im on 15mg patches (the 16 hour ones) i have a coouple of questions on them if any one has the answers or advice, personnel experience etc... i would love to hear from you!
i was a heavier smoker up to last year when i tried my first quit (cold turkey)
but since then have been smoking lighter ciggs and less. if i was out my intake would be around 20, and when at home, which is lots more often then being out i would smoke around 15. i am so so so tired and my hubbie reckons im on too strong a patch and its causing the tiredness, has anyone else found this with the patches? i just dont have no energy its awful! im putting the patches on later now and taking them off earlier.
secondly last time i gave up cold turkey and my emotions were i a terrble mess to the point of suicidal on a couple of the days (sounds pathetic i know) this time round my emotions are pretty much ok (little moody and miserable at times, more to do with the tiredness then the craving) but i am very curious that because i still have nicotene going into my body will i still get the mad withdrawal problems once i finish them or do they prevent them being so bad all together? am i just sitting on a time bomb - waiting for the explosion? and are they easy to let go off or have i swapped one addiction for another?
just curious and a wee bit worried because im still putting nicotene into my body, just in a different way.
other then my brain filling up with a load of questions i am feeling fine, tired, chewing gum and sugar free sweets to stop craving for food (not smokes no more lol) and contemplating getting in the gym! (need the energy and motivation first though). dreamed about smoking for the first time last night. throat and cough improved now though, so not all bad. have a good day everyone!!!
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nsd_user663_2009
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The patches are designed to wean off nicotine slowly rather than stopping i.e cold turkey. In the case of CT, your body notices that there is no nicotine entering the body and is screaming out for it, hence why CT can be so difficult.
The normal case is
8 weeks on 16 or 21mg patch
2 weeks on 15 or 10mg patch
2 weeks on 5mg
It is done this way that your body shouldn't notice that you are slowly weaning yourself off the nicotine and when you finish your last course of patches (5mg) your body will no longer be dependent on nicotine at all.
If you were smoking more than 10 cigs a day, they advise you start at 21mg/16mg patch. It is also advisable to complete the course (12 weeks) no matter how confident you feel that you don't need them.
I replied in the other post too, as Barney says stick the course!! this way you will have little or no trouble at all stepping down and then finally off.
Even light cigs are like 5-7mg which is the equivalent to like 3-4 cigs a day on 21mg patch!
by the time you come off the patch you are effectively quitting less than 1 cig a day! no problem!!
And it is only nicotine not all the other crap that cigs have in them.
Your not putting any mad emotions off, your stepping through them little by little rather than jumping in at the deep end.
The tiredness is just quit related! i need much more sleep than i used to and i also get to sleep much easier than before!
Try and go to bed a bit earlier. Some sleep professor on the news yesterday said that we could benefit from 30 mins kip (no more, no less) 8 hours after waking too!
Your mind is ticking overtime don't stress just go with the flow and take each day as it comes x x
congrats on getting to day 11, i am on day13 but iam having the same sleep problems as you mentioned i am using Champix so i assume its something to do with nicotine withdrawel, i have been going to bed at 9 and i usually wake at 5 to go to the gym, i wake up when the alarms go of then go back to sleep and for some reason wake at 6 the correct time to get up for work dont ask me why. Anyway stick with it i am sure this tiredness will pass soon.
thanks for all the advice, pleased to know im not the only one thats so tired! love the picture barney, put a smile on me face (very much needed). where do you get all these pics from and how do you use them on this site?:confused:
Well done on your 11 days about the patches I have done the full 12 week course and when I stopped felt nothing bad at all so dont worry Just as Barney said Finish the course Linda xxx
you can find images by using a search engines image facility, eg 'cartoon cat'
heres one i found on google images, place cursor over image right click and choose 'view image' then highlight the url thats the adress of the image in the top bar, where you type etc. and right click copy.
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