I hope the best Photini Henderson – I mention those two as they were the ONLY TWO methods that were ever successful at quitting for long periods of time. Jesus Prayer – like Vitaliy Timofeyev said… hundreds of times.. it could easily have been thousands. I’d go about my day, normal routine and in my mind, the prayer was unceasing, a burble of continual Jesus Prayer neverending.
Sometimes I’d rub my fingers together in imitation of a prayer rope. Or I’d rub my toes together to simulate a similar motion in my shoes.
From what I’ve researched, mostly introspectively but also found enough evidence from scientific things, the phonological loop (the place where jingles get stuck in your head and repeat) and the moment of “now” seems to be about 6 seconds long, each “now” overlapping with the next “now”.
Filling it with the Jesus Prayer is effective. As I have to admittedly declare my current agnosticism with great regret, nevertheless, I’ve found nothing but positive psychological support for all of the methods used in Orthodoxy for right thinking, right being.
As a bit of an American Pragmatist by upbringing, the effectiveness is a strong indication of truth value. I could never be atheist; it’s a nonsensical position, yet am I truly agnostic or hiding my faith? I don’t know.
In any case, I hope something I said can help in some fashion. If you chose to taper down with vapor, I found 16-18 mg menthol was fine. I smoke menthol light cigarettes, and found anything stronger than 18mg made me want to vomit, and anything weaker just made me antsy.
When I tapered down from there, it took about 21 days to go from 18 –> 0mg. Most habits seem to take about three weeks to conquer the worst of it.
Then again, I’ve returned to it. So did I conquer it? No. But knowing several working methodologies is helpful should I go that route again sometime.
Also, consider b12, magnesium and zinc (regular daily recommended amounts). For me, it acts as an anti-anxiety, although really it’s just supplementing food. One can get it all from food as well. It works so well, I’ve used it, or even just magnesium + zinc without the b12, before going to the dentist. My dentist was thrilled when I told him and he said he’d look into it in the journals.