I'm going through hell tryingusually successfullyto hold things down to a pack a day.
I smoked for 35 years and and tried the "patch" (actually I woke up in the hospital on Mar 16 wearing it, but you've already heard that story How I quit smoking the hard way (a cautionary tale) and it worked great for me. I highly recommend you give it a try.
I feel pointless, aimless, empty, tired. I feel the answer to this is to smoke. I felt this way about booze too.
Stop feeling, start thinking. You'll find life MUCH easier to manage once you switch this paradigm. Life will still pose difficulties, but at least you'll have a framework for dealing with them.