Mango,
If there was only one thing I could convince a smoker it would be that IT GOES AWAY.
There are many people out there who can tell you this, so I will keep it short.
You have to want to stop - really. Use any method you can, read all you can about the tobacco industry and its operators. Consider the blatent facts - these people are getting rich by killing you - now call me sensitive, but I dont like people taking the p**s and having a damn good laugh at my expense.
I smoked 40-60 a day. I was convince my life could never be as enjoyable without a cig - I was very wrong. That was three years ago, I havn't had one during that time, and I can honestly say my quality of life is many times better.
Be honest with yourself regarding what you are doing. Educate yourself to how the industry manipulates you. Get the facts and try to consider your smoking logically.
I tried many times, and failed before I decided to find out all I could about smoking BEFORE I tried to stop. I really used to believe that stopping smoking was the hardest thing I would ever have to do. In the end it was one of the easiest things, yet the proudest thing I ever did. ( Doesnt that say something !! <img src="confused.gif" border="0"> )
I'm not an ex smoking preacher ( you did ask after all ), and I have the greatest smypathy with smokers who want to stop. I wish I could express how miserable smoking made me feel at times and how wonderful it is having beaten the weed.
One book I read that I would seriously recommend is by Alan Carr and called How to give up smoking. It does make you look at it all in a different way - it helped me. Remeber in the end though, the only person who can make you stop is you.
Anyhow, outa the pulpit I stepeth. Good luck Mango, when you've stopped the one thing you will not beleive is why you did it for so long. And one more thing, it always confused me why the tobacco companies were the ones telling me that it was so hard to give up <img src="wink.gif" border="0">
Regards,. .LF