How to Quit Smoking (Cold Turkey)

First you have to want to quit smoking. As any respectable doctor will tell you, even a prescription for quit smoking pills is more or less a waste of money if you're not psychologically ready to quit. And these pills actually lessen cravings and withdrawal symptoms to the point where you won't necessarily feel like randomly destroying inanimate objects that are laying around the house. This alone pretty much makes the case for being "ready" as being the first real step towards quitting. Because we smokers know how severe those withdrawals can be.

The second step is to get sick. Real sick. A severe cold, flu or acceptably nauseating stomach bug should do the trick.

Just to be clear, I'm not suggesting that you should make yourself sick, but that you should seize the opportunity if it comes along. The reason for this is that certain types of illnesses will either make smoking uncomfortable (sore throat) or take away nicotine cravings altogether for a short period of time (stomach flu).

If you can manage to contract an illness that gives both of these opportunities, then you're golden. This is because the most severe physical withdrawal symptoms will last for about 72 hours. So if you get sick enough, which means you won't want to smoke while you are sick, then when you're feeling well enough to smoke again, you will already have a major part of the battle over and done with. This is assuming of course that you are sick for at least 2-3 days.

To conclude:

If you are psychologically ready to quit smoking and you happen to get sick, then use the fact that you are sick to your advantage. The body will be more concerned with extreme nausea (for example) than it will be with nicotine cravings. This provides a natural window of opportunity in which you will not be overcome by those cravings. And because the most severe withdrawal symptoms last only 72 hours, then being sick for a roughly equivalent amount of time will make it so that those 72 hours never even existed.

Worked for me.

Note:

While I managed to quit smoking using this exact method, I have since relapsed. It was nearly a year later though, so it does work.