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 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 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.

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I got tired enough of coughing all the time that i quit cold turkey 1.5 years ago.

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 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.

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.

Smoked for 8 years, a pack a day, sometimes more.

One day I was suffering really bad from depression, that’s when I suddenly decided that I’ve stopped smoking. The cravings were rough, but I powered through. A year and half later my life got much better, unfortunately at that time I picked it up again, for another year.

I knew I shouldn’t continue this habit, I actually hated it, but I became it’s slave once more, a pack a day again. This time however, I had an aim of improving my physical and mental health. I joined a gym and went for daily runs. I noticed that after a run I wouldn’t crave a cigarret for hours. After months of training, I increased my gym/running activity to 2 hrs and quit smoking at the same time. It was easier than before.

Unfortunately again, I started using nicotine pouches thinking I wouldn’t get addicted to it. For half a year I used it, before again starting gym and running and then quit nicotine altogether. Initially it was a bit rough as my mental health wasn’t too good at that time, but now after a month, I don’t even get the cravings either. Hopefully I won’t Crack this time

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 smoked for 23 years- started when I was 11 and tried quitting several times. I legitimately thought I was never going to be able to quit and cigarettes were hitting $15 a pack and I was at a loss. I wasn’t ready to quit- I enjoy smoking- but I couldn’t keep up with the cost of living and the cost of smoking so I went on Champex (Chantix in the US).

I may not have been ready to quit, but it definitely made me ready. It started by making me nauseous and blocking my nicotine receptors before I even finished my first round of pills ( it is typically up to a year and it took 3 months for me) I was so done with cigarettes. I was super resistant to quitting too. That shit worked so well. 4 years later and I can’t even stand the smell of someone’s cigarette wafting across my nose.

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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.