I quit smoking 17 years ago. I smoked two packs per day from '81-'94. I loved the cigs and thought I'd never be able to quit. In fact, I thought at one time that I would quit alcohol first. Finally I went to a Doc and got a prescription for the patch (back when you needed one). I made it through my first day in a long long time without smokes and gave the patches away to someone else. I never smoked again.
It was brutal. I chewed lots of gum and drank a bunch of really crappy beer. I was a cranky mess for a month and really not out of the woods for at least a year. To this day I am mystified by people who quit smoking for a year or more then take it up again. I would never ever want to quit smoking again. I'm still proud of myself for quitting. After all this time I've even worked my way through the bitchy ex smoker phase and cut my smoking friends some slack.
I certainly use my cig quit as inspiration for my alcohol quit. I'm only 38 days into my post alcohol life so I'm still too new to really compare and contrast the two. Quitting smoking was certainly much more physically intense in the early days. Overall, though, it seems like a more superficial deal than quitting alcohol. LaFemme, you are crazy strong to be able to quit both at the same time!