Somehow I missed that, I don't know what I was thinking. I smoked for YEARS and I was a life insurance actuary! The person who actually does the statistics, and figures out how many people to expect to die each year.

I have quit smoking so many, many times. Maybe five or six times that were major, where I stayed away for three months up to a year. But this time, it seems like it really has taken. It has maybe been three or four years. (Used to be I'd break up with a boyfreind, and need to smoke again.)

Different symptoms at different times, and IT HURTS.

But for me, I could not reduce my consumption of cigarettes. Far, far easier for me to go cold turkey. Using nicotene gum only would make my withdrawal longer.

A few times I used a supplement that contained capsium, and I think B vitamins, and maybe oat or some kind of grass type extract, it really helped. and the capsium seemed to allow my mucus to flow, and not just clog me all up. But I TRI I am sure knows this stuff better than me.

Don't feel that your setbacks are failures. Each time I quit, the quitting process became easier, (though each time, I had less confidence.) But I knew that even if it was only a day, I had given my body just a little bit of a chance to fix the damage.

You might need to sleep long periods. Also, tons of water. Sometimes, I had to quit caffeine and alcohol too. Just the smell of coffee made me have craving so severe as to feel physical pain.

Don't worry about how much you eat, if its good stuff. It seemed the more often I ate when quitting smoking, the more I would lose weight. I stiffed my face with fruit and hardboiled eggs, and if people asked what was going on, I said I was on a diet. (I was afraid I would fail. That was in the days when you could still smoke at your desk, and in fact almost everywhere.) Jumping in the shower can sometimes help, if it's available.

And the last time I quit, I had already broken all my triggers. I had not smoked inside the house for six months. I smoked in a dismal corner of the basement only.

It may be six months or more before you can go near a cigarette without temptation.

But even with all my extra weight now and my inactivity and depression, I feel healthier at 47 than I did at 30, when I smoked and exercised.

Oh, I also at one point took up swimming then SCUBA diving, can't do those and smoke (simaltaneously, anyway). Knitting and crochet can help also.

I wish you sucess in your struggle.