Thanks so much for your response to my question. I never thought of being addicted to the nicotine and not the lozenges! Now I can work on that. It has to be easier than trying to quit smoking!

You have to make stopping your number 1 thing in your life,,, if you want to enjoy life,,,,fighting for every breath of air, isn't any fun, not being able to wash your face, putting on your clothes, going to the bath room setting on the commode, putting on you shoes, bending over to pick up something on the floor, is not fun,,, and that is what you have to look forward too... If you DONT STOP SMOKING.....
17 years ago, a doctor told me to stop, if I wanted to live, or smoke and die a young age!!!!!! I took him serious,,,I quit that night, after 45 years of excuses, I was doing ok, for the next 6 years, got a little short winded, in doing things,but after that, I kept getting shorter on being able to breath, I've slowly lost the ability to walk any distance, with out having to stop, to get enough breath to get a few more steps!!
SMOKING IS KILLING YOU,,,, IF YOU DONT STOP,,,, YOU WILL DIE A BREATHLESS DEATH,,,,FIGHTING FOR AIR, THAT YOUR BODY CANNOT GIVE YOU, BECAUSE,,,,,,SMOKING KILLED YOUR LUNGS,,MADE THEM USELESS,,,,,,, your lungs are the only part of the body, that doest repair its self,,,,,,,STOP SMOKING, AND enjoy some of life, before its to late!,!! I'm on my last legs with this stuff, can't even wash my face, with our fighting for air, brushing my teeth, just trying to wring out your wash cloth, to wash your face drains you of oxygen, then it takes 10 minutes of breathing in oxygen, to breath again, if you don't do a lot of moving around,,,,,,I've came from working 18 hours a day, 7 days a week, to setting in a chair, looking at four walls. In the past 17 years, I've made the best I can, kept a positive attitude, about my illness, haven't allowed it to get me down,,,,,,,but I'm telling you straight, if you don't stop...... You have nothing to look forward to......... God dress you,,,,,

I quit 7 yrs. ago and use the same method and had the same result as you. I changed to strong mint lozenges. I was then hooked on them. I gradully stopped them also. But that's what it took for me to quit.

Substitute the nicotine gum with plane gum. One of my in laws did this and ever stopped chewing plane gum all day. I thought this would be bad for one but I recently read that chewing gum keeps the mouth moist which helps in preventing tooth decay. Maybe google it to confirm.

E-cig worked great for me as i tried everything else....Before you use it you got to make up your mind you WANT to quit and not expect it to work miracles.....Just like any Drug taper, one must approach the e-cig the same way...Have a plan..Start high say 24mg and gradually wene yourself down to 0mg Nicotine....then stop....Took me 5-6 months but it was an easy enjoyable quit....The hand to mouth habit is pretty easy to break after that....

If people think quitting cigs is HARD then i assure you those lugging around an oxygen tank will beg to differ