So I just quit smoking by the cold turkey approach and...

5 days later I'm feeling kinda strange. Before I start here's the long story short: I just ran out of cigarettes, was too lazy to go out and buy some and so for the last 5 days I just didn't smoke at all and so I thought "hey, why don't I just stop smoking alltogether?". 5 days later I feel all jittery and anxious, like I mean 5 minutes earlier there was a fruit fly on the table, and its very presence irritated me to the point where I just squashed it with my cell phone.

I don't really feel the urge to smoke, but I feel like there's something missing. Luckily these last 5 days I stayed at home just playing videogames which helped me a lot not think of smoking, but I'm more of a social smoker. When I talk to people like at a dinner or drink I start chain-smoking a lot. What I fear most is that next time I go out I'm just gonna snap and go insane because I don't have cigarettes with me.

So, what do you guys suggest a social-smoker like me should do to keep his cool in that situation? It's the only time I ever really feel the need to smoke.

Bring stuff to put in your mouth instead of cigarettes. Toothpicks, carrot sticks, straws, whatever fits the situation. Explain to the people you're with that you're trying to quit if they give you funny looks. Avoid other smokers if possible.

Crap. Forgot that most of my friends are smokers. Boy, are they gonna laugh once they hear I quit smoking.

You're in the phallus/oral stage.

Get some sunflower seeds or gum; you mentally want something in your mouth.

Get a medical card and smoke the real stuff

Be better than their dumb asses then.

Find better friends. ;)

Man, I wish, but things don't work like that here. :(

That sounds like me but with candy. It is sort of mental, sort of physical - the feeling is attached to both. I don't feel normal / stable if I don't get my candy dose after a while.

I sort of replaced candy with fruits but it wasn't the same, just like I'm sure electronic cigarettes don't fill the void either.

I just eventually gave in and that doesn't help you, does it? LOL. Find something to replace that action and the feeling it evokes on you.

That's strange. Normally when I go cold turkey (it seems like I do this roughly twice times a year these days - I quit when I'm at school b/c nobody smokes there), the nicotine withdrawal has gone completely, at least for me anyway.

I second this.

Don't tell them that you quit yet. Not until you've been off cigarettes long enough to be reasonably sure that you actually HAVE quit.

I'm sure we all know those people who have "quit" like 20 times, and each time they're back on the cigarettes after a week. Nobody laughs at people who REALLY quit, they just laugh at people who kind of make a half-assed effort to quit and then don't stick to it.

An oral fixation perhaps, but what do penises have to do with this? Are you suggesting the OP has an oral fixation on penises?

When I quit chewing tobacco and tried to go cold turkey, I went mentally insane. Longest I lasted was like a week and a half. So I bought that nicorette gum and that helped my cravings and got me off it completely. It's been like 2 years since I last chewed, quitting tough but you can do it

@lone_wolf_lance: i once ran across something somewhere that claimed, one of the factors of dependency that smokers are not aware of is that the procedure is calming because dragging on a cigarette is also just breathing deeply. people in a study found that miming smoking with a figurative cigarette is just as calming as smoking a real one. try breathing deeply sir. take deliberate rhythmic breathes. if you feel brave, and are willing to try; go ahead and run your operation of smoking without a cigarette as an exercise. couldnt hurt to try, see what happens.

cough drops might help.

they helped my dad stop smoking.

You made the right decision. Your friends later in life will have start having what some call smokers cough.

And believe me its not pretty having that cough.

Just keep busy and it will pass. It did for me and I quit smoking cold turkey too. I was a heavy smoker for 15 years.

always having a cup of coffee with me or a bottle of water at all times is what got me through it. you also have to throw yourself into those situations where you do normally smoke and just not smoke. It'll be brutal but doable.

it will be like three months before you really dont care about it anymore~

Longest I've gone since August '10 (when I began smoking regularly) was 8 days a few weeks ago while in a detox unit. Sure, they had the patches and lozenges, but that doesn't quite cut it. They don't contain the MAOI's that tobacco does. I had some sort of 'moment of clarity' one night, decided I needed to quit all nicotine products. I lasted 48 hours (those 48 hours actually weren't that bad), until one morning my frazzled nerves got the best of me and I got a nicotine fix. I'm well aware of the health risks, and several family members have died directly from smoking. Even the ones who drank their asses off most of their life succumbed not to liver problems but shot lungs. I'm only 22, but not getting any younger. 32 is just around the corner. Yet, as much as I dislike the addiction, I enjoy smoking in a way that only an addict knows. I guess in a way, subconsciously at least, I realize I'll probably die from some other habits long before smoking drags me six feet under.

Start working out. Find snacks to munch on. Get a girlfriend. Clean your house, inside and out.

There is plenty of things to do to get rid of the jitters and anxiety.

Boy, are you gonna laugh when you see their teeth gradually turn yellow...

True that! xD