I quit weed a while ago, and honestly didn’t expect this…
The thing I missed the most wasn’t the high — it was the little ritual.
Lighting up. Taking that first inhale. Just… pausing for a second.

I didn’t want to go back to cannabis, but I did want something that felt like it. So I started playing around with natural stuff I could smoke — no weed, no tobacco, nothing psychoactive.

Eventually came up with something that smells, tastes, looks, and burns like a joint. And weirdly enough, it’s been helping. A lot.

Just wondering — has anyone else here felt the same?
That it wasn’t really about the substance… but the habit around it?

I went cold turkey (meaning zero nicotine, no patches, gum, lozenges, vaping, etc) 6 days ago today. The first few days were the hardest I've ever faced, now I wake up each day healthier and healthier. I do get intense cravings, but they pass. Instead of smoking I've been sucking on starbursts and non-nicotine gum. I was a pack a day smoker for 16 years and wanted to kill my addiction outright. The first few days I couldn't even walk properly I was so out of it, I couldn't read a paragraph of text so I just stayed in bed. Extremely intense on day 3 going into day 4 and thought about caving constantly. But now it's a lot smoother! I recommend people to give up ASAP.

The first week was the hardest and after that I’ve managed to keep my word to myself. Not another puff no matter what. My last big craving was 6 months ago. The biggest downside is I’ve gained a lot of weight but It was worth it. I’m working on losing weight and getting in shape.

Most of the time I don't even remember being a smoker. When people ask me if I smoke I simply answer "I don't" instead of "I quit".

But there are occasions, and days, where cravings crashes back badly. It's even a couple of nights that I'm dreaming about rolling cigarettes.

And my brain, that fucker, he is still trying to trick me into smoking just one cigarette.

However I won't go back to it. It's been , almost 5 months I quit and despite I'm going to a swimming pool 2-3 times per week and every Sunday I go hiking, I still have serious shortness of breath.

I wish I had quit sooner.

Went to the US (from India) for a work trip in February. The cold and dry air in Denver caused me to develop a violent cough. Lost my voice for a bit as well.

In the midst of all this, I had to stop smoking. And since then it's just been an experiment to see how far I can go.

It's been 6 weeks since I touched nicotine. Was on a 20-pack a day before I moved to vapes. Had been smoking for 3 years. And one day I just randomly quit cold turkey.

I always considered it to be a bad habit, tried quitting a couple times, and I knew I could live without it because I could do 10-15 day breaks when I visited my parents.

Also, I've been actively putting myself in situations where I loved to smoke, the office smoke room, my regular bar, staying around smokers who would give me a drag if I asked for it. No cravings at all.

Hope this one lasts forever. 🤞

Let’s fckin do it!!!

I have been smoking daily for about 40 years and have tried to quit more times than I can count. Never successful for more than a few days without Increasing consumption of other substances like alcohol or cannabis.

When I was 3 years old nmom found me eating cigarettes and cigarette butts because I thought people were eating them. At 5 years old my sister was born and ndad thought it would be funny if I had a cigar. At 16 I started sneaking cigarettes and by 18 was a regular smoker. For decades I joked that I was genetically predisposed to smoking.

I have many health problems, and many are probably caused by or exacerbated by smoking, and smoking helps me deal with stress. I quit alcohol 5 years ago (woohoo!) and 2 years ago I finally got a pharmacogenetic test done that showed that I'm genetically predisposed to smoking. Surprise surprise. I don't habituate to anything else.

I have tried patches, gums, chantix, meditation, lobelia, tinctures, growing my own, rolling my own, and pretty much everything else. The thought of quitting smoking would cause so much anxiety that I would need a cigarette.

My life the last couple of years has been absolute hell. After a near-death experience I am homeless, disabled, with mental health issues, going bankrupt, lost my business, completely abandoned by every person in my life (which is actually been a good thing since they were all toxic) and have no one but my cat that I am close to. I am ok with this.

One of the few things that I had left to comfort me was tobacco. And for some strange reason I have naturally stopped desiring to smoke. I have been using an electronic cigarette and I still use cannabis but the last few times I actually smoked a combusted cigarette I didn't enjoy it.

So on Tuesday I had the last cigarette in my pack and I was fine for 3 days. Yesterday my body hurt really bad and even though it was more muscle memory than physical craving I broke down and had a cigarette. I asked for one from a person who's in the shelter here and it was a menthol. I hate menthol but I smoked it anyway and it was good because it made me disgusted in the end. I don't know why I did it but it further solidified my desire to quit.

I'm going to be 58 years old and I thought I would smoke until the day I die. The physical cravings that I thought would be so overwhelming or not there.

I'm not sure why I'm posting this but I guess I would love some encouragement and I would love to encourage others to quit.

