I'm NOT going to say "if I can do it, anyone can," because frankly I always found that a bit insulting, when people would say it to me (about quitting cold turkey, or with the patch, etc) -- the fact is, just because someone else does it, doesn't mean anything except that person did it -- but hopefully it at least shows the possibilities to those who also want it. My mom gave me that line when I first started
vaping, regarding her own quit using every form of NRT known to man -- but I remember how hard she struggled, and I never could do that -- my first attempt in 1984, totally cold-turkey, lasted 3 months, and I just couldn't stand it another second, and frankly, if I hadn't had strep throat to kick it off, I'm sure I'd never have made it that long.
Best I can advise is, identify your triggers -- if there is one thing that always makes you want to smoke, then either avoid that item or activity like the plague, or find substitutes -- e-cigs are great, but sometimes more is needed -- when I first quit, everytime I'd get on the telephone, I'd have a TERRIBLE urge for a smoke, because I always smoked when I got on the phone. So I'd go on outside with my
vape and vape it like I stole it, the whole time I was on the phone -- it satisfied *something* -- just the pure habit I guess.
WTA is a godsend *if your cravings are physical* -- but it won't do a bloody thing for psychological addiction; you have to figure out how to deal with that, in yourself -- it's habit, and habit can be changed -- by creating a new habit to take the place of the old one. WTA is also a godsend if you have problems with depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, ulcerative colitis, and also RA, I think, because of the anti-inflammatory properties of one or more of the minor alkaloids. But it's not a magic wand, and won't do it for you.
I will say this: if someone is interested in quitting because someone else -- parent, child, spouse, co-worker, boss, doctor -- thinks it's a good idea, but you don't have a real motivation in yourself to do it... it's 10 or 100 times harder; I won't say 'impossible,' because I used to think it was impossible for me to quit smoking --
vaping proved me wrong. But it's a hard enough thing to do, even with e-cigs, that if you don't have that personal self-motivation to get it done, by whatever means you can find.... it *might not* be possible. The way to know if you are truly SELF-motivated to quit, I think, is in your ability to find reasons for either quitting or not quitting; if you can find a good excuse to smoke, you probably will. If excuses to smoke present themselves to you and you instantly dismiss them, then you'll probably quit and stay that way. And that's why my relapse last summer scared me so much -- I truly did have a good excuse to smoke, given all the crap I went thru with that appendectomy, and even if my innards hadn't been so dysfunctional, it's possible the stress alone could have caused a relapse -- but I had to draw the line, after a month of going back to smoking, because I knew that recuperation didn't take forever; I had to take responsibility for getting back to the non-smoker I really wanted to be, and it was hard, with that little voice in my head yammering at me constantly, oh c'mon, I really wanna smoke, just one, just this time, etc.... it will never shut up as long as you listen to it.
And that little voice will carry on for quite some time, if you pay it the slightest bit of attention. Just this past week, I had some thoughts of smoking... I dismissed them, and vaped like a maniac, but it told me that I probably ought to hang at my 3% WTA level a bit longer than I'd intended; I'm down so low now that any drop is a much bigger percentage of the whole, and thus has a bigger impact. When I dropped from 4%, instead of going straight to 3%, I went to 3.5% for a couple weeks, THEN went to 3%; for my next one, I'm thinking I'll do 30ml of 2.75%, and do my remaining drops at that .25% level; it may take me a bit longer to get free of the stuff, but it won't give that idiot voice in my head as much ammunition.
Andria