[CraigJPerry]

Anecdata but that’s not how it worked for me. I was “20 a day” (which means 30 a day but that wasn’t socially acceptable to admit) for 4 years, 3.5 of which were spent trying to give up. The only 3 days i didn’t smoke in that time were when i had a horribly bad septic throat due to some infection and physically couldn’t smoke.

Patches, lozenges, gums, the little ball tablet things, herbal cigs, e-cig - not the current vape kind, the early 2000s fake cig kind, will power exercises, social support group, pay into my piggy bank to smoke each cig … you get the idea but nothing worked for me and i tried everything on the market.

The problem wasn’t just that i enjoyed smoking, i was actually born to be a smoker. I say that because other people, even most smokers, hate passive cig smoke to varying degrees but i always loved it from a young age, like really loved being near someone smoking, the smell of a cig being smoked just smelled great. Stale smoke didn’t, i hated that like everyone else.

And then i gave up, in one day, and my feeling has never changed since. You couldn’t pay me to smoke, it’d be like paying someone to drink petrol, there’s just no one would do that, it’s an absurd idea.

I don’t mind being near smokers, i don’t enjoy the smell anymore but I’m not repulsed either. I never consider them, it’s just not a part of my identity. I’m not a smoker.

The difference is subtle, is that i don’t have to smoke anymore. When i was a smoker i had to smoke but today I don’t.

Allen Carr’s Easyway book. I don’t mind admitting i actually cried reading it. 3.5 years of misery solved painlessly with zero effort. I couldn’t believe how easy it was to quit, after all the crap i had been through.

[OrbitRock]

Same here. I was a heavy smoker who struggled terribly to quit.

But once I quit, well, your “pay me to drink petrol” analogy is accurate. Its been this way for about 10 years now. I just don’t smoke, it’s now repulsive to me, and there’s almost no conceivable way for me to go back to it other than putting myself through the punishment of the early smoker again where it’s just disgusting and doesn’t feel good at all for several weeks.

[mszcz]

Same here. I thought I had a good grasp on how I think and why I do what I do and this was a real eye opener. It was freaky that after 300 or so pages I suddenly didn't have to smoke whereas before I tried literally thousand+ times.

[mPReDiToR]

40 Marlborough reds a day, playing PS3, fag in hand constantly.

Read "The Book" and six months later, quit cold turkey.

I've been out with smokers since who have felt guilty about having one and I've proven a point by lighting their fags for them.

No way do I want or need to smoke.

I'm a non-smoker and have been for over a decade.

If you smoke, read "The Book". Twice. Stop when you're ready.

[Sander_Marechal]

Exactly the same for me. I had the book for years and occasionally read a bit in it. At one point I finished it, tried to quit, failed, re-read it in one go and quit again. First day I failed and smoked a cigarette in the afternoon. The day after I quit again and it stuck. It's like a switch flipped in my head. I knew I'd never smoke again.

I tell people that quitting is simultaniously the easiest and the hardest thing I have ever done. I haven't had any urge to start smoking again. I've been drunk since, had very stressful times, etc. But I've never felt in danger of slipping back into the habit. 5 years now :-)