[Moxie.]

Quitting smoking is hard. There's no doubt about that. For me, it took about a year to finally lose the urge to buy a pack whenever I was stressed, anxious, or whenever I stopped at a gas station. While that might not seem like the most encouraging thing to hear off the bat, I tell you that with the hope that it shows you that it is possible to do life without cigarettes, even if it seems like an uphill battle right now.

You mentioned that you're using an e-cigarette, but that it's not the same. I currently use one as well and, while you're right that it's not the same, it has been incredibly helpful to me with quitting. I'm not sure what smoke shops carry in your country but, in the States, the juices that go in the e-cigarettes are offered with varying levels of nicotine. One thing that I found particularly helpful was to start off with a juice containing a higher nicotine level and slowly work my way down to lower levels. While the use of e-cigarettes isn't the best long term solution, it may help make the quitting process a little more bearable than quitting cold turkey.

One of the most important parts of quitting anything is finding a replacement behavior. When you feel tempted to smoke, your mind needs something to fill the void caused by quitting the original behavior. If you don't have that, the logical step becomes picking up cigarettes again. One of the key elements of finding this replacement behavior is identifying why you smoke. As the previous user stated, identifying your triggers is a huge part of this. Do you tend to smoke more when you're feeling a negative emotion? Do you do it when you're bored? You may even find that it has to do with the motion of bringing your hand to your mouth repeatedly. Once you identify what it is that makes you want to smoke, you can begin finding replacement activities to help minimize the desire to start smoking again.

I hope this helped some. I know it's a long, sometimes extremely frustrating journey, but you can do this. If you want to share your triggers or just talk about the quitting process in more depth, feel free to send me a PM or reply to this thread at any time. You've got this!

Take care!