Cold turkey was the way I did it- but realizing that I didn’t want to smoke anymore made me over analyze every craving I had after.
When I would crave one, I started to do exercises instead- helped to keep the weight off since food tasted better 🙂
I still sometimes crave them- 8 years later. So instead I go for a walk or do crunches.
Just gotta keep your mind and hands busy when the cravings come. Find something to focus on and soon enough the craving will pass.
After trying nicoteen gum, patches and finding they did not work for me i quit cold turkey after reading alan carrs (not that one) ‘easy way to quit smoking’ which is essentially acheived through sheer will power.
I used straws to help me quit.
Anytime i wanted a cigarette, i would just start chewing on a straw. The trick though is to chew on one end till it is flat, fold the flat part back, start chewing till that part is flat, fold it back again, and just keep doing that till the whole straw is a folded up, chewed up “block” in your mouth. My jaw would be so sore from doing that, that when I would crave a cigarette i would just remember chewing on all those straws and not need one. I’d even feel my jaw tense up, already aching from the idea of chewing on a straw again. I’ve been free of cigarettes for a couple of years now. Even being around smokers does not make me want one anymore.
Good luck!
As of this coming Friday, it will be 10 years since my last cigarette. I smoked for over 20 years and was off and on for the second 10 years. What finally worked for me was taking Chantix. Using it, they allow you to smoke for a week a then quit altogether. The drug takes all of the nicotine rush pleasure out of smoking and you get that for a week.
My last cigarette was actually after that week, when I snuck one from a friend’s pack while drinking at a pool party. I smoked half of it, realized I was getting no pleasure from it at all, and then decided I was done. Over the years I have dated a smoker and I live with a smoker now (she smokes outside since it’s my house and I never liked my house/apartment smelling like smoke even when I did smoke), but I have never even had a real craving since my addiction was utterly broken when I quit.
I’ve seen a lot of people talk about how the best way to quit is cold turkey, but I’m pretty sure that’s just crap. Cold turkey will tell you how good you are at avoiding the traps of your own mind trying to feed it’s craving while it looks fondly back on the dopamine high. The best way to quit is really whatever truly works for you. I’ve know people who’ve quit cold turkey, with gum, with patches, and with medications. One guy who quit cold turkey said it had been 8 years and if someone offered them a smoke he’d probably eat it since he wanted one so bad.
Most of the successful ones just transitioned–when they quit for good, they started saying they were a non-smoker (not just because they wished it were so, it was an unconscious choice and their brain just knew they were free and started thinking that way automatically).
Good luck to you, hope you can get free. The world is a different place when you’re not a slave to nicotine.