figure out when you smoke and why.
if we're talking a pack a day habit, that's something else entirely.

do you think if you didn't smoke for a while you could keep it up?

Tried the patch, started smoking again. The only thing that worked for me was quitting cold turkey. I set a date and stuck to it. It suuuuucked: I felt like I had the flu; I was weak, exhausted, confused. But after a couple weeks, I felt pretty darn good and really proud of myself. Not only will you be proud of yourself, but your daughter will be too.

Also, my friend's tried those herbal things (like they sell at Whole Foods) at least four times. He starts smoking again each time.

It also helped me to keep track of exactly how far I'd come by using the Stop Smoking Quitmeter.

Fear.

Eight days in ICU under an oxygen tent with an undiagnosed lung ailment was a really good incentive for me to quit smoking. I highly recommend it.

How about a support group, or a quit partner? Maybe thinking of your daughter every time you get the urge to light up will be incentive enough, right? I mean...you promised.

i reccommend passing out for a few days so it's out of your system and then drinking orange juice when you get a craving.

i wean off and stop now and then, but i like having the option.

we could nag you as long as you didn't feel the need to lie to us.

because you promised

A pack a day for 22 years. I started smoking out of rebellion/ersatz coolness; now I smoke out of boredom or if something is bothering me or I'm happy or I just ate something or if I'm having coffee or...

Support would be nice. I don't really have anyone to yell at me if I slip up, so nag away. Thanks for the quitmeter - that's cool beans.

"Eight days in ICU under an oxygen tent with an undiagnosed lung ailment was a really good incentive for me to quit smoking. I highly recommend it"

Oddly enough, I quit first, then three days later ended up in the hospital with a mystery lung ailment. Turned out to be an abscess on my lung, but for a while they were convinced it was TB and everyone who came to visit me in my sterile little room had to wear a mask.

But yeah, nothing puts the fear of God into you like lying there thinking your lungs are dying.

i'd suggest trying to cold turkey or wean down now, let yoursaelf smoke during any actual holiday stress, and then wean your way to goodbye. have a last farewell.

dates don't mean much but this way you and we all know when you decided to make it a real effort.

do it for the kids yeah
or at least stop smoking in the house.

I suggest Commit lozenges for those times when you feel like you're going to jump out of your own skin.

I don't smoke in the house or the car (why do I even bother?). I will totally need my fix while I visit my folks next week. Let's go with January 2. Y'all with me?

And thanks for the suggestions, everybody. I'm going to research the available products further before I go out and buy anything.

I smoked between 1 1/2 to 2 packs of Marlboro reds a day for over 14 years and the only thing that made me even think of quitting was a health scare (perceived heart attack). I seriously thought if I kept smoking I was a goner, so I perused my options; cold turkey had worked in the past but only for a limited time, the patch wouldn't stay on me and left a nasty, itchy rash and nicotine gum tastes like orange flavored ass. I had a friend who had been successful due to acupuncture so I tried it and it worked for me. It was about 10 or so treatments and a run of several herbs (to relax and cleanse mostly)and I haven't smoked since. I credit the treatments with my success in halting my cravings but it was my willpower that made it all work. I had tired to quit for my folks (cash incentive) and my long term girlfriend but unless you do it for you, your chances aren't the best; you will just feel more guilty when you find yourself with a butt in your hand.

Behold the power of advertising! Not a smoker, these these ads certainly creep me out each time I see them.

Anthony Hicks
Janice (there's an even better one with her in; can't find it)
Litte Girl

Not too preachy like most other ads.

I quit before I got pregnant with my daughter using the gum. But I started again after she was born. (Never ever near her, though.)

I'm in the process of quitting again now. I have a really, really good doctor who sat down with me for a long time and talked about how I smoke, why and when. He concluded (and I agree) that my smoking is more habit than addiction and has had me cut out one cigarette from my routine about every 3 weeks. Frankly, I don't know anyone who quit by cutting back gradually like this, but it has been working really well for me. Maybe because my doctor does such a good job of tracking my progress. (Doctors who use e-mail are awesome for this kind of thing.) I find that I often smoke even less than I'm "allowed" to and will probably just make the plunge to 0 after the holidays.

My husband, on the other hand, quit 6 months ago using Wellbutrin. He was at about 2 packs a day (way more than I could ever smoke) and he's done really well.

1 1/2 packs of menthols a day for 20+ years. My father is dying of emphysema. My grandfather died of congestive heart failure. My mother's sister died of cancer.

I quit for eight months once, three months of it using Zyban. Apparently, Zyban is not good if you live in the UK.

My thoughts will be with you, good luck.

I am now on day two with a 21mg patch and it is going well. Lots of Jolly Ranchers and sunflower seeds the last couple days also. You said five years ago the patch adhesive irritated you, maybe now they have better adhesives or try a different brand?

Also, if you do such things, pray.

P.S. When I was in Canada last summer, I noticed they have great warning labels on their cigarette packs.

