As this is my next major undertaking, I am curious what did the trick for those of you who have successfully quit smoking.

I personally have tried cold turkey a few times, with little success.
A big contributor to those failures was the fact that I was still drinking at the time.....so those efforts were pretty much doomed from the get go.
I am not drinking now, so I stand a much better chance at it.
I am 60yo now, and this nasty old habit has got to go.
Besides the negative health impact, my Pall Mall straights are $10.00 a flippin' pack, and are costing me around $200.00 or more a month. That is kinda insano. Especially for a habit that I don't need or want anymore.
I am probably going to simply go the cold turkey method again.

But, for additional input, what worked for you?

Meow?

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

I got My late brother to quit smoking, He used the nicotine patch instead of smoking, going from a larger size over time, to a smaller size, to ween Him off addictive nicotine, I think it took Him a year, and I may have bought Him 6-12 months of life. As a result everyone else in My extended family also quit smoking too, though I was not involved in that.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

I smoked for over 50 years. I am smoke free for seven years now.

Only you can stop. Outside pressure does nothing but make it worse.

Chantix was the silver bullet for me. I did relapse a couple times (6 months out) but I set a new stop date each time and went for it again. Side effects can be bad for some folks. Be careful there. You will know by week’s end whether side effects are an issue.

As you go through the first week (you smoke first week), you can feel changes in your body and mind taking place. At week’s end, tobacco tastes and smells terrible and has little mental or physical effect.

Beside all the health reasons, your taste and smell will come back. That was the most amazing part for me.

Next comes getting the smell out of your home, cloths and car. I can tell a smoker from 50’ away now.

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...

1. Decide you are going to quit. (Not you are going to try.)
2. Chantix. It will change your brain chemistry reducing the physical desire.
3. Chantix. They offer an online program of incentives and advice to help reduce you physiological desire.
4. Change your triggers. One of the hardest parts for me is that I associated smoking with relaxing over a cup of coffee and reading the paper in the morning. I changed my morning habit to a brisk bike ride. Coffee after the ride and reading news at lunch time.
5. Reach out for support when you need it. Chantix has on line councilors. I have given you my number before. Got an urge, call someone.

Mark you can do it!

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Mark, good luck. Stick to it.

A friend of mine and Bill W. told me after they had 30 years of sobriety when they tried to quit smoking it was much harder than booze.
If your company offers medical they undoubtedly have a program and counselors available. Use it.
Nicotine patches don't get you off the drug and at some point you will have to go through withdrawal.
As Carlos says, change all your habits. Might want to buy a box of #2 pencils to chew up? And get ready for some weight gain, food is going to taste better soon.

Again, good luck and stick too it.

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Some cross-posting from the other thread... [edit: sorry Mark; I meant I was :^) ]

1) Nicoderm patches worked very well for me and I would not recommend any other brand. They cost a little more and it's worth it. Without them, the cravings were intolerable. With them, they were very mild to non-existent. It's a three step program, each for two weeks, which weans you off nicotine as each stage delivers less of it. The transition was barely noticeable. But whichever chemical assist you choose, your health coverage will very likely pay most or all of it, and you needn't feel any less for quitting: it's still 100% you doing it and it still requires some willpower to stick with it.
Edit: I actually liked one of the side effects of the patches: vivid, memorable, colorful dreams.

2) Exercise to break the "triggers"... for me it was buying a bicycle which gradually became not just a recreation but my mode of transport and that kept me from reverting. You may prefer walking, or cross-country skiing, or working out at a gym (or martial arts... unleash your inner kitty warrior!) but whatever it is, it will get you away from the "triggers" ie the computer or just being idle at home, and also once you feel how your endurance and energy have improved, you won't feel like filling your lungs with gunk and undoing your progress. Regular exercise will also undo some of the damage smoking does over the years by reducing the risk of heart disease, for example.

3) Beware that nicotine may sometimes mess with your head even months afterwards... I got rather depressed at that time that I would not smoke any more even after two months of zero nicotine from any source. Drove me back to it once. The second time I was prepared.

