We asked former smokers in the BuzzFeed Community to tell us what helped them become cigarette-free. Here are the super helpful and raw results.
1. "I use the Smoke Free app to stay motivated. It tells you how many cigarettes you haven't had, how much money you've saved, and it shows your health progress. I haven't smoked in 1 month, 25 days, 9 hours, 1 minute, and 49 seconds, and I can't believe how well it's working so far."
2. "I smoked for four years. Based on reviews, I got Easy Way to Stop Smoking by Allen Carr. I couldn't put the book down! Five hours and six cigarettes later (yes, I smoked while reading), I was a quitter. I had smokes left but no desire to touch them. It's been eight years. I push this book on all my friends who want to quit."
3. "I smoked for 16 years. I tried e-cigs and lost them and refused to buy another one, so I started sucking on Dum Dums whenever I had a craving. After a while, that substitution got rid of all of my cravings. I've now been tobacco and lollipop-free since February of 2014."
4. "I've been smoke-free for over five years now. I started smoking at age 15 and was on and off for the next 35+ years. I smoked anywhere from half a pack a day to a full pack each day. Hypnosis was the only thing that stuck for me. I tried quitting cold turkey, various nicotine replacement methods, patches, gum, vapes, and everything else I could think of, but they were only temporary fixes. Hypnosis worked as a one-and-done action. The fee was less than what I was spending for two months of cigarettes. Now the price has increased so much that the fee would be the same as only one month. It was worth every penny to finally be a non-smoker."
5. "Instead of picking up a cigarette when I woke up, I tried pushing it back to 10 a.m. After two months, I managed to put it off until lunchtime. By then, my cravings were largely reduced, and there were times when I totally forgot and ended up only smoking my first stick in the evening. I'm now cigarette-free for 10 years!"
6. "I quit because cigarettes are so ridiculously expensive now. I added up how much I was spending each month, and it just didn't make sense to me. Why spend that amount on something silly? Put the money you would spend on smokes into savings. You may end up saving thousands each year. I know I did."
—Kieran Warden, Facebook
"I realized how much money I was spending on it and decided to cut down. Once I cut down, I thought, 'Why not quit?' I picked up running and smoked less and less every week until I stopped altogether."
—Mehrdokht Kia, Facebook
7. "The thing that got me to quit smoking was thinking of two balloons as my lungs. Every time I wanted to take a drag of that cigarette, the balloons got filled up. Being able to better visualize what was happening to (and in) my body helped me recognize how fragile my lungs really are and how much of a poison smoking is."
—Irene Marg, Roland, Facebook
8. "Getting into fitness worked for me. I made a deal with myself that I wouldn't smoke on gym days. Then I started going to the gym more often, which meant I was smoking less and less. After a while, the desire to smoke just went away."
9. "There are so many outreach programs that will help you quit for free or for a low fee. Local hospitals and community centers usually tend to promote that kind of thing — you just have to call and ask. That's what worked for me."
—Kelsey Letourneau, Facebook
10. "I used the gum to get over the worst of the initial cravings, and I stopped going to bars and hanging out with people who smoked. I'm fairly antisocial anyway, so that was relatively easy for me, but more social people who only have friends who smoke may find that more difficult. But, as I tell everyone who asks this question, the most important factor in success is that you have to really want to stop smoking. If you're doing it because you feel obligated to or because people keep nagging you to or whatever, you'll never succeed. The initial cravings can be brutal, and the psychological addiction will stay with you for years, so you need to think long and hard about your reasons for quitting and really develop the motivation from within yourself rather than taking it solely from external sources, although external sources can certainly play a role. To develop the long-lasting willpower that's required, though, the desire to stop has to come from within."
—Anonymous
11. "I smoked for 20 years. I quit the day my daughter told me she was pregnant! I didn't want my daughter or her future baby to be subjected to secondhand smoke. My granddaughter is now 4 and a half, and I haven't smoked in five years!"
—Linda Valdespino, Facebook
12. "My third-grade daughter and I were watching TV, and a PSA came on about the damage done to non-smokers, especially children, living with someone who smokes. She immediately looked up at me with her gorgeous, sad, emerald eyes and asked, 'Is it too late for me, mommy?' I jumped up and threw away every ashtray and cigarette. The first few weeks were hellish, but every time I pictured her sweet face, my resolve came back with gusto! I was a two-pack-a-day smoker. That was 22 years ago."
13. "I smoked half a pack a day for 10 years. I quit four years and seven months ago after watching my non-smoker mother suffer from thyroid cancer. Her cancer looked exactly like the warning pictures on cigarette boxes. Knowing that my grandma and mother both died from cancer, I didn't want to make it easier for my body to kill me."
14. "I gave up going to pubs because it was too tempting to smoke when I drank. As a replacement, I took up running. Smoking after exercising is even more disgusting than at other times, and it felt like I'd be 'undoing' the work I just did, so it helped me quit. It's been 30 years now, and I still run."
—Kenna Evans, Facebook
15. "Every time I wanted a cigarette, I bought a pack and then promptly crushed them. Sounds silly, but it worked. Day by day, the addiction faded. I was a 20-year, pack-and-a-half-a-day smoker, and now I'm a recovered smoker for over 10 years."
16. "I created a list of people and fitness models who didn't smoke, and I followed them on social media. This made me want to be healthier, just like them, and it made me feel less anxious. Finding myself a healthy, smoke-free role model has inspired me to stay cigarette-free for the last 10 months."
—Caitlin Conway, Facebook
17. "Smoking is a habit. The routine of smoking is what's hard to break, not the addiction (at least for me). You've been doing the same routine for 20 years: wake up, smoke, an hour goes by, smoke again, eat a meal, smoke, etc. You need to break the habit. Replace it with something else. I would still take my smoke breaks, but instead of smoking, I did something else. I'd get a drink of water, walk to the break area and sit down, etc. Eventually, I associated my old routine with another one."
18. "I started casually smoking nine years ago. That turned into a full-blown habit. Two years ago, I started getting weird pains/feelings in my legs and fingers. This continued, so I went to the doctor, who said I was developing nerve degeneration and Buerger's disease. Basically, I was on a direct route to losing my limbs as a result of smoking. That was enough to put me on the right track. The ongoing pain was a huge reminder that my cravings weren't as important as my health. Quitting can be a difficult, crappy time, but the freedom you get once it's all over is amazing."
—Kelsey Gene, Facebook
19. And finally, "Cold turkey worked for me, but it was tough. I had to have a rule: no cigarettes — not even a puff — or else that would ruin the addiction recovery. At first, I carried hard candies and would eat one of those when I really wanted a cigarette, replacing it with something that a cigarette wouldn't taste good with. I also stayed away from places that triggered my wanting to smoke. Back then, it was really hard because you could still smoke everywhere, and I was used to smoking at bowling alleys, restaurants, pool halls, bars, or basically anywhere recreational. It's been over 25 years, and I'm so glad I quit! I only had small, random cravings for a couple of years, but they got weaker over that time. After that, cigarettes just started to gross me out. Smoking a cigarette seems as appealing to me now as licking an ashtray. You've got this!"
Do you have a different tip that worked for you? Feel free to share it in the comments below!
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and clarity, and some are from this Reddit thread.