On the one hand, you know that it's a disgusting and increasingly expensive activity that is eating away at your lungs, heart and circulatory system, staining your teeth and stinking out your wardrobe.

On the other hand, you know - or think you know - that cigarettes are an essential part of your life, and that without them you would be unable to enjoy it fully or cope with its stresses. And anyway, you've probably tried "giving up" in the past, and know that it doesn't work.

So in a powerful sense it's a tug of war - and you are the rope. The team in the "I Mustn't Smoke" teeshirts are pulling one way, and the "I Need a Cigarette" team are pulling just a little more strongly the other way.

But suppose you found out that they are actually both on the same side? That the fear of smoking and the fear of not smoking are both caused directly by the fact that you smoke. Then you might start to wonder what would happen if you just...er.....stopped.

Hold on, though - what about withdrawal symptoms?

Here's something else that not a lot of people know. Nicotine can only stay in your bloodstream for 48 hours. So just what is it that can keep you craving for weeks, months, even years of "giving up"? Quite simply, it's the idea that there is something to give up.

Once your body becomes addicted to nicotine, it needs a regular dose. If that dose is withheld - or you even fear that it might be - it becomes impossible to function normally. So you very soon come to associate having a cigarette with being able to concentrate or relax.

But it would be just the same if a car alarm went off while you were trying to work or read a book or watch TV. You would have to wait until the distraction stopped. As a smoker, you have a built-in source of distraction that non-smokers don't have to bother with.

Same with drinking. Smoking dries your mouth, and it turns your saliva into acid. So you need to drink more tea, coffee, coke, beer, whatever. Once your mouth is refreshed, you can take your next dose of nicotine. Over time, the two come to be associated. Simple as that.

Is this beginning to make sense? You have a physical addiction to nicotine, but much more important you have built up a system of delusions that enable you to believe that having a smoke actually solves some problems.

So "giving up" smoking feels like doing without something essential. But the only problems a cigarette can solve are the ones it created in the first place.

So if you take away the "solution", you take away 90 per cent of the problem too. Which just leaves the nicotine in your blood, and the prospect of two or three days' discomfort while it flushes out. Once you realise that's all there is, it really isn't hard to deal with it.

This basically is the process I went through five years ago, when I went overnight from a 30-a-day smoker to the tickled pink non-smoker I am today. If you want to know more about it, get back to me on jimtrim@compuserve.com.