Method: Cold turkey



Smoking Frequency: Just short of a pack a day



Why It Worked: I coincided it with deviated septum surgery, which helped for the first few days. You feel your face has been kicked in and your nose is bleeding, so the thought of agitating it with smoke is really unpleasant.



After that, I noticed I did drink more coffee than normal, but I tried to avoid alcohol and lingering too long in situations where I normally smoked heavily (like sitting on the porch or driving around a lot).



The first few days really suck and the first few weeks you still crave it a lot...but after that, it tails off substantially and you only really crave cigarettes if you see someone else smoking and even then you go on to doing something else and it passes quickly. The important thing is to keep your mind off it and find stuff to keep you occupied so you don’t sit around and think about smoking all the time.

I decided on cold turkey vs. patches, gum, or Chantix because I wanted to get the uncomfortable withdrawal over with ASAP (I feel nicotine replacement therapy just prolongs your misery) and I’ve never been on any antidepressants or other psychotropics before (Chantix) and I wasn’t really keen on starting that and dealing with side effects.

I have been cigarette-free since October 2013.

