Trying to Quit Smoking with Nicotine Patch

Today is my first day and I’m kind of annoyed that the patch’s edges are folding away from the skin on my arm. I feel different. Perhaps it’s just my mood. It could be placebo but I’m sensitive to medications. So far no extreme urges to smoke, just casual thoughts. I think I can do this.

I’m on step 1 (21 mg/ day) and in four weeks I’ll step down to step 2 (14 mg/day). It’s expensive but worth it. I’m tired of feeling a lack of drive/energy and wasted time smoking every 30 minutes or so. If you do the math, that’s like 200 minutes (3 hours and 20 minutes) wasted everyday (20*10minutes). I could be doing something productive! I’m hoping my attention and energy will improve and that I could work when I quit (because you can’t take a 10 minute smoke break every 20-30 minutes).

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Good for you for quitting smoking. Glad the patches are working for you.

A tip for when the patches peel away at the edges is to apply some sticky surgical tape around the perimeter. Remember to alternate the sites at which you apply your patches.

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Stick with it man. It only gets easier.

There are all kinds of reasons to quit.

What really did it for me, was envisioning myself actually being able to focus for long periods of time (for work and school). It’s a lot more relaxing once you get past the cravings and habit. You don’t have to run around to keep up with your nicotine intake.

Good luck. Sounds like you’ve got a plan.

Well, I am on the patch, the 14mg patch, but mine is walgreens brand and it stays on like glue. I even sweat and have swam with it on and it stayed on. But anyways, here is a tip; if you wake up in the middle of the night to smoke, wear the patch to bed. If you do not do this, then do not wear the damn thing to bed, because it most often causes nightmares and makes people wake up in the middle of the night really agitated. No one enjoys waking up at 5am or 1am from vivid nightmares and be too agitated to go back to sleep.

And yeah, since I quit smoking, I have rebuilt my cardio to an extent- I can run three miles, which is not bad, at least that is what I tell myself.

I would smoke to stay…how do I put it…mentally acute…to increase mental acuity…i.e. make me sharper during busy days doing school crap, and lifting weights. It is no fun to be a slave to tobacco and spend that much time outside quickly smoking cigs just to feel normal. I used to do that and I am glad that is over.

I suggest you find a new high, because tobacco is a high…it is a drug, as addictive as heroin…like I am not even kidding, that is a fact.

I exercised excessively when I quit to compensate for being irritable and also for something to do.

One thing to be aware of is that nicotine is a pretty solid CNS (central nervous system…like your brain and spinal cord…) stimulant. Quitting a stimulant is not fun. Period…that is why I still wear the medium strength patch during the day. I went off the patch and my mind unraveled. I could not think clearly.

No nicotine is best for general health concerns. However, studies have shown that we people with scz actually benefit from nicotine. It helps our symptoms, especially difficulty concentrating and sedation. I am not making this up.

I am a student, so I cannot afford to risk not thinking clearly, specifically, I cannot lose any more of my cognitive performance because I do perform cognitively. I think that much is evident by the crap I just recited from what I have learned in my studies.

Good luck! I’m sure you can do this. I used to smoke 4 cigarettes on empty stomach with coffee as soon as I woke up but I also quit with a patch. I wore the medium strength patch for maybe 3 weeks and I felt like I no longer needed it and I quit just like that. I’ve been smoking since I was 17. Eight years in total. Anyway, I had a relapse whenI quit smoking, even on med. I hope you can do this safely.

What? How? It would seem you’ve come a long way since then.

Lol :blush: I had a weakness for cigarettes. I still have coffee in the mornings. I eat a banana at 11. I’ve just never been a morning person. I need my coffee. If cigarettes weren’t so bad I would go back to smoking. It’s also really expensive over here, cheapest is 8$ or 12$ The main reason that motivated me to quit was the wrinkles at 40.

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Yeah I could never quit cigs until I replaced them with pipe tobacco. There is something else to the cigarettes.

I typically wake up stressed with psychosis(voices telepathy obsessive thinking). They say cortisol is raised when you wake up. It takes about a half hour to unwind before things level out. Least favorite part of the day.

I’m not going back to smoking. I was so hooked I could barely get anything done.

Good for you! So happy for you. Honestly I’m trilled that I quit. I don’t like to stink and have yellow teeth. I bought new shoes with cigarette money! You could save your cigarette money and buy something you really like in a month. I used to smoke davidoff slim in Beirut, it was 1.5$

I was getting my tobacco for free :sunglasses:

So no savings there. Savings my life I guess. I have to quit drinking alcohol and or coffee if I really want to save.

I don’t know I could probably get a job soon, money wouldn’t be an issue at all if I did.

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I just don’t want to work in the food or delivery industry.

Wow free tobacco and you quit! :+1:t2: I make a lot of money but I don’t normally spend 500$ on a pair of heels. Anyway, I have a lot of bills and will look into getting a full time job in november. What is the disability pension that people on here talk about? Do you know?

It probably varies from country to country as what its called but it seems like a common program.

Here they call it disability benefits. It is very similar to retirement benefits. We even get on medicare(which is terrible insurance).

The amount is about 1000 dollars a month on average. You can work and earn up to 1000$ more without losing benefits. It’s a good program, but doesn’t afford a life of luxury.

Damn… You better get your use out of them.

Lol. Fashion enthusiasts would understand. Thanks for the info. I’m gonna look into it. My doc never mentioned it to me when I couldn’t function.

The application process isn’t that bad. You have to have documentation of your medical history. Doctor names, dates, meds, all that. At least for social security.

My next big purchase is a top of the line graphics card and that only runs 330$.(Probably won’t replace it for 5 years)

Suffer for fashion, or whatever:

My brother who is 28 also asked me to buy him a graphics card: Msi gtx 970 gaming 4gb

Well if he’s sold on Nvidia then that’s a good option.

I was looking at AMD 390 hmmm forget which manufacturer. That card comes with 8 gig memory as a standard. It’ll play any of the console ports that release in the next 7 years with ease.

the 970 might still be the best when it comes to price/performance. (I just don’t like nvidia)

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu_value.html

I donno. He plays a game world of tanks or something. I was never into this stuff.

You gonna buy it for him? (Maybe I should hit my sister up lol)