Popular Post MickinMD ★ Posted February 20, 2022 Popular Post Share #1 Posted February 20, 2022 I just saw, for the first time in a long time, a "Nicorette" TV commercial - wearing a nicotine patch to help quit smoking. I've always wondered at the success rate of using crutches to quit vs quitting cold turkey - cold turkey being how I finally succeeded in quitting. Like Mark Twain, I can say, "Quitting smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I've done it a thousand times." I smoked more than a pack a day tried, and failed a number of times when quitting cigarettes involved things like switching to a pipe or trying to limit myself to 4 low-nicotine cigarettes a day to wean myself. It didn't help that my relatives and most of my friends smoked. Soon I'd be back to my normal habit. Then on August 9, 1996, a couple months short of my 46th birthday, my cousin and husband, living out in the country, had quit for a couple years and needed my help building a small gazebo in their yard. I decided to spend a week with them and quit cold turkey. It helped that they kept cases of wine in stock and drank a lot of it. I did, too, and it got me through the week. After about another week back at home, I knew I had successfully kicked the habit. My mother quit the next month, my sister and BiL did late in the year and my brother and SiL did early the next year. Once I got the ball rolling, it was easier for the others to quit with less and less temptation to smoke around them. 5 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rattlecan ★ Posted February 20, 2022 Share #2 Posted February 20, 2022 I quit cold turkey in 1977 at the ripe old age of 23. I had a well developed habit by the time I was in my mid teens. 2 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Square Wheels Posted February 20, 2022 Share #3 Posted February 20, 2022 I never quit 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shootingstar Posted February 20, 2022 Share #4 Posted February 20, 2022 I never smoked. Zero interest. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisL Posted February 20, 2022 Share #5 Posted February 20, 2022 Never smoked. I did dip in the Army, mostly out in the field not in garrison duty but quit that after I got out. My wife’s parents both smoked and she started in her teens. She smoked periodically until she became pregnant with our first child and hasn’t smoked since. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post petitepedal ★ Posted February 20, 2022 Popular Post Share #6 Posted February 20, 2022 I'm still smokin...smokin hot Never did the other stuff..neighbor has quit several times since I have known her..now she vapes.. 3 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerrySTL ★ Posted February 20, 2022 Share #7 Posted February 20, 2022 Cold turkey when I was 17 YO. Of course I hadn't smoked all that long - about 3 years - and all that much. Kentucky raised taxed by 5 cents a pack so they went from about 30 cents to 35 cents. This would have been around 1971 and I thought it was a rip-off so I quit. Also news about cigarettes and cancer was getting around even to Kentucky back then. I almost started back up when I joined the military. The smokers got smoke breaks and the rest of us got to do more work. 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisL Posted February 20, 2022 Share #8 Posted February 20, 2022 8 minutes ago, JerrySTL said: I almost started back up when I joined the military. The smokers got smoke breaks and the rest of us got to do more work. Weird how that worked wasn’t it? I grew up with a smoker so the smell didn’t bother me. In training & in schools I’d often stand with the smokers during smoke breaks but wouldn’t actually smoke just so I wouldn’t get put on a shitty detail. I also learned not to admit I was from CA. That usually resulted in a shit detail too. On duty smoke breaks weren’t really a thing. They just smoked between calls & such. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post maddmaxx ★ Posted February 20, 2022 Popular Post Share #9 Posted February 20, 2022 I quit on December 7 1991. I just quit. 5 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Parsnip Totin Jack ★ Posted February 20, 2022 Popular Post Share #10 Posted February 20, 2022 Started at 14 in 1973. Quit in 1989 a few months before turning 30. On my 28th birthday I realized I’d been smoking half my life. Two packs a day; three if there was a happy hour after work. Chewed nicotine gum for about three days, willpower the rest of the way. Cravings really didn’t end until the second year. 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheep_herder ★ Posted February 20, 2022 Share #11 Posted February 20, 2022 Started in late 50s and quit sometime in the mid 60s. Could not smoke with a cold, so quit cold turkey, after having two colds. Was still chewing in the mid 80s, but never much for dipping. 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bikeman564™ Posted February 20, 2022 Share #12 Posted February 20, 2022 I never started 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bikeguy Posted February 20, 2022 Share #13 Posted February 20, 2022 I never quit. Then again, I never started. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Further Posted February 20, 2022 Popular Post Share #14 Posted February 20, 2022 Started at 13, quit at 24. I was up to 3 packs a day when I quit, 4 if I hit the bars. Quit cold turkey, had the shakes, nausea, the whole nine yards for about 2 weeks. The cravings lasted for a few years. I took up running at the same time I quit, running got me through the worst of it. I could run maybe a quarter of a mile before having to stop and hack up a lung. But I was young and could take several 1/2 mile runs a day. When the cravings would get unbearable I would go for a run, hacking up a lung would ease the cravings... 5 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirby Posted February 21, 2022 Share #15 Posted February 21, 2022 Never smoked 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
az_cyclist Posted February 21, 2022 Share #16 Posted February 21, 2022 I started in HS, sneaking around some. Started to smoke full time when I went to college in Sept 1970. Switched from cigarettes to a pipe in 1978. Quit the pipe in Oct 1989, at 37 yo. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zealot Posted February 21, 2022 Share #17 Posted February 21, 2022 I never smoked until about 7-8 years ago. Started smoking a pipe and occasionally cigars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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