This is probably the single best decision that I could make with regards to my health and it seems like a no-brainer. I'm looking forward to regathering this power from this addiction back to make me stronger but I'm not feeling very strong right now.

Thank you! I appreciate your time, your consideration of my situation and positive feedback. Haters can keep it to themselves.

For background, I've "quit" a few times in the past with no problems. I only ended up going back to it during two bouts of serious depression. My mental health has been doing very well for the past year and a half and things in my life are generally trending upward. I decided to quit again last month, hopefully this time for good.

This past week has been terrible. I've reached PEAK irritability, constantly biting my tongue at little things that my family, friends, and partner are doing. I've blown up a few times at family members this week and nearly did the same a few times with my girlfriend. I sat here really thinking about it last night, "why am I being such an asshole lately? Is this what I'm becoming?" I didn't even think about how I recently quit nicotine. I legitimately thought I quit like 2-3 months ago, but today I realized that it's only been a month. It sort of makes sense now! I'm just worried because it's never been this bad in the previous times that I'd stopped. I feel like I'm losing my sanity. I feel like I'm a ticking timebomb that's waiting to explode. I'm even considering taking a break with my girlfriend for a month just so I can stabilize. I fear that I'll be stuck acting like this (or at least fighting these feelings). For those of you who got really affected, does this sound familiar? How'd yall cope?

I stopped smoking successfully for a year but I moved to a new place and right in front of my house there's a cigarette vending machine... I bought cigarettes multiple times now and am basically back to smoking. I'm so stupid. And too weak willed for this shit. That's all.

How to clean the lungs and undo the damage?

In this case after 25 years of smoking, 20 pack years.

Tips, advice, evidence based science, alternative treatments and methods, contraindications, “do’s and don’ts” are ALL welcome 🤗 !

Many thanks for sharing your insights, stories or experience!

(m-26) I'm not smoke-free yet, and I've been smoking for nearly a decade. I started when I was 14 and quit for a couple of years out of necessity/lack of access whatever you want to call it, but that didn't last long and I surcame to peer pressure once more when I was 17 and tried Dip canned tobacco. I hated dip it made me sick, but it brought back the cravings as well as watching almost every one of my peers doing it made it hard to stay strong: Anyway, I switched to only drinking water instead of all the sugary drinks like sweet tea and soda about a week ago. About 3 days goes by and I can only stand to smoke a half a cigarette every couple of hours because the taste just gets so bad. This post is not to virtue signal or to gloat. It's simply something that I have found that works for me, and the reason that it works for me is not mentioned when I try to research how only drinking water helps quitting smoking. They just go on a spiel about how water flushes the toxins from your system, well that's not why it helps me, or at least not the big reason. The reason it helps me is because water keeps my palate clean and I can actually taste how disgusting these cancer sticks are. So, considering I find all my best answers on Reddit, I figured this might be my chance to contribute to the community that has helped me with so much, from Big to small questions. It's going to suck being cruel for a few days, but I am quitting cold turkey. I don't want cheerleading squad or anything, but if you could sneak me into a prayer or think some good energy my way for a second it would be appreciated. It's going to be hard to remain strong and kick the habit.

TLDR: I switched to only drinking water and quit being able to stand the taste of cigarettes despite my strong addictive cravings for them. Requesting prayers for my quitting journey. 🙏🙏

Just had a thought that, the problem for me started when I began getting fearful of cravings, earlier when I used to smoke ( not so regularly) , craving might have been very mild and not even noticeable. But later when I started smoking regularly, and thinking about quitting but still not being able to do what I said to myself, I started to feel anxiety and restlessness whenever a craving hit. Then, eventually I began thinking of avoiding going to certain places, avoiding going out at certain trigger times of the day and avoid meeting friends, as I feared that I will smoke.

BUT THE IRONY IS although I had that fear for cravings and avoided basically living my life, I was still smoking. Sometimes alone, sometimes with new people, at new places, at new times of the day.

I've been thinking about this and letting some cravings of the day pass to actually see how can this hurt me if I don't smoke. Not going to lie, it sure makes me anxious and restless but it eventually dies down in a few minutes. But it leaves behind a feeling of 'something's missing' which I guess is due to the habit of satisfying that craving for so many years. Today I've gone cold turkey and right away, I get thoughts like, "what about tomorrow morning?", It creates so much self doubt, that you have dig deep to find a sliver of hope and strength.

It says that " you have done this before, it doesn't work" and this time I don't want to believe it. Just for once, I don't want to be fearful of the cravings or living my life. So here it goes, Day 1.

Well the weather is changing and we've been blessed with glorious weather here in Scotland for the past few days, but it's really been bringing my cravings back. Every time I step outside into the sun, I'm thinking about smoking. It's giving me early summer vibes, and in my addicted brain that automatically leads to thoughts of drinking pints of beer and smoking cigarettes, or driving around with the window down and a cigarette in my hand.

