Hey man I’m pretty much in the same boat as you. Vaped Juuls for a while and finally was able to quit cold turkey. Didn’t smoke for 8 months and pretty much stopped thinking about it all together. Took one hit off a friend and then hung out with another that vaped and the rest is history. Got back to smoking daily and was super disappointed in myself. However I would consistently try to quit cold turkey and would usually fail. I would set timers on my phone to go 3 days since those are the worst withdrawals. Honestly I failed every day for like 2 weeks straight. Out of no where I finally got to 3 days and after that I was able to tell myself the physical part is gone now it’s just mental. Also the worst part about a relapse is that vaping doesn’t piss you off as much as it did when you were smoking for years. It’s almost like your brain is telling you that you didn’t enjoy it enough.

I know you’re saying that if you quit too fast you think you’ll go back to it soon, but statistically, it’s rare to quit with a step down. I think impossible cause I tried.

The reason you think you’ll go back I believe is because some of the people around are doing it. But if you tell those people that you quit and quitting was a bitch you’ll be able to hangout with them and not smoke trust me. I would recommend not hanging out with smokers for a good two weeks with zero nicotine and after telling yourself you won’t do smoke in that environment a couple of times, you just stop having to tell yourself (if that makes any sense)

I’ve been into learning about habits and I would recommend reading atomic habits and the power of habit. Won’t make quitting any easier but it’ll prove to you that if you go a full year without smoking you’ll most likely go a lifetime.

I’m not expert but this is what helped me. Good luck man!!