I've never smoked, but I have helped lots of people give up. Hypnotherapy, patches, Zyban. No one treatment works for everybody, and in fact most people have to give it four or five goes before they succeed. From my experience I would make some common observations that might help people who are thinking of quitting.
1. Obvious but true, you have to WANT to give up. And you're much more likely to succeed if you want to give up for yourSELF (rather than for your girl/boyfriend, housemate, or even for your child). If you love smoking, all the best intentions in the world won't stop you from finding it incredibly difficult to give up.
2. Fatal error #1: despair if you relapse into smoking. "I'll never do it, so why even bother trying?" As I say, a hell of a lot of people relapse. Looking at it from the other perspective, the vast majority of truly motivated people who keep trying to give up (even with periods of smoking in between) WILL finally succeed. Just don't give up giving up. Everytime a person relapses into smoking they learn something new about themselves and about what makes them smoke.
3. Never have even ONE cigarette once you've given up. You would not believe how often I hear people say that they were at a party or somewhere and they thought they'd have just one, and then next thing they know they're smoking again. Just like AA, for years afterwards I think it helps to call yourself a "smoker who isn't smoking", rather than a non- or ex-smoker.
Sheesh, I can't say anything about smoking without making myself sound like a sanctimonious pri--, er prig. I'm out of here.
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