What does 12 weeks or 6 months or forever on nicotine after you've quit smoking really guarantee?
Not a whole lot.
You are still closer to smoking by using it than someone who has worked their way out from under it.
WHY?
That old cigarette delivery system was the quickest way to your brain.
and you know it!
If you are still thinking nicotine is the only reason you smoke?
Nicotine is what keeps you coming back before you stop using it but, it is half the reason we smoke. Actually, I consider nicotine 10% of the reason that drives people back to smoking. IMO, Unlearning smoking is 90% of final success.
The problem is the ritual has taken over our lives.
That ritual lodged in our routine is what makes people who haven't yet attained 4-6 months quit go back. They haven't turned their thinking away from smoking as yet, and actually most of us haven't at that stage.
So, how do you know if or how to get off nicotine?
You can't if you don't test yourself a little bit.
If you forget to use your patch, or you forget to take your nicotine with you, you test yourself and you make an informed decision by listening to your body. Nothing's keeping you from doing what you were doing if you're still uncomfortable but, how else are you going to know?
I'm not telling you to get off your nicotine, I'm telling you how to.
Dale, today is my last day on the (lowest) patch, so tomorrow I will be nicotine-free for the first time in years. What you are saying is right. I had quit smoking for 26 months, starting in April of 2011. But, being the closet smoker that I was, I had used nicotine gum, and never stopped chewing it. It was so easy to have that first cigarette again when my father died five years ago. My old stress reliever. It was a habit, pattern that I had never really shed myself of. And I continued smoking for another 5+ years! Here's hoping I have learned that I am a nicotine addict who can never again consume that drug, either by smoking, vaping, or chewing the nic gum. Thanks!
Dave
41 DOF