Hi
Been keen to post for a while, but the registration for here seems to have been playing up. I have enjoyed reading people's posts and am keen to share my experience.
I quit on 9th May, have been using a combination of patches, inhalator and the psychology of Allen Carr (except the don't use NRT bit). As a package I am so pleased to say it's working for me.
I started on 21mg patches, by day 6 they had me feeling awful and so cut down to 14mg and all has been well since. I am now stretching the 14mg to 36 hours or cutting up my remaining 21mg patches. I know the instructions say you shouldn't but seems fine (and sensible to me). My logic, I do have one, is to avoid getting into a rut with repetitive daily patch use, so I'm trying to get the supply of nicotine, but kind of irregular and decreasing. Same with inhalator, one cartridge used to last one day, now it's up to two days.
Overall it works for me. My proudest achievement is to deal with cravings but using bits of Allen Carr:
1. Tell myself I don't "need" a cigarette, it's just my brain looking for its nicotine fix.
2. Remind myself that I know that the addiction is easy to overcome, hey, when I smoked I went 9 hours every night without one.
3. Remember just how vile the cigarette is. Only have to look at or picture in my mind my neighbour's overflowing garden ash tray, uugghh!!!
4. Finally, as a non-smoker, just like 90% (ish) of the world population, who needs the addiction eh? I wasn't born with it and don't have it now.
By the time I have done that the craving has gone, with the help of a few deep FRESH breaths.
Sorry to go on a bit, but I wanted to share my most wonderful news with people who can see where I am at - I hope. And, let's be honest, just boast that I've given up. This really is something that makes me proud, if I can encourage or support anyone along the way that would be a beautiful bonus.