in August. I quit on a Thursday cold turkey and spent the entire weekend at home crying. I wouldn't go anywhere cuz I was sure I'd buy more... it was hell but I'm smoke free now. Occasional cravings but for the most part so happy I'm done with the nasty thigns

Pacificplayland

I quit in early 2008, when I found out I was pregnant. When my son was about a year old I started smoking again, until one afternoon; I went outside to light up and my husband runs out, telling me I just missed our sons first steps... I came back into the house excited for my son, but very dissapointed. Later that evening I was at a friend's house and her daughter kept asking her mom to play barbies, but told her to wash her hands because she didn't want her barbie's clothes to smell like smoke.

I don't know exactly what happend that day to make me so repulsed by ciggs, but I quit cold turkey and haven't touched one since.
Sometimes I still find it hard to deal with, the cravings that is. I think it's something I might battle for the rest of my life, but I know now that smoking is just not worth paying the price.

AnnMarie518

Quit for good with an e-cigarette! Have not smoked for 2 years now.
Those worked wonders for me, and I was only on it for about 3 weeks.
My father had lung cancer, had surgery where they removed half his lung, and I gave him the ecigarette's for a christmas gift. He used them for a few weeks/month and never went back either! He had been smoking for nearly 40 years!

But i agree, the one thing you need is the WANT to quit. My motivation to WANT to quit was my daughter. She didnt need to be around the second hand smoke,and as she got older I didnt want her to think that smoking was acceptable because her mother did it.

Good for you! Took me twice to finally give it up for good, so if you do slip up, just get right back on track much like watching what you eat. You CAN do this!

NewTeena

Quit July 25 2008 with help from the patch. My motivation was that a family member had been diagnosed with emphysema and when I googled it, I didn't like what I read. I was most definitely heading down that path. I was a heavy smoker, with an extremely strong addiction, smoked from 1.5-3 packs per day. I even smoked through double pneumonia.

When I quit smoking, I put on a good 80 lbs.

I decided to change my eating habits this past January after bawling my eyes out because I was afraid of the idea of not growing old and seeing my children become parents.

signgrrrl

My father was fighting Colon Cancer at the time. He said that he wanted to see me smoke free before he died. I was on day 3 of the patch for about the 100th time. I looked at him and I said thats all ?? Consider it done!!! I took off the patch in 1998 and my Father lost his fight with Cancer in 2000. I never had another cigarette.

Kaddyshack21

It's been 5 years since I smoked. I had tried a bunch of different things to quit over a few years of attempts I was pretty sure I was never going to succeed. But in college I decided to use Xmas break as a chance to be away from my main smoking environment and influences. I was doing pretty good. Then my boyfriend at the time ( non smoker) said he didn't believe I could do it. He said as soon as classes started up again I would be out front again smoking like a chimney.

That pissed me off so much, I was determined to prove to him that I could quit. And I did. I haven't had a single puff since. So although we are no longer together I do owe him my beautiful daughter ( I found out I was pregnant 3 months after I quit) and that his little snide remarks led me to raising her in a smoke free environment.

Never underestimate the need to prove somebody wrong!!