At 12.75 a pack its time to quit

[mithrilG60]

Originally Posted by OLS

I can tell you from experience that money is only an object when it's time to make statements about quitting. Your body will say "then go out there and earn mo money beyotch". There is only one thing that I have found that completely kills the urge to smoke and that is cancer or some other physical setback. I quit for a long time and had no symptoms. Then I went to Mardi Gras and bought a pack, cause I knew I would want them. But that wasn't enough. I smoked like a fiend for the next two months and at the end, I could not climb stairs without being winded, had developed a wheeze and no matter how long I have been off em now, the symptoms mostly stay put. My wind has improved with walking 3-5 miles a day 6 days a week.
But something is in there and when I am dead, they will find out what, I'm sure. Don't kid yourself about the money. Money does not kill urges, nor will it control your trigger behaviors. But good luck, sincerely.

I disagree, all that's required to quit is the actual desire to quit. It doesn't really matter what the stimulus for that desire to quit is, just as long as you want to give it up. I "tried to quit" several times before I actually quit, always for the wrong reason (usually for someone else) which is why they failed.

What tipped it for me was I just got tired of spending $12 a day (back in 2005, I've no idea what a pack costs now) to do something which I knew would eventually kill me. I did go the nicotine replacement patch route to help with the physical withdrawl, but ultimately it was the willpower to quit that actually did it as I didn't complete the patch therapy. My doctor put me on a regime that had me wearing the 21mg patches for 7 weeks then a gradual decrease via the 14mg and 7mg patches to nothing.

What ended up happening was the day that I was s'posed to drop down to 14mg was our 2005 provincial election and I had either enough time to go to the polls and vote or to the drug store to buy the next round of patches. I decided that voting was far more important and then just never got around to buying any more patches.

The physical addiction to nicotine ends 48 - 72hrs after your last cigarette, it's the psychological and behavioural addictions that are much harder, and take longer, to break. As long as you can remove yourself from the common situations were you would have normally smoked, or find a way to distract yourself for 5 min so the craving passes, you'll be fine.

OP, great decision and I wish you the best in your efforts to kick cigarettes. As I mentioned above, I quit 6 years ago and it was one of the best choices I've ever made.