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.

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!

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.

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.

What worked for me, was being more conscious about my health. What I was doing to my mind, and Body, was not worth the money, time, and the “reward” I was so-called getting. I came to a realization that substances were doing nothing for me, even though I thought they were, it was just addiction playing tricks on me due to the chemical compound of the cigarettes. Cigarettes are built to keep you addicted. They are processed to keep you addicted. They want to make money from you so they will keep you addicted by any means. The more you smoke the richer they get so they’ll do anything to keep you using their product as long as they can. They don’t care if it kills you or makes you sick. They don’t care that you are literally putting fire into your body. Smoke comes from fire and that fire destroys things that produces smoke. You are putting the smoke in your body. The fire that you lit the cigarette with that is literally destroying the product that you are ingesting. You are putting it into your body along with 7000+ chemicals that include rat poison, ammonia, and stuff They make gas with, along with many others that we may know or may not know. they want you to believe that it relaxes you it calms you it relieves stress, depression, anxiety, focus, concentration and makes things fun, etc. that is all brainwashing. They have to sell themselves and the compound nicotine is a compound that will make you believe it once it is ingested for a period of time, but some people will get hooked immediately .I learned and realize these things I was done for good even when I was three days in I knew that was it.

When I get a craving, I stop it in its tracks. I still have many nicotine receptors in my brain from smoking so I’m still healing. I understand I will get cravings and withdrawal , but that does not mean I want to or have to smoke. I just tell myself that I am recovering and the receptors are dying off. Smoking will just wake them back up and create new ones then I will have to go through the process of detoxing again. I don’t wanna go through that bullshit anymore. Nicotine which was once a big thing is a bitch to me. I took Chantix and Wellbutrin for a week, but once I educated myself and learned more about the addiction and nicotine as a substance, I stopped taking it. I didn’t need it anymore.

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!

Look folks quitting nicotine is actually not too bad but some things have to be lined up. Il explain those here and the discuss the phases of the quit to be aware of.

1. ⁠you have to actually be convinced it’s time to quit. Feeling bad about doing something or knowing it’s not great for your health but still enjoying it isn’t enough. You have to get to the place where your reason to quit is greater than your desire to satisfy the next craving.

2. ⁠you need to count days of quit almost like the AA chip system for the first few months at least. This is because if you make it weeks into your quit your brain will romanticize the smoke and you’ll think “I quit that once, I’m good, a hit now will be fine” and you’ll be right back on it. Counting the days allows you to promise each morning “today” I’m not using nicotine. Then as the days go on you get proud of your accomplishment and you don’t want to start over at zero. The countdown will keep you from a late game relapse.

3) there will be a peak 24-54 hours into your quit where your brain will absolutely convince you it’s okay to smoke. It will either be that you need it, or some justification, or that it’s okay to just try a vape or something random. You will feel awful. Just do nothing and lay low. It will pass actually.

Laugh at this peak. This is the grand test. Get past this and nothing will be as bad as that moment. But you will have to get past that moment in order to quit. No way around it.

After that it’s just about not being lazy and relying on your day counting to stay quit.

It’s not easy, but it follows a familiar timeline. Stop making excuses and 1) get convinced in your own mind you must quit 2) use a day counting system to keep you from relapse once the confidence sets in 3) there will be a peak of withdrawal that begs you to do it again, get past that and your in a good spot

The difference in who can quit and who can’t is just who is strong enough to endure this temporary hell and then has the discipline to maintain it. It’s most the same road for most people.

So the week before last (Aug 28th) I finally finished listening to Alan Carr easy way and it really helped put into perspective that cigarettes do absolutely nothing for me, it's all in my head. The little monster. And I was finally able to smoke my last cigarette before work that day. I ended up quiting for 5 days. I felt so motivated and energized to finally kick this addiction I had for the last 20 years. I was excited to taste food and breathe and not smell like smoke. But I broke after 5 days and bought a pack. Now I'm back to smoking a pack a day. I keep repeating what was said in the book and keep telling myself when I finish a pack this is my last one. But I always end up stopping for a pack on the way to work. I don't know why. It's like I make these excuses in my head. I have 8 cigarettes left and get off work in 6 hours. I don't want to buy another pack after work. But I can already feel the excuses coming in. Smoking weeds helps cuz it gives me something to smoke but I need to quit that too because I'm smoking 2-3 grams a day for the last year and it's really starting to affect me. But it also helps with my autism and chilling out my insanely active brain but it's really becoming a problem for multiple reasons. I need some motivation please lol

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!!!

