i was a pack a day smoker (from 16 to 29 years old) and tried to give up many times using different methods.
in the end i had a bet with a good mate- we each put $250 in the kitty, then every week we threw in another $50 each and the first one to smoke had to pay up. it wasn't the money as much as not wanting my mate to get the better of me. i won the bet, and haven't had a cig since 28th of march 2005. (i still hang for them everyday, and have to stop myself having "just one").

good luck

Hi Oliver COUGH COUGH WHEEZ . That,s better
If your other vices are worse than smoking then good luck with them
I have a couple of strategies that worked for me I,m smoke free since 26 Jan 1995
I too started on the bangers in my early teens and kicked the habit at 28
Strategy 1 Thought to self . I have smoked half my life i,ll stay smoke free for the next half I figure that will make me about 56 but 60 is a nice round number
Strategy 2 If you change jobs in the near future or move to a new place , meet new people etc you introduce yourself and if the topic of smoking comes up , standard reply Oh no thanks i don,t smoke , if you want to save face you,ll stick to it
One other is to give up on an anniversary day Australia day , Birthday ,Anzac day etc Good luck hope this help,s BTW if your a surfer not smoking has obvious benefit,s Eg hold downs on big day,s are a lot more bearable yeeha Eddie would go

I smoked for twenty years. I lived for them. Nothing else mattered as long as I had my smokes.

Decided one day if I loved them so much.Why not have a feast?

I then bought twice the amount I usually smoked plus ones I had laying around then proceeded to smoke one at a time all day. Soon as one was finished I started a new one.

Around midnight I had 6 smokes left. I smoked them all at once.

I have never smoked since then and the thought of them makes me sick.

It has been about 15 years since then

I too was a smoker, 1 pack of 20 per day, driving machines , trucks

on along overnight trip for an early am delivery, about 2 days after the birth

of our first child. I was 42 wife 37. Lonely and in the middle of nowhere,

nothing open.

Asked myself what could i do for this child for the rest of her life.

STOP SMOKING, was the answer, Half pack and new full pack, out the

window. Daughter now 22 doing 2nd degree at Uni, is not gona marry a

trucky, I'm stoked. It's all in the mind, you need to want to do it. It wasn't

easy. Go for it , you can do it, if I can!! Best of luck..

Go to your local GP and get a script for Champix. Anti smoking drug introduced in Aussie a couple of years ago. A bit full on as it is a drug that effects your brain. Think a few people in the states have gone nuts after takin it. Worked a treat for me and that was after years of trying to quit. After takin the little blue pills for two weeks even the thought of havin a fag made me want to chuck. Made quittin a breeze. Easy as puttin a pill in my mouth. Thank you science....

if you dont Give it up your weak.

There's two kinds of addiction:
- addiction to the chemicals provided by the drug.
- addiction to the chemicals produced by your body in reponse to the act of taking the drug (also known as psychological addiction).

The only reason to know this is so you can focus on what you are trying to deal with.

The first kind is fairly easily treated with patches and pills and stuff. The second one is the hard one.

All I can think of is to replace your crap addiction with a good addiction, like SUP, or posting crap on forums.

There's also stuff like cognitive behavioural therapy. Simplistically this means catching yourself doing bad stuff before you do it and making yourself do something good.

At the moment you think of yourself as a smoker trying to give up and your natural reaction to everything is to have a fag.

If you train yourself to think that you are a non-smoker then your natural reaction is to decline a cigarette when they are available.

You can also announce to your friends and family that you no longer smoke and would appreciate their help in not offering them to you. That's what I did and it worked easily.

easy,, go and visit your loved one in hospital every day for two weeks as she dies...

Its a horrible way to die - QUIT NOW IDIOT !

poor relly sounds like you bin reborned bro

welcome man to the real world

Tough gig there Oli.

I was a beer in one hand and ciggy in the other smoker from 14-22. Although I was heavily passively smoking thanks to my folks and their heavy habit combined with car/house windows always being closed (cause you don't want to catch your death in cold from a draft - really). When i started regularly smoking without a beer, i started to attempt to give up. At the time all my mates smoked but now most don't. This made it heaps tougher as they would tempt me with one when on the sauce. It took me half a dozen or so attempts to give it a real knock.

If you are deadset determined use whatever means you can - although apparently cold turkey is the best method as patches etc merely feed the addiction via another input.

Here's my tips for overcoming a craving when someone is smoking in the vacinity.

If they offer you one (cause like my mates they are b@stards) thank them, take the fresh new ciggy and stamp it uner your foot. They stop offering pretty quick after that.

If you are wanting a drag or a whole ciggy ask for a drag of a lit one, place the lit end directly under your snoz and inhale as deeply as you can stand. DISGUSTING. It helped kill my cravings when I was teetering.

Good luck.

Oh and don't forget to enjoy all the new fantastic smells of nature, ocean, food and wine you never knew existed.