There are two parts to this addiction. There is the physical (nicotine) and the psychological (all those triggers and associations you built up over the time you smoked). The nicotine is out of your body in about three days (as long as you don't reintroduce it), then it's a couple of weeks for your body to adjust to life without it. It affects mood, digestion, brain function, nerves, etc.
The idea behind the patch is that you wear it (all the time) and get a steady dose of nicotine to reduce the physical cravings and your body's adjustment while you deal with the psychological aspects - learning to deal with the morning routine, stress, sadness, boredom, hunger, sleepiness. You are doing yourself a disservice by taking the patch on and off - it takes a bit for it to build up in your system and give you relief from the physical cravings for the drug.
You have two choices here - either cold turkey (we call it Smart Turkey) where you just leave it off - period - and deal with the physical cravings for three days, or leave it on while you learn to deal with the other aspects.
I hope this answers your question?
Nancy