I quit for six months after my heart attack.

Then I went on vacation and met a bikini-clad 19-year-old with an eye-catching figure who lit my cigarettes by taking the first puff herself. That was too much incentive.

Ok, three months, I guess. Two and a half, anyway.

It helps to have a replacement addiction I think. I quit smoking earlier this year. Instead of smoking, I drank a can of Coke (might not be the safest alternative, perhaps there's a better addictive substance). I quit the Coke thing too. I replaced that with eating cashews. Not as addictive, but neither is Coke as addictive as cigarettes (or maybe it is, psychologically it isn't). So I guess for me, the idea was to switch addictions until I was addicted to something that wasn't so bad. But that means you have to go for things that aren't as bad as cigarettes, so heroin is out of the question... as is cocaine.

Disclosure: I'm only 21 and had only smoked for four years. Last year was the only year I had smoked heavily (roughly a pack every two days).

The best way to quit is never to start. Teach your children well. Best of luck to you.

Also, I'd just like to point out that I love that I just commented on one thread recommending different types of cigarettes and now this thread recommending methods to quit cigarettes.

I smoked a pack a day for 20 years. Took Zyban for a month. I simply had no more craving on the eighth morning. Have not had a cigarette in the 7 years since. Worked well for my girlfriend too.

I hope that "after the new year" can be re-interpreted as when you are ready and you really want to quit for your own reasons. That is the only way it will work in my experience.

When I quit (I quit for five years and started up again for the dumbest of "reasons") it was cold turkey but I set a date well ahead of time and did what I could to prepare myself psychologically. In my case that mostly consisted of encouraging myself to HATE my addiction to cigarettes: the cost, the smell, the hassle, and the massive industry that profits from this incredibly destructive addiction, laughing all the way to the bank. And a week before my quit date I bought a carton of Marlboros and smoked 'em hard 'til I hated the taste. That's an old chestnut but in my case I think it helped as I was thoroughly disgusted by the taste when Q-day arrived.

There weren't all the options that there are these days but I held on to the (true) belief that the first week is the worst, the second is bad and it gets better exponentially from there on.

Also: cravings never entirely go away but they are, in my experience, truly as short-lived as they are intense. Sometimes they last a few minutes, sometimes just an instant, but they are never so long-lasting that it is worth throwing away all the time you have spent fighting--and beating--the withdrawl symptoms.

And yeah, I gained a few pounds initially but I soon got back into some exercise and shed the pounds and within four months I couldn't believe I had ever been a smoker. Really. It is an amazingly liberating and empowering feeling to quit. The first time you smell a smoker you'll know what I mean.

I am going to quit again in the new year. I know I can do it and I know that no matter what method I choose it is going to be tough but I *can* do it and it is even more worth doing than I am feeling right now. Good luck!

I quit smoking when I was pregnant with each of my kids but started up again after they were born. I never smoked when they were in the room, but you know, it affected them, although I played games convincing myself otherwise. Even after my daughter had over 30 ear infections by the time she was 3, and doctors insisted there was a link between parental smoking and childhood ear infections, I refused to believe it because it was easier for me to keep smoking. It's really easy to just keep smoking, isn't it? So I had the lung ailment in the hospital thing, and quit smoking, and my daughter never had another ear infection.

Talk about feeling like shit.

So I commend you for trying to quit. It's hard. I support you. January 2nd - I'll mark it on my calendar.

If its not already been mentioned, Allen Carr's Easy way to give up Smoking has some great advice.

To summarise: you are an addict, and while the addiction is bad, its something you can get out of your system. The psychological barriers to you quitting tho might be more problematic but nothing that cant be solved. But the guy (who smoked up to 100 a day and then quit to 0) has a lot of sense and speaks a lot of truth, more than i can in this post. Will power, nicoteen crutches like patches or gum won't help.

There is nothing good in smoking. And think, you're not giving any thing up. You're gaining your health, more money, self-respect, respect of others, not smelling like a bar...

[/allen carr fan club]

Trust me, the man makes a lot of sense.

ps. i smoke. and im in his book right now.

Seconding urbanwhaleshark's recommendation of the Allen Carr method. I quit smoking at the end of October, after reading his book, and found that ceasing a long-term pack-a-day habit was actually pretty painless. There were moments of yearning for the familiar comfort of the smoking ritual, but I haven't had any desire to resume sucking actual cigarette smoke into my body, and I feel comfortably certain that I'll never resume smoking again. (Which is something, since my life pattern has been quit/resume/quit/resume/etc.)

Wow. I didn't expect such a deluge of support. I'm humbled. And motivated. Thank you so much.

Also, as someone who watched her half-pack-a-day Dad quit, I have to say that there are few things he could have done that would have made me as proud of him as watching him beat his smoking habit. Good on you, it's a good thing you're doing!

panoptican's suggestion of a replacement addiction is a good one, in my opinion. But then again, I am a pack-a-day smoker, so my opinion does not hold much weight. Firefox extension