And how long have you been a non-smoker?
For me, at the time it was the realization that I cannot continue to smoke and continue to play the trumpet. My lung volume and strength really suffered. But instead of stopping to smoke, for many months I played less and less trumpet.
What put me through the phase of actually smoking the last cigarette and becoming a non-smoker again, was one of the books of Allen Carr, I don’t remember the exact title. Looking back, it was awfully written, and I had to will my way through believing the narrative, but it worked. That was 27 years ago, and I didn’t have one cigarette since, no cravings and no replacement either.
I vaguely remember Allen Carr, but what helped was a small book that i found in a second hand bookstore in Paris, which was called: Comment S’arreter De Fumer En Cinq Jours. A quick search learns that apparently it was written by Dr J. Wayne Mcfarland and Elman J. Folkenberg. It was in french, but that didn’t stop me, it was a small book and very helpful.
I was able to stop after trying to stop 7 times in two months. The 7th time worked. If i remember correctly i used breathing exercises and nicotine gum. I also avoided the couch where i would smoke after diner, instead doing something else.
The most important thing that helped was to change how i was thinking. Every attempt failed because i lit up a cigarette and then thinking; i failed, might as well continue smoking. However, the 7th time it dawned on me that smoking 1 cigarette does not mean you failed. You can put it out and just continue to not smoke. It was just the mind tricking me in continuing with my addiction. Thankfully, hardly anyone around me smoked and that was a great help. I stopped 22 years ago and i had been quite a heavy smoker, a packet of cigarettes a day.
I had a very similar experience. I heard a phrase that allowed me to understand, and that one phrase made me quit.
“The mind of an addict continually searches for an excuse to relapse.”
That’s really the key isn’t it! What the mind wants is so much more the struggle than what the body wants. Even though physical cravings can be awful, it’s the mind that steers the wheel. Thanks for sharing; i hope this sentence will help people abandon their addictions, whatever they may be.
The price! After yet another tax hike I was fed up, and it was my motivation to stop after smoking for over 10 years. I did the maths and realised how many other things I could be doing (and enjoying) and that was that. I never thought that being a tight ass would have been so powerful!
I started smoking cigarette when I was just turning 17. Initially it was because “the cool kids” do it. Then I would do it to find interesting conversations with people (which I did). This went on for about a year until I accepted that I smoke.
Later on in life, I also picked up weed; and even later on, coffee. Life was good, at least for a good while, before the accumulating anxiety creeped up on me. At this point, I was smoking between half to one pack a day.
Finally, I decided to just quit cigarette. It didn’t exactly take much effort to go against the craving (the weed helps, I guess). The hardest part was the lethargic feeling. Nothing I couldn’t handle, tho. Cocaine withdrawal was way worse. Still, I needed for cups of coffee accompanied by a fat joint for each cup just tp get thru each day.
After a week or two, I was able to taper down on the coffee and the weed. All was good then. Within the first few years, I would dream about smoking cigarettes every now and then, but I never have gotten some real craving or anything.
This past couple of years, I was able to smoke cigarette socially when I meet with old friends and then live without any with no craving at all. The last cigarette I smoked was earlier this year.
I smoked for about 4 years or so from the time I left high school and most of college. I only smoked a few cigarettes a day, but it was noticeably eating into my food budget. I was a poor student, so it was really noticeable. One day I bought some groceries and a pack of cigarettes and I realized half the cost was the cigarettes. And then I just stopped buying any.
It sucked, but that was maybe 6 years ago. For months I’d pass smokers on the street and it would smell like heaven, and I’d crave the stuff, but I simply didn’t buy any. I don’t buy cigarettes and don’t consider myself a smoker but if I’m at a party and there are smokers I usually bum cigarettes off of them. It’s harder to make the right choice when you’re drunk. It kind of sucks to think that I’m basically hooked on them forever to some degree.
I got tired enough of coughing all the time that i quit cold turkey 1.5 years ago.
