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I started when I was 17. I quit after 3 months, for a few months, and then started again. I quit a few months after that, and it lasted nearly a year, and then I started again. I smoked regularly until I was 28, when my first son was born. I quit again, and restarted a couple months later. I quit again when my second son was born, and stayed quit for a couple of years, restarting this past September.

I quit a couple of months ago. Every time I quit prior to this, it felt like, "I'm quitting until I start again. I'm not done, just done for now." Having quit so many times, I've taken a rather pragmatic approach to it. Each time you finish a cigarette, you've quit. It just depends on how long it takes you to have another.

This quit has been different. This time, I don't feel like it's until I start again. This time, I feel like it's quit until I'm ready to die, or just plain finished altogether. Hard to say at this point, as I'm hoping that's a solid 50+ years from now. That said, if they came out with a cheap, non-dangerous version, I'd be on it in a heartbeat.

Smoking [Nicotine] makes me feel like I can think more clearly. Like my entire thought process speeds up and I can focus, and simply accomplish MORE in a given space of time. I feel relaxed. I'm so much more efficient when under the influence of Nicotine. And for some reason, I don't get that same feeling from chewing the gum, or sucking the tablets. Something about it is different. The gum and tabs can keep the cravings away, and they offset the fog that I feel during withdrawl, but they don't seem to have that same "Brightening" effect that I get from smoking a cigarette. That's probably just addiction talking, but it is the genuine way that I feel, whether it's just in my head or not.

The intense "need it now" cravings seem to go away, for me, after a couple weeks, and then I get it bad again about a month later for a couple days. After that, I get the odd, "Man, wouldn't a smoke be a good idea right now?" Feeling, but it's pretty rare and goes away in half an hour if I have some water or something, and do something to get my mind off of it. But like I said, I'd start again in a heartbeat if I wasn't concerned about seeing my kids have kids, and the financial impact. Even a half a pack a day would cost me about $6 a day, times 365 would be $2200 a year. That goes a long way towards my personal financials, so there's that too.

To the OP, it is not my experience that the cravings stay away forever. They come back, and kick you in the head every now and again. If you give in, you've already quit again by the time you finish that first cigarette. Stretch that quit as far as you can , and keep doing that till the quits are a nice long time.