I gave up smoking 11 years ago using nicotine replacement therapy. At the time i smoked about 20-40 cigarettes a day, but what is NRT?
Nicotine replacement therapy covers any form of vehicle for getting nicotine into your systems and comes in gum, patches, fake cigarettes and many more. The idea is that using these replaces the nicotine you are already putting in your system with something else which doesn't contain as many carcinogens and other nasties that cigarettes and tobacco in general have. They can be quite expensive but when compared to the price of a lifetime of smoking i would think that the price is quite negligible here. The goal is to quit right? so do they work? well i can tell you from my own experience that they do help but they definitely wont be enough on their own. You'll need a good bit of will power because the patches will reduce some of the withdrawal effects the don't, generally, deal with the habitual or social aspects of smoking - you have a meal then you go for a smoke after, when you have a glass of wine with friends or something like that i am sure you like to have a cigarette? You'll need to break these habits and the only way to do this, i am afraid is perseverance and will power.
But here's my advice (warning it's relatively graphic but this is the technique i used to quit): there must be one person in your life you care deeply about? maybe a family member, a brother or sister, a wife or husband, a son or daughter, or just a really close friend. Imagine yourself lying in the hospital bed with lung cancer with a few days or weeks left t live. You've done this to yourself, you chose to smoke, at any time you could have stopped but you didn't. Now imagine the look in that loved ones eyes, imagine how they feel knowing that you did this to yourself. Imagine the completely avoidable hurt you have caused. You didn't have a heart attack, or get hit by a car whilst out walking. You committed very slow suicide because you chose to smoke. Imagine your loved ones tears as the final days come. Now hold that image for a second. All of this is entirely preventable, you are so much stronger than the will to smoke. Close your computer and go visit your loved one, call them up. Tell them that you promise the you will quit smoking, for them. Because if you wanted to do it for yourself you would have. Promise them you wont let them down and think again about the possible consequences if you do, the hurt you could cause. Now take a walk to the pharmacist/drug store, smoke your last ciggarette and throw the packet in the bin (maybe tell them a little F**K YOU"as you throw them away) you will beat this, you have to. Buy your patches (that's what i used and the slow nicotine release over a few hours worked best for me) put one on. Every time you think it's getting hard, think abut your loved one and YOU WILL find the strength to push on.
Good Luck, you are stronger than you can possibly imagine!
