I've quit smoking a bunch of times throughout my life - usually 2 year breaks. I do keep going back because I simply enjoy smoking. And easy to put them down since I know how to successfully quit every time now. Right now, Ive switched to vaping only, and I like it too - it allows me to smoke, without the smell. At this point though, im just tired of smoking. I've worn it out, and its enjoy-ability just isn't the same to me. Once I wear out vaping, I don't think I'll smoke anymore.
When I first tried my many failed attempts to quit smoking (the unsuccessful fail to quits), I used gums, patches, smoked 1/4 cigarrette a day to take the edge off, even used wellbutrin, etc. It never worked. I found the easiest way to quit is to cold-turkey quit and never touch it at all at any dose whatsoever. And there is a reason for that..
Once you understand the secret to quiting, it is easy to quit anytime you wish. When you quit smoking, your body will go into withdrawal. It is a natural process. And it will usually take 9 to 24 days to complete. Heres the secret: If you take any sort of nicotine into your system at anytime during the withdrawal period, it resets that withdrawal timer back to 0 minutes. And everything you were suffering up to that point got thrown out the window. Your body's withdrawl process will start all over again, and your back to day1 of the withdrawal cycle. This is viscious if you don't understand it - your withdrawl symptoms will not go away ever with this type of quit method. I put myself through 5 months of withdrawal hell finding this out...
If you want to quit - Don't cut back. Don't touch nicotine in any form. Just quit. 0 nicotine.
Set a quit date estimate. Before you quit, smoke yourself silly - vape and smoke till your green, sick and stinky. Pay attention to the things you hate. That ball and chain, the smell, the butts and ashtrays, the cost, the health. Get any nicotine out of your house. Clean the ashtrays, vapes, etc and hide them. Take your last smoke before bedtime and sleep late - its easier on your symptoms then quiting in the middle of the day.
Eat lots of food. This is how your body rids itself of nicotine. Don't worry bout the weight gain. The more you eat, the faster your withdrawal will end. And your appetite will return to normal levels after a few weeks. The weight will mostly fall off a few weeks after that.
You'll feel like crap, youll want to smoke terribly bad. Try to do nothing that causes concentration or stress. I usually will do it over a holiday or vacation and just watch movies for 5 to 14 sucky days. After that its over and easy, you may still crave for 3 months or so, but you won't have withdrawal symptoms lasting longer then 10 seconds. Best to avoid smoking friends and alcohol too!
Once you understand the withdrawal process, and that that withdrawal does end, it really isn't too hard. Have faith - it does go away - 9 to 24 days after the last time you touched any level of nicotine.
One last tip - use the withdrawal against itself. Feel that withdrawal? Yah, pretty bad isn't it? Do you really want to allow that feeling to keep controlling your life? If you vape that 12mg on day 7, that's 7 days of agony your gonna have to do all over again.
