h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Interesting that the word "Pleasure" should come up in this advice.
One of the helpful things to remember is that smokers confuse 'pleasure' and 'relief'. Proof? - The act of smoking is done to gain relief from a craving. Once that relief has been obtained there is little or no desire to smoke another cigarette straight away. With some smokers it is even hard to chain smoke.
Once a smoker is aware that, for most of the time, he/she is actually suffering, and that the nicotine shot only serves to bring the smoker back to the level of 'peace' of a non-smoker, then the distain for what the habit has done to him/her is a positive push in the right direction.
The 'buzz' from that first puff last but a moment. The tranquility of being free from the weed is permanent!

Another person up on their moral high horse about smoking!!There is nothing more calculated to make a smoker continue smoking than a moraliser, a perceived health nut who sounds too smug to be true.

Far from just releif, their an actual and recognised enjoyment from a cigarette, whether it be the first 'lunger' in the morning, the one with coffee ot the one after a meal (or sex!)

I am a non-smoker now. The first time I gave up smoking I lasted three years and the moment I threw my cigarettes into the bin I turned into a "born-again" non-smoker, looking disapprovingly at smokers in the street, coughing dramatically at people who lit up in restaurants and generally being a pain in the bum. I fell from 'the path of righteousness' when I began working in a smoking atmosphere, so I can understand the new non-smoker's dilemma - the craving is such that they try to influence those around them to reduce the risk of slipping themselves. True non-smokers, those who have never smoked, cannot understand what it is to be a smoker, all they can see are the effects, physical and mental. They don't know the paraphernalia, the argot, the comaraderie of it all.

I am on day 26 of my new non-smoking life and I firmly believe in patches, but cannot agree with either the holier than thou non-smoker who will lecture you and just make you more defensive about smoking, or the person who has given their recipe for giving up. I congratulate them on their acheivement but their method has flaws. Many people find cutting down harder than giving up straight away, without or without aids. The temptation to 'have just one more' can be too much. Also studies show that other forms of cancer can be promoted by the smoker who reduces to a lower tar cigarette. The smoker who 'changes down' tends to suck harder on the lower tar cigarette and takes the tar, nicotine and free radicals further into their lungs and consequently puts themselves at risk to other cancers.

If anyone is going to give up smoking and I heartily recommend it, get advice from your local doctor, call one of the help lines, find your local smoking cessation nurse.

When you do decide to give up, however you do it, do these things:

Set yourself a target date

Tell everyone you know that you have given up and enlist their support

From day one call yourself a non-smoker

Best of luck!