Congrats! Nine years and counting for me.
Try vape. Seriously. Get a tobacco-flavored juice with middle-of-the-road nicotine levels so you can still puff, but without all the carcinogens and nasty smell of cigs. That's what's kept me off smokes for most of a decade. Way cheaper, too. I figure I have about twenty bucks a month in juice and coils.
Brad
Well, if substitutes work, all the better, but after several tries with electronic cigs and the like, I decided that didn't work for me.
Same thing when I quit drinking. I will not drink alcohol-free beer because it triggered the same engrams in my head (hence, desire) for real beer. I used to love beer with pizza, but even today, 28 years after quitting drinking, I still think twice when I'm going to have pizza.
It's OK, but it's like the anticipation game I noted in the OP: "Ha-ha,
gotcha, you damned craving. Now go away and let me be."
Good on you, Brad, but substitutes are not for me. I just quit, went through the agony for a week, ten days or so (in both cases), and "walked it off." On the other hand, I would never condemn substitutes for anyone else. Whatever works.
It even took a while for the "I wonder if I have enough for the weekend" thoughts to go away when driving by a liquor store. (At the time, liquor stores in Colorado were closed by law on Sundays.)
Terry, "Less noble than all this would make you think," 230RN
ETA: Thanks, BobR. Agreed. Posted this before I saw your post.