IMO, a person can psych themselves into a miserable quit experience or an almost effortless one.
Clinically speaking, the withdrawal symptoms of nicotine are very mild when compared to other drugs of equal addictiveness. Yet the media has the world convinced that quitting nicotine will turn you into a raving maniac without patches, drugs or gum.
Not so. I quit cold turkey (after trying every other method out there without success, so I do have some basis for comparison here) and the worst I experienced was a few minutes of anxiety and on the worst day, about 7 episodes of craving which never lasted more than 3 minutes; 21 minutes on the worst day (get a stopwatch and time those cravings and anxiety feelings...it really helps you stay grounded in reality)! In fact, even those closest to me didn't know that I had quit until I revealed the fact a week later. Honestly, cold turkey was the easiest of all my quits; maybe because I wasn't keeping myself in a constant state of withdrawal with nicotine replacements?
Think about it this way; everyone who uses a nicotine replacement product will still have to face withdrawal from nicotine at some point or remain addicted. That withdrawal isn't going to be easier just because the source of the nicotine has changed. It really isn't even helping you get over the psychological triggers of addiction because you are still actively rewarding those triggers with what they want...nicotine.
Of course, everyone has to find their own way and if it's a choice between smoke or use a patch, the patch/gum/lozenge is obviously the better choice but it's also a tremendous feeling of accomplishment to realize that you have stared down your addiction and freed yourself from it forever.

Hey Lisa...That's great that you were able to quit cold turkey. You definatley have more will power than me. I could never do it as I'd always say well I'll stop tomorrow. But by using the patch I know I can't smoke because it will make me sick. I know it's a sick and almost twisted way of thinking but it seems to rational to me right now. So, I guess we will see what happens, you never know, maybe I will stay smoke free. At least I'm not putting all the extra chemicals in my body with the patch and hopefully I'll be able to stick to it.

I really don't believe I do. Besides, an addict can never be stronger than their addiction; it'll beat you every time. What they can be is smarter than their addiction.
You know what really convinced me that it was time to quit? It wasn't the constant coughing. It wasn't that my kids were asking me to quit because they were afraid their mom was going to get cancer and die. It wasn't that my husband had wanted me to quit for 20 years. It wasn't even that I was afraid for my health. It was one simple challenge that I ran across at www.whyquit.com in the form of an article titled, "I smoke because I like smoking" It actually made me mad because I thought, "but I really DO like smoking". So I got a pen and paper, lit up a cigarette and decided to prove them wrong by writing down all the wonderful things I liked about smoking. Know what? I couldn't honestly list one thing. Not even one!
A lot of people, myself included, approach quitting with the thinking that goes like this: "I really like smoking, but I guess I have to quit because _______ (fill in the blank with your reason)". I kept failing because I believed that I was giving up something that I enjoyed and that I would have to live the rest of my life deprived of this special thing so when the cravings came along, of course I caved. Noone has the willpower (or very few) to deny themselves something they believe they enjoy forever. Truth is, I didn't continue to smoke because I liked it so much as a I disliked the results of not smoking; I was truly addicted. I wasn't smoking to feel good, but to keep from feeling bad.
On the other hand, armed with the new awareness that I had been kidding myself about how much I liked smoking (it's called denial and addict thinking), it became a lot easier to resist the cravings and tell my addiction, "No more. I'm done with you." because it's just plain silly to continue doing something that's hurting you when you can't even name one thing about it that you like.

Love Kills....I went to that paipo site and ordered some of those little inhalers I hope they will help at least with the hand mouth thing....I will need something to do if I have drinks and OMG I hope this will help.Thanks