Let me tell you more about some of the brainwashing techniques I have used upon myself to quit smoking cigarettes. I am a turtle; I slowly baby-step my way into better habits. Gradual change is easier to attain and maintain, for me.
In twenty years of smoking, I have not been able to gradually cut back, though. I smoked all the cigarettes, while around them. Called myself a chimney. (Brainwash technique #1.) I had to just stop, "cold turkey". (Which I did.)
I often smoked absentmindedly, and I thank the couple of people who have had the balls to tell me so. Part of reprogramming myself was to acknowledge each cigarette I smoked. This is a must to deal with any addiction. I began telling myself that I only felt as if I needed a cigarette. I "corrected" many thoughts regarding cigarettes.
Here is one: I used to say to my children: Wait until Mommy's done with her cigarette. I often became upset that I was interrupted while smoking, as in "JUST LET MOMMY FINISH HER FOKING CIGARETTE!" My convoluted logic was that I smoked to relax, and that I "needed" to smoke the nicotine to relax. (Nicotine is a stimulant, therefore, I was entirely illogical, Captain.)
I dislike my mean mommy voice. It hurts my ears. Smoking cigarettes brought on the mean mommy voice often, along with a lot of other crappy sayings: "No, you can't sit in mommy's lap, she is smoking." "No, you can't get out of the car and run around while mommy is smoking. Just stay uncomfortably tied up, safe inside this box where no cars can run you over while mommy gets out of the box to smoke to relax." Make sense? Not to me, either.
So, when I thought of or heard myself saying these things, I internally rejoined: "I am always interrupted because I am always smoking." Or something as such. (Like, I am such an asshole to tell my kid he can't sit on my lap.)
I replaced "I am going to have a cigarette now." With "I am going to do some chore now." or "I just had one, I can have one later." This last inner statement helped a lot. I can have one later. I think of it as if smoking, or being a smoker, is a temporary state of being which only exists while the person is in the act of inhaling and exhaling the smoke. Therefore, for much of the time, I am/was, a non-smoker. All I had to do was extend the non-smoking time indefinitely.