Former smokers

Quit cold turkey last october. It was hard for like the first 4-5 days, occasional cravings every now and then but I'm smokefree!

I quit 8.5 years ago. I figured out how many I smoked per day and cut it by one for a week then repeated until it was one a day, then every other day, etc... I found the hardest thing is when you associate smoking with a particular action like breaks, after eating, with coffee or drinks, after sex, etc. The habit is harder to break than the physical addiction. Break the pattern first, then the do the physical part, I think that most of the people that have trouble stopping it's because of trying to break a psychological addiction and a physical one at the same time. Just my theory, not an expert by any stretch of the imagination, just observations of myself, friends and family members.

I quit a little over one year ago, cold turkey. I tried and tried to "cut back." It was impossible. I met the my fiance and he didn't like me smoking but he dealt with it. Then we had a talk and he told me he couldn't marry a smoker, which I resepct because before I smoked I felt the same way. So I quit that day. Now they make me sick.

quit 2 years ago with Chantix... caused really intense dreams but other than that no side effects.

I started smoking at the age of 13 and quit when I was 43. That was 15 years ago. I used Nicorette Gum and it worked fantastic. The only issue was getting addicted to the gum and then that's another habit to kick. I heard that Chantix (sp) works very well. And remember, YOU CAN DO IT!!!.

For the people that used chantrix did the cravings come back after you stoped the meds at all?

I have read and heard about the intense dreams, I think they will be similar to what I experienced whenever the Army made me take malaria pills in Afghanistan and Haiti though so that does not really worry me

I quit 5 years ago, but I used Chantix and it worked like a dream. I was a chain smoker, 3 packs a day for 20+ years and just quit with Chantix and have never looked back yet! Good luck!

After 20+ years as smokers, both my husband and I used the Nicitrol inhalers and they made it easy for us to quit. We were able to get the small amount of nicotine we needed to ease the cravings and having the inhaler itself, even with no cartridge in it, helped too. We both found that over time we just naturally stopped using it and actually ended up finding and throwing away left over cartridges a year after we quit.
Good luck! It's hard to quit but you will be so much happier without them. A trick we used was to figure out how much we spent each week and then planned rewards and things to do with the saved money.

Cold Turkey, find something else to focus on. It's the only thing that has ever worked for me. Almost 2 years free now. Free because, I was a slave and I hated it! Good luck, it's the best decision you will ever make.

I quit 8.5 years ago. I figured out how many I smoked per day and cut it by one for a week then repeated until it was one a day, then every other day, etc... I found the hardest thing is when you associate smoking with a particular action like breaks, after eating, with coffee or drinks, after sex, etc. The habit is harder to break than the physical addiction. Break the pattern first, then the do the physical part, I think that most of the people that have trouble stopping it's because of trying to break a psychological addiction and a physical one at the same time. Just my theory, not an expert by any stretch of the imagination, just observations of myself, friends and family members.

Totally, my greatest residual urges to smoke coincides with physical activity as a 'reward' for what I have done ... Very weird considering one contradicts another.

I used to hike all day but smoked at various rest points ... I think I associated smoking with appreciating the views/nature, it's just a habit/association that needs breaking.