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 9 years. I found myself bumming more than smoking at a certain point, but kept buying them because of the social aspect. I had to convince myself finally that I hated the taste, so I focused on every drag and tried to find the parts I really disliked. Sometimes I would smoke brands I knew I hated. Eventually that worked and every cigarette I had tasted awful.

I smoked for about 9 years. Motivation was 2 fold—I was sick of having to choke down nicotine and no one in my social circle smoked anymore. What really helped me quit was, of all the stupid things, nibbling on tea tree oil toothpicks anytime the thought of smoking a cigarette crossed my mind. Probably also helped that I had managed to cut down to about two american spirit light cigs a day prior to stopping. With the exception of two or three cheap cigars I’ve been smoke free since 2016.

I got a job as a karate instructor when I moved back after college. I taught ages 3 to 18.

Those kids, man. They look at you like you’re a goddamn superhero. I’m not kidding. And because I taught all the classes, I had about 300 kids all looking up to me as a role model. I became petrified that one of them would catch me out somewhere smoking and I’d have to explain why they shouldn’t do something that their hero does.

I phased it out, bit by bit. I cut down on one cigarette each full week until I was smoking three a day. Then I spent a couple weeks smoking only one in the am and one on my way home from work. Then down to just one on my way home from work every day.

I’d heard that the third day of quitting is the worst to get through, but for me it was day 5 of no cigarettes. I remember it so vividly because of how gd angry I was that day, at everything. I realized halfway through that this was the point where things would get easier, and they did.

So, I have all my students from that time to thank for being the reason I quit, even if they’ll never know it, they probably saved my life. :)

I struggled with quitting for about 5 years, I felt my stamina get destroyed and realized how much it was costing me financially, so I tried several times. I got panic attacks, something I never dealt with before, the last couple of times I tried. Finally about 3 or 4 years ago I smoked my last cigarette, somehow I didn’t get a panic attack. I don’t remember the day because in my mind, to not smoke I can’t be too serious about the importance of all of it, smoking is a ritual and if I allow myself to think about dates and anniversaries around quitting it will just drive me to it again. Smoking has to be something I don’t think about at all.

I still use nicotine. I’ll have a cigar every now and then, I vape a little, but man there’s something else going on with cigarettes. Quitting nicotine by itself is easy, even having some tobacco every now and then doesn’t cause me to crave anything. I can go hours after waking up without vaping and feel nothing, whereas with cigarettes, I planned my entire day around smoking them and how many I had left. If I smoked a single one right now I’d be smoking a pack a day for who knows how long before I succeed again, I can’t have a single drag off a cigarette for the rest of my life. Quitting cigarettes, even with nicotine to sate me, was hard as fucking hell. I don’t know what they do to those things but they’re addictive in some way beyond nicotine and it’s a motherfucker.

I was living in my one bedroom hovel, chainsmoking like a fiend. I didn’t leave the apartment for days. When I finally stepped out one day to go to the video store, I realized that I smelled like a dirty ashtray. I returned from the video store and lit another cigarette and it tasted like I smelled.

I quit pretty much cold turkey after that.

That was 2001.

My story, and my motives, will probably be different from a lot of accounts posted here.

I started smoking in 1988 and ultimately quit in 2009…so a run of about 21 years, which means I’ve been free from it for 14 years.

My Story: My tobacco of choice was ‘Drum’ and I hand-rolled and smoked without filters. I liked Drum because it tasted great to me, I liked the idea of hand-crafting each and every cigarette I smoked, and it was a pretty cool party-trick to be able to produce perfect hand-rolls out of tobacco or whatever - where ever I was, I was always the designated roller. It was also WAY cheaper than traditional cigarettes - I could buy a can of Drum that would produce 250 cigarettes for $12 - and that was due to a loophole in the state’s cigarette tax. Prior to 2009, the state only heavily taxed cigarettes, but not the individual supplies to make cigarettes (like loose tobacco). That loophole got closed in 2009 and the cost of a can of loose tobacco went up from $12 to $49 over night. I’d known for a while that I should probably quit, but I just never got to that mental acceptance of doing it, until this new tax came along. Ultimately, I decided I just wasn’t going to pay that new tax and so I didn’t really decide to quit smoking, I decided I was going to quit buying tobacco (which has the same end result). At first, I started cutting back, to make my remaining supply of tobacco last as long as possible. The lower my stock got, the farther back I cut down. At first it was limiting myself to 4 a day… then 2 a day (that I would smoke over 4 sessions), then 1 a day that I’d light and inhale a few times and put out and save for later. I stretched this out for months…and then one day it was gone. I didn’t use any medical aids, I didn’t use any substitution with something else. I just quit. I should also mention that I’d also always enjoyed cigars…and typically enjoyed about 6 cigars a year, but I’d decided to cut that out also. Shortly after quitting, I told myself that I’d treat myself to a cigar only after I could go 1-full-month without thinking about smoking. This went on for months, and I actually thought about smoking all the time. At first, several times a day…and then several times a week, and then eventually just once in a while. It actually took about a year after quitting that a friend and I were talking about it (he was quitting also) and I realized I hadn’t thought about smoking for several months. Finally, I seemed to have fully broken both the physical and mental addiction. It was about six months after that that I decided to treat myself to a cigar. These days, I have about 3 cigars a year (all on special occasions) - which is a small enough number not to re-kindle my desire to smoke more.

It’s nice to be escaped from the habit, the financial burden of it, and the negative health aspects. The other great side effects: lower life insurance premiums, whiter teeth (and easier/quicker dental cleanings), clothes that don’t smell like smoke.

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I quit in 2019, by basically OD-ing on the patch. I had multiple patches on me at all times; at the end, it felt like my skin was burning

I smoked for 23 years technically. I was mostly vaping the last 9 years of that and used vaping to lower my nicotine gradually. When I got to the point I was vaping without nicotine it still took a while to finally quit, but I finally did at the beginning of 2020.

Now I hate the smell and don’t crave them at all. I wish I would’ve done it sooner.

Remember that you don’t actually want it. It’s just a chemical your body is addicted to.

I discovered the vape-world and I loved it! It was easy from there, now I’m more then 4y without cigarettes and 1y without nicotine.

I wanted to quit but couldn’t. I read Allan carrs quit smoking book and how they described what the nicotine does did it for me.

It helped finally understanding how the addiction works, and how I was constantly just trying to get to a normal baseline of living that non smokers just lived at normally.

Ive tried vaping, gum, lozenges, cold Turkey, everything. Almost a year free from nicotine now, no regrets, not missing a damn thing.

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