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Comment by SonicTheSith | Hacker News Reader

4 years ago I quit smoking. While the first week was hell because of the nikotin withdrawal. Getting rid of the habit itself took longer. Waiting outiside, after a meal etc. it is all habit. What I did was buying a vape with nikotin free filling just to have something if my.mind craves the habit. This went on for 3 months reducing the amount I vaped linearly. By month 4 I stopped touching the vape and the only times I had a craving was while waiting for the bus with tons of smokers around. FYI location Berlin Germany.

But even this craving in such an environment stopped after a few more months.

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I started with nicotine patches and after 2 weeks switched over to Wellbutrin (prescribed by psychiatrist). On Wellbutrin I had couple rough days but nothing too bad, I mostly used music for distracting myself from this hole that i felt. Now i'm 124 days clean and feel so happy to be free from this bullshit

I've quit nicotine more than once, but last time I quit with patches too. I switched from cigarettes to e-cig in 2018 and by late 2020 I was consuming way more nicotine than I did before - a JUUL pod or more per day.

I never smoked indoors so when I started e-cigs the habit only got worse and instead of a habit that required a break every hour or two to go outside and have a cigarette, I was just vaping all day throughout any activity.

I finally quit with patches ~10 months ago, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't still have cravings.

Well, i got into 30 cigs a day zone and started to realize this is not gonna end well. I had to draw a line in the sand and tell the damn cravings to fuck off and stick to my guns. Freedom is worth much more than some stinky stick that'll give you cancer.

The breaking point was when I decided to see an addiction specialist instead of trying to wage the war on my own

Nicotine in particular is a bitch to quit - I don't understand how a substance that addictive can be legal, especially considering how violent a withdrawl can feel. Breaking off a pot addiction or a heavy drinking stint seems like a cinch by comparison.

My advice is to buy some flavored toothpicks. I bought some minty ones from Amazon and they do a great job of satisfying any oral fixation you've got, and placating the habit of wanting to do something with your hands when you've got a free moment. It admittedly doesn't make quitting cold-turkey any more fun, but it certainly helps to trick your brain for a while.

>I don't understand how a substance that addictive can be legal, especially considering how violent a withdrawl can feel.

Because it was grandfathered in. If you ban it, you fuck up a ton of people hooked on it. I can't imagine what the assault / homicide / suicide rate would spike to for the next decade or two.

Some countries have proposed banning it from a threshold. I.e. ban it for people born after year X (which at time of introduction is e.g. 14 year olds)

Yes, I believe that was New Zealand. It's about the only way you can do it ethically.

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