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Having been through this, it sucks to say but nothing works like cold turkey.

Nicotine withdrawal simply sucks ass, no amount of weening will truly help you, you just gotta make the decision to stop and commit.

It's a good practice to identify your smoking patterns and triggers, like perhaps you always smoke after eating, when you get in the car, out drinking with friends, etc., and either eliminate those or catalog them so you can mentally steel yourself against those moments.

You're gonna have a Bad Time for like, 2 to 3 weeks. Then it's a heck of a lot more manageable. Even if you wanna be at a stage where you can be a lil baddie and have a naughty smoke on occasion, give yourself, legit, like a 2 month or more gap before even attempting that and don't hold onto the smokes. Set strict rules for yourself and follow em, or else you absolutely will relapse.

TLDR: Just fucking don't, every time you think "I need a cigarette" ignore it.

That's how I quit, that's how my father quit. So I can say it worked at least twice. Most people I have talked to eventually did the same after wasting time and money on vapes and pens and gum and therapy. Have someone who will hold you accountable, find some one you trust to not entertain your bullshit when you start waffling and think "Just one more".

When you are somewhere that sells tobacco don't buy it. The only way to quit is to do literally that "quit". Yes it sucks and the cravings are hard to ignore at first but one day you will eventually realize that you haven't even thought about smoking the whole day, then it becomes weeks and eventually months. Things like vaping or patches or gum are just replacing one addiction with another, that never works because if you are lucky you just have a different addiction but most everyone I know now has two addictions instead of one.

I accidentally quit smoking after 20 years when I was put on Wellbutrin after a rough divorce. One day I just woke up and realized I hadn’t had a smoke in three days and realized I didn’t crave them anymore. Then I quit Wellbutrin and never looked back. I haven’t had a cigarette in 710 days and saved roughly $4,200.

For anyone trying to quit, I yo-yo'd on and off for years. What helped me finally kick them was really focusing on how bad they were making me feel when I started again each time. I needed the 'failures' to start getting the contrast between being on and off them. Also I didnt step foot inside a gas station (pretty much the only place tobacco is sold here) for like two years. Just walking in there was like a pavlovian response I had to break.

The real reason it's so tempting to start and hard to quit smoking is because it satisfies our inner and innate desire of watching the world burn. The greater the desire, the greater the temptation.