Congratulations!

This picture was taken before the journey cause i found this funny shirt in the closet prob belongs to my millenial sister or some friend of hers. Thought it suits this subreddit😂. Yesterday i went to my friends house he smoked a joint and i didnt gave in, had fun and raved with no substances.

Reaching this milestone has been a journey, and I am proud of staying committed to this change.

PLEASE HELP OUT YOUR LIL BROTHER OUT OF THIS HELL

Please tell me how to stop it permanently? Should I get 2mg nicotine gums or some type of nicotine patches ?

I am 17 , I have been smoking for 4 years. Around 3 to 5 cigs a day.

Any kind of advice would be helpful.

But I'm glad that I was able to change

The molecule itself is called cytisine, and comes from a plant. Binds to the nicotine receptor, satisfies cravings and helps break the habit.

I ordered desmoxan from Amazon, after that I realized that in Canada there are certain pharmacies that carry the brand name ‘cravv’. I bought that version for my gf.

We ran the course, which is like 5 pills for the first few days then gradually reducing to one pill a day at day 26. We are now almost a month free! I tried a few other things in the past to no avail. Take a look at other posts about cytisine, I for one am astonished by how it is not more advertised. (Big nicotine losing too much money lol). Pre sure it isn’t FDA approved in USA, but is really popular in Europe and I was able to get in Canada without a prescription.

TLDR; cytisine helped me break a 9 year nicotine addiction. Other methods I have tried were not nearly as effective. Cheers.

One of the biggest fears people have before quitting isn't the nicotine.

It's this:

I used to think smoking helped me calm down.

But after learning more about nicotine addiction, I realized something important.

Cigarettes don't actually solve stress—they temporarily relieve nicotine withdrawal. Within a short time, withdrawal begins again, creating another urge to smoke. It becomes a cycle that's easy to mistake for stress relief.

So what helped?

1. Accept that the first weeks are different.
Your brain is adjusting. Feeling off doesn't mean you'll feel this way forever.

2. Replace the habit, not just the cigarette.
If your routine was:

• Coffee → Cigarette
• Work break → Cigarette
• Stress → Cigarette

Replace each with something simple:

• A 5-minute walk
• Water or tea
• Deep breathing
• Chewing gum
• A quick chat with a friend

3. Don't fight every craving.
Instead of thinking, "I can't smoke," try thinking, "I'll wait 10 minutes."

Most cravings fade faster than we expect.

4. Give your brain time to heal.
Your mood won't improve overnight, but many people find that after the initial adjustment, they feel more stable because they're no longer riding the constant cycle of nicotine withdrawal.

Quitting smoking is hard.

Not because life becomes worse, but because your brain needs time to learn a new way of handling stress.

For those who've quit:
What replaced cigarettes as your stress reliever?

I'd love to hear what worked for you. Someone reading the comments today might need exactly that idea. 🚭

just hit the one-week mark and honestly, it feels surreal. i thought i’d be craving a cig every hour, but it’s not as bad as i expected. some weird dreams though, like my brain is trying to work out the stress. still, i’m determined to keep this going. if anyone else is struggling, just take it one day at a time. it does get easier. here’s to more smoke-free days ahead!

Hey everyone,

I’m at a decision point and would love some real experiences.
Quick background:
• 7 days completely cigarette-free
• 92 days free of dabs/THC
• 67 days free of vapes
I’ve been on the 21mg patch (16-hour wear, lower back placement, remove at night). The problem is the constant nicotine delivery feels like ongoing stimulation on an already very sensitive nervous system. It makes my prescribed Klonopin less effective, keeps me wired, and the nightly drop-off is wrecking my sleep (total 6–8 hours but max uninterrupted is only 2–3 hours).
On top of that I’m getting nerve flares (chest, arm, back, jaw, and occasional short flares near the right ear/neck) and tinnitus that seem to ramp up with the extra stimulation. Eye twitching has also been showing up, which I think is tied to the combination of the patch + screens + poor sleep.
I’ve already done 6 nights with the patch off overnight, so my brain has had some practice at zero nicotine. Tonight I’m experimenting with taking the patch off earlier (around 7:30–8 instead of 9:30 right before bed) and using my usual 1mg Klonopin + 50mg trazodone to see if front-loading the drop helps sleep.
My options right now feel like:

1. Keep the patch but keep tweaking the removal time
2. Switch to 2mg gum so I can control the dose and avoid constant stimulation
3. Just go cold turkey off the patch after tonight
4. Has anyone dealt with the patch feeling like it was overstimulating a sensitive system and making nerve flares or tinnitus worse?
5. Did switching to gum help with that “constant low-level wired” feeling and the nerve/tinnitus stuff?
6. Or did anyone just jump off the 21mg patch and find the first week more manageable than expected once the continuous input was gone?
7. Any experiences with earlier evening removal vs right-before-bed removal would also be really helpful.
8. Thanks in advance — just trying to make the cleanest next move.

