If you're a former smoker what are some other known or very different stop-smoking methods?

My husband smoked from his late teens to his mid twenties.

He’s 41 now and hasn’t had a cigarette in 17 years.

If you ask him, he says he just decided one New Year’s Eve that he was sick of it, and the cigarette he was holding at midnight was going to be his last one. And it was.

It’s not quitting cold turkey, it’s just not having a desire to keep it up anymore. I think there’s a big psychological difference between “I want to quit smoking” and “I don’t feel like smoking”.

I had to quit drinking as well. I had quit smoking for up to a year at a time before but always started again when drinking.
20 years sober and smoke free.
I also had a “quiting buddy.”
My husband and I quit together and neither of us wanted to be the first to start again.

@Seek_Kolinahr – I can’t say honestly I agree with you 100% there, Seek. Having smoked for 14 years from 1989 to 2003 and eventually quitting, I felt both “I want to quit smoking” and “I don’t feel like smoking” at the same time. But before I deemed it ‘cold turkey’ I had this very odd three-week period of trying to quit smoking by…crushing my usual pack of Marlboro Ultra Lights (formerly Reds) and then throwing it in the trash, and when I would come back to the trash I would cheat by hopefully finding a cigarette that wasn’t crushed or ripped. And there usually was a few that weren’t. So when that started to trend I went to phase two of that scenario and began dousing the uncrushed pack with water from the kitchen sink and threw that in the trash. But promptly I went and bought the last pack I would ever have in my life and I had a somewhat ceremonial countdown with the last few cigarettes. Stupid , I know. But that’s how it happened. I’m free now and I thank God for all that. This is probably the best achievement ever in my life. And thats why I don’t mind sharing at least this one true experience, if not anything else. And its not at all easy to do that.

Be Good,
M

@Judi – Thanks. I like that “quitting buddy” idea. I wasn’t fortunate then to have that chance for myself. But others might be reminded for having a chance to try that technique after seeing your post. Again, thanks.

I never smokes but I have friends who stopped after several years of smoking. They just stopped.

I was a light smoker until a personal tragedy struck. Suddenly I was smoking two packs a day.

Then the oncologist called and said, “The biopsy is malignant.” I stopped on a dime then. It seemed easy compared to dealing with breast cancer.

This is not a method I recommend, even though it was very effective.