What you honestly thought was a cave, wasn't one at all. It was a train tunnel . You soon realized that if you were still in the tunnel when the train got there you wouldn't survive or would be badly injured. Over the years you tried to get out by going back the way you went in. You got in there gradually, so it made sense that you would get out the same way.
Tunnels are like that.
You go out the exit, not out the entrance. Once you truly accept this, getting out is much easier, and you avoid eating as a substitute for smoking. Different people have different lengths of 'smokn tunnels' to get through. My wife's was three years long. Mine was more than 20 years long.