I quit, cold turkey, about four times. The first two times were actually quite successful, I've always fasted regularly, including off of cigs, and so the cycle of addiction wasn't really well engrained in me. The trouble was 2-3 months after I quit I'd run into a friend I'd been avoiding specifically because he/she/they also smoked, and we'd have a 'good to see you again' bash that ended with 'Well, one won't hurt me.'

It's all downhill from there.

Then I quit drinking because I realized I was an alcoholic. That was the third time I quit smoking, and the two do not go together. Eventually I had to choose between wrecking my health and life, or just wrecking my health as a stress reliever, and I chose health, i.e. smoking.

Then the wife and I decided it was time to have a child. Before we went off birth control we both quit smoking. Never looked back, never had 'just one more,' or any of that hedging stuff. It's been a little over five years since I lit up.

Good luck. IMHO it's all about motivation. If you really have a reason to quit the power of nicotine is pretty weak, but if you're just quitting to quit you may find that you start back just to start back. It's a very enjoyable habit really, especially if you can keep your use casual to start with, but the consequences are horrific, if long term.

Think about it like this: If you saw a normal, healthy guy go into a building named 'Smoking' and come out ten minutes later hacking up a lung, pushing an IV stand, looking half dead, and sporting a traech tube you'd have to be out of your %^$&ing mind to follow him into the building. Just because you have to be in there for the next 15 years of your life rather than 10 minutes doesn't mean the end isn't the same, it just makes it harder to come to terms with. At least it was for me.

I was just a half a pack a day for ~6 years, and two more on and off. Obviously it's harder the more or longer. Good luck!