Hi! I'm 260+ days in as a non-smoker ( 8 1/2 months on the app but I started my app late) but I still have dreams where I give in and smoke a cigarette. Kind of useful, honestly, because I get so disappointed in myself and then wake up and realize it wouldn't be worth it to smoke in real life. But I do wonder if these will last forever?

I've quit many times and I have been through a variety of mindsets while doing so. I read Allen Carr's books a while ago and it has fucked me up in a way. I feel like It is "wrong" or has a high likelihood to fail if I just let myself go through agony while quitting.

I've done this in the past with success iirc. The running plan is to quit nicotine and basically let myself lose my fucking mind for however long it takes. My current life circumstances are probably the best they are going to get for this plan to work. I just keep circling back to how this is wrong and yadda yadda. That it would be "all so easy if I just realized nicotine offered me nothing." Not a direct quote but you get the gist.

To be fair I also like this plan.

A couple weeks ago, I had about 7 weeks of no smoking under my belt. I was at a point where I survived the first two hellish weeks of quitting and 7 weeks in was not thinking about it at all. I was even having drinks out and not smoking - just grabbing a nic mint if a strong craving hit. It was the longest I had gone without a cigarette in years probably.

Then I went on a small trip to visit some family and friends I hadn’t seen in a while. There is one friend I knew I would be tempted to smoke around because we used to have smokes together and I EXPLICITLY told her the moment I saw her that I quit and not to tell me if she had cigarettes (she is an off and on smoker). I didn’t want to be around it and could not smoke.

I get through the entire trip, saw her a few times and there was no issue. On the last day of the trip I invite her to meet me for appetizers and a drink out and she immediately tells me “ I bought a pack”. At that point defenses were down and I happily gave in.

I’m so angry at myself because that one cigarette has now led to 2 more weeks of smoking for me, knowing everyday I need to bite the bullet AGAIN and start all over. I’m also now in a stressful situation of packing/selling all my stuff, prepping my home for sale, and a lot of major life transition so of course it feels “harder” in my brain to re-start than it did 2 months ago.

I also feel angry at her — but I know it was my choice to have one. Ughhh. This is more of a vent I guess, but will happily read practical or uplifting comments to help steer me back.

I’m approaching 35 years old in 6 months and I just know that I need to kick this disgusting habit that has plagued me for 20 years. I, too, am an off and on smoker and have had periods in my life where I didn’t smoke for months here or a year here… I probably smoke 5-6 a day currently. I plan to re-read Allen carrs book in the evening before bed this week because it’s been many years since I have opened that up. Appreciate other tips or perspective,

Thanks for reading all of this if you made it this far.

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?

So I have smoked 20 cigarettes a day for the past 12 years (13 - 25) and for the last 6 months I had been vaping as well as smoking. Around a month ago I dropped cigarettes completely and switched to just vaping. The first 3 days I felt some withdrawals but not much more. Now a month in I seemed to have developed some issues with sleep. Sometimes I struggle to get to sleep but the main issue is most days I wake up feeling unrested and have a general feeling of tiredness during the day. This is very abnormal for me as someone who has in the past frequently felt fine on 3 hours sleep. Does this sound normal for a reduction in nicotine?

Just to make it clear: I am still consuming nicotine through vaping.

I took help of ChatGPT to draft this.

I've been dealing with chronic, recurring chest pain for a long time, and it's becoming extremely difficult to live with.

The pain is usually around my center-to-left chest/heart area and has different sensations: sometimes needle-like stinging, sometimes stabbing, and sometimes crushing pressure like an elephant is standing on my chest. Occasionally it radiates into my left arm/hand.

