Cutting down on smoking?

The only ways I’ve done it twice:
- four years after starting, quit drinking/doing any drugs completely, stopped hanging out with my friends from restaurants who encouraged these bad habits. It worked but not recommended.

- after a six year gap, then smoking for 11 years: vaping. Not a Juul but actual big battery powered thing and refillable juice. That transition was easy because there was no withdrawal or feeling of loss.

When COVID quit I used that as an excuse to stop vaping too - and that was an easy transition to my surprise. I guess my nicotine levels were lower to start with or something.

Giving myself one cigarette a night or I could smoke when I drank or other bargaining methods never worked worth a damn.

Easy enough if you switch one vice for another, or as it’s said, switch one seat on the Titanic for another

I just can’t believe I’m so powerless to it. I’m thinking of trying to read that Allen Carr book. I’ve also just been thinking a lot about how to re-organize my daily points of gratification. It’s honestly just shocking to me that it could be this addictive. I know that sounds ridiculous but there it is. I also have some of the mints, I’m thinking of giving those a go again

Organizing daily points of gratification is not something i ever thought about before i started smoking, and i eventually stopped thinking that way more or less once i quit.
I should add that when i've lapsed it has usually resulted from visiting places where i've always smoked, or places that remind me very strongly of places where i always smoked, especially by myself (having a friend or relative around would probably shame me sufficiently into not smoking). Since late July I've been staying in one such place by myself and it's been much harder to abstain from smoking out here.

It's really fucking hard, I failed several times before succeeding. And the craving went on for years after, it was maybe six years before I could confidently say I had no desire to smoke ever again. Doing lots of exercise is the way I got through the difficult first couple of months.

Fuck, six yearssss though
I feel u on the trigger spots xp
Hanging tough tonight, let’s see how the week goes

My dad still had the occasional craving 20 years after he spent a week in the hospital with double pneumonia.

You can do this it's true that the cravings never go away entirely (in my experience at least), they may diminish in frequency if not intensity, but they do pass, and it requires a good amount of deliberation to go buy a pack when you haven't smoked in donkey's yonks vs. pulling one out of your pocket.
the first 4 days or so suck, the first 2 weeks or so suck to a slightly lesser degree, it doesn't get to be as easy as you'd expect after that but it does get to a point that's much more manageable. don't worry about going 6 years without a smoke. just hang tough tonight <3
if you can make it through tonight without a smoke you can probably quit.

if you can make it through tonight without a smoke you can probably quit.

Although the cravings do go on for years, they definitely fade and lessen in intensity. It's not like after three years you're still constantly thinking about smoking, it just comes on every now and then. It's manageable, after the first few months

So true - you just have to get through the evening, or the day, not the rest of your life at once.

Is there someone else in your life you care about you could quit in tandem with? I knocked it on the head cold turkey nearly six years ago, and the only way I got through the first few weeks is because my girlfriend was doing it at the same time. It wasn't so much the solidarity as the guilt at the thought that if I caved she would too, and it was the same for her.

Definitely quit, I'm so pleased to be free of it.

Good q! I think definitely the hardest thing is being in a social situation where other people are smoking. Like fuck. One of my friends has been trying to ween himself off so worth a conversation at least.
no smokes last night and weirdly this morning zero urge. I know better than to get ahead of myself though. Will preemptively try a mint this evening....

Oddly, in the early stages of withdrawl I started taking a lot of baths, up to three a day! I suppose I was trying to replicate the 'time out' element of having a cigarette.

Readers of the Carr book were like a little cult group in an office i worked in back in the day; everyone absolutely swore by it.

It is a good book.

I think one reason it 'works' so well is that once you're at the point where you're reading a book about quitting smoking, you're really ready to quit.

My experiences mirror those above, though after a few months the urges/cravings really went away completely. I do vape weed every so often, but that hasn't led to any desire for nicotine. I guess because they occupy such different parts of my routine.

The little 'gifts' to yourself of a cigarette throughout the day ARE really nice - to suddenly not have them is a kind of bereft feeling. I probably have compensated a little with running and coffee. But I feel pretty good about those habits :)

These days I only light one up when I'm drinking, which doesn't happen very often anymore, so I figure I can afford to indulge in a bit of rule-bending every now and then. I haven't felt the urge to smoke on a daily basis in years, thankfully – it just makes me feel ill.

I am basically a 20 a day smoker, and I really desperately need to cut down. The thing is that I don't particularly want to quit. I enjoy most of the cigarettes I have, I love smoking while wasted and it gives my nervous hands and mouth something to do when talking to people. But I'd like to have a pack of tobacco last over a week. I'd like to be able to go to bed and not start jonesing for a cigarette. I'd like to not lose my breath after walking up a hill.

Vaping was probably better for me, but it didn't help me cut down on my nicotine intake, I just had it constantly next to me. And all resources seem aimed at quitting, not reduction.

I lucked out with quitting because I didnt start thinking about it until I realized that I gotten to a point where I actively hated smoking, which made it easier than it would have been otherwise.

My partner smoked more than me, 30 or more a day, and quit using that Chantix prescription pill. I was skeptical but at least for her, it worked like magic, her cravings went away in a matter of weeks, and its been 4 or 5 years now of smooth sailing.

Well, I haven't had a real cigarette in over a fortnight. Don't think it really counts as cutting down when you're huffing on max-strength vape juice all day, but it's something.

it counts!

you’re still a slave to nicotine though :/

what flavour are you huffing, emily? I started off on blueberry until I started to hate the taste of it. Went through a deserts period and then gravitated towards tobacco flavours that don't taste anything like tobacco. The one I'm most settled with is Tobacco Bronze Blend by the Malaysian brand, Nasty Juice. There is a slight hint of tobacco but it's all about caramel really.

I prefer the tobacco flavours, though I got one blueberry one in my last batch order and I do quite like it. When I was last vaping I was really into cherry, it's a bit more of a "dark" flavour than some of the other fruity ones, but I haven't spotted any for sale on the website I'm currently using.

I still think someone should market savoury vape flavours - get a nice hit of marmite in the morning, mmm.

I’m sure the vaping is good for cutting out lots of the cancer-linked stuff in the smoke, but keep at it emi.ly - vape can leave shitty waxy deposits in the lungs and nicotine itself is a killer as well as an addictive pleasure.

yep, it still feels like another bad (and also good) habit

the sweeter end of the fruit flavours spectrum can be nice in small doses, but I find the tobacco flavours are the adv for me. It's been a fun new thing to get into, but I wished I'd never started again after quitting for years. But it's been rough a couple of years is my excuse.

Emily, well done. My mother had to use hypnosis to stop her smoking and it was incredibly hard for her. I agree with you about savoury vape smells btw, that candy floss one that half of vapers seem to adore is like walking into a cloud of diabetes.

going thru a bit of a health scare so been finding it especially easy to not smoke these days. we'll see how long it lasts

The little 'gifts' to yourself of a cigarette throughout the day ARE really nice - to suddenly not have them is a kind of bereft feeling.