Advice for stopping bad habit

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Hey all,

Soo I really want to give up smoking cigarettes firstly for myself but also cause I told my daughter that I would. So I am aware I need to replace this habit with something else other than my few already hobbies and interests. As smoking is a frequent thing and this is making my transition to quit challenging as I am unsure what to replace it with that's healthy and if anyone has quit a bad habit and how did you go about it etc. I've no friends really and asked someone who lives where I do but they smoke too and didn't seem to be interested in giving any useful advice or even a suggestion when I prompted this in the same way that other people try reference things and maybe it's my lack of trying to probe for solutions. I'm really not sure. But any advice would be good. I try be direct and I get no help from asking people and same when I ask in a prompting manner. I'm certain it isn't anything to do with asking NT's seeing as I asked both ways / prompted. Advice ? So my interests are basketball, freestyle rap, hip-hop, singing and PC gaming.

I quit about two years ago, after a 35 year, close to 2 pack a day habit. I had tried many times in the past, but this time I really wanted to quit. I think that was the major difference...wanting to quit. I used nicotine gum and had great success in that I did finally quit smoking. But I developed a gum addiction to replace smoking. My jaw constantly hurt because I chewed gum every waking hour of every day. I finally just recently broke the gum addiction, and have been smoke-free for 659 days...not that I'm counting.

Thanks for the advice. I have to find a solution to all the stressors I have coming up this week and I'm the near future, you just prompted that thought so theirs another additional factor which I didn't consider fully as I never have wanted to really do this until recently.

What I failed to mention is that prior to my quitting I had been hospitalized for seven days for some mental issues. Although I was forced to quit while in the hospital (they gave me nicotine gum) I really didn't want to quit. The first thing I did when I got out of the hospital was practically suck down an entire pack of cigarettes. Which quite frankly tasted foul.

Anyway...the fact that I made it seven days without smoking made me realize that I could probably do it permanently. So far so good.

I'd worked up to two packs a day after four years, but I knew I wanted to quit. I was doing metal work at the time, and every time I used a polisher, my next cigarette tasted awful. Then, I had a week when the first cigarette of the day also tasted bad. Then, first thing one morning, I was given a big bag of Kinickinick, something the natives smoked besides tobacco. It tasted OK, so I just kept smoking that. I was smoking almost twice as much, because I was not getting any nicotine, but I ignored that and just kept puffing. After three weeks, I ran out of mix, but by then the nicotine addiction was gone, and I didn't get cravings. Many kinds of tea are also a decent smoke. Another good substitute is just taking a few deep breaths.

Maybe you'd get better advice on a forum for people who are quitting smoking.

My boyfriend has been a heavy smoker for some 30 years, and he's just started quitting this week, at last. He has COPD which kept making him breathless and unwell, and we had to keep getting COVID tests to make sure it wasn't COVID (the tests came back negative each time).

He's getting help from nicotine patches, and he's not been having any withdrawal symptoms so far, so that proves that the nicotine patches work. And I am not joking here, he was such a stubborn smoker and I didn't think he'd ever even try to quit. So if he can do it then anyone can, believe me. I'm supporting him all the way and so's his family and my family. Yes he is eating more chocolate at the moment but the way I see it that's OK, if it's helping him crave cigarettes less during these early times (along with the nicotine patches) then it doesn't matter if you gain a little weight in the process. Remember, we are naturally taught to eat but we are not naturally taught to smoke. Smoking is the most stupidest, riskiest, non-essential thing one can do to their body.

So maybe nicotine patches might be able to help you. Please keep at it and just think of the risks smoking causes. If one is a compulsive smoker but is scared of COVID, it is a very ironic mindset, because smoking can cause lung damages and diseases that can be as deadly as COVID, or more deadly.

The best outcomes are a combination of nicotine replacement products (gum, patches, inhalator) and talking therapy/support group. In the UK this can be accessed through your general practitioner. Also consider vaping

A friend of mine quit smoking when hospitalized for a heart attack. He had to emphatically refuse a patch on discharge. He still misses the puffing, not the nicotine. For that, taking up some deep breathing exercises or meditations are probably best.