I just stopped. However, like you I found it difficult in various situations. Try meeting in non-smoking bars, change your routine. That helped me a lot.

I am an ex smoker for 7 years now. I tried lots of ways and most failed. Patches, substitutes ect didn't work.

I did it like this:

Try to hate smoking. Focus on the smell and the smoke. Have a ciggie infront of the mirror and focus on how ugly it is. Somehow I now think of the ugliness of smoking as the colour yellow, smokers teeth colour.

Find a way to deal with the craving. After 5 mins or so it will pass. It does come back though. Two things worked for me. Lollipops and reading.

Have an incentive to stop. Something important that can drive you on. The stronger this incentive the bigger the chance of success.

This works really well: change other habbits that you associate with smoking, if you need to smoke and drink then don't go out for a drink, go to the cinema instead, still going out but to a place where you can't smoke.

Hang around with people who don't smoke for a couple of weeks.

Go from one craving to the next. Each craving you beat makes the next easier to beat.

Don't miss diagnose cravings - some times I need a ciggie, really means I need to get out of the office for 5 mins or I need a break.

Realise that you will always have cravings. Even now after seven years I get them. My Dad still gets them after 50! Don't give in.



Things that failed for me:

Allen Carr books and other methods.
Patches.
Cutting down to zero.
News years resolutions.
Peer pressure.
Smoking a lighter ciggie.
Hypnosis.

Quitting smoking is different for everyone, buy a smokers lung model from your local medical centre (or put a smokers lung poster up) and put it on your landing window sill and every time you pass it it will remind you how disgusting this habit is..

Go see Tom1234, he'll get you to stop !!

I've never got anyone to stop.

Everyone I know who has stopped successfully has done so because their doctors have said they'll die of smoking related diseases if they don't.

Of course by then, the damage has been done and they all have various debilitating ailments caused by smoking.

But try telling that to the people on this forum who think smoking is still cool and sophisticated.

The problem is Tom, it's a bit more complicated than this.

I doubt if anybody really genuinely thinks smoking is cool and sophisticated here or elesewhere, more likely they probably really think it's bloody stupid, which it is.

However this doesn't take into account the highly addictive properties of nicotine, the persasive marketing tactics of Big Tobacco and most of all, the weakness of human beings !

I know first hand how complicated it is.

That's not exactly how they write on here - and how they act in real life.

Check the last few words of my previous post.........all is revealed their

Agreed. Those people are weak!

My experience was this:

As an eary 20something smoker, I quit when I got pregnant and didn't start back for a couple of years. Smoked for another 2 or 3 years quitting and restarting every couple of months (gum/patch/books). It was exhausting and overwhelming . I moved to a new city to start an new job, and found myself giving coworkers and new acquaintances the impression that I wasn't a smoker. As such, I never smoked around them. Within a week or two of not smoking at work or with friends, I realized that I hadn't smoked and really was a non-smoker. Having an entirely new environment helped me to not bring the previous habits with me. (I know, not really helpful for anyone other than those who have an upcoming change of address or job).

I didn't smoke again for 10 years until I found myself at a company where EVERYONE smoked. Even the coffee breaks and daily meetings were held outside on the terrace. That, coupled with the high-pressure nature of the industry led me to occasional de-stress ciggies with the colleagues... and eventually full-time smoking.

Last September, after three years of smoking and another company change, I decided to give the E-Cigarettes a try. It was more for ridding myself of the stale smoke smell from my hair/car/clothes . I was a pack-a-day smoker, so I ordered the liquid with the strongest nicotine concentration, 18mg. It was far too strong and make my heart race and my hands shake . I binned that and stepped down to the middle strength, 12mg. It was such a seamless transition that I've not touched another cigarette since. I had no desire to, as the E-version allowed me to feel like I was still smoking.

Since September, I've transitioned from 12mg to the 6mg liquid, and last month to the 3mg strength. Next time I order, I'll get the 0mg, with the goal of stopping even that within a couple of months.

__________________
"If at first you don't succeed... so much for skydiving." - Henry Youngman

Same here, had a few lapses but in about four to six months the need for a fag was gone, I did have dreams about smoking for years afterwards, waking up with a bad conciense because I smoked in my dreams. But it paid off, a non smoker since 1995 now.

Is it not that you have just changed your nicotine vector and not stopped smoking?

Yes and no. I haven't smoked a cigarette since September... I consider that an accomplishment.

Has a person who uses the patch or nicotine gum quit smoking? Does having an air humidifier in your home make you a smoker? What if you add some essential oils in it?

Here we go again!!

Starting early this year!!

You have no interest in stopping smoking yourself, or helping other people (family etc) to stop so why are you even on this thread apart from to cause trouble?

...not only smoking but everything, including....breathing.

We learnt from the best

What's that supposed to mean?

Are you accusing me of trying to murder someone by suffocation?

That may be how you do things in Romania when someone criticises you but not elsewhere.

Click my sig... (that's sig not cig)

If you cannot take lightly a joke...how on earth are you supposed to help someone quit a bad habit ?

Really, you are doing a big damage to the the anti-smoking campaign.

As for you last remark....wow. I would have thought it was joke, but your groan obviously proved you are dead serious and a total idiot.
What on earth has any country to do with my personal opinion on anything? Are you that stupid?