Well I know how difficult it is to stop smoking, as I smoked for over 10 years before I finally quit the habit, so I know what you are going through.
I considered myself as a PROFESSIONAL smoker, one first thing in the morning (often before I got out of bed) and one last thing at night (again usually in bed before I put out the light to go to sleep).
Not to mention the 20-30 others during the day.
Of course I knew all about the health hazards as my mother had died of Cancer and my Father had a triple bypass leaving him with the obligatory scar from his navel to his collar bone.
(incidentally, despite the horrendous operation he went back to smoking within 6 months of his operation!!).
We all of course have good intentions and plan to stop soon, usually with the caveat of a conditional statement! I bet you do that too! ->>> 'Yes I will stop after the party on Saturday', or 'once I finish the 400 duty free cigarettes I brought back from Greece I will stop' or 'I need to just get through the interview on Thursday and then...
Bla, Bla, Bla..
..
and so it goes on.
Of course there are the reasons why we must continue to smoke also ->>> 'I just love a smoke with a beer' or 'The best cigarette is the one after a meal or after a hot passionate bout of sex' 'It helps me relax' Bla, Bla, Bla..
..
and so it goes on.
One excuse after another.
What about the positive reasons to stop which often get ignored because of the previous statements.
Like 'It will give you heart disease' or 'It makes you smell awful' or 'It is anti social and you have to stand outside the pub in the rain' Bla, Bla, Bla..
..
>>> No not this time: IF YOU CONTINUE TO SMOKE IT WILL KILL YOU IN A VERY HORRIBLE WAY!! 80% usually return to smoking within 2 weeks of stopping.
Why is it so difficult? Well after all you are addicted and when you remove the nicotine you get strong withdrawal symptoms as your body craves the drug.
If the craving is strong you will usually talk yourself into having just one and then you are hooked again.
But you have probably tried that before and are now back on the smokes.
So works but dammed hard to do.
Secondly there is fear, you get a shock someone you know gets cancer and rots before your eyes over the period of their illness before the finally succumb to a horrible death.
This is how my mum died, I watched her deteriorate over about 3 years; first there was the lump removal, then the breasts then the lymph glands then her arm swelled up like a balloon and the skin split exposing the cancer growth inside.
Her weight plummeted as her muscles disappeared until she looked like an inmate from a concentration camp with a horribly deformed arm.
Only the high doses of Morphine kept the pain away as she slipped from life.
I stopped briefly after her death but was soon back on them again after the funeral (to steady my nerves of course, and 'I will stop again soon') Thirdly there is substitution.
You know Patches, Chewing gum, Pen tops as I call them (can't remember their proper name) and countless other things that have been dreamt up to help you stop.
Of course they do work, sort of.
The only problem is that you get addicted to the substitute.
Now you have introduced another level of anxiety to your already hectic life.
You know what I mean - 'must remember my patches, or got to get some chewing gum or where did I put my pen top'...
etc.
OK it may be healthier but stress and anxiety can kill you too.
Worst of all you are not free to live the happy carefree life you deserve.
There are many more technique but I am not going to bore or frighten you with any more of them here, but there is one method as I said earlier that is almost guaranteed to help you stop, if you are serious about stopping and willing to complete the program.
It takes only last 3 weeks, usually consisting of 3 consultations and practical tasks to perform daily.
In fact and in my experience the people that fail with this technique are ones who 1) are not really serious about stopping and 2)who do not follow through with the tasks.
For those that are serious and do follow through the success rate is greater than 95%.
So what is the technique? Well the base principal used is TFT or Thought Field Therapy.
To the layman it is a sort of acupuncture but without needles, you just tap a series of meridian points in a predetermined pattern and it changes the thought field.
What does that mean I hear you say? Well when you have an urge to smoke the addiction creates a specific thought pattern that makes you want to smoke.
If you TAP whilst you have this thought pattern the urge goes away.
Strange but true.
For normal anxieties, fears and phobias usually one treatment removes the problem permanently, but for addictions etc you need to treat the thought and also the underlying addiction.
That is why the complete treatment takes 3 weeks.
I know that this works as I (as an accredited TFT practitioner) have helped many people quit smoking using this technique.
If you wish to find out more about TFT then Google Roger Callahan TFT and you can read a more detailed description than I could ever give.
It is totally fascinating work and sure to shape the future of self healing.