I've stopped smoking 18 months ago, but even after 1.5 years, I still get the urge to smoke almost every day.
Its hard to get rid of those sort of addictions.
Actually, that's incorrect. Nicotine acts as a stimulant and constricts blood vessels, which causes all kinds of serious circulatory problems in the long term - high blood pressure, heart attacks, strokes and so on.
Unfortunately there's no easy way around nicotine, you just have to stop ingesting it.
The gum/patch can alleviate the withdrawal symptoms, but you'll still have to quit the gum.
From http://whyquit.com/pr/082613.html
A 2013 Gallup Poll finds that 92% of successful ex-smokers did not use the nicotine patch, gum, Zyban, Chantix or Champix, that most quit smoking cold turkey.
http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/130/16/1418
"There are some studies of prolonged nicotine replacement therapies (NRT) in smokers who have quit smoking. In these studies, no adverse effects have been found when nicotine medication was administered for months to several years. Other studies indicate that patients with known cardiovascular disease tolerate NRT well for periods up to 12 weeks. "
By far, the danger is in the smoking, not the nicotine in your bloodstream.
The Gallup survey
http://www.gallup.com/poll/163763/smokers-quit-tried-multipl...
allowed an open-ended response, so someone "might have decided to quit" or quit because "it was time" but also used an NRT to help them through the cravings and not have mentioned that to the interviewer.
There are few short term advantages to quitting smoking - your sense of smell improves and you have more spare time on your hands - other than that, there's little to brag about.
By going through this short term suffering, you're improving your long term health.
If someone (God) came to you and said: "Hey, I'll add 10 healthy years to your life if you agree to go through a period of feeling shitty and some mental fog and restlessness and nervousness for a couple of months".
I guess we'd all agree to such a deal and it's pretty much the deal you have right now, so hang on.
Congratulations on your decision and good luck !
I have anecdotally heard that if one had not smoked by adulthood, chances of addiction are fairly low.