i did it through willpower alone nearly 12 months ago,if you need the extra help go and speak to your doctor,working at warrington hospital has made it easier for me as seeing the long term effects of smoking is not a pretty sight,it's hard but the best of luck to you.

I budget my money carefully (something I became good at while repaying £20,000 of debt in four years until February this year) and last December it dawned on me I hadn't budgeted enough to buy my nephew a present for his third birthday.

This unnerved me until I realised I was planning to go to Tesco the following morning and spend nearly £30 on a weeks supply of cigs.

Smoking or my nephew's birthday?

I didn't go to Tesco and haven't smoked since.

Speak to Michael Mahoney at Woolston: www.michaelmahoneyhypnotherapist.com/

Speak to Michael Mahoney at Woolston: www.michaelmahoneyhypnotherapist.com/

what a guy !

Arf.

To be fair I was always more of a social smoker than an addicted one, so it was only out of habit that I started buying so many since getting with my 40 a day girlfriend about 18 months ago.

I just had to break the habit rather than the addiction which was easy when the financial penny dropped.

She quit two months later though by getting patches and saying "right this is my last cig" before putting the first patch on, and she really was addicted. She's found it hard but hasn't smoked since and in a couple of weeks it'll be six months for her.

If you really want to give up you will.

meh, he spends more than that a week on designer socks, that he only wears once.

Now, if he shopped at sports-direct.com ....

That was set up for a moment of absolute comedy genius...

Cheers for the replies.

I've smoked on and off for the best part of 14 years. Longest I've ever quit is nearly 2 years and I was a fool for starting again. I've always gone down the will power route and never really struggled but I am this time round. From what I have read about hypnosis it's about switching off the triggers in your mind, like smoking when having a beer. I keep telling myself I enjoy it but I know I don't.

I'm not smoking too heavily at the moment so I'm hoping that will make it easier. I've also got into exercising on a regular basis so I'm using that as added motivation.

Seriously my wife smoked from 15 to 38, bought that book and gave up over night.

Dont let your hard earned money go up in smoke!!!

I found the one I used to have in the shower in the morning the hardest to skip.

Seriously, go with whatever suits you, there really is no 'best way' to quit. I'm on mind altering drugs at the moment having tried everything else. Good luck.

i bought that book and gave up....... until i got to the pub.

To be fair she doesn't drink any more either, alcohol is usually the killer of all goals, i went from 16st to 12st 8lb, didn't eat a single bit of fast food or drink in that period, went on a stag do, all the hard work out the window after that night.

In my experience you have to genuinely want to stop before you even try. I smoked for years and tried giving up many times but could never get past the first few weeks without going back on them.

Five and a half years ago I was sat watching TV with my two and a half year old son playing on the living room floor when I started to feel very strange, especially down my left. My fingers went numb and I felt dizzy when I plucked up enough courage to stand. The Mrs called the doc who advised her to call the ambulance which she did. I genuinely thought I was dying and would never see my son grow up. I had one more fag whilst waiting for the ambulance (at that stage I figured one more wasn't going to tip the scales one way or the other) and I have never smoked since.

After keeping me in overnight and exhaustive tests both at the time and as an outpatient they never did find what was wrong - just put it down to one of those things. Even now, over five years later I still have the odd craving for a fag. I'll never be a non-smoker, just a smoker who doesn't smoke anymore.

My old flatmate from uni was a serious chain smoker, when he finished one he had to light up the next one. The only time he didn't smoke was in bed and even then sometimes he woke up in the middle of the night to have one. In fairness to him, he always went out of the house to smoke so he wasn't inflicting it on us.

He justified his habit to himself by saying he would quit when he turned 25. He'd been saying this for about 6 years, nobody believed him but he was absolutely adamant.

His 25th birthday arrived and he was nervous as anything. He went without a fag that day and was all jittery by the time we went out for his birthday bash, so he allowed himself to have his last set of fags on this night.

The next day he started for good and went through the whole day without a fag. Went through the whole of the next day without a fag.

On the third day he couldn't handle it any more and lit up a fag, but he felt so disgusted with himself and so much of a failure he couldn't even bring himself to finish the fag. That was his Eureka moment and he never got tempted again after that, despite the cravings, because the feeling of failing on a long term plan that he'd told everyone about was worse than the cravings, he just said he physically couldn't look at a cig any more without feeling sick. He couldn't watch anyone else smoking any more because it brought back those same feelings of failure.

In the end he did incredibly well and has never smoked since which is amazing since he was a 60+ a day and pretty much went cold turkey, the odd thing is he still feels a bit of shame at 'failing' to give up smoking at 25, just because he had that fag!