It's different for everyone, you can't apply one person's experience with another's. You can't say for sure just because you quit cold turkey, that it would work for everyone else.
I started at 16 and quit at 26, smoked Marlboro Lights, at least a pack a day. Like Nalani, my trigger was drinking and I could go through one pack in one night at a bar, which I was in frequently.
Everyone in my family smoked and the mornings were signaled by my mother and brother coughing up all the phlegm in their lungs. I always said from the beginning that if my health was ever outwardly affected like that, that I would quit.
After about 10 years, I started getting chronic bronchitis and had it six times in one year. The last three bouts were right in a row, once in October, November and December. Because I was getting sick so much, they had to keep prescribing stronger drugs to cure me. Finally, that last time in December, after the doc told me I had walking pneumonia, I decided that was it. I would never smoke while I was sick and that last time, I just never started up again after the week in bed.
I even kept my last pack of cigarettes in my kitchen drawer for a few months. But I never lit it. Sure, I'd smell them and put them in my mouth, but that was as far as I went. And I haven't had one since, five years later. I genuinely enjoyed smoking, right up to the end. But it just wasn't worth it to me anymore. Especially now looking back, I don't miss the smell, the price of it, the dirty ashtrays, having to always smoke outside because no one allows you to smoke inside anymore. I won't go back.
What I noticed about quitting... Once the chemicals have left your system and your cough has died down, all it is is a battle of wills with the habit. It's just retraining. I never did the lollypop thing but what I noticed is I have a fixation with my hands, they were always in motion. So I got a bunch of rubber bands and put them around my wrist and would subconciously play with them.
Also, my sense of smell got really really sensitive. I can smell things that other people can't, it's really strange. Didn't notice much of a difference with my sense of taste like some people do.
I don't crave anymore, and I can't remember the last time I did. But I still have weird things every once in a while, like I'll be smoking in a dream or after I eat dinner in a restaurant, I'll make a mental note of whether I'm in the smoking section or not so I can light up. But I don't consider myself a smoker anymore.
