Reciprocity

17

Hoping everyone's safe

14

Good stuff Jack!

Happy Birthday M5

^^^ Earlier on another quit he mentioned chewing a lot of these nicotine gums, basically far exceeding the recommended dosage. That's what appeared to be happening and the concern was 2-fold. Number one, his health. Too much nicotine from any source is NOT good. Number 2, increased intake of nicotine is counter productive to the whole quit process. Doesn't make sense to quit smoking but increase the dosage of nicotine you are taking in each day. Recipe for failure right there. I don't think anyone here is against NRT products as we realize they can be a useful tool in quitting "if used appropriately". That's the key - appropriate use. That's the concern here.

I agree with Jo in that I think many people look to something, anything, to have an easier time quitting. That's fine as long as you realize that using an NRT is just stretching out the withdrawal timeline for you. And, if that's what is required for you to stay quit then that's completely fine. But In the end, we all have to do the same amount of work to achieve a long lasting quit. It's just a matter of how we do that work and in what time frame. There's NO right or wrong way but the thing we all have to figure out is which is the best way for us as an individual. And yes, have an exit plan for whatever NRT product you might want to use because that's part of your quit. Getting off the NRT product at some point.

12

So, I'm guessing the mushy-peas I keep hearing about are not part of your menu

Yup to NOPE!

10

7

-8 Like shooting fish in a barrel ? '

4

You may be right Weegie! I'm pretty grumpy and a bit of a closet A-hole normally so the added anxiety of quitting probably heightened those traits my wife married me for I was pretty quick to get frustrated and angry for probably the first 4-5 months of my quit. It was the longest lasting symptom for me personally.

+1

20 Ta-da!!

18

16

14

Hi MrsFowkes! You seem to have a pretty good understanding of what you are doing that is causing you to fail each time in your effort to stay quit. As others have said, the stress you are relieving by smoking is the stress cause by your nicotine addiction and the repeated association with smoking when you have life stress. Only you can break that cycle - no one else can do that for you. It's not easy for sure but everyone of us here has had to do the hard work to get to where we are and the good news is .... so can YOU! Part of what you are doing when you light up a smoke in a stressful situation is you are just taking a small break to think about the situation and what you should do to get through it. You can still do that but without the smoke. Take a small break from what you;re doing and go for a walk or just to a different room and take some deep breaths, suck on a hard candy - whatever allows to to calm yourself so you can think about things. You might just find that works as well as having a smoke. Did having a smoke ever solve even 1 of your problems - I think not. Just gave you a distraction so you could think about things. Stick around here. You will find the support top notch and that counts for a lot when you are struggling. Go to our Daily NOPE page and pledge your nope every day. I think it will help.

3

+1