Here's how I quit smoking after 30 years, smoking 2-3 packs a day (Yes, I am and always will be a VERY HEAVY smoker).

I use the patch.

Go get your all 3 step patches: 1 box of Step #1 1 box of Step #2 3 boxes of Step #3 You will start on a DAY OFF from work. I would HIGHLY not recommend trying to quit smoking on days you have to go into the office OR have to be around coworkers.

Day #1: before going to bed, get rid of all cigarettes, ash trays, lighters, everything that involves smokes or reminds you of smoking, both in your house and in any vehicles you drive. Take a shower BEFORE going to bed and scrub yourself so you don't have anything smoke smell on you. Put the Step #1 patch on and go to bed. Yes you read that right, put the the patch on BEFORE you go to bed.

Day #2: Morning. Get up, change your patch, get ready and GET OUT OF THE HOUSE!!! Go for a walk, go to work early, go get coffee somewhere, doesn't matter what, just GET OUT OF THE HOUSE! If you can get out of the house and start doing some sort of outside activity, you will have an 80% success rate.

Day #3 - WHENEVER: Follow the patch recommendation, go through Step #1 patches, then onto Step #2 patches. Remember that you are ALWAYS wearing patches even while you sleep. Once you are on Step #3, you will continue to wear the patches until you forgot to put them on (this is why I make you buy 3 boxes in the beginning), trust me on this. There will come a day where you will forget to put the patch on and it won't bother you.

When I quit, it was on a Thursday that I forgot to put my patch on and I just went the entire weekend without wearing my patch. I didn't realize it until Tuesday when someone asked me how the quitting was coming along and I touched my shoulder and realized I wasn't wearing it.

Now... that all said, I will say this and die on this hill, quitting smoking was this WORST thing I ever did. 11 years later and I STILL to this day crave a cigarette and absolutely LOVE IT when people smoke around me. I LOVE the taste of tobacco and wish to God that I could smoke again. I just remember how hard and how many times it took me to finally quit and I NEVER want to go through that again. I know for a fact that if I have ANY sort of cigarette, cigar, pipe, whatever I will be smoking 2-3 packs a day IMMEDIATELY.

Case in point, my wife vapes. She used to have those vapes where you had to fill them with liquid. Anyway she asked me to fill it one time and some of the liquid got on my fingers. I wipe it off thinking nothing of it and then for some reason, I rubbed my lips, why I did that, I haven't a clue. Within 5 seconds my lip started to tingle from the nicotine and that RUSH went immediately to my head (you know what I'm talking about). Let me tell you, it took WEEKS, WEEKS for my head to go back to normal. I was looking for cigarettes on the ground to smoke, it was HORRIBLE. I tell that story to warn you, you can NEVER touch any sort of nicotine product again after you quit. It will trigger you and God help you if it does. Once you quit, just stay quit.

Thank you for writing this.