How addicted to nicotine am I?

clade · 6 Jul 2011 at 14:36

Been a smoker for the last 10years (27) and recently ive started to smoke 20+ a day and my health has taken a hit with coughs etc.

so 3 days ago Ive started using NiQuitin 21mg patches. They say its a 6 week program moving down to a 14mg patch after a few weeks.

This does seem like a long time! anyone been able to tell when its best for them to move a "level"?

21mg has got to be less than 20 a day right?

Morgoth · 6 Jul 2011 at 14:39

clade said:
21mg has got to be less than 20 a day right?

No.

J.B · 6 Jul 2011 at 14:40

clade said:
21mg has got to be less than 20 a day right?

Probably slightly under, different brands of cigarette have a different nicotine content so depends what you are used to

Greebo · 6 Jul 2011 at 14:40

Morgoth said:
No.

Depends on which fags you smoke?

With silk cut 21mg patches would be like a 40 a day smoker!

clade · 6 Jul 2011 at 14:41

Morgoth said:
No.

I would lol if i upped my addiction lol half the battle is mental right ...

I smoked rollies with filters.

Crowort · 6 Jul 2011 at 14:41

21 is the same as (maybe more) than 20 a day. Each ciggy has 1 mg (on average) of nicotine. Not all of that is likely absorbed and some is damaged before you inhale. Patches don't give you boosts of nicotine thou, so it doesn't seem to have the same effect to me.

Morgoth · 6 Jul 2011 at 14:41

Greebo said:
Depends on which fags you smoke?

Yes.

clade · 6 Jul 2011 at 14:42

Crowort said:
21 is the same as (maybe more) than 20 a day. Each ciggy has 1 mg of nicotine. Not all of that is likely absorbed and some is damaged before you inhale. Patches don't give you boosts of nicotine thou, so it doesn't seem to have the same effect to me.

the patch contains 114mg of nicotine and delivers 21mg in 24hours.

div0 · 6 Jul 2011 at 14:45

Just ignore the patches, man-up and have some will power.

The hardest thing about quitting smoking is to break the habit, not the addiction. You need to convince yourself that you genuinely never want to pick up another cigarette ever again.

If you don't genuinely, truly, want to quit then you will fall back to picking up a cigarette. If you do, then it is just a matter of reminding yourself that you don't need a cigarette and finding ways to take your mind off thinking about smoking.

Ahleckz · 6 Jul 2011 at 14:45

Don't ever put 2 boxes of patches on you, including 'sensitive skin areas', in one go. It's really not good.

Crowort · 6 Jul 2011 at 14:46

clade said:
the patch contains 114mg of nicotine and delivers 21mg in 24hours.

So it still gives you the same amount as 20 cigs a day? Not sure what you are trying to say?

Greebo · 6 Jul 2011 at 14:46

clade said:
the patch contains 114mg of nicotine and delivers 21mg in 24hours.

And that is why I never got on with patches

1. They gave me a rash as all the nicotine against my skin wasn;t good.
2. They are releasing 0.875mg per hour over a 24 hour period as opposed to the 20 cigs you might have smoked over 15 hours so 1.33mg per hour with none overnight.
3. I didn;t sleep well with the patches on but if you took them off at night you were desperate for a fag next morning.

DisrupTor75 · 6 Jul 2011 at 14:53

I smoked for 24 years then tried the patches and they made me feel awfull. so i tried the cold turkey approach instead and after a week or so i had quit. I have not had a ciggy since 3rd January now, though on occasion (especially if angry) i do feel like one.

Of course this may or may not have been down to the majority of my smoking years using Rolling Tobacco (Golden Virginia)

anything I don't mind · 6 Jul 2011 at 15:23

I used to smoke 20-30 a day when i smoked b&h gold. I only smoked for about 4 years from age 21-25/26.

To stop I used the nicotine chewing gum. The first three days were the worst. You can get this chewing gum that if you smoke after taking it, you feel sick and you don't want to smoke again (until a few hours later). The toughest part was waking up in the morning and after meals. After a week on the gum i started to take less gum and only used it when i had serious craving, after two weeks i was on like 1 a day (instead of four that they recommend) and then the next week i had 1 every other day or something.

But there is no easy way to stop nicotine, no matter what patches or substitutes that you take, you will eventually have to cold turkey it. The patches only work as a way to reduce your nicotine input over time. The other aspect to cig addiction is the habit of smoking at specific times and when you drink beer, wake up, leave a train etc.

tom91x91 · 6 Jul 2011 at 15:34

cold turkey it, its not like your gonna be climbing the walls thowing up and crapping everywhere like heroin addicts go through

Its really not that hard just keep yourself busy the first few days then its easy after that.

OpenToSuggestions · 6 Jul 2011 at 15:37

groen said:
The toughest part was waking up in the morning and after meals.

As a non-smoker the idea of getting up and smoking right away makes me shudder!

stoofa · 6 Jul 2011 at 15:41

Cold turkey along with somebody else is a good method.
The "along with somebody else" works as neither person wants to let the side down.

Me and my wife (girlfriend at the time) decided to stop and we went the cold turkey method, both of us having our final fag one Saturday evening and then throwing away all that we had left.

7 years later and neother of us have smoked since.

Not only the major health benefits, but the cash saved and also the fact neither of us stink of smoke any more.

citizenx13 · 6 Jul 2011 at 15:43

My 2 pennies worth:
Patches/gum may work for some but its a replacement, I used to smoke years back and the only way I managed to quit is limiting myself to a number of smokes a day and reducing that till I had one on the way to work and one at home after that did not see the point of smoking, will not lie took a looong time but now I don’t need to and don’t.

Willpower is the only way mind over body and all that