I have never been a big fan of Nicotine Replacement Therapies (NRT) such as the patch or the gum. But we cannot discount this technique, because many smokers have successfully quit cigarettes by using these products.
Nicotine replacement strategies are seductive. Compared to the agony of cold turkey withdrawal, nicotine replacement sounds like a walk in the park. “I’ll just wear this Nicotine patch all day, and I won’t get cranky or have withdrawal symptoms.” This is the main attraction behind quit smoking medication.
Well, there are at least 4 major problems with that statement that I found to be true for me while attempting to quit with the Nicotine patch:
1) I still experienced some withdrawal, even when wearing the patch all day. It wasn’t necessarily that I wasn’t getting enough Nicotine (although that may have been part of it), but there are also 5,000 other chemicals in cigarettes that you are now missing out on….perhaps your body is addicted to some of those as well? Wearing the patch felt like a perpetual withdrawal. It was like slowly prolonging the agony of quitting. Cold turkey is truly brutal, and is about 5 to 7 days of pure agony for most people, but wearing the patch for several weeks on end seems to me like it is this same agony stretched out over time. At first, the patch seems to help, but then you realize that your mind and body are still screaming out for a real cigarette, and all the while you are keeping your body perpetually hooked with this constant trickle of Nicotine…
2) I still wanted to smoke, quite badly, in spite of the patch. It wasn’t just the fact that I wanted to medicate with more Nicotine, but I wanted to feel the harshness of the smoke on the back of my throat too. I was still yearning for the ritual of lighting up. It was more than just the chemical I wanted. The patch failed me in this regard.
3) There was a truly wicked withdrawal when I finally took the patch off for good. Then I relapsed. You can’t wear the patch forever, right? Sooner or later you have to stop wearing them. Just realize that when you finally quit wearing the patch, it’s going to be like your withdrawal is starting all over again. 5 to 7 more days of agony…
4) I thought the patch was going to be more effective in helping me quit, so I slacked off on other techniques that could have helped in combination with the patch.
So NRT didn’t really work for me. Nevertheless, some people have done well quitting with the patch, and it was the thing that finally gave them triumph and success over cigarette addiction. If you are still struggling with cigarette addiction, you owe it to yourself to investigate every possible quitting technique.
Action items: what you can do
1) If you’re going to try the patch, combine your efforts with other quit smoking techniques, so that you are not relying on this “magic bullet” to be your ultimate cure.
2) Never give up quitting. If the patch fails you, try something else. Don’t just keep smoking.
In spite of my fairly negative experience with the patch, I highly recommend that smokers try everything at least once until they manage to quit for good.
The cost of continuing to smoke is too high. Try the patch, it might save your life.
If it doesn’t work for you, then try something else. This is the great secret to a successful quit. You must persist until you gain true freedom.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I just wanted to add to your statement above about the other chemicals. There are a LOT of other “Drugs” laced into the tobacco that add to the flavor, feel, flammability ( Thats why cigarettes like American Spirits go out if you don’t keep puffing on them. And this is before the new self-extinguishing cigarette papers were introduced…) and, most importantly, the addictiveness of the cigarette. Arsenic, benzine, strychnine, ammonia, among many others, have admitted to have been added in by the cigarette companies decades ago to increase the addictiveness and are all poisons, but in small doses, are addicitive. Lump them all in together with the already highly addictive nicotine and your going to go through withdrawal from a lot more than just tobacco. IF these companies were to put out different brands of the patch, like the Marlboro patch, that would have all the addictive chemicals included, along with nicotine, the success rate of people quitting would increase dramatically. You can tell that regular cigarettes contain more than meets the eye when you try and substitute them with rolled cigarettes, like Tops or Bugle, because you could chain smoke those for hours and still not feel satisfied. When they start making designer patches, the withdrawal process will much more bearable, I promise you…
That is an interesting idea there Mike, to make a patch with all the other chemicals in it so that you are not constantly craving that “something” even though you are on the patch.
I always felt like I wanted to just get some smoke in my throat when I was on the patch, just light up a campfire and let me suck the wind off it for a minute, you know? I needed that burning sensation. The patch just never cut it for me.
Now let’s be realistic for a second here.. You will NEVER see “designer” patches! We know that the cigarette company makes these patches, probably because they’re forced to from our government. Now, do you think they really want you to quit? I’m sure they could easily come out with a much more effective patch if they wanted to. But there is only one problem, where’s the profit in an ex smoker?