Most tobacco users have some thoughts of wanting to stop even though there are usually one or more things they enjoy about using tobacco. Normally people vacillate between wanting to continue using tobacco and wanting to quit, perhaps for many years, until they finally decide that they are ready to quit.
Once that happens, it’s common for people to approach quitting with thoughts such as “Quitting cold turkey is the only way to really do this”, “it’s all in my head so I just have to do it”, or “I want to get all of the nicotine out of my body as soon as possible”.
These are all understandable thoughts. However, they could be getting in the way of achieving what you have finally decided you are ready to do…stop using tobacco!
First, it’s important to understand the health risks of tobacco versus nicotine. An easy way to remember it is that tobacco has thousands of chemicals in it, many of which are very harmful. Nicotine is one of the chemicals in tobacco. However, in a medicinal form it is really quite safe. Not only that, but using nicotine medicines such as the patch, gum, lozenge, or others has been shown to increase the chances that a tobacco user will successfully quit!
So once you have decided to stop tobacco, use all of the tools at your disposal including medications. If you had a bacterial infection you would probably take an antibiotic. If you had a headache you would probably use a pain reliever. If you are stopping tobacco, consider using the approved medications to help.
