K-Fed - you can do it, but it is honest to god brutal. I am in my 30's and started smoking as a teenager, and smoked for just shy of 10 total years of a pack a day habit. Forgive the soapbox rant below, but this cause is near and dear for obvious reasons, as you will read.
Quitting was the second hardest thing I have ever had to do. The first hardest thing was watching my mom slowly die from lung cancer (lifetime smoker). It took her a few months after being diagnosed to quit after a lifetime of smoking. I was her daily caregiver since my dad (also a smoker, and also deceased due in part to smoking-related issues) wasn't in the best of health. No cancer is good cancer, but lung cancer is brutal. Took her two years to die, and she was slowly dying the whole two years.
Lung cancer causes more deaths than the next three most common cancers combined (colon, breast and prostate). An estimated 160,340 Americans were expected to die from lung cancer in 2012, accounting for approximately 28 percent of all cancer deaths.
The lung cancer five-year survival rate (16.3%) is lower than many other leading cancer sites, such as the colon (65.2%), breast (90.0%) and prostate (99.9%).
Source:
http://www.lung.org/lung-disease/lung-cancer/resources/facts-figures/lung-cancer-fact-sheet.html
Quitting smoking is brutal. For me and my wife, the biggest challenges were the anxiety associated with nicotine withdrawal and emotional removal of a crutch. I found that the more I learned about how much it sucks for other people, the less I felt like a &^$$% when it was hard. Also, talk to your doctor. There are plenty of good medications out there (beyond just patches and gum) that can help you with the quitting PROCESS. I highlight process, because it takes a long time to effectively quit. I don't think I was the same for a year.
Accept that you can try to "quit" and every smoker has likely "quit" many times. But until you are ready to commit to QUITTING, it will be hard. Quitting means permanently. As in, completely and forever. As in, not a single drag from a single cigarette after a night drinking, ever. As in throwing out not only your open pack, but your lighter, your ash trays, your carton in the car, and your smoking gear. This mindset will help you begin to grieve for your loss - which it most certainly will be - before you commit.
Just know that many thousands of people have successfully quit - and at the end of the day, as mzer says, you just have to make your mind up and do it, and then follow through with balls of steel. Quitting sucks, but the benefits from quitting are nearly immediate. From American Lung Association:
20 Minutes After Quitting:
Your heart rate drops to a normal level.
12 Hours After Quitting:
The carbon monoxide level in your blood drops to normal.
2 Weeks to 3 Months After Quitting:
Your risk of having a heart attack begins to drop.
Your lung function begins to improve.
1 to 9 Months After Quitting:
Your coughing and shortness of breath decrease.
1 Year After Quitting:
Your added risk of coronary heart disease is half that of a smoker's.
5 to 15 Years After Quitting:
Your risk of having a stroke is reduced to that of a nonsmoker's.
Your risk of getting cancer of the mouth, throat, or esophagus is half that of a smoker's.
10 Years After Quitting:
Your risk of dying from lung cancer is about half that of a smoker's.
Your risk of getting bladder cancer is half that of a smoker's.
Your risk of getting cervical cancer or cancer of the larynx, kidney or pancreas decreases.
15 Years After Quitting:
Your risk of coronary heart disease is the same as that of a nonsmoker.
Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Health Consequences of Smoking: A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health, 2004.