Stopping Smoking

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We are creatures of habits and routines, esp. with AS. I have rituals, habits, etc. around smoking...when I do it, how I do it.

If I quit smoking, I will save $180 a month. I'm trying to just cut back a little more every day. I've cut back from 30 to 24 and that's the best I can do right now.

I need help from aspies who have sucessfully quit smoking..

BTW, I once quit for 6 years on patches, 2 mos on cold turkey, 8 mos on cutting back slowly.

It's just that right now, I'm clinging to my habits and routines more than usual due to stressors. Although it may look like a bad time to quit, it's actually a good time, since I can't afford cigs really.

I quit on January 7, 2007, after 20 years of smoking and after 18 failed quits. I used a combination of Chantix and a smoking cessation forum on About.com to deal with the withdrawals. Later, as an Admin on Christianforums.com, I did some work in the smoking cessation forum there, but the former site really, really works in regards to learning about the addiction itself, how to combat it, what it does to you, and how to stay smoke-free longterm.

The first thing you're going to have to do is change your routine without actually changing your routine. Yeah, you can actually do it without driving yourself insane with drastic behavior modification. There's little steps you can do.

For me, my rituals involved taking the pack out of a place where it always was (in my pocket), feeling the comfort of the pack where it always was, taking it out, lighting a cigarette. There were rituals involved in smoking with coffee, while on the phone, on the computer, and those copious smoke breaks at work. I ended up doing a "placebo" which satisfied the ritual crave without starting up an ember.

I ended up taking a McDonald's straw, and I cut it to the exact length of a cigarette. I put a peeled, CLEAN menthol filter (what I smoked) in one end, and put about fifteen of those suckers in an altoids tin which felt remarkably like a cigarette pack. When I woke up, I would take my non-functional cigarette, light it with my non-functional but still rotating lighter, and puff merrily on it while I busied myself making my coffee. If I got on the phone, I "lit" and "smoked" while I chatted. In the car, I puffed away and flicked my straw ashes out of the partially opened window. I lit and puffed the straw while on break.

Something remarkable happened. Gradually, as weeks passed and I fought those craves successfully, I used those placebos less and less. I ended up doing a gradual modification where, once a day, I drove without my placebo. It was a challenge to me. And gradually, over a period of six weeks, I slacked off to a point where the placebo wasn't needed, the cigarette wasn't needed, and I could go about my other rituals while losing the tobacco ritual.

It's not as though this time wasn't without stressors. My grandmother, with whom I'd grown up, was dying, and as I helped my parents tend her, I realized that my last link with my past was dying. I ended up finding her dead, which did nothing for my mental state. I did the funeral arrangements, and the funeral (it was a big one) without once puffing on a cigarette.

A lot of your ability to quit, and stay quit, depends on your commitment to staying smoke-free. If you want it, you can do it. And...

You've quit before, so you know that you can do this

I quit 4 years and 10 months ago. I owe my success (my release, really) to

www.quitnet.com

It's 24/7 support from members in all time zones. It's run by Harvard U. and has a good success rate.

Good luck, whatever you decide!

I started smoking quite late, when I move to my current partner 10 years ago; he is a strong smoker. We stopped about 2 years ago for some weeks.

It was not that hard for me, after three or four days the need for a cigarette was minimal, but I had the impression that it was very hard for him. So he became very ill tempered, nervous, in my impression emotional unstable, making my life to hell. So I was happy when he started again.

In my experience, it's me or it's Aspie-specific, stopping smoking from one-day-to-the-other wasn't that difficult.

yes. cold turkey. i am 8 years off them and i still feel like one...often. i had my first ciggie at 7 and bought my first packet on my own at 9. sad really.
My suggestion is to break the process down into a day at a time. the daily commitment used in 12 step programs is actually quite good. so it is about a daily decision not to smoke, rather than a life without ciggies forever more! in the early stages that can be a bit easier - just getting to sleep time without one. and it means the goal can be achieved at the end of each day.

i stopped smoking and my stimming increased dramatically.
it disguised a lot of hand twisitng and repetitive movement.

good luck as it is a doozie of a habit to break.

and i love not smoking. i really feel good to be free from it. it makes me happy to breathe air and to be kind to myself in this way.