[ajbrown]

I am not sure I know the ’best’ way to quit anything, but can relay my experience in the hope it helps you. I quit smoking cigarettes 20 or more years ago. I was a pack a day smoker.

It was not easy for me and took two or three tries. Each attempt was cold turkey.

For me, I can best describe it as a series of MOMENTS where I had to say no. Nothing anyone tells you can help with those moments. For me, not having a cigarette in that moment was all on me. In the beginning those moments seem to come every 5 minutes. In time they space out, but even after weeks you will have a moment when you have an opportunity to have a cigarette.

All you have to do is get past that moment. I am not saying that to be funny or belittle the effort. I am truly not, I know how hard those moments are and some are bigger than others in the process. My point is they really are just moments, do not think of quitting as forever, think of getting past that one moment. With my experience, my huge moment, after no smoking for about 2-3 weeks, I had a moment so difficult it lasted 10 – 15 minutes. I was alone, I had some cigarettes, I had matches. “I could have just one I thought”.

For reasons I do not recall, I made it through that moment……. Although more moments followed for me in the process, none were like that one and I believe it was that moment that I really quit. I cannot remember the last moment I have had it has been so many years….

Not too bore you further but....

I think in hindsight a driver for me was a bet I had. I was with my Dad (never smoked) and a good friend (smoker). We made a bet for $100 that we would quit smoking. My Dad pointed out that was a silly bet, specifically that if we both failed there was no loss. In that moment we designed a bet that likely got me over the hump. Our bet:

If you had a cigarette you had to pay the other person $100 for that month. If you both smoked you each had to pay $100 to a charity. You could smoke for the rest of the month, but on the first of the next month the bet started again. So basically smoking costs you $1200/year.

I do not bore you with the bet so you make a bet with someone, I tell the story as I believe the more people that knew about me quitting, the better. In those moments I describe you will face, it was helpful to think of all the folks that knew I was quitting and how much they were rooting for me to succeed.

In summary, it is hard, it is all on you and everyone is rooting for you to succeed.

Good luck.