Ask HN: How did you quit smoking?

You don't use any nicotine replacement (gum, e-cigs, patches...) and it's not stressful like the willpower method (I tried a plethora of different ways to quit in the past) and the process is quite quick. I procrastinated on reading the book (looking back I was afraid) but eventually decided to bite the bullet and book myself in for a 5hour group clinic session.

The session took place in December 2008. I walked in at 9am afraid, skeptical and wondering whether I was really in the right frame of mind to quit. I extinguished my last cigarette at 2pm that day and have felt great about it since. I know I sound like an evangelist but this is one product I'll shout about. Colour me a fanboy.

Ping me if you would like more details.

The critical factors I identified were a public commitment to stop smoking and a definite future date to quit.

Having the date set in advance, a few months away, gives you time to mentally prepare yourself, gets you used to the idea of becoming a non-smoker, and adds a very helpful fallback of "I really want to smoke, but I'm not going to throw away all those months of effort".

Making a public commitment (i.e. telling everyone who'll listen that you'll be quitting on [date]) makes your quitting date a bit more important, meaningful and harder to change your mind about as it approaches. It also increases the cost of recidivism: you'd have to admit you failed.

My doctor was one of the people I told about my intention to quit. He offered to prescribe a course of Zyban and I believe it made a huge difference. Just make sure you find out how long you're supposed to take the Zyban before quitting, and start taking it sufficiently in advance of quitting day.

Good luck!

The idea was to have four rows of 13 notches for the 52 weeks of the year.

After about 6-7months I didn't need it anymore, but I still keep it to this day as a memento. It really helped to look up at it every time I had a craving and think 'look how far you have come'

It will be four years in October since I stopped smoking. I smoked for half of my life from 13-26

I was up to a pack a day when I quit. I begun by realizing my habits. About once an hour I'd get up and go outside for a smoke.

When I decided to quit (the first time) all I did was delay to my next "appointment". In other words - get to work at 7am, 8am comes around and you want to go smoke. At this point I would squirm, fidget and think about the smoke, but not actually do it until 9am. Continue this process through out the day. I also kept my associative smokes (getting in the car, finishing a beer, having a coffee etc) in tact at this point. These served as a familiar refuge from the shock I was going through during the day.

I did this for a week or two (until it became easy), then applied the same process (recursion!) to my current habits.

Somewhere along the line, when I felt comfortable I took out some of the associatives (only have a smoke when I drive to work, not coming home).

I kept repeating this until I was down to 2 - 3 a day, then one day (without prior planing) said I was going to make it the whole day. I don't think it worked, but I kept trying every once in a while.

The first time I used this process I quit for a few months. The second (and current time) has been about 8. I still want to smoke from time to time.

Once again - YMMV but I didn't really WANT to quit. I liked smoking, but my unparalleled stubbornness helped me get through.