[jambutty]

50%, or maybe more, of all the fags that we smoke we do not do so for the nicotine content. We do it out of the habit of lighting up. And it is this habit part that is the bit that is so difficult to break. Ask a habitual nail biter if they can stop biting their nails.

When I stopped smoking several years ago I set myself out a plan of action. I sat back and identified all those fags that I lit up out of habit and targeted them as my first line of attack as well as where I smoked.

Out went the ashtray in the bedroom, the one in the bathroom and in all rooms except the living room. I resolved that the only place that I would have a fag would be in the living room. If I had to leave the living room whilst smoking a fag I would put it out first.

I then decided that I would only smoke a fag on the half hour and the hour.

I decided not to smoke on short car journeys or on the move in any way, like walking to the local shop or whilst pottering in the garden. My smoking would be limited to being sat down in the living room.

I resolved to delay lighting a fag for 5 minutes after taking it out of the packet. I would take the fag out of the packet, put it in my mouth, reach for my lighter but not light the fag, then deliberately put the lighter down, take the fag out of my mouth and place it back in the packet. After 5 minutes, which did mean clock watching to begin with, I allowed myself to light the fag or I punished myself a bit further by delaying it for a further five minutes. If I managed to do that, my reward was to smoke the fag. I continued that way for the whole day. Sometimes I would forget to reward myself and it got to the next half hour before I realised.

To show myself that I had control over my addiction, when I did light a fag I would take a couple of puffs then dock it. Sometimes I would keep the stump in my mouth for a while until I got fed up of it being there, so it went behind my ear. Or it was left in the ashtray to taunt me.

The next day the delay was 10 minutes. The next day it was 15 minutes. The day after half an hour and finally one hour.

This routine for more than a week almost broke the habit of lighting up or at least brought it under MY CONSCIOUS CONTROL.

I deliberately refused offers of fags from family and friends as they lit up.

After a couple of weeks or so my smoking had dropped from 30 or more per day to less than 10.

Being in control of when and where I lit a fag the next step was to not light up until noon with the next one not until after tea and the last one before going to bed. 3 a day hardly seemed worth smoking so one morning I put fags, lighter and ashtrays away and went about my daily life that extended for over a year.

Sadly a burglary, which also wrecked my living room just weeks after I had got it some bit like, badly unnerved me. The kindly policewoman who had been despatched to investigate and take a statement saw how badly I was unnerved and made me a cup of tea and offered me a fag. Unconsciously I took it and smoked it and got back onto the tobacco road again.

I should point out that the burglary occurred the day after being discharged from hospital after a second heart attack. I was in no condition to be hit with that sort of trauma.

I’ve never looked back since and continued to keep the government solvent so that it could waste my money on illegal wars and crackpot schemes.