I smoke but my girlfriend and I are trying to quit using Chantix.
So far it has basically made us want to kill each other, and we're both still smoking. It's still the first week though so we're sticking with it. I'm a little more committed to it than her. I think she's going to start back when it gets bad.
I quit cold turkey and I had a 2.5 pack a day habit but I had also reached a point where I knew if I didnt' quit I would die young and fear is one hell of a motivator. I did a number of things which helped me. You're all ready doing one. I talked my GF into quiting with me at the same time as I knew I couldn't do it if she kept on smoking. All's she had to do was spark up once and I was a goner.
Next was I stopped doing all the things I associated with smoking. I quit drinking coffee and beer and I would get up and go for a walk after meals until the nicotene fit subsided. I stoped going to clubs and bars and restraunts as I new if I went to one I would spark up.
I also stopped associating with anyone I knew who smoked until I had a grip on things (that took 6 months). Most of my friends and family smoked and I stopped seeing them, at first they thought I was mad at them but I convinced them I was serious about smoking.
Next I started doing activities that not only distracted me from smoking but also made it damned inconvienant to drop what I was doing to go buy a pack. At first I went to a local river and would hike a mile or two up and down it to find a fishing spot and would fish most evenings. Did that for a couple of months, then I started riding my bike when I got home from work, that was even better because as I got better at cycling it became positive reinforcement not to smoke.
It was a full year before I stopped having nicotene fits on a daily basis. After 1 year I went to a bar for the first time. A colleague lit up a cigar and I promptly had a nicotene fit and immediatly made my excuses and left. It was a full two years before the smell of tobacco didn't cause a nicotene fit. By then, I'd lost a lot of friends who smoked because I just couldn't be around smokers till I had a firm grip on things. That sucked but I'm still alive 15 years later. I'm positive had I kept smoking at the rate I was, I would now be dead.
4 years after I quite smoking cigerettes I went to Miami on a business trip. Our host turned us onto some authentic Cuban cigars (a Cohiba lancero). It was my very first premium cigar and I enjoyed it and oddly it gave me no urge to smoke a cigerette. I've enjoyed premium cigars ever since. Each Thursday I drop by a local walk in humidor with a good bottle of whiskey and I get a good cigar and have a couple of stiff drinks and then go home for dinner. Man, that's living.
