I tried to stop several times and it didn't work out. Then one day 10 years ago, I realized how crazily much money I spend on that "hobby" and how I'll need that money for my wedding a year later. And then I just stopped.

I used nicotine free cigarettes as a crutch for a while, but that was it. It was surprisingly easy, when before I was almost shaking during a 2 hour flight because of nicotine withdrawal...

What this boils down to imo is, when you really want to stop, you can just stop. Try to find out why you want to stop and don't miss the opportunity window. If I hadn't stopped that day, I'd probably still be smoking.

[–] Mr_Dr_Oink@lemmy.world 5 points 5 months ago

I went a different way to this.

I smoked for about 15 years, i used rolling tobacco and would get through 30-40grams in 4 days, im not sure what the conversion rate is but i was smoking easily 10-20 rollups a day. (Never really counted)

I tried to swap to vaping a few times but always fell back. I tried stopping cold turkey multiple times but always ended up going back even harder and smokk g more every time.

Eventually a friend got me on to a new vape, one of thos big cloudy ones that makes you look like a prick. But it had just the right feel, had good flavours and low nicotine content. (Lowest you could get).

At first i was vaping alot, loads. But the number of opportunities i had to vape was the same as when i smoked. So i would be beholden to that schedule daily. This meant my jicotine intake was drastically reduced and didnt leave me ratty because i was still getting some.

It seemed that as the days passed i was missing opportunities to vape more and more, until one day, i worked straight through without even thinking about it. Its been almost a year now and i just dont miss them at all.

I think that everyone is different and half the reason so many people struggle to quit based on advice from others is that we are all different, we smoke different amounts, we smoke for different reasons and different lengths of times and we all have our own tolerance to maintaining our will power.

For some, the decision to quit is enough and our resolve will be strong, for others we need weening and gradual reduction in order to quit. And everything in between.

What works for you or me may work for millions of people, but not for millions more. The best we can do is pass on our anecdotal experience like we both have and let people do what works for them.

[–] altima_neo@lemmy.zip 4 points 5 months ago

Yeah seems the hardest part of quitting any habit is really the resolve to do so.

[–] flying_sheep@lemmy.ml 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

So you're agreeing. “one does not simply stop, because one needs to be really sure that they want to stop for some reason or another”. The desire to stop doesn't come from nothing, yet it's the vital ingredient for stopping successfully. Unless you have it, stopping is really hard.

The contents of your message aren't a “no”, they're a “yes, and”