Quit drinking 3 weeks ago. I want to quit smoking as well but am finding it hard. Anyone any useful advice or tips on staying smoke free.
I got out from under it by switching to vaping and then slowly lowering the nicotine strength. In my case, I had to go really slow. At the end there I was vaping with zero nicotine for about a month.
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When I got sober I actually started smoking again, after several people in the program telling me that was OK. Smoking doesnāt get you high in the same way ā there is no crime for ādriving while smokingā, and for good reason. Forget about quitting smoking is my advice ā do you have to do to get sober!!! By the way within a year I was able to switch to vaping and have now been sober for 4 years 9 months. Smoking really helped me get sober. Good luck!
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All I can tell you is what I experienced.
I was a pack-a-day smoker for years.
The day I bought a vape, I didnāt finish my pack. In fact I didnāt go back to regular cigarettes at all. I preferred vaping to smoking for 100 reasons, so that part was easy.
The hard part was, vaping gave me access to nicotine all the time. So, I actually got MORE addicted to nicotine, through CARELESS use of vaping. So, ya gotta have a game plan, if you wanna quit.
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My sponsor advised tackling one addiction at a time. So I kept smoking for 3 years after I got sober. Got to the point where I could not take a drag without a hacking fit. I tried pretty much everything out there at one time or another. To finally stop, I used the steps of AA and Chantix. And I let myself eat and eat and eat. I dealt with that about 10 months later.
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I waited a year after i got sober and stopped cigs was a 60 a day guy then, 32 years this october dont miss them
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Id say about:
3 months @ 6mg
2 months @ 4mg
3-4 months @ 1.5mg
Still vaping 0mg, in the evenings at home
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I was a pack-A-day for 20 years then switched to vape in 2015. Vaped for 3 years. Ended up quitting both vaping and drinking on the same day, cold turkey.
The secret to cold turkey is, JUST. FUCKING. QUIT!!!
Iāve tried everything to quit before, pills, patches, gums, experimental drugs, you name it, I tried it, and it didnāt work. When I decided to quit, I just wanted to get through it as fast as possible, so cold turkey was the only way.
To do it, I spent a week at home, did nothing. Just couch, TV and sleep. That first week sucked, but I just took it and dealt. After the first week I was ready to start the rest of my life.
Good luck!
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I quit smoking first (almost four years ago). 1.5 Pack a day smoker for 35 years, together with 4 or 5 joints. Quit cold turkey. The first week was tough but on the other hand I knew I wasnāt going to die from it. It got ever easier and now it lost all itās attraction . I detest it on all levels. And I learned so much from quitting smoking that I now use in staying sober too. In the end it comes down to having the right mindset (see @Dejavu for that). I think itās crazy people would advice to stay smoking. In the long run itās the deadliest of all addictions. No joke. Success Donall.
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I quit smoking cigarettes and nicotine 10 years ago. I was a two pack a day Camel girl (a couple of rough years smoking 3 to 4 packs a day). It was a hell of a hard time quitting and really sucked the life out of me.
I found that not using substitutes was best in the long run to truly get quit of the nicotine. No lozenges or patches and certainly no vaping (as it didnāt exist then and I donāt recommend it anyway). As long as you are still consuming nicotine in some fashion, you will remain addicted to it and that can easily lead you back to cigarettes.
I highly recommend walking off cravings. Or jogging. Also, lots of water and lots of sugar free life savers (they are called that for a reason! Lol). Seriously, buy a shit ton of sugar free life savers and use them.
I will add that quitting smoking changed the trajectory of my life for good and it has been a lot of positive changes since then. Best thing I ever did.
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This post is what I was going through. I gave in and started using my Juul againā¦ 
Let me copy paste some stuff for you and hope itās helpful. I found a lot of hulp in joining quitnet.com, a website a bit like this one but aimed at helping folks quit tobacco products exclusively. This is part of my smoking history as I wrote it down there nearly 4 years ago:
Iāve been a smoker for 35 years and so sick of it. Started like so many, a teenager wanting to be cool. And now quitting like so many too, turning fifty and not willing to die a nasty dead any time soon. Steadily increased my intake through the years, ending up with smoking forty a day in recent times. Tried to quit a couple of times before, but those felt just like that: tries. This time I am 100% sure this is my final and forever quit.
I was thinking about quitting for years. I had a couple of halfhearted attempts at it. The longest lasted about four months; I used lozenges, but also kept reinforcing my addiction by smoking the odd ājust oneā, normally during weekends in town. Of course, one night it went from ājust oneā to a pack, and then to being a two pack a day smoker again. And again feeling very unhappy about it.
