Jaime, I've never smoked, so perhaps what I'm going to say will sound ridiculous, but related to what you just said, I'd want to offer a little personal experience about smoking in my family.
My mother had smoked for over ten years when she quit around the age of 35(?), when I was more or less 7-9 years old (don't know her birth date by heart, so I can't be sure). Having learned how bad smoking was, and being somewhat stubborn about a few things, I started putting "no smoking" signs around the house, cutting her cigarette packs into two whenever I found them, and put a lot of negative social pressure around her to get her to stop. She then stopped smoking and didn't touch a cigarette for another ten years.
Lesson 1: Being with people who disapprove of smoking helps some people.
My sister started smoking at about 21 years old, under the bad influence of people from the army, despite her being just as against it as I.
Lesson 2: Distance yourself from smokers, at least when they do smoke. For example, don't go out with them when they smoke.
My mother started smoking again about 3 years ago. It started out as "social smoking", then under the influence of my sister and the fact that she had a pack of cigarettes next to her and someone going out to smoke every hour or even more often, it became worse. She now smokes at least 12 cigarettes a day, if I average from what she smokes when I'm there.
Lesson 3: Don't think you limit someone's freedom by not allowing them to smoke near you.
Recently, both my mother and sister stopped smoking together. It lasted one month (more than enough to beat the physical addiction), after which they started again.
Lesson 4: Tell people around you when you stop smoking, and don't let them do crap like "respect your individual choice". Tell them not to allow you to smoke near them.
Both of them tell me they intend to stop; that they just have to put their minds into it. And they don't stop. Well, when they do, it lasts anywhere from 1 day to 1 month.
Lesson 5: Remove "eventually" from your vocabulary when it comes to that. I haven't seen it work.
Whenever they stop and restart, my sister and mother never throw away their lighters, etc. So every time they want to start again, they have everything right under their nose.
Lesson 5: Whenever you make your mind to stop, throw away everything you own that is related to smoking. (Don't worry about the cost; smoking costs you THOUSANDS every year, so what's losing a ten-dollar ashtray and lighter?) You mustn't be able to find a single cigarette, lighter, match, ashtray, etc. if you wanna smoke. Throw away your car's cigarette lighter, too. Nothing you can control must remind you of smoking. Also, when you have the urge to smoke again, it'll be such a pain in the ass to buy all those things again that it might just discourage you.
You should try nicotine inhalators. They're designed to provide the same nicotine, taste and feel (even the moist and temperature) like real cigarette smoke, but they're nowhere as harmful - well, nicotine is arguably not a healthy product, but nothing compared to the rest of products in the smoke. They say they feel EXACTLY like smoking. You can smoke them and gradually reduce the dose, until you're able to only smoke placebo ones, and eventually stop.
The only objection that people have to them is that they're expensive, but honestly, considering the inhuman amount you smoke, I don't think the price difference can be so big.
Oh, yeah, and additional tips that would work on me, but that might only be attributed to my rather strange personality.
-Put into your mind that it's not okay, and even a terrible thing to smoke near anyone, to let anyone breathe the smallest amount of secondary smoke from you. Isolate yourself when you smoke, like it's a punishment. Eventually, you should tend to smoke less.
-Put the focus not on "smoking or not", but on "buying cigarettes or not". Don't overestimate your mental strength. It's much easier to resist going to the convenience store + spend over 10 $ for a pack of cigarettes, than to resist taking a cigarette in your pack and smoke it.
-Never buy cigarettes along with other things. Always make sure you have to walk to the store or something just for that. Make it a pain. Also, always buy the smallest pack available.
-You might also want to ask the clerk of your local store not to allow you to buy cigarettes even if you ask.
Some people also find it's a great help to put in a pot/account all the money they should have spent on smoking but didn't, and save it for a project, like a trip in the South, or maybe some transition expense you might still have in front of you. That, or offer themselves a restaurant+theater night a week, for example.
I hope I helped. I really think of smoking as a tragedy, and I hope you're able to stop, "eventually"
.
