Free guide · Scarlet Beast En español →
When you want to quit smoking
For people in the United States who smoke cigarettes and want to stop, and for the people beside them. What quitting does. The free help by phone, text, app and chat. Quit-smoking medicines. Getting through the first day, a craving and the first weeks. What to do if you smoke again. And the words to say to a doctor or a pharmacist. One thing at a time.
Right now
- Want a cigarette this minute? Smokefree.gov, from the National Cancer Institute, says the moment will pass. It says to take slow, deep breaths, ten times, and to switch to doing something different.
- Want to talk to a quit coach? Call 1-800-QUIT-NOW (1-800-784-8669). In Spanish: 1-855-335-3569. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says the coaching is free and confidential.
- Chest pain or pressure, or trouble breathing? Call 911. Our heart attack page has the signs. (This line is ours.)
- Quitting has you thinking about ending your life? Call or text 988, at any hour. In danger: 911.
More help
- For the craving itself: Ride out an urge and Breathe and ground.
- Counting the days: Day count, where a slip keeps the earlier days.
- Getting ready for the doctor or pharmacist: Get ready for your appointment and My medicines.
- No insurance? When you need a doctor and can’t pay.
- Sleep and mood while you quit: Can’t sleep?, A mood and sleep diary and When the heaviness won’t lift.
- Alcohol or other drugs are part of it? When drinking or drugs have become a problem.
- Breathing trouble: When it’s hard to breathe.
- All our free tools and Get help now.
Other guides on this site that go with this page
Free to read. We chose these ourselves; no professional did. Each guide was written with AI and has not been reviewed by a professional. They are general information, not advice.
- When the worry won’t switch off: what anxiety disorders are, panic attacks, and seeing a doctor.
- When pain doesn’t go away: pain that has lasted for months: describing it so a doctor hears it, treatments that are not medicine, and what pain does to sleep and mood.
This page and its wording were written with AI (Claude) for Scarlet Beast (our AI policy). No doctor, nurse, pharmacist or tobacco treatment specialist has reviewed it, and it was not written by someone who has quit smoking. The facts come from pages read on October 6, 2026: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (cdc.gov: how to quit smoking, the benefits of quitting, quitlines, quit-smoking medicines, and seven common withdrawal symptoms); Smokefree.gov, from the National Cancer Institute (managing cravings, withdrawal, quit day, sticking with it, the texting programs, the quitSTART app, and supporting someone who is quitting); MedlinePlus, the National Library of Medicine’s health site (medlineplus.gov: quitting smoking); and the Food and Drug Administration (fda.gov: smoking cessation products, a page that says its content is current as of July 21, 2022). The page says whose words it is passing on. We did not call or text any of the lines. We did not read about quitting vaping, chewing tobacco, cigars or hookah, about quitting during pregnancy beyond the lines here, about teenagers, about any product’s label, doses or cost, about what any state’s quitline or any insurance plan offers, or about smoking and any single illness or mental health condition. We give no doses and no brand names. The line about 988 was read on October 1, 2026. Some lines are our own suggestions, and the page marks them as ours. This page saves nothing: no account, no cookies, nothing you tick is stored or sent, and no analytics (privacy). Scarlet Beast is not a clinic or a government agency, and takes no money from anyone named here. Found a mistake? Email [email protected].