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My experience: After several failed tries over the years, this what worked for me. First and what I found to be most important was that I was doing this for myself and not others. I also made a commitment to reevaluate that commitment often based on my progress or lack of it. My choice was to stop "cold turkey" as easing off never was successful for me. I started with a one week commitment. I acknowledged before hand that withdrawal would possibly make me irritable and uncomfortable. That was a key to my eventual success and served me well throughout. I also kept my family and fellow workers informed. That first week and following, I used cut down swizzle sticks and sucking candy to substitute for the actions of smoking. I found that as soon as I acknowledged that I was having an urge to smoke, the urge quickly diminished. At the end of that first week the smell of cigarette smoke was revolting and I continued to make that commitment every week for a long time. It's been almost 40 years since I started and I still sense an urge every now and then. The addiction to nicotine has been characterized as one of the most difficult to get rid of but no matter what method you use, do it for yourself and
make that commitment for yourself as often as you need.
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I started smoking after I graduated in 1959 and took up a job in Pune, India..Cigarettes used to be cheap in those days. I kept smoking till I retired. My income got reduced. By the time prices of cigarettes kept gradually rising. When I started smoking, the price of a pack containing 10 cigarettes used to be 60 paise. When I retired, it used to be about 1 rupee per cigarette (around 170 times). I used to smoke about 10 cigarettes per day. I wondered if I stopped smoking
how much I would be saving in a year on smoking and medical expenses apart from a shortening of life span.I needed money for the education of my children. I think the dire need for money made me get rid of the habit of smoking within a month. Since then more than 25 years have passed and I am fully free of the habit of smoking.
However, there exists one after-effect. Whereas before I started smoking, I could laugh loudly, I can't do that now.
Recently, I was going out with a friend for an evening walk. The friend purchased a pack of cigarettes at rupees 70. containin 10 cigarettes. That means the price of cigarettes has gone up by seven times during the last 25 years.
I kept calculating how much money I must have saved by getting reed of the habit and with hardly any visit to the doctor.
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