It's never too late!
Ever since I started smoking I've used it to handle stress and depression.
So it would not matter how long I had abstained during a quit attempt, whether it was six days or six months, whenever I was stressed or the black cloud descended, I'd grab a smoke because at that point I simply didn't care.
All it took was one stinking cigarette to fall off the wagon.
Those of us who are emotional smokers have a much harder time trying to quit.
It's the ritual of hand to mouth and the inhaling that I suspect becomes hard-wired into ones brain.
It's that hard-wiring that makes quit attempts torturous for many. [Even after six months abstinence I still suffered cravings]
It's probably why I was able to switch to a pipe without looking back.
Memories a funny thing; although I say that it became easy after a week it was probably longer before I was comfortable but that's not really the point.
What's most important was that a pipe enabled me to get off the bloody cigarettes once and for all. That's a massive win for me.
Quit attempts were a torturous nightmare because it was all I thought about.
A pipe worked because a puff on some tasty pipe tobacco was better than nothing at all.
To successfully transition to a pipe, one must treat it like a quit attempt.
I was determined not to fail because I saw a pipe as a compromise. Knowing that I'd come down on myself like a ton of bricks if I even dared think about a cig . . . . . I know how I think.
To avoid calling myself a 'weak snivelling nancy boy', I simply did not go there and was grateful that I allowed myself to smoke a pipe.
A cigarette simply was not an option.
Although initially my intention was to use the pipe as a transition to quitting altogether, once I was adjusted to the pipe, I was surprised at how different my habits had become and my health improved markedly [No more smokers cough for one thing]
No more cravings. The urgency to have a smoke "Now!" simply disappeared.
My only motivation to quit was because I've lived with a terminal disease for over 22 years. Doctors gave me "3 years max".
Cigarettes exacerbated my condition. Pipe tobacco does not.
Eventually I decided that lifes too short to deny myself of one of my few remaining pleasures in life so I saw no reason to quit the pipe.
My addiction was so chronic that my specialist sent me to a cessation 'expert' [A useless tool whose idea of help was to ridicule and berate. That didn't turn out so good
]
I'm sharing my experience so that others can see that if someone like me, who kept failing miserably trying to ditch the cigarettes, can succeed by switching to a pipe, then anyone can.
You can do this. All that's needed is a determination to succeed.
Good luck.
