Smoked a pack/day for 30 years. Quit about 5 years ago. Quitting has given me a tremendous amount of freedom. I never realized how much of my life was wrapped up around smoking.
I used the patch. It went well until I got down to the last-lightest ones. Then you had to finally give up the patch. Even with the patch I still went through the "cold turkey" phase where I could have probably killed someone with my bare hands. I'm not exaggerating, either.
I would advise against the gum. People get hooked on that. It's just switching addictions.
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