Staying stopped past month three
Month three is when the support has ended, the cravings are rare and large, and the story becomes that you have proved you can stop. Three specific defences for it.
Weight, mood and the things nobody warns you about
Taste and smell come back, appetite changes, mood dips and the cough can get worse before it gets better. What is ordinary, and what is worth taking to a GP.
NHS stop smoking services, and what they offer
Free treatment, a named adviser and weekly contact. The NHS says using both together makes you up to three times more likely to stop for good. Here is how to get in.
Why quitting vaping is different
All-day dosing, no natural stopping point, and a research base built entirely on smokers. What actually transfers from smoking advice, and what you have to plan yourself.
You had one. What now?
One cigarette is one cigarette. Four things in the next hour decide whether it stays that way, and none of them involves starting the whole quit again from scratch.
The cigarettes you do not notice
Half of what you smoke or vape is automatic, attached to a mug, a route or a gap between tasks. Two days of logging finds the pairings, and then you break them one at a time.
The first 72 hours without nicotine
Hour by hour through the three hardest days, what your body is doing at each stage, and what to have ready before you start.
Telling people you have quit
One sentence, said once, plus a decision about the smoking break and the pub made before you get there rather than at the door.
Patches, gum, vapes: what actually helps
A patch plus a fast-acting form, sized by a free NHS adviser, is the standard setup. Nicotine vapes beat NRT in the trials, which were run on smokers.
Getting through a nicotine craving
A craving arrives, crests and falls. Use the fast-acting nicotine you should already have on you, change the room, and put a few minutes between you and the decision.
How much nicotine are you actually on?
Strength on the bottle times the millilitres you get through in a day. That one number is what an adviser uses to size your patch and what you step down from.
How to stop smoking or vaping
Four methods have real evidence: NRT, a nicotine vape, varenicline and cytisine. Adding free NHS support makes you up to three times more likely to stop.