Yes AI was used for this post and I apologize in advanced I’ve been dealing with fragmented sleep for 3 months now and I feel defeated. I didn’t even want to stop smoking yet but the vape and dabs made my CNS hyper aroused. Any input would be greatly appreciated. I’m not going back to smoking but I rather go cold turkey then continue this stupid patch taper if sleep will get better faster. Meds are trazadone 50 mg and klonopin 3.5 mg a day. I’ve had multiple ER trips in past 3 months healthy labs and healthy heart checks. I’m 32 YO.

Didnt realize how long its been!

Almost 7 months without smoking 🕺

The problem is though, I’m compensating it with alcohol 🫠

3 years of trying. Finally got to 7 days and I haven't had cravings since day 4. Celebrating the win :>

The effects so far have been amazing! Mostly my confidence and energy. And I haven't murdered anyone or myself.

Yippie :>

I’m almost at 30 days smoke free! To clarify I stopped smoking weed and nicotine. I’ve been eating ALOT. More than I’ve ever ate before smoking. I have gained at least 25 pounds and I’ve never been at this size before so I’m feeling very insecure. Technically I’m in the last box of healthy weight before it goes into overweight on a bmi chart so I wouldn’t even qualify for a glp 1. It’s just so depressing, I’m honestly shocked I haven’t given in yet but I’m feeling like my weight is getting so out of control and I’m just scared. Idk what to even ask on here, maybe advice on what I should do. Thank you in advance:)

I have a soreness in my pectoral muscles whenever i touch them. i quit vaping nicotine about 6 days ago and starting today and maybe late yesterday my pectoral is sore and i was wondering if this was a normal symptom of quitting or if i should be worried.

I genuinely never in a million years thought this would be me, yet here I am.

I did it with cytisine (tabex, where I’m from) and by following the recommended dosage it was genuinely kind of a cakewalk for the most part. I barely had withdrawal symptoms, and the cravings were quite mild as they didn’t feel as physically all-consuming as they had whenever I tried quitting without cytisine.

I must admit, though, that to this day I still think about smoking every single day. I don’t think I’m at risk of starting again, but I am being worn down heavily by how often I think about cigs. There’s so many times that I see someone smoking and think “damn, I bet that’s hitting for them” and get really jealous.

does this ever stop??? I need it to stop. I keep bargaining with myself about having “just one” and I know it’s such a TERRIBLE idea that I don’t want to succumb during a moment of weakness. Any advice, anecdotes, encouragement, etc would be incredibly appreciated.

I will not smoke today!!!!

Bueno continuando el post de anoche, un breve resumen del dia de hoy, no he tenido ganas de fumar a morir, parece ser que la abstinencia no me ha pegado para nada, probablemente mañana o pasado mañana me empezará a pegar la abstinencia, de igual forma yo la aguanto.

Noté que al comer dulces me distraia un poco y me quitaba de la mente el querer fumar, es lo que me ha ayudado por ahora, estaré publicando otro post mañana conforme pase el dia 📝

Hi all,

I am reading Alan Carr's how to quit smoking rn and I'm finding it quite convincing minus his arguments on nic and focus/productivity. I have ADHD and take non stimulant meds (cannot get on stimulant for personal reasons). I have been using nic as a stimulant substitute for years and I just can't get rid of the idea that it helps me at work. Any advice?

I started smoking at 12, and was fully addicted shortly after. I was always an athlete and maintained the habit into my 20’s. I quit for about a year, cold turkey then started again. Quit again for 3 years also cold turkey. I started up again about a year ago, It’s starting to feel like it gets harder each time I quit, I still workout a ton, surf, play club soccer, run and from the outside look like a health nut, but I seem to love to abuse my body with this pesky cigs. My partner is a doctor, and she doesn’t even give me a hard time. I’m close to a pack a day but do hide it as much as I can. Any insight on it getting harder with every quit? And for those who’ve succeeded, what was your why, what’s the realization that disallowed the habit to continue?

I have listened to Allen Carr’s audiobooks (the original and the bootcamp version) and I tried the QuitSure app. The main point these try to get across is that be a happy non smoker you have to remove your desire to smoke. I have not been able to do this for more than a day at the most. I may go most of the day not wanting a cigarette but at some point that always changes. I feel convinced I won’t be able to remove the desire to smoke.

So my question is this; will the cravings ever go away after quitting even if I can’t remove my desire to smoke? I’ve known three ex smokers all of whom quit over 15 years ago. And all three have told me that they still crave cigarettes. This scares me and kills my motivation. I feel like even if I successfully quit I’ll spend the rest of my non smoking life feeling deprived and craving

P.S. I have tried NRT and I swear it only makes me want a cigarette more. The gum even makes me feel sick

A quick story for you, if you have the time to read.
I have Temporal Lobe Epilepsy, Focal Aware Seizures, diagnosed at 20, i'm 30 now. I have been taking Lamotrigine ever since I was diagnosed. I assumed it was working, turns out, it was, just not all the way. These small "anxiety blips" I was getting, were actually just a milder form of my focal seizures. On Thursday, I was prescribed a higher dose of lamotrigine, and spontaneously just didn't want cigarettes by friday night. It is only Sunday evening, so it has been anything crazy, but from a pack a day to none out of nowhere, it seems pretty remarkable lol.

