After thirty years of smoking, most recently at a four-pack-per-day rate, and many tries at quitting, I may have a handle on it. It is now Thursday the tenth, so I have been a day and a half without my usual continuous stream of unfiltered Pall Malls. As an acquaintance says, "great; that's 120 cigarettes you didn't smoke."
I'm using the patch (21mg/day) for the second time. The last time I tried the patch it wasn't enough nicotine. I'd get a bad craving for a smoke and a couple of times a day I'd light up, patch and all, or dip a pinch of Skoal. (I chewed in the growing number of places where I couldn't smoke.)
This time around, it seems to be working better. Maybe it is the quality of the commitment this time. I decided to let chance choose the exact moment to quit (by deciding ahead of time that I would quit when the last few packs in the house were gone.) The moment occurred at about 9:30 Tuesday evening, but the decision was made and pondered without any load associated with choosing a time (Morning? An 8-hour head start, but what if I wake up stressed out? Evening? that's when I usually smoke the most. Foo! There IS no good time so choosing one is a strike against the quitting; let chance pick the time.)
Quality of commitment -- it may be the key to quitting. I've thought it would be a good idea to quit for the past fifteen years. I've tried seriously to quit at least a half dozen times since then. I managed to switch to Skoal smokeless (snuff, or actually a fine-grained chewing tobacco) for two years, but started up smoking again harder than ever. Failing an attempt to quit is a very bad thing, in my opinion. It creates a mind-set where failure is normal. This should not deter anyone from trying, but rather from giving up on an attempt.
I tell myself, I can *always* put off having a smoke for one second -- even right after putting off having a smoke for one second. Therefore, I can really put off having a smoke forever. Giving up is a failure of common sense. It is letting the craving tell me that smoking is better than not smoking; I don't think any sane person could be convinced of that bit of nonsense! I made the decision when my mind was not clouded by withdrawal. I haven't changed my opinion about whether smoking is what I want for myself. It's the craving that's talking and *THAT'S* what quitting is going to get me away from. So far, it's worked.