tried to quit with nic patch and 1 wasn't enough.....WTF??!!!

[siggywiggy]

I am what you call an expert quitter. I have quit smoking so many times it's ridiculous. Everytime I quit I used the nicotine patch. For me 1 full patch COMPLETELY took care of my physical addiction letting me focus on the psychological part (which is obviously just as hard).

Well I had a bad cough over the weekend so I decided to quit my e-cigs for a few days.

I put a patch on and believe it or not I STILL felt some of those familiar withdrawal symptoms. They didn't go completely away until I put a patch and a half on!!!!!! Felt like I could have used even a teeny bit more (patch and 3/4) but just couldn't bring myself to put that much patch on.

This means that my body is getting almost TWICE the nicotine that it was getting with analogues.

For the record I'm smoking 18 mg liquid (sometimes 11 mg).

 

[trog100]

how much 18 mg are u smoking.. its is relevant..

psychological part which is obviously just as hard

i would have to disagree with your quoted statement as well... i dont think it is..

only if u were a very very light smoker..



trog

 

[Sun Vaporer]

I smoked Carlton for years--that is .1 mg per cigarette. The FDA states that you need to inhale 5mg a day to become addicted to nicotine. That is the equal to 50 cigarettes or 2 and a half packs a day. I was good for 30 a day or 3 mg. well below the minimum threshold for addiction. So the psychological part plays a Big Role--either that or there is something else in cigarettes that are just as addictive as nicotine--Sun

 

[siggywiggy]

It's hard to say how much I vape because I don't count, but I do put it down for periods (force myself not to pick it up until I crave it). I do smoke alot though (more than analogues for sure!).

Not sure how you can disagree with my statement. If you put enough patch on that you don't crave nicotine physically, then why is it still hard as hell to not smoke after a meal or coffee or at your computer or during a smoke break, etc.? Because you are psychologically addicted to them as much as you are physically.

In any case, even if you are right my point is that taking in that much nicotine is F'ed up in my opinion!

 

[Sun Vaporer]

It's hard to say how much I vape because I don't count, but I do put it down for periods (force myself not to pick it up until I crave it). I do smoke alot though (more than analogues for sure!).

Not sure how you can disagree with my statement. If you put enough patch on that you don't crave nicotine physically, then why is it still hard as hell to not smoke after a meal or coffee or at your computer or during a smoke break, etc.? Because you are psychologically addicted to them as much as you are physically.

In any case, even if you are right my point is that taking in that much nicotine is F'ed up in my opinion!

Not yours Siggy--this statment is true:

psychological part which is obviously just as hard

And this one I can not concur with this statment below at all:


"i would have to disagree with your quoted statement as well... i dont think it is.." only if u were a very very light smoker.."

That is just not a viable statment--Sun

 

[New Year quitter]

Not yours Siggy--this statment is true:

psychological part which is obviously just as hard

And this one I can not concur with this statment below at all:


"i would have to disagree with your quoted statement as well... i dont think it is.." only if u were a very very light smoker.."

That is just not a viable statment--Sun

You are all joking, I take it? The physical side is NOTHING, the psychological part is 1000 times harder. Literally.

 

[surbitonPete]

It would be easy to answer if we were all the same........whenever I tried patches or gum they didn't do a thing for me.....I would still give in and smoke a cigarette with a patch on!!

 

[trog100]

if we believe something is real it is real.. splitting reality away from perceived reality is impossible..

i think i suffer from drug addiction.. i dont think i have a placebo problem.. its the drug i need not some hand to mouth fetish..

but perhaps others need different things.. the human mind is a funny thing.. quite how mine works has always puzzled me... he he

but i would go for 90% drug addiction 10% hand to mouth thing.. but i dont have any way of measuring this..

trog

ps... the other important thing is what it is we are trying to escape from... nicotine usage or tobacco usage.. i dont have a problem with nicotine usage just burning leaves and paper to get it..

 

[Cage]

Life doesn't change because you decide to slap on a patch...

Take birth control for example.
My Aunt and Uncle used condoms, sponges, an IUD and a birth control patch all at the same time.
The baby was born... wearing armor.

We ARE all different. You can flood the market with nicotine delivery sytems but they won't work, for me. I'm addicted to the experience... and I LOVE it.

 

[booboo]

This means that my body is getting almost TWICE the nicotine that it was getting with analogues.

Yeah, I got my first ecig almost 2 years ago, when I'd been a pack a day smoker for 18 years. It went great until my batteries died and I had to wait 2 weeks for new ones from China. So I went back and forth for a while cuz I couldn't trust the ecigs to be there for me. Anyway, I ended up back on analogs for the last year, but instead of one pack, I moved up to 2 packs and more a day for the last year. This unlimited access to nicotine definitely bumps up your tolerance. Now I'm just vaping 5 carts a day, which I think is a litlle excessive!8-o

 

[aasupplyny]

Wow that sounds bad. Anything more than 1 patch used to give me headaches.
Weird thing is.. when I first start vaping... I would get a headache if I did it too much.
Now I vape all day constantly and I don't feel a thing... