Michael I took the cold turkey option...that's what works for me. I did not want to take meds, patches, or gum. Not that anything is wrong with those methods. I say try anything to help you stop smoking.
Hey, if going cold turkey works for you, then go for it! I've heard of lots of bad reactions with the aides like nausea and having nightmares. So if cold turkey works for you, then more power to you!
Tomorrow never comes. I have been battling with my inner self and I tell myself I will finish this pack and I will quit tomorrow, the only problem is something happens tomorrow and I buy another pack. I woke up this morning thinking ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. I have 12 cigarettes left in my pack and I am NOT going to SMOKE them. I wish you the best of luck, let me know how you're doing and I will do the same. Congratulations for knowing you're READY TO QUIT!
It's not hard to quit smoking. There's really only one key: you have to stop buying, lighting, and smoking cigarettes! Understanding the nature of nicotine addiction really helps. You are addicted to an incredibly addictive drug that demands a fix many times a day. For a pack a day smoker, you've given yourself 7,500 fixes per year, so you've got some very ingrained habits surrounding your nicotine addiction. The good news is that, while nictonine is one of the most addictive drugs on earth, its withdrawal symptoms aren't that bad. It's not like alcohol or heroin where addicts get DTs or shakes or hallucinations for physically ill. For the most part, nicotine withdrawal is on par with having the flu for a week and then the physical withdrawal is over. You will never stop smoking for long until you break the nicotine addiction and accept the fact that, as a nicotine addict, you cannot allow yourself to ever take nicotine again. I don't care if you have quit smoking for ten years. Smoke one cigarette and it a virtual certainty that you will be back fully addicted and smoking as much or more than ever. So, in some order, you have to accomplish four things: a) stop smoking b) stop taking nicotine and deal with the withdrawal symptoms c) deal with the strongly ingrained habits you've developed that center your life around your nicotine addiction (i.e. thinking you "have" to have a cig with coffee, etc.). Junkie thoughts. d) Commit to never taking another puff, ever. The only 100% guaranteed method of preventing relapse.
Now, as a practical matter, there are two popular approaches: Cold turkey: At least 90% of the 46 million ex-smokers in the United States used this method. It involves getting the nicotine out of your system immediately (3 days), dealing with the physical withdrawal up front (first 14 days), leaving you to continue working through the psychological habits and triggers without having to fight against the drug addiction. It generally sucks for the first 3 days (but not that bad for many of us), and then starts to improve fairly quickly. By the two month mark, most people experience their first full day without a single thought of smoking. The payoff is that you remove the underlying cause (nicotine addiction) at the very start. NRT: The health industry now recommends that all smokers take regular doses of nicotine to feed their addiction as they quit smoking cigarettes. Nicotine gum. Nicotine patches. The theory is to stay addicted to nicotine and avoid physical withdrawal while dealing with the psychological triggers and habits. Then, at some point several months after you've quit smoking, try to taper off the nicotine replacement products and withdraw from the nictone addiction. It works for some people. In clinical tests against low-dose nicotine placebo gums and patches, it works better. In real world population studies, cold turkey quitting is more successful. The big downside of the NRT approach is that you are still addicted to nicotine, although at dosages that may still be putting you into withdrawal. Research shows all the same cravings are still, there, but perhaps reduces a small amount in intensity. Thus, you are trading off some potential reduction in cravings for a longer period of nicotine withdrawal as opposed to cold turkey where you do the withdrawal part quickly. There's no free lunch. You have to pay the piper on this nicotine withdrawal. It's just a question of paying more for a short period of time or less over a longer period of time. For the NRT approach, this Become an EX plan is probably as good as anything you'll find. It's pretty much state-of-the-art for those who believe that's the best way to quit. For cold-turkey, I would strongly recommend the free written and video materials at the www.whyquit.com. It is an incredible cold turkey resource with day by day instructions so you know exactly what to expect and how to deal. I also think the Alan Carr books are a proven successful formula in a cold turkey program.
Whichever approach you follow, there are two things you are going to have to do: a) It is almost impossible to quit unless you make a commitment to STOP SMOKING. It can be a commitment for just one hour, then make another commitment for a second hour. Whatever. But, it is to be a "no discussion, no debate" commitment. Nobody has the willpower to fight through nicotine craving urges if they are going to have a "should I or shouldn't I" debate for each one. You'll lose that debate and cave. If the decision is already made (I am NOT going to smoke), then craves are manageable. b) Research has show that having an arsenal of responses to employ when a crave hits is critical. Sucking on a straw. Eating a hard candy. Taking deep breaths. Screaming. Chewing sunflower seeds. Whatever. It doesn't matter. You just need three to five things you can quickly choose from to divert yourself when a nictone crave hits. You only need to buy yourself three minutes of distraction for each crave.
BTW, rather than finish the pack and quit tomorrow, why not put yourself in the power postion? Throw the pack away before its finished and truly own your commitment to go an hour, or a day, or a week without smoking. That way, you aren't quitting because you had to (you ran out). You are quitting because you want to. People who successfully quit don't think of it as "giving up smoking", but rather of "getting something really good" -- i.e. life without addiction, life without the stink on your clothes, life without being a social outcast, life without cigarettes killing you. Quitters who dwell on "giving up cigarettes" (as if there were any reason to want to keep them!) usually drive themselves crazy with the cravings and go back to smoking. Think of that cigarette in your hand as a syringe of deadly drug and it's not half as hard to fight off a craving.
Michael, I quit cold turkey but had tried all three methods in the past. This time I actually started with a lozenge but after day 1 decided if I was going to have to go through the hell of withdrawls, I wasn't doing it twice. So, got it all done by going cold turkey. It's still a battle but night & day from the first week. I always say it because I want someone to understand I get it, I LOVED smoking and smoked for 13 years, so I get how hard it is. There are a lot of people on here that smoked even longer than that. Reach out for support and vent on here, but stay strong. Don't give up no matter how hard it is... no one ever died from nicotine withdrawls, even though it feels like it sometimes.
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