I have said that story here before. I used to smoke like a chimney for many years, and actually enjoyed smoking. Which meant it was unthinkable for me to even try quitting.
I smoked roll-ups, so it was impossible to know exactly how much I smoked, and people kept telling me it was “too much”. So I decided to count them, and realised I did an average of 33 cigarettes a day. The weirdest thing was I couldn’t ever remember doing those 33 cigarettes. So I decided to keep smoking, but consciously.
This is the big secret: the reason you can’t quit is not a rational one. You are addicted, both physically and psychologically, and you have to accept that and deal with it accordingly. Once I started smoking consciously (no more cigarettes on the PC while typing, or rolling one up while driving, or watching TV), two things happened:
1) I overcame the physical addiction (my blood became cleaner)
2) I enjoyed smoking more, since I had a cigarette when I really felt like one, and not unconsciously.
When you reach that stage, you’ve basically won. Because you’re in control of the situation, and even if you don’t eventually quit, you can enjoy smoking with minimal effects to your health. As soon as I made that “conscious smoking” rule, I dropped from 33 to 4 in a couple of days. Because I only really needed 4. One in the morning, one at work, one after dinner and one before bed.
Since I was no longer addicted, the number soon dropped to 1, and that was when I first thought of quitting (I had not even imagined it possible before). I admit that was actually the hardest part, and I’d go around with tobacco on me for weeks, or roll one and not light it, or even light it and throw it away without inhaling. But it worked, and I have not even had a puff in over 5 years.