Do you really need a stop smoking aid in order to quit smoking? Maybe you don’t. Let me tell you my story.
I struggled for a few years to quit smoking cigarettes after smoking for over a decade. Now it took me a few years to finally quit, but for most of that time I was not actively trying to quit. I was just mindlessly smoking and not worrying about trying to quit. Then every once in a while, I would get the “quitting bug” again, and decide that I should try to quit smoking.
First of all, don’t do this. Make a commitment to yourself that you will not rest until you quit successfully. This is what I eventually did and that is why I am an ex smoker today. Let’s say you try to quit, and you fail. Whatever you do, do not allow yourself to say “oh well, I guess I will just smoke.” That is a death sentence. You have to keep trying to quit. Make a promise to yourself, right now, that you are never going to give up. Not even for one day. If you are relentless in this and do not allow yourself the “luxury” of mindlessly smoking without regret, then you will become an ex smoker very quickly.
Now when I was on again and off again trying to quit, I used various stop smoking aids to try and quit. Nothing worked for me and I tried almost everything, including both medication and patches.
Unbelievably, what finally worked for me was cold turkey. I actually had an idea that I would sleep through my withdrawal and this actually worked really well. The way to do this takes some preparation:
Quit smoking and have your last cigarette when you wake up one day. Throw away all remaining cigarettes, lighters, and ashtrays. Don’t give them away, throw them in a garbage can somewhere. This is the start of day 1. Do not smoke or use any nicotine products like the patch or the gum. Drink lots of fluids and go buy some cranberry juice and drink the stuff in bulk. You will flush the nicotine out of your system faster this way and your withdrawal will hit much faster and much harder. Keep drinking fluids all day long.
Now here is the key: do not go to sleep at the end of day 1. Stay up all night. Get a friend to help you with this. Keep up with the fluids and the cranberry. Stay up for as long as possible on day 2 and keep flushing your body with fluids. You will be extra tired when your body goes into massive withdrawal.
Finally, when you can no longer stay awake, crash. Go sleep for 12 to 16 hours.
If you time this right, you will be through with your nicotine withdrawal when you wake up. I did it, and it worked. I was home free.
