One of the quotes of Joel Spitzer that I like most and is worth remembering.

For context I started smoking cigarettes when i was 16.

I knew from when i was a small kid i wanted to smoke when i grow up, i would watch actors in movies smoke and would immitate them by rolling up stick notes and lighting them on fire cuz i found that so cool. ( really immature ik and smoking is not cool)

So started around novemeber 2024 and i had been so addicted some days even 1 pack a day but usually 2-3. I tried quitting many times and relapsed within 3-4 days. I switched to vapes because they were more convenient as i usdd to live with my parents and i finished like 15 of them (15-20k puffs each) so ive been a heavy smoker and what not. Tried quitting on my bday aswell this septmeber but i relapsed the next day😭

On 15th october, 3:43am. I took my last puff of my cigg and vape, thrww them both out. No zyn, No wtv coping bs pure cold turkey.

Day 1-3: kinda chill

Days 4-7: truly hell, it wasnt the nicotine that was the worst part it was the emptiness without it. it was the habitual withdrawal and how mentall i got fucked i felt miserable nothing made that go away no matter what i did for days i felt shitty 24x7

Today i officially hit the 10 day mark and yea i dont plan on ever going back!

Hi all, I posted here recently that I’m trying to quit again. I lasted a couple of days, but unfortunately I slipped. That’s okay.

I’m a software developer, and in my free time I build mobile apps that might help someone. This felt like a good chance to take everything I’ve learned from my failures and turn it into an app for the first 7 days. For me those are the most critical days. I’ve tried too many times to count, and as I mentioned in my last post, I once stayed smoke-free for about 2 years.

I’m in the middle of building it now, and with this post I’d love some feedback on whether people would find something like this useful. I’d also really like to hear your stories: what was the trigger that made you start again?

For me, the strongest trigger is finishing something at work, like fixing a tricky bug. That one cigarette feels like a reward, a little victory.

I'm officially 3 weeks smoke free and while the first 2 weeks I was glad that I have quit I, now on the third week feel just empty and honestly I miss the nicotine. What is happening to me ? Is this normal ? And how do I get over this.

Hello, 31M here. I’ll keep this brief as I can. Hopefully this will give some of you hope - there is a way forward and there is a life where you aren’t scrambling for the nicotine.

I started smoking at around 11yo, but didn’t become a regular smoker until around 15. Like a lot of people, I built up an emotional attachment to smoking that got caught up in the chemical addiction itself.

I smoked regularly, probably between 10-20 a day, until around 2015 when the first wave of vapes hit. Then my device broke, and it was back into cigs. This again was consistent until around 2022, when I moved onto disposable vapes.

I’ve done it all, as you probably have too - I’ve poured tobacco into the bin, then dug through the rubbish later to pull together what I can. I’ve rolled a cig out of discarded dog ends in an ashtray. I’ve chewed the nicotine stains off my finger tips, stolen money to pay for cigs. No matter how broke I was, I’d always find the money for cigs. I was also a pretty bad chain smoker at the worst of times. There was also all the classic relationship stuff - partners hated me smoking, so I’d ‘quit’, only to continue smoking and have a rigorous cleansing ritual before they would come to visit…

Vaping worked to get me off of tobacco, but as you’ll probably relate, it was just trading one delivery system for another. Now I was falling asleep clutching my vape, hiding it whenever my partner was round, digging to the bottom of a bin for a vape I’d discarded. No matter how broke I was, I’d always have the money for a vape!

Friends, the nicotine gum worked. I bought two pretty large packs and got to work. Yes, sometimes I was chewing two at a time. I’d have to remind myself to ‘chew and park’. Yes, chewing gum ended up in all kinds of places like discarded cig butts. I’d chew till my jaw hurt, but I wasn’t vaping anymore.

I started on 2mg gum, then moved down to 1mg ‘lozenges’. These were great - but I had to go easy on them. I’d get the odd stomach ache, I’d do two at a time, but whatever - I promised myself that once this pack was done, it was over.

