Stop Smoking Patches

Quit Smoking Patches – Are They Good Or Bad?

Here is the bottom line — you are addicted to cigarettes.  This is due to the fact that by smoking your body and brain are used to receiving nicitine which is an addictive drug.  Now, when you are quitting smoking, your body still craves that nicotine and that is why giving up smoking is so hard — lack of nictine. 

There are many different treatments and products on the market today for people who want to give up smoking.  one of the very prevalent products is the quit smoking patch.

The quit smoking patch looks like a bandaid.  Its a self adhesive patch that is placed on the skin somewhere.  This patch contains an amount of nictine that will help you stop craving cigarettes.  This is accomplaished by the patch releasing small amounts of nicotine into the body through the skin through absorbtion. The nicotine enters the body at constant rate so that your brain does not decide that it is in need of nicotine and therefore does not tell you that its time to have a cigarette.  In this way you can avoid smoking because the cravings are gone.

The patch comes in different nictine strengths, and, as a result, you are able to wean yourself from nictine addiction slowly by reducing the amount of nicotine intake through the patch. Over time you will no longer need the patch at all, and since you no longer crave nicotine, you will no longer have the smoking addiction.

Okay, so what are the plusses and minuses to this type of treatment?  On the plus side, the nictine patch provides the body with a constant supply of nicotine and, as a result, the brain does not have to think about "needing a smoke" to stave off the cravings.  In this way, your brain slowly fogets about needing that "nicotine fix", and, after a while, you will no longer feel the need to smoke.

One the minus side, sometimes the nicotine patch can irritate the skin which can be very annoying.  The patches are also fairly expensive taken by their price alone.  However, compared to the cost of cigarettes, trading one for the other is not such a big deal especially if you smoke alot right now.

There have also been some reports of people having weird dreams if they sleep with the patch on.  However, taking the patch off to sleep really defeeat the purpose because when you wake up in the morning all you can think of is having a cigarette to get that nocotine into your body.  This will make you agitated and focused on smoking until the new patch started working again.

Now the biggest disadvantage to the quit smoking patch is that if you smoke witht eh oatch on or shortly after removing it, you could suffer a nicotine overdose which could lead to death — hardly a good result at all. For this reason you should fully understand the ramifications of smoking if you are going to try the patch to help you quit.

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[…] No, but it does mean that you could need some help and support. Whether or not that help and support comes from a trusted friend, a quit smoking support group, or a nicotine patch, it’ll be easier to quit smoking and for good. 

The Nicotine Patch

The nicotine patch is one of the oldest, and certainly best-known, medical aids to quitting smoking. Patches are placed on the skin, and work by releasing a slow and steady supply of nicotine into the bloodstream. […]