Every single person I have ever talked to that has smoked for years and years used that stuff for 2 months and now the smell of a ciggy is nauseating to them.
Everyone is different on how quiting works for them. But the main truth as some have said is that you have to want it. Not because you should or feel you need to. You have to want it.
For me the only way was cold turkey. I tried cutting back and nicorette. Not for me. I remember the first time I quit (I started back up about a year later) I dreamt about smoking almost every night for about six months. I would wake up looking for the cig thinking I was actually smoking.
I took Chantix for a month and the rest was my desire to quit. You have to be ready to quit and really want it. I have not had a cigarette in 21 months now. I rarely even think about it anymore.
I quit smoking 6 years ago. I was a 2 pack a day smoker for over 20 years. I used the "patches" to quit. I found that it was actually easy to quit with them. It is a 2 month program that gradually decreases how much nicotine your body receives while you deal with the mental addiction. For the mental aspect, I chewed a lot of toothpicks (so many that my friends kidded me that I was not going to die of cancer, but of Dutch Elm disease). As far as smoking once a month, I know that like a crack addict if I take one puff of a cigarette I will be right back to 2 packs a day. I won't chance that.
Good luck to you, it is differently worth it and it gets easier.
I quit almost 10 yrs ago. I've wanted to start again a hundred times. The thing is you have to tell yourself you are going to quit. It will be the hardest thing you do, but, it will prove to you that you can do anything you set your mind to. Good luck, you can do it, you know you can!