Asklemmy

Mindfulness. Don't resist the urges, but every time you smoke, practice being present - literally just try to keep your attention on what you are doing. Don't judge yourself for doing it, just notice. If you are able to do this, it will help with much more than just quitting smoking.

It's not just a habit, it's a chemical dependence. If you really want to quit, I suggest vaping. It was invented to be a smoking cessation tool as you can easily taper off the amount of nicotine, while still performing "the ritual".

Once the chemical dependency is gone, then you can go for a walk or something to keep yourself busy, but until then you've got an addiction to deal with.

Source: I used vaping to quit a 10-year, pack/day habit.

Way I quite. First I swapped to vaping. It was an easy switch. It tasted better smelled better and gave me the same rush. Though it did take 2 times for me to guilt switch. After that lowered the nicotine level slowly. Got down to 0. I never said I couldn't have one. I just played the game of how long I could go without. Started off delaying a few minutes. Then progressed to 15 minutes the half hour. Then I'd skip a break at work. At some point I crave one then tell myself later and if go hours without one. Changed to days. I don't remember my last one. Also jolly rancher hard Candy or the like helped with cravings or delaying the need to go have a smoke. Could skip the vaping but I found it so much better that smoking.

This is going to be really atypical: smoke cigars.

I never really smoked cigarettes so I never had an addiction with them. But I do like cigars. I smoke them occasionally, as do most people with few exceptions. I've heard, though, from some former cigarette smokers that switching to cigars helped them mostly painlessly stop their addiction to constantly smoking cigarettes by instead just having an occasional, even maybe weekly, cigar. Cigars may be more intense but also don't have all the chemicals and crap that some cigarettes have, and cigars even intentionally remove some of the chemicals that cigarettes may add, like ammonia.

I'm not a smoker, but I saw some advice on here a while back that seemed really solid. Basically stop saying "I'm quitting" or "I'm trying to quit", and replace those phrases in your vocabulary with "I have quit". Then don't make a liar of yourself.

The thing that worked for me, which I had literally never heard anywhere for some reason, is to quit drinking for about six months when you quit smoking.

At least for me, all my relapses happened when I was at a bar or a party having drinks.

Not sure if it's atypical, but you could try reading "Alan Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking" and "The Freedom Model of Addictions". The basic premise of the books is, that if you really want to quit, you will quit easily, and that in order to really want to quit you need to reevaluate the reward value of your habit instead of focusing on the negatives. You smoke because you find it pleasurable. The books guide you to better understand what part of your habit you find pleasurable exactly. Is it the nicotine rush? Or maybe the you like the social aspect of it? After finding out what exactly you find pleasurable about your habit, the books will give you pointers on how to reevaluate if the pleasure you derive from it is really all that great compared to other activities or whether it really solves the problem that you set out to solve with your habit.

There is a book my friend swore by. I think it's called "how to quit smoking". By the time he finished it he said he had lost all interest.

It's kind of well known, and I'm sure you can find it if you Google.

Switch to vaping, learn to make your own juice, slowly titrate your nicotine down over a period of a year or so, work on kicking the oral fixation without having to worry about withdrawals from nicotine. Worked well enough for me

There's a movie with a sure-fire method, Stephen King's Cat's Eye. Just find someone willing to "help you" like Quitters Inc.

do other drugs instead. everytime you want a cig just have an edible.

If you're not opposed to medications, bupropion (brand name zyban) helped me. My cravings lessened almost immediately. Nicotine also feels like it has little to no effect since I started, which was honestly kind of a bummer to find out when I fell off the wagon.

I get medication isn't for everyone, but just putting what worked for me out there. Funny enough, I didn't even start taking it for smoking cessation. That's just one thing Bupropion can be used to treat. It was a two birds one stone kinda situation.

I've heard regular walks to replace getting outside and taking a break helps

Highly recommend vaping for cold turkey quitting of cigs. Once you taper the vaping nicotine dosage down to a few mg/mL., you should consider a product like fum, which is a non-vape flavored oral fixation device.

Switch to crack

Reduce first but have attainable goals. Go easy and steady.

For some folks cold Turkey works best but it might not be for you.

Most importantly, find a reason that's really important to you.

Maybe try sports - something measurable. It easier to tell yourself no after a cardio as you realise how it ruins what you just achieved.

I'm not a smoker, but have a few friends that struggled to quit, the ones that succeeded went cold turkey with meds for the cravings.

Go see your doctor!

Excessive masturbation, exhibitionism far from children, and maybe some bubble gum. I think that covers all the bases.

Siegmund Freud would recommend picking up cocaine to replace smoking.

(Ok, he actually used it as a substitute for alcoholics and continued doing so after his first client died of a cocain overdose, but close enough.)

My solution: peer pressure. Get your smoking buddy to quit with you. Just go cold turkey - but tapering down a bit before hand might help. Don't use gum. Don't use drugs or patches. Just fucking quit. Statistics show that people who use quitting aids like vapes, gum, patches, drugs, etc, fail far more often than people who just go cold turkey.

So cold turkey with a friend. Hold each other accountable. Use each other as a support group. If they fail, sympathize with them but guilt trip them into quitting again so they can be your quit buddy.

I got up to a pack a day when I decided to quit. The biggest thing that helped me quit was getting an app on my phone which tracked the cost and how many you're smoking. When you start reducing the amount smoked etc it tracked how much money you've saved, how much healthier your lungs are (lung capacity etc), how much more time you've added to your life expectency, all that sorta stuff.

Having numbers and stats to track, made it feel more tangible and felt like I was making actual progress towards something.

Its worth a shot.

Got a lot of really good tips, thanks to everyone for chiming in. I was a serious alcoholic for decades, and haven't had a drink in 5 years. So I will be able to quit smoking. Thanks again!

Cut both your hands off.

Vape.

It's a good gateway to quitting, also cheaper

Aren't there like herbal non-tobacco smokes?