I am struggling with my nicotine addiction. When I came back to my country 13 years ago, I used no nicotine products, but in the society people smoke tobacco a lot and I picked up this habit too. I want to get rid of it, how did you do it?
Giving up smoking’s easy! I’ve done it many times!
Honestly wish I knew. Seems a lot of will power, determination, learn what works and what doesn’t each time you try.
Some do swear by a book Easy way to quit smoking by Allen Carr.
Meds have also improved. Are some specific meds for addiction in the mentally ill that have been helpful with quitting smoking. . I can’t remember any names though.
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I had to taper slowly… relapse… not beat myself up when I picked up the smokes again…
Try again…
and I had help from a friend who encouraged me when I could hold steady at one less smoke each time.
It also helped me when I figured out that I was smoking for more reasons then just the nicotine. I was smoking as a social crutch too.
When I got better at handling stress in other ways… it helped me get rid of the smokes. Still NOT easy… but at least I could understand why I was using cigarettes the way I was.
Good luck and I’m rooting for you.
It is not easy to quit but can be done. It is now eight years for me since I’ve stopped. I draw up a list of reasons why I wanted to stop and I set a target date for me to quit. I went over that list a hundred times or more until the day I stopped. So when I stopped I had a lot of reasons going in my mind why I wanted to stop. It worked for me.
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I have been off for over 3 weeks now and this is my second and hopefully last attempt in giving up.
The first 2 weeks are the toughest and the day seems to take longer. On average each craving lasts for around 3-5 minutes at first so if you can get through that then you are on your way.
The most important thing to do is educate yourself so you know what to expect. Here are a couple of links
There are also forums like this where other people are trying to quit as well. The people are friendly and supportive if you ever need to talk to someone about it
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCEQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.quitsmokingmessageboard.com%2F&ei=RPX1VJHSOYKxaaiZgDg&usg=AFQjCNHjb-EINdf3Awvi2n5E9wzt8DC5wg
I forgot to say, chewing a lot of gum helps as well.
Chantix, in less than a week it totally destroyed any urge or craving to smoke.
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I sucked 60 a day hurriedly and deeply into my lungs every day in the hope that by not enjoying smoking i would somehow give it up - terrified of getting cancer and full of self hatred for it
then i tried for about 8 years on and off, it was hard
then i tried one more time and it was easy,
it’s been almost 8 years 9 months and it’s been easy…
i used a lot of nicotine replacement (patches are best, and lozenges helped me a lot)
patches get you used to being on a level all the time it’s really great getting off the craving cycle
you wouldn’t even get that with an ecig
You have to want to stop and mean it. Think it over as you smoke. The day will come when you just stop. Your habit has to cause you emotional and mental pain. You have to think it over. You have to mean it. Time will pass and you will be stuck with the wish to stop. It will override any wish to buy cigarettes. Just stop then. The nicotine is not really the problem. It’s the wish to smoke or not smoke that’s is important. You will know when you can stop and then you will stop. I was smoking four packs of Pall Malls at the age of 67. It was hell. I just stopped. I had wanted to stop for years. The day came and I stopped.
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The only thing that worked for me was switching to ecigs. I feel that I could quit those soon if I wanted to. They’re supposed to be a lot less harmful than real cigarettes. There was no way I could ever feel that I could quit real cigarettes, so maybe you could try ecigs as an intermediate step to quitting nicotine.
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It is not an easy job to quit smoking. I have been a chain smoker for 8 years and some health problems forced me to quit this habit. To be frank, I love smoking, I had smoked to get free from all my tensions. But due to my bad health condition, I had tried to quit smoking, but failed. Whenever I tried to avoid smoking, it had increased my anxiety and anger. I have an urge to smoke always and difficult to sleep too. Later, I had joined in Edgewood, an addiction treatment center in British Columbia (http://www.edgewood.ca/) to quit smoking. They prepared a recovery plan for me which includes yoga, meditation, exercises, adequate sleep, hydrotherapy and some other medications. It had helped me to overcome the addiction withdrawal symptoms. If you are planning for a self-help plan, then you should prepare for the withdrawal symptoms. Drink plenty of water, sleep well, get engaged in other interesting activities like sports, music, painting etc. These techniques may help you to deviate your thoughts off smoking. All the best 
Everyone who has quit has a different story. You have to find your own best way. And you can only do that by trying – usually over and over again, but sometimes first try. I tried every gimmick and then quit cold turkey.