Casey, you desire to quit will be the most important tool you will have when you start your quit. Your determination and the support of your girlfriend, family and fellow ex-smokers on this site will also be very valuable. If possible, finding an in-person meeting, like nicotine anonymous (nicotine-anonymous), might be helpful. I was not able to find one in my area, but I would like to have an in-person group as part of my program. It seems like you could benefit from a sponsor or mentor.
I have had a lot of luck in trying every coping tool in the book and even coming up with one or two of my own. There are dozens of ideas floating around on these boards, I'd bet that you can find one that works for you. The exercise of researching and practicing the coping techniques has itself become a great coping technique for me.
You need to change your self talk. You CAN quit! You would have a hard time finding anyone on this site that found it easy. I would guess that many failed to keep their quit more than once. Some have lost their quits after months. The most common factors among the success stories has got to be persistence and determination.
Haunt these boards, it will prepare you for what's to come. Decide your method of coping (cold turkey, patch, gum, etc...), commit publicly (and more importantly to yourself) that you can and will do it, pick a date and quit. You absolutely CAN do this!
