Thanks Andreas, nice to hear from you as the smokers make their new year resolutions.

I smoked as a teenager, then stopped for 25 years, then started again as an occasional smoker for a decade, and have now stopped for more than a year.

As you point out, overcoming any addiction is just a matter of psychology, mind over matter, finding a range of mental tricks.

There are some great books such as Allen Carr - see https://www.allencarr.com/free-informat ... s-easyway/

Finding something active to do which will be incompatible with smoking is a good aid to quitting. For me it was running and cycling. Even though I had played basketball in high school, I still smoked, much to the detriment of my performance. In college I picked up cycling and running as well, and finally it got through to me that I couldn't really enjoy those while smoking 1/2 to a full pack per day. The new recreation helped deal with the anxiety that was at the root of my smoking.

I'd have dreams for many years that I went back to cigarettes, and felt awful on waking up. I suspected that what kept these dreams coming was occasional cigar and pipe-smoking, even though I didn't inhale the smoke. I cut out all tobacco about 15 years ago and haven't had one of those dreams since.