chime

Thanks for your replies!! This forum really is awesome! I shouldn't have said patches seem a cop out to me, didn't wanna sound like I disregard anybody's (or my own) success with them, I was just worried I'd end up dragging out the withdrawal phase using them. Sounds like, especially reading your post @Gus (thank you so much for sharing your experience, and congrats on 3 years, that's huge!) that maybe going off the patches won't be like stopping smoking day 1 again. I really worry about that cause I currently can't take time off work, and I'm a nurse so I kinda gotta be 100% all of the time. But when you feel like it's time to quit and you wake up one day and know that it's THE DAY then you really shouldn't postpone it even if the circumstances might not be ideal, in my opinion. Reading your posts made me think that maybe I can get through this and not be a total wreck at work once I stop using the patches. Thank you, for the kind words and support as well, everybody!

Hi guys, I'm new to this forum and currently on my 5th day of not smoking. Quit cold turkey a bunch of years ago and stayed off it for a long time until some stressful stuff happened in my life and I was dumb and started smoking again. I've been back to smoking for 2 years and wanted to quit again for almost as long, but could never make it beyond a few days. Finally had enough and decided to try out a crutch, aka patches. Woke up 5 days ago and decided I would just try it, and so far I've been staying strong. Why I'm posting this: I don't really like the idea of the patches. It feels like a cop out, like I'm just prolonging the withdrawal process. At the same time, I work a stressful job in the medical field and worry to not be able to perform adequately at my job while battling nicotine withdrawal at its full force. If any of you have quit with patches: How bad does it get when you stop using them, after however long? Was it as bad as cold turkey for you, or did the time you were on patches improve the experience somewhat? I definitely went through withdrawal symptoms when I switched from smoking to patches, so I have the small hope that maybe I can quit the patches too and the first few days won't be quite as bad with brain fog/getting the shakes/all the other fun stuff. I would appreciate any input! Have been reading the forum a bunch these past few days, and it has helped me. You guys are great!