4) If you falter, pick another quit date and try again. Any reduction is better than none, and don't be hard on yourself as it makes it worse. Take each day, hour and minute at a time and be proud of each as your accomplishment.

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4) If you falter, pick another quit date and try again. Any reduction is better than none, and don't be hard on yourself as it makes it worse. Take each day, hour and minute at a time and be proud of each as your accomplishment.

There was an administrative assistant I used to work with who tried our hospital-based smoking cessation program 3 times. The third time worked and she has been smoke-free for more than five years now.

Prior to quitting tobacco, this employee used all her sick leave and vacation days for illnesses. This poor woman never had any vacation time because illnesses kept eating into her ETO/PTO stash of vacation time.

Several months after quitting tobacco, she was so much more healthy that she was able to accumulate vacation pay. Eventually she took a REAL vacation to Hawaii with her daughter. Everybody on staff was so happy for her!!!!!!

There are so many good reasons for quitting. The support program she used seemed to help for her, even though she fell off-the-wagon a couple of times. Perhaps there is a support program covered under your work health plan?

Wishing you the very best of luck.

Sorry.....
Did not mean to create any confusion by posting this outside of my own thread.
However, I suspected there were a lot more ex-smokers here than ex-allmyotherproblems.....LOL.
So I thought I would get more responses as a stand alone thread.

As I suspected, some are already confirming that this is probably going to be harder to beat than the whiskey.
Partly due to the fact that slipping or cheating does not necessarily mean anybody else knows about it except yourself. On the other hand, slipping with the whiskey is a lot harder to hide.

But, as with the drinking, I want to do this for MYSELF, not because of the chiding or reminding or countless comments about quitting smoking I have received for many years. So, I do have that going in my favor. Because, as with most other bad habits, trying to quit to appease somebody else is almost always a fool's errand in the end.

I have announced my intention here, so you all know about it. I will be telling Lori, so she knows about it.
And I have chosen a date.....October 22nd.
I am also going to tell Lori that THIS time, I will not be upset or irritated if she asks me about it.

BTW, another reason I am determined to make this stick................
Our annual health insurance registration is coming up soon at work. And last year I could not truthfully fill out the form certifying that I was a non tobacco user.
Which carried an $1800.00 penalty in increased premiums for the year. Add to that the estimated $2400.00 to buy the dang cigs, and you are talking $4200.00 to smoke for a year.

Four thousand two hundred dollars!!!!
That alone is a dang good incentive, even IF there were no health downside.

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

I could not leave any tobacco or lighters in the house or car or at work while quitting. Told smoking friends and co-workers not to offer smokes. All that made it too easy to slip and relapse. After relapsing I went right to the full strength Chantix, no ramping up in dosage like starting the first time. Re-started Chantix with stop date 5 days in.

The last couple of relapses the smokes tasted and smelled terrible and was like trying to start smoking all over again. Coughing, sick to stomach, all the crap you went through as a kid trying to learn smoking.

It is my understanding your body will detox from nicotine in about 7 to 10 days. After that it was all in my head.

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...

Not me personally, but 5 people I know that quit (ie haven't started up again since first quitting).
All but 1 went cold turkey, 2 of them that were very heavy smokers would put money in a jar each day to the value of what they would have smoked that day (it really opened their eyes as to how much it was actually costing them). 1 cut back on drinking at the same time as she was mostly just a social smoker- if she was having a drink, she'd have a smoke. So she'd have a drink or 2 and when she felt the need to light up would call quits on the booze.
The 1 that didn't go cold turkey cut back over a few weeks, then went with the nicotine patches & gum.
For all of them not smoking when having a drink was the toughest- it's just what they did. Have a drink, have a smoke- drink in one hand, fag in the other. A couple of them put on quite a bit of weight when they quit; with that hand having nothing to do they tended to snack, a lot. It seems it's as much of the hand/mouth habit as much as the craving for nicotine, breaking the habit is the tough part.

