Smoking

After being a 20+ smoker for over 40 years I managed to reduce it to 8 to 10 a day around the time the smoking ban came in, but couldn't cut back any further it seemed. Tried patches etc, but they didn't help. I tried herbal cigarettes, yuk, but did like the fact that I was still puffing (as others have said, it is the treat and a moment to contemplate that I enjoyed), so I started to put 5 herbal cigarettes in my 10 a day allowance. I still had my 'fix' but didn't really like it when I had a herbal one. Once I stopped enjoying the smoking it was easier to give up which I finally did 9 years ago, by gradually decreasing the nicotine cigarettes in my daily packet. Maybe worth a try?

I'm not a smoker but can imagine it's a difficult habit to kick.
How about (trying to) taper off by making roll-ups, which are less carciogenic, cheaper and require you to think about making one each time you feel like a drag of the 'deadly smelly weed'...yes, offputting isn't it?
Roll ups don't last as long and often go out (so I'm told) therefore the faff of making and relighting one may be a day (pun intended)
No more buying packets, get the baggy and Rizla and cut down to one 4 times a day then reduce gradually.

* should read: may be a fagnot day.

fag not 'day'

I went cold turkey and gave up completely when the smoking ban came in over 10 years ago. I didn’t want to stand outside in the cold on a night out.
I am so glad I did as I feel much better for it and there is no way I could even take a drag of a cigarette now.
Not everyone can do that though and it took an awful lot of willpower as my husband still smokes.
I would really like him to give up and he has tried vaping but he didn’t get along with it.
I don’t nag him as he needs to decide for himself, but it does drive me crazy as his breath stinks and his teeth are discoloured. Also I get fed up of him always popping out for a cigarette especially when we are on a night out.

DD, a very heavy smoker, went through all the patches etc. which didn't work. Went to a highly recommended hypnotist. DD spoke on the phone for quite a while when DD said she didn't believe it would work but the hypnotist said as long as she really wanted to give up that was the main thing. The hypnotist said if it didn't work she could come for a second appointment but nobody ever had. That was 2 -3 years ago and she has never smoked since. At the time, it cost her about £150, less than the cost of 20 packets of cigarettes.

I gave up after 40 years with Alan Carr but went to his clinic. They have them all over the country.
Otherwise Champix (a tablet) works for some

Many years ago I had acupunture to stop smoking. Needles in each earlobe which, when I had the urge to smoke, I had to press. It worked! Best £10 I ever spent.

I would thoroughly recommend Allen Carr's book as mentioned by others. I read it over several days and by the end I was ready, I read the last few pages went to bed got up the next morning and never smoked again . Give it a try.

I managed to quit by eating liquorice every time I waned to smoke and have been smoke free for 10 years now

I spent some years with NHS Smoking Helpline, and our advice was to set a quit date, and prepare for it. Look at your smoking habits, and reasons why you went back to it in the past. If you think you’ll be stressed, plan how to deal with that, maybe with breathing exercises, or making a playlist of favourite music.If you have one particular fag that you think you’ll struggle to give up, cut it out before your official stop date. Plan to spend that day perhaps by going out with a non smoking friend, buying in a nice treat or two, maybe going to cinema, or swimming. Keeping a bottle of mouthwash in the fridge can help when you have a notion for a cigarette ( I think that’s a better word than craving!).
I spoke to a lady on the helpline once who had labelled all the things she liked in the Argos catalogue, with their equivalent price in packs of cigs! She used to look through it when she had a notion. She also had a stack of travel brochures to plan where she’d go with all the money she’d saved!
Good luck, you can do it!