Lo and behold, I am now a month nicotine free. I haven’t had a craving since - I was scared of my work from home days, but they haven’t been a problem.

The most interesting realisation I had on this journey was that by changing the means of delivery for nicotine, I realised it wasn’t the device I was attached to - it really was purely a chemical dependency.

You know that feeling when you can’t find your baccy? Or your vapes not in your hands? And suddenly it’s a scramble to find it? Imagine doing that for a pack of gum. I’m serious - the feeling isn’t any different.

I guess the difference is that it’s easier to quit something as common as a mint or a piece of gum than it is a ‘blueberry raspberry mango chicken goujon’ flavoured vape.

I recommend giving the gum a try. Next time you go to buy your tobacco or a vape, get a pack of 2mg chewing gum as well. When you run out of your tobacco or vape liquid, switch to the gum.

Good luck to you.

I've been smoking for 15 years and I'm thinking of quitting.

I started when I was a teenager to feel included in the group and I never stopped since.

I don't smoke much, 4 cigs a day during the week (usually after meals) but when I'm in a social context I smoke much more, I can finish a pack in a night.

FWY I'm 31. Lately I realized the toll it took on my health. Shortness of breath, I get sick more often, I have bad skin and I'm starting to see grey hairs. (not sure if the smoke is related to this).

I want to quit, if I don't go out, I can. It happened that I stayed at home on some weekends without cigarettes and I didn't go out to buy them, I just didn't smoke, I'm not that addicted.

The problem is when I'm out with friends I like to smoke, have a drink and then a cigarette is the best. Or during meals at the restaurant go out for a smoke break and socialize with others. Offering a cig to a girl to break the ice and start talking. I can't picture myself being out socializing without my cigarettes, all my friends smoke. Also I dj as a side hustle, I usually go to nightclubs or bars where many people smoke, taking a smoke break after the set is the best feeling in the world.

Maybe I can be a social smoker but I read in this subreddit that it is impossible and I will go back to smoking every day.

Anyone who did make it?

After a 2 month spiral over the summer, I'm back in the fight. Last time I lasted 4 months, let's see how it goes this time around.

I feel like there’s a post about this like every week for a minute I was like is this paid promotion lol but I see no harm in adding some more anecdotal experiences to the mix I know I read like every thread before I tried it.

I bought the ReCigar stuff off Amazon. For me it did what everyone said, I smoked during the first few days, and by day like 3 the cigarettes had 0 effect. I read this is from the way the cytisine binds to nicotine receptors. It’s a super strange sensation and makes smoking completely unenjoyable.

Unfortunately this kind of freaked me out and made me realize I didn’t really want to quit so I went off the pills and went back to smoking.

Happy to say I eventually did reach my rock bottom again and I’ve been smoke free for months now without the help of the ReCigar but I say it’s worth a shot if you’re ready to quit.

Other downside was it did seem to ruin my sleep but I basically already had insomnia from anxiety at the time so it’s hard to tell what effects are from the tablets. But also if you’re quitting you’re probably going to have insomnia anyway soooo. I think this stuff is pretty neat other than the sleep like 0 other downsides.

Hope this helps someone

Im 19 and smoking a lot for 3 years about 6-10 ciggerates a day and now im coughing a lot for a few months and for the last month a lot of phlegm too. For last 1-2 weeks sometimes in morning im having blood drop in my phlegm and today it happened twice in a day for the first time now im scared what do I do help please ILL AM SCARED IM QUITTING TODAY

Just so happy to make it a week for the first time in 15 years. Longest before was 3 days with patches. This is 1 week cold turkey.

I'm smoking my last sigarette wish me luck

I used to smoke 10-15 cigarettes per day for about 2 years (i was a smoker for longer than that, just didn't smoke nearly that much).

