[Vinod_nair]

Originally Posted by vinit.merchant

Don't know where to head to or whom to talk.
And I hope to stay that way. Its been roughly 34 months smoke free now

I quit smoking @37, July 14 '97 I was in Riyadh all by myself, used to smoke 555 that day I consumed 3 packs of 20's....
That's it today @60, clean as a banana leaf.

You've conquered the battle, think of your family and home, how it smells now, neat and clean.

Keep it up.

[V.Narayan]

Never thought I would write on a Smokers thread as I have been a non-smoker all my life. Recently I met an old old boss of mine from literally 30+ years ago. He was a pipe smoker all his adult life. The pipe was a part of his persona and image. Now in his mid-sixties he has throat cancer. He literally had a medical pipe like device fitted to his throat and a little machine in a brief case that pumps air into his lungs. It was a most unusual and ghastly sight. He achieved success in his career but is today struggling to breathe and busy arranging the affairs of his estate so that his family has least difficulty when he is gone. Our bodies are gifts of Mother Nature.

For all the smokers out there - don't kick or curse yourself; don't belittle yourself in your own mind - what's happened has happened. You can start today and change the rest of your life.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by bblost

Twelve years and I still go thru this torment. The frequency has reduced but it never goes away.

Twenty-eight years, and I don't. Not for quite a while now. I suspect that smoking a cigarette would be a horrible experience --- from which I would go on to finish the pack and buy another one. I'm not tempted: but I am ready to fight temptation if it hits me. We ex-smokers are never immune.

Stay strong and remind yourself the reasons why you quit.

It's not worth having even a single puff and resetting the counter of smoke free days to ZERO.

A doctor told me that it takes twenty years for the body to recover from smoking. That puts me at a score of 8, rather than 28 years. My life is not going to be long enough to reset that clock.

Every year counts. It's for the rest of our lives: the long haul. Three years is a very good start. Such a waste to throw that away.

[IshaanIan]

I started smoking at a young age and have now spent 12 years smoking Marlboro Red cigarettes. I am currently in a very stressful phase in life (wouldn't like to seem blamey so shall not get into the details) but have for the past 2 weeks shifted successfully to smoking light cigarettes. Has anyone found this helpful on the journey to quitting? Or has anyone else been there, done that and not found any success?

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by IshaanIan

Has anyone found this helpful on the journey to quitting?

Sorry... no. It's all smoking, it's all nicotine+the-rest, and it doesn't matter. I gave up rough roll-ups for filter-tips, because my lungs couldn't stand the raw tobacco any longer. I still had several years of addiction ahead of me and, frankly, the difference it made to my health was probably illusory.

You smoke, or you don't smoke. Is all.

[vikramvicky1984]

Originally Posted by IshaanIan

I started smoking at a young age and have now spent 12 years smoking Marlboro Red cigarettes. I am currently in a very stressful phase in life (wouldn't like to seem blamey so shall not get into the details) but have for the past 2 weeks shifted successfully to smoking light cigarettes. Has anyone found this helpful on the journey to quitting? Or has anyone else been there, done that and not found any success?

I quit in March 2020 just before lockdown and I haven't smoked again, gave up drinking too. Please see my past posts on this thread. Read Allen carrs book, it works. Lighter cigarettes or reducing no of cigarettes makes things even worse if you want to quit. I have also done that for years. People are on gums/ ultra milds ( lightest) for decades.

[Cessna182]

I found a news article about a government made nicotine gum called Nirmal. It is aimed at reducing the tobacco addiction and is priced affordably. Personally I felt that nicotine gum can help alleviate the withdrawal symptoms. Cold turkey is the best but there is no shame in taking the crutch of a nicotine replacement therapy if you cannot do it directly.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.asi...addiction.html

[bblost]

I recently got my Lipid profiles done and found that thanks to this lockdown, I have elevated LDL numbers.

I consider this as an impact of this forced sedentary lifestyle.

Very happy I quit smoking back in 2008. With there being a direct link to smoking and cholesterol issues, this would have made my health significantly worse.

