I quit just before my pregnancies and up until they were at school, then I'just had one' when I was out socially with a friend in the evening, what a mistake. Anyway, I am back to trying to give up. My Dad did throw away his packet of cigarettes declared he didn't need it and that was that and my Mum followed suit. He started his smoking when he was in the army in the war so he had been a smoker for quite a while and then suddenly stopped when he was 55. The effects of all those years of smoking is still there now, his chest is really quite fragile and any change in the atmosphere or temperature makes him prone to bouts of bronchitis but after staying off the cigs and taking doctors advise there he is at 88 decorating, gardening, shopping, climbing ladders (against our advice). Also the myth that smoking calms nerves is probably another one of those excuses smokers have ready, my Dad had the temper of a Jack Russell more so when he was smoking, he is so much calmer and thinks things through instead of getting het up about things and wishes that he had never started. No I don't think I will bother with the patches and my Dad's way of doing it a go. Besides I've heard that you can get nightmares with them, I am already an insomniac and I don't really want any sleep I do get disturbed by bad dreams!