OK,
Actually its all about understanding how nicotine works. Nicotine is often quoted as being more addictive than many hard drugs, that is true in so much as its is very, very easy to get dependent on it however when coming off it the withdrawal is no where near as bad as most addictive substances.
It basically takes 3 weeks to go through the physical withdrawal from smoking and the first week is the hardest of those. After that point its all psychological, that's not to say that its easy, just ask anyone who has had an eating disorder or gambling addiction. It just means that over years (decades) that we smoked we build up associations with smoking and situations and have to break these associations one by one. Many of these associations are contradictory too and demonstrate that its psychological. For example I would smoke in the morning to wake me up and also smoke in the evening to relax me, how can one drug possibly act in two opposite ways according to the time of day? Simple it can't.
Nicotine is a stimulant that is all. It doesn't relax you what relaxes you is that when you are dependent on it your body wants to maintain sufficient levels of nicotine, if they are not present then it causes stress and anxiety so smoking relieves the stress that a lack of nicotine causes. The pleasure which is derived is as a result if removing the want for nicotine, the best analogy I can find is that of when you've been for a long car journey and you are busting for a pee, when you get to go then the relief is a great pleasure. Now you could drink pints and pints of water each day and hold it in until you are almost in pain then have a pee and feel the relief, but nobody does. All these situations that we have a smoke and think it enhances really the truth is that we can't enjoy or deal with that situation until we have gotten the issue of nicotine levels out of the way. Sometimes the levels are sufficient and we are just smoking due to habit but mostly we are topping up the nicotine tank. Effectively smokers are paying through the nose to make themselves feel how non-smokers do all the time, but after a few months of not smoking then you will be back to feeling "normal".
Approaching quitting in the right way and trading your mindset is what makes quitting much easier. If you constantly regard it as making a huge sacrifice then you will regret doing it, where as if you see it as healing and regaining, health wealth and control it becomes a positive thing which leaves you feeling up beat and proud of stopping. I never use the phrase giving up because in its very wording it implies depriving yourself.
The aim is always to let go of the idea that smoking is something which is in any way pleasurable and rewarding, otherwise staying stopped is very tricky once the initial euphoria of having mastered the physical side has worn off, which is why understanding the nature of the addiction and how the drug works is works. If you can become a contented non smoker then you won't want to go back to the slavery of smoking, trying to fit in all your smokes, the occasional trip out for a pack of ciggies at 11pm etc etc.
The journey of quitting can be quite bizarre as it is an insidious addiction, giving away your emotional crutch can cause a feeling of grieving, depression and loss but that is because we always reached for one at time of trouble. However nobody can ever say that smoking ever changed a situation, everything external is the same both before and after a smoke the only thing that is different is that your nicotine levels are higher.
Cravings come but they always go, whether you smoke or not. Cravings are not life threatening where as continuing to smoke is. Smoking is always a choice, nobody is holding a cigarette in your mouth and forcing you to inhale so exercise your choice to not smoke today and very soon you will have built days then weeks then months between now and your last smoke and the longer it is the easier it gets and the fewer situations crop up that you haven't previously dealt with.
Basically you have to learn, by practice, how to live your life without smoking and when you do it becomes a much simpler life.
There is a lot more info on
http://www.whyquit.com but be warned some of it is a bit scary too. The forum I'm on is a British one called no smoking day and the UK day for that this year is 13th March so not long.
Went out for a teatime pint at 4 oclock yesterday. Woke up on the sister in laws couch at 8 this morning 
Feeling it now, 
). 
don’t think I’m helping here 
I'd better shut up 