Also its easier to fight one battle at a time. So if I had to fight both the carbs and smokes at the same time, I would have been at a much bigger disadvantage.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by Cessna182

I found a news article about a government made nicotine gum called Nirmal. It is aimed at reducing the tobacco addiction and is priced affordably. Personally I felt that nicotine gum can help alleviate the withdrawal symptoms. Cold turkey is the best but there is no shame in taking the crutch of a nicotine replacement therapy if you cannot do it directly.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.asi...addiction.html

There is no "best," just different ways of succeeding. And there is no magic either: they all depends on the discipline of the would-be non-smoker.

However, this from my experience:

Gum does give a slight nicotine high. And you will feel the nicotine low and want to chew gum or smoke. It did not work for me, but it did work for a good friend.

Patches aim at keeping the nicotine level above low so they cut the craving. They must be used on a disciplined , reducing dosage schedule. You may feel a slight nicotine low at each dosage reduction point. Patches helped me a lot.

My experiences are based on the products available at the time, nearly 30 years ago.

I still maintain that the most important thing of all is what I call irrevocable decision. You decide that, whatever happens, you will not smoke. Go through heartbreaking, gut-wrenching possibilities in your mind and decide that, even if they all happen, you will not smoke. There is no going back on that: failure is not possible.

That is all you need, but, by all means, do stuff to make it more comfortable or less painful. If it involves nicotine replacement, I'd suggest an end date, as part of your big decision, by which, and after which, you will be nicotine free. Mine was my 40th birthday, and I began, with Patches, 12 weeks before that. And finished a week or two early, finding that I was forgetting to put the patch and not noticing.

It's easy. Ok, it may be tough at times but it is simple: make that decision

[Sen]

I'm on my path to quitting nicotine as well, and my single biggest positive contributor to stop smoking immediately (until I get rid of nicotine addiction overall) has been vaping.

Of course the government banned the only thing proven to work with stopping smoking (and of course they have a stake in the biggest tobacco company in India, ITC).

There are underground methods to keep going, but seeing the threat to big tobacco as I like to call it, the government took one case where people took black market THC cartridges and inhaled them, got hospitalized, and suddenly vaping is the devil's handiwork, and banned vaping outright. When there's proof that it helps cut the harm by 95% (NHS UK quoted i believe, more info here: https://www.nhs.uk/smokefree/help-an...e/e-cigarettes ). Ulterior motives, but the losers are the lakhs of people that smoke on a daily basis here in India, and cost the country in more ways than one. But I digress. Check out Association of Vapers India (AVI) for more info about vaping in general.

In the next few days I'll be quitting vaping completely as well, cold turkey. As mentioned by Thad E Ginathom above, failure will not be an option. Don't leave yourself any outs, ANY easy way outs, reiterate why you're quitting, monetary benefits, health reasons, family, your lungs thanking you, returning sense of smell taste, etc, and you'll succeed. In the words of Munna Bhai, sab chemical locha hai, and it is all easily fixable.

To quote my Facebook post mere months after I started vaping:

In my five years of smoking, it'd usually take me up to two weeks to recover from a common cold.

Within six months of switching to vaping, I caught a cold three days ago. I've almost fully recovered. In three. Days.

The changes have been tangible and drastic.

I remember people telling me I stink, and asking whether I just smoked. Asking me to eat mints.

They ask me all the time:

"Is that a pocket hookah?"
"Is it safe?"
"Does it hit you like a cig?"
"How much?"
"Why?"

Within six months, I can taste delicious food again. I can smell things I wouldn't be able to for the life of me in my five years spent sucking butts (no puns). I can not smell terrible. I won't make others inhale toxic smoke when I'm vaping in public.

Vaping isn't for everyone. Not everyone will accept it or even approve of it. It's not going to help me quit.

BUT, what it will do is stop killing me, one cigarette at a time. It is the healthiest possible alternative to not smoking. It gives me the choice to quit, if I want to really work on that.

It has people fighting governments in the west, to make sure the big tobacco companies don't have their way with the people using addictive, extremely harmful things called cigarettes.

So, to finally get to the point.

Why?

Because I finally found its existence. And I can vouch for the results. My family is glad. I could afford the initial investment. I like being healthier than before without breaking down huffing over a set of stairs.

Go figure.

[roamer012]

Originally Posted by IshaanIan

Has anyone found this helpful on the journey to quitting? Or has anyone else been there, done that and not found any success?

Simple Answer - Doesn't help.

Complex Answer - Go through this entire thread and all the posts and stories of failure and success. We all keep justifying our need and urge to continue smoking and use it as a crutch to continue to do so. Switching to milds and then to ultra milds and then vaping and then patches and then gums are all crutches. Till the time we keep giving ourselves an out, we will keep taking it. By making such switches we are just moving from one poison to another (Stronger or Milder, but a poison nonetheless).

The only permanent and 100% strike rate solution is - Quitting cold turkey. As has been said by many before me, either you smoke or you don't, there is nothing in between like one stick in a week or one vape here or there.
Try quitting instead of switching while you are still ahead of it, it's not that hard.

[ghodlur]

Saw this thread now and hence writing.

I was never a chain smoker but used to have 3 a day. I had tried quitting earlier too but that was shortlived. The max period I didnt smoke was like 13 months. This time I have stopped for good since Feb 2020. Not a single puff or anything. Now dont feel the urge too. Hope this stays on.

The reason for quitting this time was a throat infection which stayed for 4-5 days and made life a bit difficult. Plus having crossed half a century decided to invest in good health though still on the heavier side.

[R2D2]

Originally Posted by IshaanIan

I started smoking at a young age and have now spent 12 years smoking Marlboro Red cigarettes. I am currently in a very stressful phase in life (wouldn't like to seem blamey so shall not get into the details) but have for the past 2 weeks shifted successfully to smoking light cigarettes. Has anyone found this helpful on the journey to quitting? Or has anyone else been there, done that and not found any success?

Smoking lights and believing you're safer is a fallacy. What kills your lungs are the tar deposits and what addicts you is the nicotine which these cigarettes also have in abundance albeit in slightly smaller quantities than the normal ones.

Do not fall for the cigarette company's sales talk. "Light" sticks are just as dangerous. I speak from experience has a former smoker.

I am glad to see posts continuing n this thread. Reading about people wanting to give up smoking gives me a lot of satisfaction. Just a pointer - I quit in June 2004 and I haven't so much as held a cigarette forget smoke one in this time. You can do it too - use your will power and ask your family for support. Quitting smoking makes you a bit edgy and cranky for the first few days mainly due to withdrawal symptoms.

There's no way other than cold turkey. Reducing the # of smokes, smoking lights, moving to e-cigarettes/vaping etc is an exercise in futility.

PS - a question to folks on this thread. Is there an organisation, like for e.g. AA for alcoholics, that helps smokers quit?

[Cessna182]

Originally Posted by IshaanIan

I started smoking at a young age and have now spent 12 years smoking Marlboro Red cigarettes. I am currently in a very stressful phase in life (wouldn't like to seem blamey so shall not get into the details) but have for the past 2 weeks shifted successfully to smoking light cigarettes. Has anyone found this helpful on the journey to quitting? Or has anyone else been there, done that and not found any success?

The main difference between a light and regular cigarette is the volume of air you inhale with the smoke. Light ones have holes in the filter.

Essentially you are inhaling a similar quantity of tar (just that it is diluted because of the holes).

If you need nicotine, you could try the gums. I was in a stressful phase as well but could not continue smoking because of health and financial issues (cigarettes are very expensive in some countries). I used the 4 mg gum and it allowed me to go through the day. Nicotine is a bad crutch but one cannot throw away the crutch overnight in many situations.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by roamer012

The only permanent and 100% strike rate solution is - Quitting cold turkey.

Originally Posted by R2D2

There's no way other than cold turkey.

This is absolutely not (literally) true. It is not the only way to give up, and it is not guaranteed to last for ever.

Now let me just reaffirm how much agree with you guys, as you can see from many of my posts...

Yes, you are either a smoker or a non-smoker: no two ways, no shades of grey, no half-way house. All the rest is various excuses and delays. Since the introduction of vaping, that's another excuse for continued nicotine addiction.

Changing to a lighter brand doesn't even make "excuse." it doesn't even qualify for discussion.

Yes, quitting means quitting. Not like my friend who reduced to four or five a day... twenty years ago.

But must it hurt? You can find out how patches were totally effective for me, just a few posts ago. If a person chews gum instead of smoking long term, file them under excuse-makers: if they use it as a short. restricted-time aid to becoming not only non-smokers but non-nicotine users, that is a success.

There are feeble excuses and pretending to oneself (which is all part of addiction) and there are positive planned and disciplined steps.

By the way. I consider cutting down to be a particularly useless route to giving up because... the less you smoke the more you enjoy each cigarette!