Quit Smoking Suggestions Needed

Didn't read all the responses you got, but here's how I finally did it (smoked for 15 years, quit 15 years ago):

1) BEFORE you stop, concentrate every time you smoke on how the back of your throat tastes. Really notice that rancid, rotting flavor that lives back there at the base of your tongue. That *kitten* is gross. Tattoo it on your brain.

2) Again, before you stop, concentrate on the tight, almost head-achy feeling you get in your temples when you over-smoke (if that term makes any sense). That just feels so unpleasant. Really seriously yucky.

3) Still before stopping, notice yourself clearing your throat. Notice the texture and the taste of that stuff you're moving around when you do that. That is some of the nastiest goop ever. Like just so disgusting it's hard to imagine. Now notice it some more.

4) Stop any of the behaviors that encourage your smoking before you try to quit cigarettes. Like if you really enjoy a cup of coffee and a cigarette, stop drinking coffee before you tackle smoking. When I stopped cigarettes, I first quit coffee, drinking, and my loser boyfriend. I have since gone back to the coffee and drinking. :drinker:

5) On the day you quit smoking, get rid of the smokes. Either by smoking them or by wetting them down so they disintegrate.

THEN

6) Begin fantasizing about the next time you smoke. Yes, I know the whole point is to QUIT, not to think about starting again. But much of what you're doing when you stop smoking is training your brain to stop (mental stuff), not just getting over the physical withdrawals from nicotine. When I first stopped, I woke in the morning thinking about how I would reward myself at lunchtime with a cigarette. I told myself I would concentrate on getting through the whole morning and then going to a certain store to purchase a certain brand and then go to a certain spot to enjoy it. Then when lunchtime came, instead of actually going out and buying cigarettes, I'd move my reward out to after work, then after my drive home, then tomorrow morning -- each time building my perfect smoking moment in my mind, beginning with buying a pack of smokes. I was very specific. There were times I wanted to smoke something dark and foreign -- Gauloises perhaps -- and other times I wanted more of a straight-forward American flavor like regular Marlboro's or maybe Camels. Sometimes I wanted to smoke on the balcony at my work, sometimes on my sunny back porch, sometimes in my car. Get creative -- this is YOUR fantasy. And it's pretty amazing how satisfying it can be if you give it a shot. Pretty soon I noticed my stretches of time between thinking of smoking grew longer and longer until they were just gone. Was it easy? Oh, hell no. But it worked.

7) This is actually a disclaimer, not an instruction: I made this "system" up. It occurred organically within my own little mind and it worked for me. There is no science behind it and I have no proof that it works except myself. It may help you, it may not. I certainly hope it does!

8) This IS an instruction: Remember to be kind to yourself. It's a hard addiction to kick.