GOOD LUCK!!!! It ain't easy to quit and more importantly to stay quit, but IT IS POSSIBLE!!!

What I will tell you is that I'm now 60 years old and I started smoking at 10 years old. When I quit(about 3 years ago) I was smoking between 4-5 packs a day. I actually liked to smoke and had no intention of ever stopping.
All it took for me to quit was
a middle of the night emergency room visit, I couldn't breath
open heart surgery,
a month stay in the hospital,
having a pacemaker installed in my chest
followed by several months recoup time.

Time and FEAR has helped to keep me clean since then. After you quit the longer you stay away from smoking the easier it becomes to stay quit. The month stay in the hospital really helped alot as it allowed the nicotine to get out of my system and disrupted my daily smoking habit. I quit "cold turkey".
Don't get me wrong "I STLL WANT TO SMOKE" and from what I've heard from other former smokers I always will. Staying nicotine free is now a life long BATTLE I engage in EVERY single day, although some days are easier than others.
MY main message would be to young people, "IF YOU DON"T SMOKE, DON"T START"!!!! Smoking is an addiction you pick up as a youth, you seldom see a person over say 30 picking up the smoking habit

Smoking will affect different people in different ways. My father smoked, he died a young man when I was 4 years old of lung cancer. I always anticipated dying the same way. Believe it or not my lungs are prefect!! What smoking did for me was wreck my heart and circulatory system, I have diabetes and peripheral artery disease(my legs hurt to walk any distance) which was at least helped along by the smoking. My gums are bad from all the years of sucking super heated smoke over them. Because of my circulatory issues I get to live(for the rest of my life) with the fear of losing(through amputation) my legs, feet or other body parts.

Bottom line @Dzia Dzia:
IT"S DAMN HARD TO QUIT SMOKING,but WELL WORTH THE EFFORT!!

Good luck. It takes will power and a determination to live a healthier lifestyle.

My smoking experience mirrors yours. Started at thirteen, quit for about 9 months in my early thirties. started again and smoked till an asthma attack put me in the hospital for a week.
My first cigarette after getting out made me dizzy enough to fall over. I pretty much knew from that that the nicotine had cleared my system enough I could stay off them. I stay off them by picturing myself in a hospital bed gasping for air.
Still crave them occasionally though, but that passes after a few minutes.

It helps with the oral fixation. You can also use sugarless gum, candy, beef jerky etc. if you were a smokeless tobacco user, you could use products like smokey mountain, bac off, jakes mint, etc.

There is nothing wrong with attacking the nicotine witbdrawals first then breaking the oral fixation later. Some do it all at once. I firmly believe that breaking the oral fixation is vital to quitting. It'll take ya around 90 days or so to break the oral fixation. That's pretty typical.

What active nicotine addicts fail to realize and appreciate is that there is a marked difference between craving nicotine and an urge associated with an oral fixation. Learning the difference between the two will help you. Arming yourself with knowledge is the single best thing you can do to help you.

When I get to the office a bit later, I will try to post some links for you. Ceasing nicotine use is but one factor in remaining nicotine free. Your recovery is grounded in arming yourself with knowledge. You are worth every second it takes to invest in yourself to live free of nicotine addiction.

I have been smoking for over 10 years. I quit once for a year or so and in that time I couldn't stand the sight or smell of tobacco. once I picked them back up I haven't been able to quit again. I have a similar story as I keep trying to quit but I don't try very hard.

This, to me, is one of the best threads I have encountered on any shave forum. I smoked for 20 plus years and quit while in my early forties. I was amazed at the changes in my health and cardiovascular system that took place. I tried the nicotine gum but it did not work...I had to rid my body of all nicotine and once that was done, to urge or need to smoke went away. How did I quit? Woke up one morning and decided that, for health reasons, I had to stop. I tossed the smokes and never looked back. It is one of the best decisions ever made.

If you decide to use gum out lozenges I would suggest you keep some around for a couple months even after you stop using them on a daily basis. I found that about 3 months after I quit dipping that I would get stressed and really crave some nicotine. Having 1 or 2 lozenges on hand would keep me from going back to dip. Going on 7 years tobacco and nicotine free.

I'll be praying for strength, conviction, determination and grace for all who have fought or in the midst of the battle against nicotine-addiction.
With my having lost many family members to smoking-related deaths far too early in their lives, I am well aware of the inherent dangers and struggles these dear people faced.

I started when I was around 10, maybe earlier, pack of cigs and a book of matches cost a quarter from a vending machine, I liked Camels and Lucky Strikes. I quit when I was in my thirties, well actually shifted to cigars and pipes. Gave it all up in 1988. When I quit cigs there were no "aids", one just sucked it up and quit cold turkey.

Dzia Dzia (and anyone else who is interested),

Here are some links that I quickly found on Google regarding addiction. When I began arming myself with knowledge about addiction, I also watched lots of Youtube videos. You'll find there are numerous ideas on treatment, if you can be cured, etc. In your search, I highly encourage you to find and read scholarly articles on addiction, even nicotine addiction, specifically. While those papers/thesis/articles may hypothesize about various treatments, look for the common denominator: "What is addiction?" and "Am I an addict?" It doesn't matter if the topic of the article is illegal drugs, nicotine, sex, so forth and so on. Addiction is addiction is addiction, and it effects each person differently, but categorically the same in the broader sense by the simple definition of "addiction." Nicotine addiction has some differences from alcohol addiction and illegal drug addiction. That area is where people can find what is the "best fit" for them when determining their approach to quitting.

