What to expect and advice for quitting nicotine?

Advice & Questions
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Hey yall, so I’m not fully ready to quit nicotine just yet. Currently, I use a bong to hit tobacco-only bowls in it that are about 0.1g in size every hour or so until I sleep. But, I’m thinking once it’s been 3 months off my drug of choice I’m going to start turning my attention to quitting nicotine.

So, I have a few questions about nicotine:

  1. How long have you used nicotine for before you quit?
  2. How many milligrams/cigarettes/packs were you using daily before you quit?
  3. How long have you been sober from nicotine for?
  4. What symptoms of withdrawal did you have?
  5. How long was the withdrawal from nicotine lasting for you?
  6. Some people say to just quit nicotine now, others say to quit it after a while of being off my drug of choice. Would you suggest that I simply try to quit now, or wait until I’m ready?
  7. Any advice you can give on quitting nicotine?

These questions will help me collect information on quitting nicotine. I’ll also do some research on the internet for more help on quitting nicotine. Just preparing myself and such for when the time comes in a couple months or if I should simply start now. Thanks! :smiley:

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Hi @john_connor1337 I don’t personally have any experience quitting nic but there is a thread with lots and lots of posts about it, here:

Good luck and don’t give up!

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Great questions and great job in wanting to learn more before ur ready to quit!

  1. I smoked cigarettes for 10 years
  2. If I remember correctly i was smoking about 18 cigarettes a day. More if i was using or drinking.
  3. 15 years as of 3 days ago :slight_smile:
  4. Irritability was a HUGE withdrawl symptom for me. Restlessness aswell. Its hard for me to remember as its been so long. But i do remember being extremely irritable.
  5. I think it was about a month for me
  6. I wanted to quit drugs and smoking at the same time. But I was advised against it by my sponsor at the time. Quitting smoking AND drugs AND alcohol really shocks the body and I was told that the risk of relapse on drugs would be higher if i also quit smoking at the same time. Being angry and irritable was a huge trigger for me to use. So until i learned better coping skills to manage stress, i smoked until i was comfortable with my recovery. Then i quit smoking. Unfortunately i went back out and used, but I never picked up smoking again.
  7. Advice… well i used stop smoking aids to help me. I used the Nicoderm patch and the gum to help me. I followed the step down program for the patch and that helped alot!! I also avoided coffee for the first little while. Stayed away from big groups of people who smoked (for example outside meetings where everyone smoked). I had to change up my routine. So normally when id smoke, id be doing something else. I used lemon juice aswell. Literally the respiratory Dr at the hospital told me to put some lemon juice on my tongue when i craved a smoke. It changes the taste buds and helps to reduce the craving. Sounds strange but it worked for me! Plus by the time i was ready to quit smoking, i had learned some new coping skills from being clean and sober, so that helped in the long run!
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Hey friend - great work on working on your nicotine habit! Like Matt said - you should join us on the Grumpy A-holes thread which has a lot of tips and support for quitting cigs and vapes!

  1. I started smoking at 13 years of age. I quit for two years when I was 19 and then smoked till I was 44 (closer to 45).
  2. For the past decade of my smoking I was between 1 - 2.5 packs a day (most days it was around 1.5 pack/day.
  3. as of today I am 1379 days (3 years 9 months and 10 days) smoking free
  4. I was super tired (very sleepy) and very edgy (got angry quickly) and was antsy. I did use the Nicorette gum (chewed 1 to 2 2mg pieces a day that I chewed all day long (would take it out to eat and brush my teeth - I didn’t want to keep consuming nicotine but also wanted to trick my mind to think it was getting the nicotine. I also used a hypnosis app that helped me quit and I think it reduced my cravings / withdrawal symptoms.
  5. I was able to stop my gum about 6 months or so in. I didn’t feel as tired around 1 month in. I do from time to time still get cravings (even though it is a nasty smell I get urges if I smell it at times). Luckily I know they don’t last and I can keep busy till they pass.
  6. The app for me only helped when I was ready I did try it a few times before when I wasn’t ready and I saw how the hypnosis did not totally take effect. You have to mentally prepare for the quit. Some say do it now but start by saying you will quit this coming Monday. Prepare yourself mentally and physically for it and for some it is good to make the timer at night so you already have built up time when you awake and it may make it easier to stick to it
  7. Keep yourself busy, stay hydrated, have ways to fill the oral fixation (like hard candy, gum or straw etc). Many of the tools are the same for any addiction. You just got to set a start day and jump in.

good luck friend - ODAAT

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Thanks yall for the replies! I shall take yall’s advice and start quitting in the next 2 months :smiley: I’ll probably need to tell the girlfriend that I’ll be super irritable during it because I take my nicotine through a bong which unfortunately hits way harder than a cigarette so I might get kinda a bad withdrawal as far as nicotine goes :slight_smile:

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I smoked for 33 years and have not smoked for over 20. I tried to quit smoking for years. I abused nicotine products. For me they didn’t work and just encouraged me to smoke more.
What I needed for me is to get the nicotine out of me.
With the patch with the gum, etc., I couldn’t stick with the program.

I wanted to do it my way, and my way was to smoke.

My suggestion always is to just quit Cold Turkey and say I am done. I am finished.

Quitting smoking is not going to kill you, you are not going to writhe on the floor in withdrawals.

Smoking will kill you. Each puff that you take is doing you harm. Once you stop, each breath you take will be a healthier breath.

You will never regret your decision not to smoke.

There’s no reason to smoke other than to harm yourself.

Write down a list of why you like to smoke and why you want to quit.

I thought I would never be able to quit, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever ever ever ever ever. And as I said, I went through the motions of seriously trying to quit for years, but the thing was I really wanted to smoke more than not smoke.

Then I made up my mind I wasn’t going to smoke. That’s what you have to do, you have to make up your mind that you are not going to smoke.

Once you get yourself away from it a little bit, you will wonder why in the world did you ever smoke.

Most smokers are always so grateful that they got away from it.

It is a noose around your neck and it just gets tighter and tighter and tighter and continues to hurt and harm you.

Be rid of it.

There is lots of support for you on the grumpy quitters thread and also on the checking in daily thread.

If I can do it, anybody can do it.

I chewed lots and lots of gum. I chewed two and three pieces at a time I did that for a long time. It was very helpful for me.

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60 a day guy stopped a year after i stopped drinking i say it was fags or the gym and the gym won this October 38 years stopped and gum helped aswell

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