Tapering Down before QD?

[tsmith6105]

I have been tapering down on my cigarettes for the past week or so in anticipation for my quit date which is 5 days from now. I've read a little bit about this but surprisingly didn't find much info on here about whether or not this is even a good strategy. I know it's more of a "whatever works" type thing and we all have unique ways in which we quit but I'm wondering if I'm just torturing myself unnecessarily from a nicotine withdrawal standpoint. I think my rationale is that if I cut back before quitting, it will give me a chance to feel the initial effects of cravings, and give me practice at denying myself the satisfaction of lighting up. 

I've started taking Zyban about 2 weeks ago and after about a week I went from a pack/day down to half a pack/day pretty easily. I would tell myself I had to wait X amount of hours until my next smoke and that worked pretty well. A few days ago I began to smoke one less cigarette per day in relation to the number of days left until my quit date. So today I have 5 days left before my QD, so I "get" to smoke 5 cigarettes. Tomorrow will be 4 cigarettes etc. Surely I'm not the first person to do this? 

My concern is that when I get down to 1 or 2 days before my quit date, is it even worth it? I mean I would likely have that final smoke on my last day at the end of that day... which would essentially be 24 hours later than my last smoke on the previous day. So am I just cheating myself out 24 hours I could already be celebrating as smoke free? 

What have you folks done on your last day before quit day? Did you just smoke a pack and then the next day smoke none? Or maybe 2 or 3 cigarettes the day before and then on Day 1 of being an EX, you just took it from there?

I realize I might be over-thinking this quite a bit but I'm just curious as to what you've done on your day prior to quitting?

I'm thinking I should maybe bump up my quit date and just quit earlier if I'm only hurting myself and prolonging my withdrawal experience.

Thanks!

Trevor

[JonesCarpeDiem]

eventually the nicotine receptors are going to bite back and you are in continual withdrawal.

[dwaith4echo]

I just finished the Smokenders Online program and their method of cutting back is a bit different, but started to make sense to me as I went through it.  It is more about decreasing your nicotine intake over time (4-weeks) by changing your cigarette brand and nicotine content level while gradually reducing the times you can smoke (15 minutes after meals week 1 up to 1-hour after meals by week 4).  By the end of the 4-weeks the restrictions on when you can smoke greatly limit the number of cigarettes (I was down to 8 per day), but more importantly I had to smoke 0.1 mg nicotine cigarettes for that last week (started the program at 0.8 mg with Marlboro Lights).

I think cutting down is always good, but decreasing the nicotine gradually as you go may be more beneficial in the long run.  I'm only 18 DOF, but that first smoke free morning was easier on the cravings than any other time I'd tried to quit.