quit smoking cold turkey 3 yrs ago.. after 20+ yrs smoking.. no gum, no drugs, no e cig. nothing. cold turkey.
i found it suprisingly easy. I probably would have done it earlier if i hadn't heard my whole life how difficult it supposedly is.
i agree with what someone said early in the thread. i just had to decide to do it.. it occured to me i go 8 hours every night without smoking. i've gone 12 hours in airplanes and airports without it. and i lived... so decided around xmas of 2011 i would do it when my supply ran out (used to buy 8 cartons a month at the end).. i smoked my last cig, and that was that.
the cravings go away.. the stupid ritual changes.. (i remember the oddity of realizing how much a habit it had became.. certain places i'd always light up, every day on the way to work, etc. etc... now i can't even remember those.)
the biggest thing I noticed was the real heavy craving only lasted about as long as it took to smoke a cigarette, so once you're thru the 5 minutes, you just carry on and it's no biggie.