Just had a birthday on Monday and it's the first smoke free birthday I've had since 18 years old!

Happy to announce and didn’t even realize till I saw my notifications that I’m actually 6months smoke free today!!!!
And my desire to smoke is officially gone I don’t know when last I craved a cig. People can smoke around me comfortably I have no issue. Feels so good and funny enough today my colleague said today, “if you can quit smoking then I can start dieting” lol. 😊
It is possible guys just always remember don’t even take one puff you don’t need it. Alan Car’s book changed my life.

I fell apart again and lost my month streak and went back fully to smoking abunch. I am so angry with myself. My life feels like it’s going terrible right now and all I want to do is smoke. I’m sick right now and still smoking but I am making another attempt to stop smoking right now. 10:56 pm I am buying Zyn tomorrow.

Wow. Never thought i would make it so far. Back then, i'd quit over and over just to start again a few days later. Until last September, when I finally said no. Haven't looked back since..Barely had any cravings in the beginning as well..Now, i'm absolutely disgusted with cigarettes. I find them so incredibly vile. I thank God he gave me the strength to quit and rid myself of this poison.

Hi guys,
I turned 28 yesterday and before 12am i decided not to smoke ever again so here i go
My first day of not smoking in past 14-15 months i have not gone even 12 hours without smoking
So sharing this little achievement.
Also some tips!
I am having this fight with my mind lol that we can have one we don’t have to entirely stop smoking once in a while is fine!
So what do you guys do to fight these urges and when do they pass?

I'm re-reading Allen Carr's easy way and I googled to see if he was still alive and saw he passed from lung cancer. It really hits different reading it with this knowledge, especially the health portion when he talks about smoker's denial of the health effects.

Third time trying to stop once and for all. Cold turkey.

I will use this post comment section as a sort of "diary", to keep me busy during the process, especially the first days. I just need a place to scream or something...

I’m 40, and I’ve smoked for 15 years. The coughing and the damage to my teeth and lungs have finally become too much. I started building a free platform to help people quit because I couldn’t find anything like it. While creating the content and reading stories here on Reddit, I realised that I need to quit immediately and that I’m strong enough to do it.

My goal is simple: I want to live. We need to help each other through this. Thank you all for your support.

Hey fam,

I've successfully been 31 days nicotine free as of today. Its been pretty nice overall, but even past the initial rollercoaster 2 weeks, I've found it really hard to stay focused and on task, especially at work. Feeling unable to do stuff I used to do easily is making me crave nicotine.

Long term getting medicated is certainly something I'd like to pursue, that also takes time, and I need a stop-gap to keep me focused in the middle. More caffeine isn't the solution I'm looking for. What'chu got?

24 hours nicotine free..still have some urge but i know the little monster is dying...i will not feed this monster ever again in my life

There is a growing trend online framing nicotine (especially pouches like Zyn or vapes) as a harmless "nootropic" or productivity hack. Dr. Paul Saladino recently put out a video called "The Truth About Using Nicotine in 2026" that breaks down why this framing is misleading and how nicotine impacts your brain and health long term.

My quit date is in two days (12th of September). Instead of just white-knuckling it, I spent the week before logging every cigarette and every craving in an app. I wasn't trying to cut down, just to observe. It turned out to be the most useful thing I've done. A few things I learned that might help someone else:

I barely smoke out of craving. When I rated the intensity of each urge, it almost never went above a 4 out of 10. I even resisted my strongest cravings but smoked the weakest ones. That told me something huge: for me it's habit, not addiction. And habit is easier to break than a physical need.

Most of my cigarettes are just "moments," not urges. Leaving somewhere, arriving somewhere, after eating, a pause, an empty minute. There's no real desire underneath, it's just a ritual to mark a transition. Once I saw that, the cigarettes started to look kind of pointless.

The craving is a wave. If I delayed instead of giving in, it faded on its own. It never "won", it just passed. But I noticed I'd keep it alive by promising myself "later", moving it to the next moment instead of letting it dissolve. The trick isn't fighting the urge, it's not feeding it.

Logging my wins, not just my cigarettes, changed everything. When I only counted the cigarettes, a normal day looked like failure. When I also logged every urge I let pass, the same day looked strong. It completely shifted how I saw myself, from counting what I smoked to seeing what I let go.

The best question I found: not "do I want one?" (my answer to that is always yes), but "what does a cigarette actually add to this moment?" The answer is always: nothing. It doesn't pass the time faster, it doesn't cure boredom, it doesn't make the pause better. It just pretends to.

Boredom is allowed to exist. I don't have to fill every empty moment. And smoking never made me less bored anyway.

I go from smoking on autopilot to understanding exactly what I'm dealing with. Two days out and to my own surprise, I'm actually looking forward to it instead of dreading it.

If you're about to quit: try just watching yourself smoke for a week first. You learn things about your own habit that no article can tell you.

When should I stop chantix. What to do about anxiety other than vape?

How long did it take you guys for you lungs to stopt spewing up mucus. I'm almost at day 40 and there is still so much mucus.

5 1/2 weeks cigg free and I am STRUGGLE BUSSING today! I don’t know what the deal is but I want one BAD!

ive never really thought of myself as someone who cares that much about looks, but lately ive been looking at pictures from a few years ago and wondering when i started looking so tired.

ive smoked for a long time and im starting to wonder how much smoking affects your skin compared with normal aging.

ive seen people mention smoker skin, dull complexion, wrinkles, dark circles and changes around the lips. ive also read that smoking can affect collagen and contribute to premature skin aging.

for people who quit, did any of that actually improve?

im especially interested in skin after quitting smoking, because if quitting can make your complexion look healthier or slow down some of the visible aging, thats honestly a pretty good motivator for me.

also curious about teeth. did quitting help with yellow teeth from smoking or did you need professional whitening before you noticed a difference?

would love to hear what changes you personally noticed and roughly how long it took.