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Grant
Darwin NT

Even though I've never smoked, I had to endure second hand smoke, when My mom died in 1998, I tossed out all Her cigs, washed the ashtrays, then disposed of them all, My thyroid was performing at 90% of normal, in the last year My thyroid is now at 100% output, I've been cigarette smoke free since 1998.
Of course now I have to take 4-6 Tylenol 8hr 650mg caplets, or I start sweating, while sitting still. Of course that is not the only reason I take such pills, is that I have OA, OA was discovered in Me in 2000, in My right shoulder joint, which was dislocated in a fall in 1978.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

I quit smoking in mid to late 1998, cold turkey, and never looked back. I didn't do it for health, money, or the smell. I simply did it because I was done.

Oddly, I'm having a much harder time giving up pop (soda) than cigarettes.

I don't have any real advice because each person is different, with different levels of addiction, both physical and psychological. I will, however, offer my support and applaud you for doing so much to clean up your life. Godspeed, good man.

I quit cold turkey back on August 10th 1989. I had half a pack left, And just crushed them and threw them in a trash can. But thing I ever did.
I was really cranky the first 3 days. My late wife on the 3rd day told me to start smoking again I was so miserable. I'm glad she told me that. So tell lori and your workmates, Im quitting the cigs so If I seem to becoming an SOB please tell me right away. It will help.
I did gain some weight. Its the empty hand thing as stated by others in here. Maybe one of those spinner things the kids use now days might help with that.

And don't feel bad if you regress now and then. Before this last time I quit, I had not smoked in 5 years. Then took it up again in a weak point in my life. Smoked for 4 years before Aug 89. Ive now been smoke free for 28 years now. But every once in a while I still get the urge to have one. Its triggerd by a memory or a smell I believe.
And as a few have noted, Once you quit and you get near other smokers, They smell like wet stale old ashtrays full of days of butts. YECKK.

Mark I wish you the best in quitting. You can do this.

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[/quote]

Old James

$4200.00 to smoke for a year.

That could pay for a pretty good cruncher. You know you "need" another one.

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Besides the negative health impact, my Pall Mall straights are $10.00 a flippin' pack

Here in Australia it's around $32 for a 30 pack.
A pack a day is over $11,500 a year. Get a couple of good crunchers for that price.

If you smoke a pack a day, put $10 each day in to a jar when quitting. Half a pack, $5. Had a bad day & would have smoked more? Put $15 in the jar. Check it out after 3 months, and enjoy the financial benefits as well as the health ones.
Expect to cough up a lot of flem & other crap over the first few weeks.

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Grant
Darwin NT

I thank all of you for posting your experience, tips, and insights.
I think I shall have a better go at it now, with your help.

I am gonna beat this!

Meow!!!

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

Little change in plans, folks.
I am moving up my quit date to next Thursday, the 12th.
Why?
Because on the 13th I am having oral surgery again to remove what I hope is the last problem tooth.
Not gonna be fun. And they recommend not smoking for a few days anyway, because it interferes with the healing process of the gums.

Sooooooooo. The 12th is my last smoking day, and then I am gonna drop the cigs like the bad habit they have always been.

Meow.

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

Mark, Sorry to hear about the bum tooth. And I know you can give up the cigs. I know first hand its hard to do. But well worth the effort. Good luck to you.

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[/quote]

Old James

Mark, Sorry to hear about the bum tooth. And I know you can give up the cigs. I know first hand its hard to do. But well worth the effort. Good luck to you.

Well, the tooth problems were many years in the making. Should have been dealt with a long time ago.
And with drinking behind me currently, I have much more confidence that I can stay the course on kicking the butts.
It was kinda a fool's errand to attempt it whilst drinking.

Meow.

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

I am gonna beat this!

Meow!!!

Attitude is a very large part of quitting. And you look to have a "good stopping" attitude just now.
The way you are doing it is pretty much the way my brother did - set a date (October 12), with an associated trigger (Oral surgery the next day), tell folks, then hold on tight. I'll be among those shouting for you to succeed.

Slight change of subject:
I hope all goes well with the surgery.

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?