Do you really need quit smoking products to help you to quit smoking, or is it possible that you can do it on your own?
Stop smoking products might include:
1) Medications, such as Chantix or Zyban.
2) NRT products, such as the nicotine patch, the gum, or the lozenges.
3) Hypnosis sessions.
4) Electronic cigarettes.
5) Nicotine free cigarettes and step down systems.
And so on. There are dozens of products out there to help you quit smoking and there will probably be many more invented over the next few years. The market is ever changing and the addiction to smoking is so powerful that there will probably never be a “cure.” The best we will be able to hope for is this mish-mash of products that sort of work for some people but basically fail for the majority who try them.
So, do you need them?
Well yes and no. Obviously some people have used these sorts of smoking products in order to quit successfully. But in some cases they are a distraction. In my case in particular, I know that these products sort of gave me an excuse to relapse, they never worked for me, and tying the different products became like a game. In that sense, they were not helpful and eventually I made a mental shift and quit smoking cold turkey.
So in the end, I did not really need them, but maybe I did. I tried and used all of them and nothing worked, and maybe that was part of what I had to go through in order to finally quit smoking. I had to realize that these products were not the answer, that they could not cure my nicotine addiction, that they could not take away the real pain and discomfort of withdrawal. It is tough to go without our crutch, without self medicating. It is just a hard thing to do, and even if you have nicotine being piped into your body from a product, it is just not the same. You don’t get the harsh smoke on the back of your throat that lets you know that you just had a deep, satisfying hit off a cigarette.
In the end, I used these smoking products to show me that I did not need them. I learned that they were not the cure and that the real fix was going to come from my conviction to quit and my raw determination. The products played a role but they did not cure my addiction. They merely showed me the way.