I was a smoker for nearly 50 years and tried many times to give up, tried patches, gum, pastilles, spray, micro tabs, any of these in combination. Nothing worked and my health was getting worse. Chest infections, short of breath, thin as a rake etc.
Finally asked GP for help and went on the Champix programme. You start the tablets on one a day and continue to smoke for a prearranged time, a week say. Then you go on to two a day and stop smoking. During this time you visit nurse once a fortnight for a chat and a carbon monoxide test which shows whether you've had a cigarette. I hadn't but if you've weakened I assume there's extra help. I found it worked, Champix switches off the sensors in the brain that create the craving. The course lasts twelve weeks and I found that by week ten I didn't need the tablets anymore. Oh the fag free freedom! I can't recommend it enough. My breathing has improved and I can go for a walk with friends. I've also bought a treadmill with the money I've saved, along with a few other treats. I've put on weight, which I needed but you don't have to guzzle chocolate like I did. I've stopped that now. People tell me I look fantastic, and these are people who don't know the story, just notice how much better I look.
Don't be put off by people telling you that Champix gives you nightmares, it didn't for me and I sometimes think these stories are self prophesying.
I can't say I never want a cigarette, a 50 year habit is going to raise its head occasionally, but the urge has gone in a second.
You can also download an app that tells you each day how your health is improving and how much money you've saved. Go for it farview, you'll be so glad you did it. Good luck.

I gave up thirteen years ago with the help of the practice nurse and nicorette gum. I now go on lots of holidays with the money I have saved and so wish I had given up sooner.

My daughter aged 7 guilt tripped me into stopping. Came home from school one day and said

‘Mum do you know every time you have a cigarette, you kill me a little bit with secondhand smoke!’ She’d learnt something at school and brought home the info. ‘Ouch!’

I stopped by doing two things. Watching the clock and keeping my hands busy.

I had (what I now know as my last cigarette but didn’t know it then!) and said to myself. ‘No cigarette for 5 minutes’. I watched every second of that 5 minutes on the clock. Desperate for it to arrive. 5 minutes arrived. And I asked myself ‘Do you NEED another cigarette?’ I didn’t. And was so proud of going 5 minutes I decided to go for 10!

I just kept doubling the time... I’m on my 25 year anniversary on the 11th March.

But I kept my hands (and mind) busy by doing the competitions in some well known magazines. Wasn’t fond of the stories but a £100 voucher, a beautiful pen and a meal for 4 cooked in my home by a top chef and a supply of batteries helped me forget about smoking.

Good luck whatever you decide to do. It’s not easy but it is worth it

Hypnosis really is worth a try............

DH and I gave up around 30 years ago, before patches, books, hypnotism became the thing. I wonder if a combination of some of these things together might do the trick. Anyone tried Paul McKenna's book and hypnosis cd?

try vaping and cutting back on the cigs gradually , so allow yourself 2 cigs in the morning then no more until tea time then one more at night time , vape inbetween then cut a morning cig out and then a tea time cig out , you should just be vaping and cig free in around 3 weeks then gradually cut down on the vaping and only use nicotine vape not the flavoured then you still get a fix

My two colleagues smoked. I was often left in the office for 20 minutes or so while they both went out together for a puff! They had to leave the site as it was an educational establishment.

Unfortunately, one of them lost her husband, very quickly through lung cancer. They both stopped immediately. I still meet up with them and they have never regretted it.

I started vaping when I was on champix and my 'quit day' was looming. I felt absolutely no different, and giving up felt like it would have been cold turkey. Too cowardly to try that!

My friend gave up three days ago as an X-ray has shown a shadow on her lungs Hopefully it’s nothing and she won’t start again.

Champions can have dreadful side effects like depression and suicidal thoughts. Great when might already be depressed t the thought of stopping smoking. Hypnosis and NLP helps to re programme your mind so the idea of stopping and all it means to you becomes much stronger than any desire to smoke. It’s worth considering it and finding a good therapist. And it has no side effects in the way drugs do.

Sorry typo. Champix

I always remember my Mum saying the thing that gave her the biggest kick was the removal of the smoke aroma from her person and home. She was unaware of how awful it was because she was constantly ensconced in it. I never gave it a thought before she mentioned it but never forgot it after she did. Regularly think of that when a smoker sits beside me on the bus.

Its also worth remembering that we are programmed to think that giving up will give us terrible withdrawal symptoms. It doesn't at all. The worse that will happen is that you will really want a fag.
We're told 'consult your doctor before giving up' which is ridiculous!

The problem with vaping is that it just feeds the nicotine addiction - rather like all the other stop smoking aids. My partner was on tabs for about three years because the craving was always there. He’s ‘clean’ now, but it was a real struggle. There may be some merit using substitutes weaning by reducing nicotine levels, but like Boxing Day there is cold turkey down the line!