here's how i did it, take what you want from it.
a. I told myself I would quit before I was thirty.
b. around 28, I was in a mountain bike race in the Alps. I was still smoking but I remembered the fresh, clear air in my lungs. I remembered feeling that feeling and how good it was. I really started to want that feeling.
c. i cut my smoking to evenings only - then down to two cigarettes a night except when drinking. This was pretty easy for me to do (at one time i was a pack a day smoker - but working out heavily made that idea increasingly repulsive.
d. for a long time I told myself "okay, if can go half a day why not a full day' - i got that idea in my head...
e. every time i saw someone whom i thought was repulsive smoking i would mark that mental image in my head (yes in some ways I know this was kind of a nasty thing to do, but i wanted to counter Bogart in cassablanca, ect)
I remember having a bad cold and finding cigarettes repulsive...but I still smoked them...but i told myself the next time i got sick i would take such a deep drag it would repulse me.
"the universe conspires to give it to you"
auspiciously i got food poisoning (no not from drinking but from McDonalds). As i was about to throw up, i took the deepest longest drag I could take.
That was good for two weeks.
During that time when ever I would walk my roommate's dog when i would get a whiff of his crap (in the city you have pick it up) and gag i would imagine myself deeply inhaling a cigarette. I would constantly remind myself of that vomiting /nausea incident, constantly think of the most repulsive person smoking and the foul odor of dog crap whenever i thought of a cigarette.
strangely i didn't throw my cigarettes out, i kept on pack in the freezer. Something about knowing it was there kept me from the impulse of going around the 7-11 and buying a pack - i felt that anxiety exacerbated urges.
sometimes I would really get the urge after drinking and i would take out a cig from the pack, go through the ritual of lighting it without actually lighting it (i would strike the match and put it to the side of the cig as i inhaled).dangerous .but it worked...anyway I got strong urges for a couple of months afterwards and occasional ones for about six, but after that I can honestly say i haven't had a craving since. oh by the way, I never needed/used patches or anything like that.
the most important thing to do is:
associate cigarettes with repulsive smells and tastes - and constantly re-enforce this even when you don't think you need to - that strength will be needed in the future!
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