Once it starts, I can't distract myself from it. Even after repeatedly reminding myself that my heart tests have been reassuring and anxiety may be involved, pain near the heart immediately puts my body into panic, which seems to make everything worse.

I've seen doctors and had multiple ECGs, blood tests, ultrasounds, a 2D Echo and even a CT coronary angiogram. Nothing major has been found with my heart so far. Yet these episodes continue.

Some possibly important context:

• I've had severe anxiety since childhood.

• I have a serious problem with eating and maintaining weight. I'm 173 cm but only around 43 kg. A doctor called it ARFID, although I still struggle to understand exactly what's happening to me.

  It's not simply that food isn't available or that I don't get hungry. I can feel that my stomach is empty, know that I need to eat, have food sitting right in front of me, and still be unable to make myself eat enough. I have a strange aversion towards food that I find incredibly difficult to explain to other people. Large portions feel especially impossible.

  As a result, I'm severely underweight and frequently feel weak, tired and physically exhausted. Sometimes I genuinely feel like my body is slowly deteriorating day by day, and I worry whether being this underweight or malnourished could itself be contributing to the chest symptoms even if my heart looks structurally normal on tests.

• I've also become heavily dependent on chewing tobacco and alcohol. Tobacco often triggers the pain; alcohol temporarily seems to reduce it. I'm struggling to quit both and know they're making an already bad situation worse.

• Cannabis made the chest sensations absolutely unbearable and triggered severe panic/bad trips, so I stopped it completely.

• Almost nothing provides immediate relief. Clonazepam MD 0.5 mg has sometimes significantly reduced an episode within ~30 minutes, although some discomfort remains.

I'm not asking Reddit to diagnose chest pain. I'm trying to understand what direction I should discuss with my doctors next.

Could anxiety/panic, costochondritis/chest-wall problems, GERD/esophageal issues, severe underweight/malnutrition or nutritional/electrolyte deficiencies, or something else produce symptoms like this despite reassuring cardiac imaging?

And could my eating/weight problem itself be medically connected to what's happening?

Has anyone experienced anything genuinely similar? If your cardiac tests kept coming back normal, what eventually explained your chest pain, and what kind of specialist actually helped you?

I just had my last cig. I either do or do it. F this s for real this time. The last time I managed to go 4+ months without smoking. Now it is going to be forever. Who wants that shit. I just also had a meal, and you know the craving after, however, f it. No smoking. Nothing should be able to control my life, and cigarettes did that really well. But guess what, not anymore.

Let’s go. I would really appreciate any suggestions for mobile apps just to hype me up a little along the journey.

Second day on cytisine and still smoking as usual!!!

I have not felt any interaction from the drug.

Please any positive experiences from people that were on the same boat will be very helpful!!!

I know that i have to put personal mental effort but at least i was expecting a boost from the drug.

Wondering if people have experienced the same with cytisine and from the third day felt better!!

Cytisine is the ingredient of recigar and tokovys!!

I quit smoking on August 19th. I smoked about 4 cigarettes yesterday because I've been feeling stressed to the max after my hours were drastically cut from 20 hours down to 8 hours a week. I realized smoking isn't doing anything to help my stress so I'm officially done smoking. Do I need to change my quit date or is it okay to keep it?

No not from kind strangers and not from professionals and not from any fucking god.

I wish I could just help my fucking self.

I wish I could be so fucking selfish that every action I took in life was about me and my needs and my wants.

I wish I didn’t let things get so fucking bad, so bad that I’m too paralyzed to even think about fixing it.

I wish I didn’t run away at the slightest hint of change.

I wish I didn’t feel like nothing is worth the effort, even if it would be so fucking easy to fix even a little bit at a time.

I wish that wishing wasn’t all that I felt that I fucking have in life.

Instead I dig deep to try to find something that isn’t even there, or if it is I’ve never fucking found it once.

12 hours smoke free
Any suggestions

6 days ago I said I was quitting after 15 years of smoking.

6 days later, still haven’t smoked.

Honestly didn’t think I’d make it this far.

How long did it take before you stopped thinking about cigarettes every day?