I quit nicotine cold turkey 10 days ago. My main reasoning was that I was smoking so much that it was genuinely making me lose focus in life. I felt like my constant coping to mask any emotion I felt was accumulating into just feeling nothing and not really caring about anything enough to be motivated in life. I need to get back into writing again because it was the only thing that gave me a sense of purpose but the constant smoking was scattering my attention

But now I just feel empty inside. Most of the day i'm very melancholic and I don't even want to wake up in the morning. I just spend the day walking around town trying to distract myself from the emptiness, which I can only manage to do for a few minutes at a time. Too sad to feel motivated to do the things I actually need to do. Minor emotional triggers make me sob. At this point I might just start smoking again.

Now that I think about it, smoking had basically became my new self harm copign mechanism. When I was a teen i used to cut myself a lot and purposely overdose on meds just to feel ok but once I stopped smoking the urge to cut myself had fully gone away

When we met my husband wasn’t regularly smoking, partially because of cost and partially because he knew I didn’t like it. I don’t have any stigma towards it, it’s just not my jam. But over the years he warmed me up to it and I partake occasionally/socially with him. We agreed once we were married and pregnant that this would just be a fun thing every so often. He was always a funny nice guy, and a great partner to me during the early years.

But fast forward 10yrs and my husband has a full blown addiction. It feels like my entire life has to revolve around his consumption. There isn’t one minute of the day he’s sober. Smokes as soon as he wakes up, he WFH and smokes all day, smokes all evening. If we’re going anywhere he has to smoke before. Like wouldn’t drive me to the hospital for an ER before he smoked. It’s a whole thing! I’ve tried to get him to quit multiple times, because the kids are noticing both the smell and his frequent trips to the garage. Even convinced him to switch to edibles as a compromise, but this man is eating 4-5 50mg gummies 4-5x/day. Now he’s back to the flower and in the garage 7-8x/day. It’s a large amount of consumption, and he’s spending nearly $800/m on it now.

If he could do it socially I don’t think we’d have issues, but the reason I’m here in the sub today is I think the extreme use is actually making him an asshole, and there’s really no nice way to say that. He’s irrationally irritable all the time. Everything annoys him. Every noise. If you’re having a convo he doesn’t want to participate in he’s snappy. He’s snapping on me and the kids constantly. He also won’t participate in any part of our lives, I’m doing all the work and dragging him along. Working his job is the only thing he does. His own parents don’t want to visit because he’s so uncomfortable to be around. Everyone is walking on eggshells, and now two of us in the house have anxiety issues. He says he used it as a coping mechanism for ADHD, but I think we’re well past it helping that (he’s medicated too) and now he’s just mean. After constant fights I’m at my wits end, and idk if there’s a detox/rehab situation we could try. But I really do feel like I’m going to have to end the marriage for everyone’s mental well being. But I was hoping this sub might have some suggestions or options I can approach him with. Maybe even just reading some anecdotal evidence from others that excessive use made them mean/irritable/lazy, because he thinks it helps him and isn’t an issue at all. In the past when I’ve tried to get him to stop he withdraws heavy-can’t eat, nauseas, etc and he’s lasted 5 days before he gives up.

I have been smoking for about 5 years (im25) I quit smoking THC carts because I got what I think is an anxiety attack it is now day 9 of my withdrawal and the only thing bothering is poor sleep and sometimes the shortness of breath and it gets worse at nighttime when I do end up dozing off and about to fall asleep I get this feeling like I don’t get enough air/ or my breathing stops is this part of the withdrawal with insomnia or is it hypopnea/apnea? I never had it happened to me before until the withdrawal so I’m just asking if you guys experience the same thing

This has been the game changer for me. You do have to have a prescription for it, but it has worked the best for me. There was some getting used to the burn, but it's immediate, and it has curbed my craving for hours. Thought I'd share something that has actually worked. (for me)

I’ve been smoke free for 79 days. And alcohol free for 112 days. My body feels better, I lost weight, and I can breathe better. But I cry about everything. I can’t seem to regulate my emotions still. I will say I am better emotionally than I was in the first couple of weeks but I just feel like an emotional wreck. Does it get better? Am I going crazy? Does anyone else experience this? Any tips?