I’m having so much trouble quitting nicotine and tobacco products. It’s so frustrating. I wanna get some nicotine patches but really can’t afford them with my rent.
Does anyone know how I can quit better and deal with nicotine withdrawal?
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The Up&up brand of nicotine patches at Target cost almost half of what the name brands do.
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I can tell you how this die hard 2.5 pack a day girl quit smoking. Initially, I spent time praying for God to make me willing to be willing to stop without a negative catalyst like cancer. I remember the day I quit, I woke up that morning with an innate supernatural peaceful feeling of strength & assurance that I had already smoked my last cigarette. The evidence was in the full ashtray. The 4+ cartons of cigs in the cabinet would never be smoked. It was an odd day to quit because I had to make long drive that day & smoking is how I passed the time. I did immediately change some things. I had orange tictacs available always & yes I ate them like candy. I stopped drinking everything that I associated with smoking which left me with water, milk, and apple juice. I quit sitting at the table after a meal and started a tedious task (like cleaning out all the tiny spaces between cabinets & appliances in the kitchen with a toothpick). The first 2-3 days I drank gallons of water & I purchased some paint & some resin decor items so I could keep both hands busy every waking minute. Left hand holding the object to be painted & right hand painting. I stayed away from all of my smoking friends for 2-3 weeks. Honestly, I never believed I could live a day without a cigarette, so after surviving the 1st 24 hours, I gained confidence. Lastly, I did not give up carrying my last opened pack of cigarettes with me everywhere for 3-4 months. I know it was just a mental thing; but it allowed me the ability to daily choose that ‘just for today, I choose not to smoke’. No panic, no permanent restriction, no anxiety over expecting a craving so devastating that it could not be satisfied immediately. Ultimately, I threw the stale cigs away. The physical craving leaves long before the desire or the muscle memory but the latter two are much easier to control. I also gave myself a gift. I put away all of the dollars each week that I normally spent on cigarettes for a year - enough to buy myself a nice gift & for a vacation for my husband & I. Salem cigs in today’s dollars would cost me $8,000.00 a year - that money is being better spent. Best wishes for a successful journey.
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You can get free patches online.
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Wow, I love this so much. It's a true testament of what prayer n belief in our HP can do for us n with us. Ty for sharing.
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I can tell you there is hope if you want it bad enough. This October I will have 20 years tobacco free.
And I remember what it was like trying to quit in vain. I use the nicotine gum until I got about 2 months of no smoking cigarettes behind me. Then I started to wean myself off of the gum. Eventually I was just carrying it around but I tried not to use it except for an emergency.
In the beginning when I had an urge to smoke, I would use the gum and I would try to get my mind on something else. After a while I would notice that time would go by like say 15 minutes, half hour, 1 hour and I had forgotten all about wanting that cigarette.
I kept practicing this and the cravings got further and further apart. It's a lifestyle change really. You have to get busy doing other things and you have to remove anything that's a trigger, like coffee.
I still drink the coffee I just told myself that I was no longer a cigarette smoker. I was also into fitness so I spent time getting my cardio back in order. In the beginning I was breathing so hard I was teaching myself how bad I really needed to have a cigarette.
I eventually got my breathing back in order and the early morning coughing disappeared.
Quitting smoking is a lifestyle change and you can do this. I'm here to tell you that the payoff is tremendous!
Nicotine gum is not much different than vaping these days. We have to be careful that we don't replace one habit with another bad habit. I've never known anyone that started vaping that quit. They simply traded one bad habit for another.
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