Then the first anniversary of my dadās death arrived, 26th September 2015. I was playing with the idea of quitting again. And suddenly I thought: why not right here, right now? My dad was a heavy smoker for years and years, I grew up engulfed in his clouds of smoke. In later life he tried to quit a number of times, but never totally succeeded, he kept craving and kept caving. He always had a pack stashed somewhere. Only in his last year or two did he really quit. But that was after he was suffering from a number of diseases, which were mainly smoking-related. He had cancer and kidney failure, and suffered from vascular dementia. In the end he forgot about almost all, including smoking.
At 11:30 pm on the 26th of September (the exact time of my fatherās death the previous year) I finished my last smoke. I threw all the butts in the trash, cleaned the ashtrays and went to bed. It was really a Quit that goes against a lot of rules. I had not planned it, had no Quitkit, no thought-out strategy, did not have a lot of knowledge of addiction and quitting. I just jumped in. The next morning I went to look for some help. I found Quitnet. I signed up. Posted my first post. Immersed myself in the website.
The first weeks were tough. I suffered from almost every withdrawal symptom you can think of, like insomnia, flulike symptoms, depression, flatulence, obstipation, headache, sore throat, etcetera. Tough, but not undoable. Iāve been ill before and I knew what I was doing it for. For me Cold Turkey was the way to go, the only way out is through and thatās what I did. BTW, whatever works for you works. No judgement on using NRT. As long as you quit. And stay quit.
After about two weeks the physical withdrawal was over. The mind games continued for a long time but now, after 2 years they really are gone. The craves get less and less and less. Every situation I encounter where I used to smoke I have a small crave. One time, two times, three times at the most. And then the next time I come into the same situation it is over. Iāve learned so much already and Iām still learning. It really does get so much easier. Until one day I will have forgotten why and when I used to smoke. Not there yet but getting there one day at a time.
A Quitkit is just like a Toolbox. Stuff you have available to do instead of smoking and fight triggers and cravings. The post on quitnet explaining about it was written by an older lady, so some of the suggestions didnāt work for me. But itās about the principle. Might be of some help to you.
Repost from Grammax s.
THE QUIT KIT Welcome Newbies! Ready to quit? Then you need a Quit Kit! It isnāt a matter of just slapping on a patch or chewing some nic gum. Every behavior you can think of is tied to your smoking. We smoked because we were happy, sad, mad, hurt, tired, sick, boredā¦etc. You need to replace those habits. Take a day to make a plan.
We call it a Quit Kit. It can be anything you want. Get creative and really think about it. Some things folks have used is nicotine gum. You can buy regular gum the same size, color and flavor so you can go back and forth between the two. If you are using the patch, make sure you have an extra patch in the office, in your purse, or in your wallet, for those days when you have forgotten to put one on in the morning. It happens more than you think! Have lozenges available for those high stress / high craving times. Have some Red Vines to āsmokeā. Or a cut up a straw into thirdsā¦especially during high trigger times like driving. Sometimes it feels good to just hold if you are accustomed to always having a smoke in your hand.
Grab your favorite CDs or tapes to put in your car so you can put one in and sing out loud. My favorite was dancing and singing at the same time. Your brain cannot do a 3rd thing, so thinking about smoking just disappears. 
To keep your mind and hands busy, go to Michaelās or some other craft store and look for things to do. Buy something that interests you; rug hooking kits, scrapbooking stuff, or Christmas stocking kits for the grandkids. Or, get some coloring books and colored pencils or felt tip pens. Stained glass, floral, tropical fish or Native American motif coloring books are available everywhere now. They make you want to do a good job. LOL! Dora the Explorer would make me want to scribble on her face. 
Make a list of everything that needs to be done, or you want to do around the house. Go through each room and write down everything from cleaning out drawers and closets to painting, rearranging or redecorating. Same with the garage and yard work. Once you have your list, break it down into 5-15 minutes segments so nothing becomes overwhelming.
Make baggies of crunchy foods to satisfy your mouth so they are at work and handy to grab. Carrots, celery, chex mix, pretzel sticks (you can hold those like a cig), gum, etc. They need to be ready to just grab at any given time.
This is important!!! The 3 Post Rule: When you are craving and really shaky, post and click the āCravingā box. Wait for at least 3 response posts before you make a decision to purchase cigarettes or to smoke. Most times, you will be fine once you read the posts (keeps you from dwelling). If notā¦post again and wait for 3 more.
Once you have all these things figured out you will be well prepared to handle anything and you donāt even have to thinkā¦just look at your listā¦ Keep 1 copy at work, 1 at home, 1 in your purse or wallet, 1 in the car. If you did one day, you can do 2. If you did 3, you can do one more. No future tripping. You canāt do a darn thing about tomorrow until it gets here. Today is a good time to quit but if you feel you canāt, then take tomorrow to put together your Quit Kit and quit the day after. Donāt set a quit date out there for 2 weeks, 1 month, etc. All you do is make yourself crazy in your head by stressing over that date. You know you can do this.
