I know how bad it is for me. I have quit many times in the past. Once for four years and a couple of times for 2+ years. Yet, here I am again smoking to beat the band. I just can't seem to get that old Quit Bug back.

I do believe there is something in cigs NOW that weren't in them before, let's say 5 years ago. I find I am SOOO addicted this time around.

I've been sick over the past few years and cut down tremendously. I even saved enough money from NOT smoking to buy a car. But it's on it's way up again.

I used to smoke just 3 days a week and put that extra money aside. Now I run out of money by the end of the month.

If I could just find a reason to quit, aside from health issues, I'd do it but I just can't seem to find the motivation anymore.

You don't sound convinced that you want to stop although if you've done it before you know how difficult it will be in the beginning so maybe that is stopping you.

I figure that a person would really need to want to stop before attempting it because it would otherwise be way more difficult.

Imagine .... just for example, that you needed to have surgery for gall stones or something else even that would mean you would be in a hospital setting for days. You wouldn't be able to smoke then and the risks for you under a general anaesthetic would be much greater. In fact these days anaesthesiologists would be hesitant to be involved with surgery on someone who was smoking right up until the moment of surgery.

Smoking with your stomach problems is concerning.

General Practitioners and Pharmacists help people here with quitting nicotine. Any decent doctor who is presented with a patient desperately wanting to stop will usually give them back up services to help them through the most difficult days or weeks in the beginning.

We have Quit hotline telephone numbers here where I live. I'm not quite sure how they work but I imagine they're qualified counsellors. I may be wrong.

The Cancer Council here have great tips on their websites. I'm sure you have equivalent in the USA.
The Govt Health sites here do too but I find that a little hippocritical considering how much money they're making from each packet... but that's a whole other subject. We won't go there.

Reduce your risk - Quit Smoking Tips

I like their 4 Ds advice to help with craving... maybe that might help you.

Smoking and Tobacco Control - Cancer Council Au

If you have a friend or friends who smoke who also want to quit then maybe talking with them may help and you could always quit together.

Number 1 in my opinion is like anything... you need to really want to do it before it can happen.

You're not telling me things I don't already know. I am just at a loss this time. I can't get it through my thick head that I need to quit.

Those hot line are useless. To request patches is a nightmare. They want you to fill out this form and that form and blah blah blah just to get the patches. It took me 3 months to get the patches last time and by then I didn't care. They stall you into not smoking.

I think what I might need is some of that instant gratification everyone keeps talking about. But I can't figure out what it is.

Oh, okay.

You can't buy patches OTC there?

The only instant gratification I would imagine regarding quitting smoking is nicotine. I imagine the rest is change of habits. Replacing the nicotine for something else like exercize.

But then I'm just guessing here but all the best to you if you want to quit.

Wiix, I can relate - it took me a long time (many attempts) to quit.

Two things helped me:

(1) Nicotine patches (prescribed by my GP) - I started on a fairly high dose and tapered off over a few months under medical supervision.

(2) A spread-sheet which I used to keep track of the money that I saved by not smoking. Every so often I would use some of that money for a treat (a nice restaurant meal, a book that I always wanted, etc).

I still use that spread-sheet - it helps me to stay motivated.

I think you may have hit on a reason.

I have all kinds of money socked away so it isn't money. Nicotine patches at a high dose turn me off. I don't even smoke as much as they dump into your system.

Yes, I can buy patches but I didn't have the money then plus I thought they offered some kind of counsel, which they didn't.

What about one of those nifty "vape" e-cig things? They take care of the oral fixation and you get the nicotine too. They are pretty affordable, I bought 10 starter kits for some of my clients and they seem to prefer them to actual cigarettes.

I understand you. I smoked for 7 years but gave up 2 years ago and never looked back I tried to quit like 50 times but nothing helped. I also needed a reason to stop. But didn't find one. But I didn't see the reason why I smoked as well. So then one day I said to hell with it. You don't need the motivation to quit. You just need to understand that it's an addiction. Withdrawal lasted for a 2-4 weeks.

You just need to find something you are passionate about and you won't even think about smoking

Also try to read the book of Allen Carr. Easy way to stop smoking. Maybe it won't help immediately but someday you will understand those things he has written. Good luck.