Quitting smoking with the patch can be relatively easy — but at times, very difficult. Many state or city governments are now providing patches for free or for little cost, they are available in generic brands and they are available in any drug store, over the counter, with no prescription. Talking to your doctor, however, may be a good idea to set up a plan for quitting smoking and seeking his or her guidance on the subject at hand.
Once you receive your patches, make sure to follow the guidelines as much as possible. You should start out on the highest dose possible, so it resembles your current cigarette intake. There can be many issues that arise from the oral fixation of smoking, and with the patches, you can have a tough time getting over that right away. However, you can try to suck on a lollipop or use straws when you drink to wean yourself off of this very easily. If you still need that oral aspect of getting nicotine, you may want to try an e cigarette instead of patches at first.
Slowly, after a couple of weeks or until you feel confident with taking the highest nicotine possible through the patches, you can start to lower your dosage, slowly at first. Getting over smoking the physical cigarette is the toughest challenge, lowering the nicotine may just be easy! Of course, there are many other things in the cigarette other than nicotine, like chemicals and toxins, so your body is getting over those as well — so don’t be alarmed at the shock your body has experienced in the past few weeks.
Eventually, you can wean yourself completely off nicotine patched, but still keep some lying around in case of emergency. Try to stay out of stressful situations when you may be craving a cigarette and you can eventually be smoke free in no time!