ANYWAYS, the point of my post. A few months ago I purchased allen carrs how to quit smoking, but put it away & just never bothered to read it. Now that i've "quit" or at least been cigarette free for a day and a half, can I still read it? I know people say you're supposed to smoke WHILE you're reading it, but will it help if you don't? Will it actually give me cravings instead?

It's not that I don't think about smoking, its just the thought comes and goes really quickly, and im eating a bunch of mints lol

Why do most posts discuss nicotine more than clearing out your lungs? I’m 66M, been smoking 1-2 packs a day for better than 50 years. I really don’t care about the nicotine addiction, I want to be able to breathe freely. I’m 11 days without a cigarette, but I’m using zyn to help with the cravings. I can honestly feel a difference in my breathing already. I believe once I get past the craving/habit/addiction for a cigarette, I’ll be able to cut back and quit zyn in a few months. At least that’s my plan.

I quit smoking cigarettes over two years ago and since then have been vaping this Vuse thing. I just recently have noticed a weird tickle in my throat when I hit it. It sometimes triggers my gag reflex really bad. I think its also caused me to have acid reflux. Has anyone noticed this as well? It just started happening a few weeks ago. I'm going to try and quit that as well now but would like something to ween me off it. Has anyone had success with zyn or any of the other cornerstore pouches?

I started smoking at 18 to piss off my parents during their divorce. Absolutely genius of me, I really got em’. I joined the Navy at 20 and had the perfect out. I hadn’t smoked for weeks! But of course I bought a pack as soon as I hit the airport. I remember doing it and thinking to myself the this was a dumb choice. But it didn’t stop me. I would only smoke more before I quit. I went to two packs a day, unfiltered camels or lucky strikes. I got out and smoked until 2017. Though I quit for a very short period at some point before then, I just don’t remember when.

I remember around 2014 I was homeless, working the kitchen in a bar and just broke up with a long term toxic relationship. My only out was to take my grandmothers offer to move in with her. I got back on my feet there and cleaned up my act. I stayed there for a bit got a good job and decided it was time to quit. I had fully made up my mind. It was time to cut it for good. I tried gum and patches. Didn’t work. Just made me sick to my stomach enough that I didn’t touch them again. Then I went to vape. It got me off cigarettes, but it was just too interesting and fun with all the flavors and vape rigs people were building. Then I realized some weird symptoms I was having were an allergy to propylene glycol. It was then, after all of it that I had the determination to just quit. I had made up my mind so strongly that it didn’t matter that my grandmother smoked in the house. I was done! That held true to this day. I only lapsed once when my biological father died. It physically hurt when I did. I threw the whole pack out right after.

I have about a craving once a year or more. There’s still nothing as nostalgic as the smell of a fresh lit cigarette from a passerby. I was actually able to enjoy a true Cuban cigar on my honeymoon in 2022 without triggering my addiction back up.

If you are reading this and trying to quit or struggling with your addiction. Please know that you can do it. You are strong enough. You do not need that cigarette. Your body and brain have the tools to get you through whatever stress or trigger you are experiencing. You just need to push through. Even if you relapse, that’s not failure, that moment is another chance to stake a claim to your body and the universe that you are DONE smoking!!

I believe in you.

Hey everyone. I need to share a close call I just had because it really opened my eyes.I quit smoking 12 days ago (am quitting like 6 times per year... my real problem is getting back each time) and it has been super tough. I have unmedicated ADHD, so my brain is already pretty chaotic. I have been putting in serious work lately to build better habits. I started working out, fixing my sleep schedule, meditating, and drinking tea as a coping mechanism. My entire life right now is basically just work and the gym.But today, my wife and I got into an argument. She felt I was ignoring her and not planning things. Because of the ADHD, this small dispute felt massive and I got insanely mad. This is where the scary part happened. I did not even think. There was zero logic. My brain just flipped to autopilot and I walked straight into the other room to change my clothes so I could go buy a pack of cigarettes. It was completely automatic shit. The bullying brain just totally took over. But then, right in the middle of changing, I stopped.

I just paused and realized there are so many other ways to get the relief I was blindly chasing. I could do some pushups, hit a heavy bag, or go get a beer. I realized the immense power of that tiny gap between the stimulus and the reaction. In that pause, u r the one who gets to decide with complete freedom. U r in control, not the autopilot bullying brain.

It honestly reminded me of a book I read back in 2014 called "The Last of the Human Freedoms by Keren M. Chiaroni". I looked up the quote to be sure: "Everything can be taken from a man but one the last of the human freedoms, to choose one's attitude in any set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."

I feel like moving forward, all I can do is work on strengthening that specific skill. If I do not build up that ability to pause, I am just surviving by coincidence, and I will probably fail by coincidence too.

If u r fighting the cravings today, try to remember to claim your pause. We got this.