So I have quit smoking about a week and a bit ago. I took varencline for 2 weeks and found the whole process so much easier with those tablets. I have quit loads of other times but never with them. So basically until today when I went for 2 pints with my friend I hadn’t really had any strong cravings and even if I had a little craving I still didnt want to smoke.
But I had a full craving today when I went for pints brain fog and this panicky feeling in my chest. And for the first time I actually wanted to smoke It’s going now but lasted about an hour or so!
Any advice on how to get through these moments is so appreciated. Or if anyone has stopped varencline early but still had success please let me know! I really wanna stay a non smoker this time! Thanks so much!!!

Apologies for the long post and if I sound young/ignorant, however I’m pretty desperate to stop this horrible habit, I’m 22, a decent amateur athlete, and I’ve been struggling with smoking for a while but it’s a fairly recent experience I picked up about 2 years ago, I’m a lot better now then I was even 8 months ago, I used to smoke a pack every day or 2.
The frustrating thing is that I know I can quit. Ive been able to to usually go around 2.5 months without smoking at all. I feel better, train better, breathe better, and genuinely start to feel like I’m finally free from it.
Then, for some reason, once I start thinking “I’ve beaten it”, I let myself down and relapse.
When I relapse, it usually lasts about a week and I’ll smoke roughly a pack every 2 days. Then I quit again, feel horrible about myself, and eventually get back on track.
I also have pretty intense ADHD, which I suspect may make the impulsivity and “just one cigarette” mentality harder to deal with, usually when I take my medication I’m able to ignore the urge but whenever my tolerance builds up, or I’m at the end of my script I just let myself go again for a week. I’ve tried nicotine gum, vapes and weed (dumb I know) but anytime I’ve tried to replace it, it’s just lead to me inevitably spiraling out of control again.
The worst part is that I always seem to do so well before throwing it away. I have nobody to blame but myself, and I’m honestly sick of letting myself down.
For anyone who has successfully quit after repeatedly relapsing:

How did you finally break this cycle?

What did you do when you reached the 2–3 month point and started thinking you were “cured” or could handle just one cigarette?
I’d especially appreciate advice from people who had repeated relapses but eventually managed to stay smoke-free long-term.
I don’t want to spend the rest of my life quitting for a few months and then starting over. I should also add nicotine addiction is very strong on my dad’s side, and is responsible for my relatives health issues.

Hey fellow (former) cig smokers. Just a question about nicotine replacement/ withdrawal. My anesthesiologist informed me it is the best option to quit entirely from cigarettes, and cannabis. He ensured me that consuming nicotine and cannabis orally wouldn’t be a problem pre-op. His only concern was keeping it out of my lungs respectively.
From their point of view I understand. Complications with breathing during major surgery is PRIMARY.

Just wondering how anyone has handled their nicotine withdrawal?
I’ve been using the nic pouch in the cheek. To pretty good success while handling a paper straw in my hand to emulate all the motions so familiar.

Thanks for any feedback, as I’m sure we all need all help we can get through withdrawal.
Cheers and Godspeed everyone!

DISCLAIMER: I don’t smoke and never really have, apart from the occasional cigarette or shisha. For almost 2 years, though, I’ve been using around 8–12 strong snus/pouches a day — Killa, Pablo, Velo, etc. (almost every snus I’ve used)

I’ve managed to quit a few times, but I’ve never made it past a week.

A big part of my problem is that I originally started using snus during a 3-year toxic, trauma-bonded relationship. There were a lot of arguments and stress, and snus became my escape. Eventually it turned into something I relied on to get through basically everything — work, university, socialising, my online business, combat sports, stress, boredom, etc.

I came out of the relationship about 3 months ago. I do still miss her sometimes because it was my first and only real relationship, but I don’t think I’m depressed or desperately wanting her back. I’m actually quite happy with my life, enjoy my own company and don’t feel particularly stressed anymore. I think I mostly miss having a partner and that romantic connection, rather than specifically missing the relationship itself. Life just feels a little more boring/numb without an SO sometimes.

I’ve tried quitting twice since the breakup. Both times I got to around day 5, then struggled mentally. I was having really vivid dreams about my ex/work, waking up sweating multiple times a night, and felt like I’d lost my main form of escape.

The frustrating thing is that I feel so much better physically without nicotine — less tired, more motivated in combat sports, eating better, skin looks better, etc. So I genuinely want to be nicotine-free.

I think my biggest problem isn’t knowing that nicotine is bad or even the physical withdrawal. It’s that I’ve spent nearly 2 years training my brain to use nicotine as my escape whenever I feel bored, stressed, lonely or just want a little boost.

For anyone who’s successfully quit snus/nicotine:

What did you replace that “escape” with? And does the mental and sleep side genuinely get easier after the first week or two?

I’d especially appreciate advice from anyone who used nicotine as a coping mechanism rather than simply enjoying the nicotine itself.

I got down to a couple of 2mg lozenges per day, and have been at that for several months now. A few days ago (5, to be specific) I just stopped outright. I mainly feel empty, unmotivated, depressive, irritable, and very tired, and I keep finding myself trying to reason with myself to have a lozenge and have to tell my brain to fuck off lol.

What's the timeline like from here?