Wow! Sounds like you have gone through a lot of what it takes to quit.......that is good, feels good to cut back.
Like you said, you have to be ready.
Think about how good you feel after cutting back. Feels good to have the willpower to cut back, hu?? Gives your self esteem a boost! Think about how good it will feel to not smoke at all. How proud you will be. How much better you will feel.
The more you tell yourself all the reasons why you need to quit, the sooner you will be ready.
Maybe watch less t.v. so that you don't have that time to just sit around and think about smoking. Do crosswords or a puzzle while watching t.v? Paint your toenails, chew your nails, write a book. Clean the windows. Paint the house. Cut down to 1 per night. A lot of people seem to do good with 3 a day. Morning, noon and night. That's pretty much what I did. Then only in the morning. A couple days later, I decided if I can get through the day like that , then I shouldn't have to smoke at all! I was ready. There were times that I thought about smoking, but I reminded myself that I am not doing that anymore. And it worked..I'm never going to have another puff. I have decided that I am done.
Smoking a little isn't much differant than using nicotine replacements. Except that you are still smoking and the replacements help with breaking the habit of lighting up and that whole hand to mouth motion, watching the smoke leave your mouth ..ect. Getting past those habits can be substituted with something else and those habits go away quickly. The patches and other aids are also great because you aren't getting the carbon dioxide and all those other horrible toxins that smoking pumps into you.
I have used patches, gum, inhaler and pills. They helped, but I never did stay quit for long. I found, like you said, you have to be ready. You need to start convincing yourself that you are ready.
Try it...it can't hurt!
Read and write on this site...it helps a lot
Good luck
