I smoked for 10+ years before I quit at 25. I don't remember how old I was when I had my first cigarette, but it was around 13-14, and I was definitely smoking regularly at 15.
I tried numerous times to quit before I was finally sucessful. I tried the patch, gum, every trick in the book. Nothing worked. The only was I was able to do it was to just quit cold turkey for a while and suffer until I was over it.
I always wondered why the only way that worked for me was the hardest way to do it: cold turkey. Then one day it came to me: the reason that it worked is because it WAS the hardest way to do it.
Our society's norm is to take the way that is the quickest, easiest, and the most painless. We are all about the result: not to smoke any more, to get to a goal weight, or whatever. We think that making it easier by using the patch, gum, etc. to take the edge off will make it more probable that we will reach our ultimate goal (quitting smoking). And, a lot of times, it does work, we quit smoking for a while. Then, life does what life does best: through us a pile of you-know-what out of nowhere, knocking us for a loop, and the next thing we know, we're smoking again. Why does this happen?
I am sure you've heard the saying: life is about the journey, not the destination. Everyone understands that on some level, but have you ever wondered what it really means? I mean, sure, it's a journey, but the journey's got to lead somewhere; you have to have goals and strive to achieve them if you're ever going to get anywhere or have anything, right?
What I think it means is this: if we are on the journey of quitting smoking, and we take shortcuts (the patch, gum, etc.) we will be able to reach the destination (quitting smoking) much faster and easier than if we didn't take any shortcuts. But, by taking shortcuts, we skipped over some of the necessary components (such as learning how to deal with stress and withdral symptoms w/o cigarettes) in order to STAY not smoking, which we would have learned if we did not take any shortcuts (quitting cold turkey).
Please remember, this is JMO. If you quit using the patch, gum, pills, etc. I'm not trying to say you are doomed to start smoking again. I'm just offering how I was able to finally quit myself after many tries and stay quit for going on 14 years now. And that's another thing: if you don't suceed in quitting the first time, just keep trying. It usually takes smokers a few times before they are able to quit for good (maybe that's part of the journey too?). If you quit, and in a couple of weeks or months the you-know-what hits the fan and you start again, just chalk it up to that's the way life is sometimes and plan to quit again once everything blows over.
Sorry this got so long and wordy.
I hope this offers some hope to those who are trying to quit.