Here are some links for you about "addiction," not necessarily about nicotine addiction:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/addiction

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/info/addiction/ (Do you have an addiction or a habit?)

http://www.addiction.com/

http://report.nih.gov/nihfactsheets/viewfactsheet.aspx?csid=38

Something that has helped me is reading all of the chapters on the next link I post for you. This information is specific to nicotine addiction. I am going to post the link to "Chapter 2 The Law of Addiction" but highly encourage you to read all of these (i.e., you are worth investing in yourself). This is not my site. I don't have any affiliation with it other than using it as my own personal resource and effective tool in my quit. To read the rest of the chapters, scroll to the bottom of the document and you will see the links for each chapter. (The links are on page 12, btw.)

http://whyquit.com/FFN/chapters/FFN_02_Law.pdf


"Just one" is too many, and a thousand can never be enough. You may set a 2 month window to quit, and you may actually quit by doing so. However, the number of people that are successful using that method is much less - what I mean is that date rarely comes. It doesn't mean people can't do it that way. You know you better than anyone else, so determine if you will actually stick with it by setting a date out. What happens time and time again is that date gets replaced with another date because: 1) you still have a roll of dip or a carton of cigs laying around, 2) a half smoked pack of cigs, a full tin of dip left, 3) a family member has a medical emergency, 4) you are undergoing some life event you couldn't foresee when you set your quit date (one example could be divorce, or suddenly lose your job), etc. Those who use nicotine substitutes/alternatives are only prolonging the withdrawals. Those alternatives only nurse the withdrawal symptoms. You won't break free until you put nicotine down and not pick it back up. How much will you crave? I don't know. It certainly stands to reason, and is the rule and not the exception, that nicotine leaving an addict's body will cause withdrawals, regardless of the delivery method. People who don't have withdrawals or only very minor withdrawals are in the vast minority. I would wonder if they were habitual users/abusers as opposed to being a full blown addict. Understand I am not poking fun at people who set dates or who use nicotine alternatives. I was one of them that did just that. I am simply asking you what is wrong with quitting "today?" Are you ready to quit or just know you need to? Every drag you pull (or every dip you put in your mouth), you are running the risk of the cancer producing cell 'turning on' or having a heart attack, stroke, etc. That decision is solely yours. I can't quit for you, but I'll dang sure quit with you on any day of the week - but only on the days that end in "y."

I smoked for about 7 years and I hbe been using an electronic cigarette for the past 2 years. I can't tell you how much better I feel not hacking and reeking like smoke. So you can try the e-cig or you can also smoke real ones hold in each drag you take until you can't hold it anymore and do that for 8 consecutive cigarettes. I'm sure you won't want another one after that. You'll feel sick as hell but that's what you need. You need the correlation of smoking and feeling sick because of it.

I quit about 35 years ago with a few of my friends. We got hypnotized, and it actually worked. The key, I believe, is that you first want to quit, and second you have others to support you. Now I'm addicted to Mega stuffed Oreos.

We've known for a very long time that 2+2 = 4....that information isn't less valid because of its age. I'd be very cautious of "new research" showing nicotine isn't addictive. (I saw that when you first made your post and just wanted to comment on that point) Is the Mayo Clinic wrong in their claim that nicotine is addictive? I'd side with the Mayo Clinic on that one. You said the 4 ingredients in a vaporizer but did not say MAOI's. Does that mean vaporizers don't contain MAOI's? Are vaporizers addictive? (Consider the 85% stat you threw out there touting it's success.) According to this "new research" vaporizers shouldn't be addictive, right? It certainly sounds like 85% of smokers, who according to the info you posted, are addicted to the MAOI's and the nicotine in tobacco...how is it they can with 85% chance stay on vaporizers alone/nicotine alone if it isn't addictive and feeding their nicotine craving?

I was thinking of something clever to say then just said out loud "What kind of vitamin gives you cancer" (vitamin d) and started laughing to myself.....

Sorry, carry on

I agree that not everyone that smokes is addicted to nicotine or MAOI's, and also with some aren't addicted at all. My close friend can puff a cigar and not feel the need to smoke. There is no way on this earth I could do that. One hit of nicotine right now, and I'd be face deep in a can of dip by tonight. That's my journey, though. I accept it.

This has intrigued me a bit, so I don't mean to come across as argumentative. I know there are lots of areas still not fully understood regarding vaporizers. However, my question is if its the MAOI's, why not just Rx the anti-depressants of this family to a nicotine user, smoker, vapor user, dipper, etc. Shouldn't that satisfy the craving for the addiction to the MAOI/tobacco produced crave? What happens if they stop taking the anti depressant? Do they want the anti depressant or tobacco?

This is deep. Reading this would make me want to never ever smoke. Thank you so much for sharing.

I'm aware of Chantix. I've never used it. I quit cold turkey but considered it as an option if I felt I wouldn't be able to cold turkey quit. It was definitely an alternative to using nicotine. I'm aware of litigation involving Chantix. I refused my lawyer friend's request to send people to him that have taken Chantix.

You said you are addicted to nicotine. Are you addicted to the MAOI's or just the nicotine?