I was on 20-a-day from 17 to 34-ish. (I'm now 47 and a half) I had 2 previous attempts at stopping, one semi-successful. First time was with nicotine patches, but they did nothing to the actual physical habit.
Second time, I used gum and it actually worked. There was a physical action associated with it and that helped a lot of with the fidgeting. I quickly fell back in with social smoking, which worked for a while, until it didn't.
Third and final time had a lot more hiccups in the early stages, but then smoking was banned in the pubs and that made it an awful lot easier.
My social circle had changed somewhat too and smokers were in a minority, which was probably the biggest factor.
I would get the odd graving for the following 4-5 years, but now I think it's absolutely disgusting.