I was getting really good at forgetting about nicotine for most of the winter, but this is bringing a new challenge. I think this is where I slipped up last time, but this time I'm prepared and experienced enough to know it's just not worth going back to smoking. I'll just have to ride it out because that's the only option. Being a smoker again is not on my to-do list. It's been nearly 6 months completely cold turkey.

I've been on the verge of falling out with everyone at work because I've been totally flipping out at the slightest thing. I've already apologised to everyone in advance and explained why I've been such a dick. It's like week 3 all over again. I suppose this is just another little challenge to overcome. Let's not make mountains out of molehills here. I've heard that you have to go through all 4 seasons as a non smoker before you can consider yourself more or less free, which seems about right to me.

Quitting weed and need alternatives.

I have been cigarette free for about 5 years and in that time, my weed cinsumption has gone up significantly. I've been having relationship problems lately and the two main culprits are too much weed and not enough sleep. Last night I decided now is the time to stop smoking weed practically altogether. The reason I substituted weed for nicotene was the delivery system. I am addicted to the pull, the drag, the "holding it in you chest" sensation and the exhale. I need to find some kind of herbal or CBD product that can give me that feeling above all else. If I can keep that, I can quit THC cold turkey right now. It doesnt have to be a weed product but cannit have any nicotene in it. I ain't going back there again. Thanks!

I didn't know that I was going to stop smoking this past week. I literally woke up Wednesday morning and avoided a cigarette. I made it all the way to lunch time, then til 3, then a full 24 hours! I have gotten some nicotine gum and nicotine patches to help with the hardest cravings. I need encouragement. My husband is also a smoker. Smelling his smoke is hard as heck. Its so tempting. Maybe just one hit?

i'm almost 18 and have been smoking on and off since i was 12. for the last 2/3 years i've been smoking pretty regularly and i've been trying to quit for a while but i never end up being able to. most, if not all, of my friends smoke and when we're in a group and they're smoking i don't get the urge as much, but when I'm with someone one on one and they start smoking, i end up asking for a cigarrette as well. Any tips on quitting?

I wouldn’t have started if someone warned me how addictive it is

It’s been 4 months since I quit. I was a 5-8 cigarette a day smoker from 18 to 33 years of age. From 33 to 40, I never smoked on the weekdays and smoked lightly on the weekends, amounting to 1-2 cigarettes a day on average. So I’ve not been smoking much in the last 7 or 8 years. I took up fitness at 33 and weigh about 75 kgs and pretty fit.

I run a speed run on Wednesday and a slow 15k run on saturdays. I ran a 21k half marathon in 3 hours dot. I run at 8 minutes per km and my average heart rate is 152 bpm. I find my myself thinking the improvements are barely coming or if I’m being impatient. In these four months, I’ve gone from 8:30/min to 8/min for an average of 152 bpm

...and it was horrific.

I quit cold turkey and was smoke/nicotine free for 13 days before I went out for a big restaurant meal with family and ended up with the post-meal cravings when I got home. The 24-hour shop opposite my building got the better of me and I bought a pack. Felt great for the first couple or so.

That was Thursday night. It's now Sunday morning, I was just about through one pack before I woke up this morning feeling absolutely disgusting. My chest hurts, my throat feels like it's full of sand, my breathing is noticeably laboured, and my head and teeth have that heavy pressure feeling you get with a sinus infection. I'm also extremely fatigued, I didn't realise how much my energy levels had increased from quitting.

I've given my remaining pack to my boyfriend who's still a smoker, I don't want them. I can't believe how unwell just a couple of days or so of smoking made me feel. I can't believe this is how I used to feel all the time without even realising.

I'm pretty sure I see them differently now. Now I truly think of them as evil.

Hi everyone. I am 149 days smoke free (almost 5 months), nevertheless I really want to start again. I was a heavy smoker (2-3 packs a day) for almost 30 years. Last week has been difficult, I have bad cravings and I am feeling sad and lonely. It doesn’t really make any sense. I was quite fine and now this. Is it normal? I am not sure if it is worth it anymore.

I'm ready to quit, but quite frankly I'm scared. I've been smoking for about 7 years. I'm tired of my lungs feelings like crap and tired of spending so much money on cigs. I've tried many times to quit cold turkey and I can't. The brain fog, anxiety and irritability are too much for me. For those who have used NRT what did you use that you think worked best for you? I'm contemplating on getting some nicotine gum because it worked for my brother. Any and all advice is welcome.

Determined to be smoke free when I wake up Monday morning. Smoked on and off for 15 years and the difference I've felt when I have quit has been amazing so really using that as motivation.

I'm currently living with family while our house purchase goes through and they all smoke/vape. Let me know your best tips, or reminders when those cravings hit 😊