Being at quitnet really helped me early on. I used the 5 Dās and it helped me a lot.
REPOST: The 5 Dās and why they work. Using the 5 Dās really helps through the first few weeks of not smoking. I suggest āgetting to know themā before the 5 Dās become absolutely necessary. That way you will be able to recall them as cravings appear. Sometimes we arenāt at our computers or near our quit tools. Having this deposited in your memory bank will help keep you from caving in.
The Five Dās:
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Deep Breaths. Back in the old days when we smoked we would inhale fairly deeply. Mimic this by pursing your lips and inhaling for the count of 4, exhale for the count of 4. Make sure your tummy expands with the inhale and goes into the backbone on the exhale. This is diaphragmatic breathing. Another method is called square breathing. Inhale for the count of 4 Hold for the count of 4 Exhale for the count of 4 Hold for the count of 4 Take two to three regular breaths.
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Drinks of water. Water is a wonderful tool for many reasons! Water helps us rid the body of the toxins accumulated from smoking. Water helps us to stay āregularā and suffer less from quitstipation. Water, especially ice water, helps to redirect our brain energy. The cold passing across the roof of the mouth and into the throat will help to ārefreshā ourselves. It helps to take your mind off a craving.
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Delay responding to the craving. Set a timer for 15 minutes and tell yourself you will not smoke. If you feel like smoking when the timer goes off reset that timer! When you post for āHELPā in the Quitstop forum you are using a delay tactic. This tactic is also good for folks that need to delay that first smoke in the morning to prepare for their quits.
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Distract yourself. After you set the timer do something! Granted, there are some cravings that you just have to sit on your hands and allow through you, you can find other things to do with your hands and body. Go for walks, have a list of things to clean, organize, straighten etc. Do puzzles, read an article, learn a yoga posture or dance step. Any distraction is good!
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Discuss! Talk to someone, this is where a sponsor or a Quit Buddy are really good to have. Fire off an email, send an instant message. I find the former smokers are great to talk to about a bad craving. They have the tools to help you through it when you are forgetting why you quit in the first place. Writing in your journal and expressing yourself into your own voice mail can help too!
What helped me with getting my mindset right was reading Allen Carrās Easy Way To Stop Smoking. Read it right after I quit and it was a big help in getting it clear in my mind that all smoking is, is a stupid addiction and not helpful with anything at all.
I also found help in getting my attitude right with spending time on whyquit.com. But thatās all rather hard core cold turkey tough love stuff. Not suited for everybody.
Hope this is of some help to you. Success Donall!
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Quitnet is great!! Helped me 100%!!
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Seeinig you there, nice!
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I think if you can, avoid switching to Vape, as youāll then just be addicted to that. Nicotine is not good for our bodies or our minds. Cold Turkey is the way, but with help. Life savers are a great idea, also read Allan Carrās book Easyway to Quit Smoking, it definitely helped me quit! Avoid any ppl or situations if you can initially where other ppl will be smoking, drink LOTS of water, eat heaps of fruit, you will be feeling SO great so soon, just gotta give it bout 3 weeks and youāll start to see and feel the difference! Itās amazing. Maybe write down all the reasons why you want to quit and write yourself an Action Plan and, mostlyā¦ just BELIEVE IN YOURSELF : ) your capable of doing anything you set your mind to - given the right tools, determination and support! Nowās a good time, because the temptation to smoke while drinking is gone, cause thereās no drinking going on. Put your focus elsewhere - exercise is always good! 
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I just want to say this as gently as possible. I think this is a good place to share experiences, but please letās not pretend that our solution will work for everyone else. There is only one goal we all share, which is to stop drinking and getting high. In my opinion, coffee and nicotine are acceptable because they donāt get me āhighā or āwastedā. You donāt get a DUI for nicotine or coffee.
All due respect, the title of this thread is literally named āQuitting Smoking after Quitting Drinkingā where the OP wants to quit smoking and is having a hard time and so he is asking for people to share their experiences.
If you find nicotine acceptable then I will support your decision because itās your choice. But this thread is not about that. That would be like if I stumbled in to a PMO thread and said I find masturbation acceptable, yeah, that wouldnāt be cool.
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Good point. Iāll stay clear.
I ever thought smoking was the hardest thing to quit. But I stopped 6 months ago and dont even think about cigar, but I just cant quit drinking. I wish I felt with alcohol the same disgust I feel with cigar. Thats a poison. A waste of money. But I feel like beer is food