Personal Story of Cigarette Addiciton

"I smoked 3 packs a day for about 15 years when I decided to quit, I did it "cold turkey". I realized that out of the 60 or so cigarettes I was smoking every day, I only really enjoyed maybe 3-6 of those. The rest were simply me continuing to self-medicate my nicotine fix. I was very dedicated to my smoking habit. I had a very close and intimate relationship with tobacco than I did with most people. When I quit, it was like my best friend was gone forever. Even so, I realized that I needed to let go of my "friend". Each time I left my house, I found myself checking "Do I have my cigarettes?" "Do I have matches or a lighter?" "Do I have enough money to buy another pack of cigarettes?" It eventually sunk in that I was truly addicted, both physically and psychologically and this addiction was ruling my life, I made a conscious decision that I didn't want to live like that Once I made up my mind, I decided to put as much effect into ridding myself of my addition as I did to maintain it for those 15 years. The most difficult part was the first couple of weeks. As my body was detoxing, it was also signaling that I needed to dose myself with more nicotine. The way that it was doing this was by intense cravings and "panic attacks". These were very vivid and happened often at first. The panic attacks usually lasted 3-5 minutes. But I found that I could hang on through those attacks, that the next one was not quite as bad and I was stronger and better prepared for the next one. And when it came, it was less intense until they came less often and were easier to deal with. Is this the way to quit smoking? It was for me, as I haven't used tobacco products in more than 26 years." David x xxxxx, Adjunct Professor of Pikes Community College, answered the question "How can you quit smoking without professional assistance?" Found on Quora.