Stop smoking

Hello @boga815, and welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect.
Have you had a chance to read any of the numerous posts in the "Smoking Section" here on Connect?
Here's a link to one:
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/copd-and-cant-commit-to-quitting/
I quit cold turkey after over 42 years of dedicated smoking.
Is it hard?
Oh heck yeah!
Can you do it?
You sure can, but you have to really, really, really want to, and the hardest part for me were the cravings after I quit.
Eight years later, and they still pop up every once in awhile, but I know they will go away.

I posted that what really helped me get through the worst part was bags of red hot cinnamon candies from the Dollar Store, and the beneficial information given by the biggest smoker on the Planet Earth, Allen Carr.

He wrote a book about quitting that touched on the psychological aspects of addiction that really got through to me. It was so helpful having this book...Allen Carr's Easy Way to Quit Smoking.
I bought a used copy on eBay (why spend more money than I needed, because it's probably not gonna work...that was my mentality BEFORE I read it)
This man smoked an amazing four (4), yes, four packs a day! And he quit.
And you can too. But you will need your head to be in this process.
Your brain is the best weapon you can have in the battle against this stupid, tiny, lying, little stick of paper and tobacco.
To think we let that little creepy thing control us! And does it ever control us.
But getting control over it is your super power.
Nicotine lies.
Nicotine says you need it for some many reasons.
To be happy, when you're sad, when you're lonely, mad, at a party, at a funeral, wedding, dinner.
After dinner, before dinner, with alcohol, with coffee.
Wearing pajamas, wearing fancy clothes.

I remember standing in a dark alley behind a restaurant, smoking in the rain, while my three friends were inside, because I needed a cigarette. Really? Needed? That's the power of nicotine addiction.

I also remember driving to a scary AM/PM convenience store at 11:45 at night because I ran out of smokes. I risked my life, so I could poison my body...totally logical. Not!
There is absolutely NOTHING you have to lose by quitting. Nothing. You will only gain.

You will smell better, have more money and be shocked at how much time you now have.
Ask yourself what do you have to lose? The answer is so obvious.
Ask yourself what will you gain by quitting?

@boga815 I highly recommend getting the book that Debra @karukgirl recommended, "The Easy Way to Quit Smoking" by Allen Carr. I know 3 people who have quit after reading this book.

@karukgirl Thank you so much. I ordered the book today.

@boga815, I don't know if you have read an of the other posts I made in the "Smoking Section" but I had huge anxiety and almost panic about quitting.
I feared it so BAD.
I did not want to quit.
I loved smoking.
But I knew in my heart and head how bad smoking is.
Nobody has to tell us that, right?
That is the powerfully addictive nicotine talking.
The Allen Carr book will talk about the power of addiction, and more importantly, how to get in control of it, instead it controlling you.
When you think about it, like I did looking back, it's so stupid!
Standing outside in a dark alley in the rain, just to have a smoke?
Missing the Super Bowl game winning touchdown in overtime, because I was standing outside smoking.
Driving in sketchy areas at midnight to get a pack of cigarettes.
Answering the call of the little lying stick of tobacco.
I dedicated so much time to these dumb things. Time I can never get back. And I loved every minute of it...until I really found out about the way nicotine works, and how the industry works. It will make you mad.
Mad enough to quit, I pray!!
PLEASE! Come back and let me know how it's going.
I never thought I could quit. Especially after 42+ years.
Cold turkey.
Crazy! But I did.

Truth: I still have 3 and a half packs of cigarettes in my freezer.
They have been there since I quit.
I needed to know they were there in case one day, I failed.
One day I almost did fail.
I had just lost my mom about 9 months before, and had to put my dad on Hospice.
I was so depressed and down, and weak, and told myself when I get home I'm having a damn cigarette.
It had been 2 years.
I drove down my driveway, pulled into to garage where the outside freezer was...and didn't do it. I just couldn't. I had come too far to give in now.
I hope you find the inner strength to do this.
I promise...you will NEVER regret quitting. The opposite is true.

@boga815, I don't know if you have read an of the other posts I made in the "Smoking Section" but I had huge anxiety and almost panic about quitting.
I feared it so BAD.
I did not want to quit.
I loved smoking.
But I knew in my heart and head how bad smoking is.
Nobody has to tell us that, right?
That is the powerfully addictive nicotine talking.
The Allen Carr book will talk about the power of addiction, and more importantly, how to get in control of it, instead it controlling you.
When you think about it, like I did looking back, it's so stupid!
Standing outside in a dark alley in the rain, just to have a smoke?
Missing the Super Bowl game winning touchdown in overtime, because I was standing outside smoking.
Driving in sketchy areas at midnight to get a pack of cigarettes.
Answering the call of the little lying stick of tobacco.
I dedicated so much time to these dumb things. Time I can never get back. And I loved every minute of it...until I really found out about the way nicotine works, and how the industry works. It will make you mad.
Mad enough to quit, I pray!!
PLEASE! Come back and let me know how it's going.
I never thought I could quit. Especially after 42+ years.
Cold turkey.
Crazy! But I did.

Truth: I still have 3 and a half packs of cigarettes in my freezer.
They have been there since I quit.
I needed to know they were there in case one day, I failed.
One day I almost did fail.
I had just lost my mom about 9 months before, and had to put my dad on Hospice.
I was so depressed and down, and weak, and told myself when I get home I'm having a damn cigarette.
It had been 2 years.
I drove down my driveway, pulled into to garage where the outside freezer was...and didn't do it. I just couldn't. I had come too far to give in now.
I hope you find the inner strength to do this.
I promise...you will NEVER regret quitting. The opposite is true.

@karukgirl Missed a connecting flight because I "had" to have a cigarette.