I quit using nicotine replacement therapy. Started with gum because patches are sweated off in steamy Louisiana. When the weather cooled, I switched to patches and tapered off with them.

That was over ten years ago. No tobacco or other nicotine since then.

Edit: Nicotine is a mood altering chemical. It makes you feel good. That’s why smokers, in times of troubles, light up and smoke heavily.

When you quit, many problem that you “smoked away” seem to become more vivid/pressing/urgent. They aren’t.

I smoked about a pack a day when I was a teenager and quit cold turkey when I was 22. I can tell you the first month is rough. After month two I hardly thought about smoking anymore. Hang tight, it gets much easier after a couple months. Years later, I smoke the occasional cigar now and then, but never have any desire to smoke cigarettes or vape.

Working at a smoke shop is crazy when trying to quit though. I mean I've known bartenders who quit drinking and still bartend but that's got to be hard. I know you are already thinking about getting a different job so I won't bother suggesting it 😁

Good job. I feel like the saving money and quitting vaping and addictive habits go together. I hear seeking some adrenaline is handy. Basically the mind wants some variance in it's chemistry. But the softer way to provide that is just with experiences. Your mind craves highs and lows so you have to give it that in a healthier way.

So the natural drugs are adrenaline, dopamine, and serotonin. I'd research what types of activities boost those and then rotate which you are getting. Seek those before nicotine. If one doesn't do the trick try the other. So now you have three things you need to try before going to nicotine. You might get over the craving or learn to deal with it by the time you've tried all three. Then in the exact opposite direction there is improving your tolerance for boredom. I'm a fan of intermittent unplugging.

The last bit of advice I'll give is to look at problems deeper. I only say this because usually frustration is what people use as an excuse to make an exception. Everyone's life has problems and frustrations. So I assume yours does because you are human. What frustration really is is when we refuse to look at the whys because we are so focused on the problem and what to do that will be a quick fix, but then these quick fixes don't work, or at least don't work smoothly.

Problems exist in chains. For any problem, even a small one, you can follow it back anywhere from 1-5 layers deep. Toyota is big on doing 5 whys but that can be pretty deep to do for everything. But often taking it back just 1 layer or 2 is already reducing frustration. It takes longer to solve a problem but it ends up more permanent and a smoother experience. The problem is that nicotine trains the exact opposite behavior.

I don't think that will make it 100% easy but anything that will reduce frustration in your life will help. So the two ways to do that is what I already mentioned, taking time to think and work it out methodically and give yourself the time to do something properly and slowly. The second is also asking if it is important. If its going to lead to frustration and possibly get you to make an excuse is it really that important. It might be. Some things in life are. But then you approach it carefully instead of getting stressed out.

So it's really three things. Remove things that cause frustration if they aren't important. Do things that might cause frustration methodically and in a way that doesn't. Turn off the excuse that being frustrated means you do nicotine. If you can solve even one of those perfectly then you win. But if you do all three of them you win with absolute certainty. Then you just triple killed the problem.

That's my spit ball. Good luck man. You can do it. People have done it before and so can you. You absolutely can. Let us know how it goes.

Just go cold Turkey it's not easy but that's the only way that works.