should I stop using patches

[nsd_user663_23261]

Hi All

By the way this is a grate site, and has helped me loads, keep up the fab work.

Right this is day 24 for me, and i thought this would be getting easier, but it's not. I want to smoke most of the time, and it's doing my head in and getting me down. I have been on the 21mg patches and gum and micro tabs as and when needed.

I smoked for 22 years, 20 + fags a day.

I think it's the patches that are making me like this. what do you guys think? dragging out the stopping process.

Also how can I crave a fag when I'm getting nicotine from the patches?

Hope you all can help

Cheers

[nsd_user663_20558]

I don't know whether you should come off the patches or not, I didn't use NRT so I can't help you there.

But I can tell you that whether you use patches, pills or peppermints or whatever to help you come off the nicotene, the nicotene addiction is a tiny, tiny part of the addiction that makes so many of us go back to smoking.

Think about it, if it was just the three days of nicotene withdrawal, surely nobody would lapse?

The mental battle is what makes or breaks the quit. Your have spent 20 years training your brain to want cigarettes whenever you have an emotion, need a break, feel bored, finish a meal, wake up, drive, etc etc. And your brain is very good at tricking you into feeling a physical craving when you deny it. The psychological craves can be a whole body experience!

But fear not. You CAN retrain your brain to get past the triggers, and it gets easier and easier as time goes on.

Stay strong!

H

[nsd_user663_23261]

I'm just thinking to much about it..

I'm crap, looking for a way out, and trying to find some relief. I know I can do this, people do it all the time. Need to try and snap out of it, and get a grip.

Thanks for advice, I know your right.

[austinlegro 11 Years Smoke Free]

If you're at a loose end read this rambling essay....

[nsd_user663_22999]

Hi Nicky

I used NRT gum and some days I find it absolutely does the trick and others it doesn't even get close.

I started out on patches and gum but dropped the patches because I didn't think they were really doing all that much. I find the gum is better, but not perfect. That's where my own desire to not smoke anymore comes in.

I play a game with myself, ticking off each time I do something I know I would normally smoke when doing - all the things Helen mentions - and I find that's a motivator. I then feel "wow done that without a cig, can do it again without one". Childish but helps me.

Why not have a go without the patch and bung it back on quick if you feel even worse?

[nsd_user663_20978]

i was on patches now i am on the inhalator would definately recommend the inhalator

[nsd_user663_23261]

Thanks all

I read the rambling essay.... It was good and made sense. if I do quit the patches (lol) it should not feel as bad as the first 3 days, if the above essay is true.

Cheers all

[austinlegro 11 Years Smoke Free]

I read the rambling essay.... It was good and made sense. if I do quit the patches (lol) it should not feel as bad as the first 3 days, if the above essay is true.

Cheers all

Just do whatever feels right for your own quit. Don't be afraid to listen to the opinion of others and never be too scared to change your own beliefs based on overwhelming evidence.

Make your own mind up as it's your mind that's quitting the fags.

Read, read & Learn. Knowledge will give you the ammunition and a big gun but we're all in control of our own triggers.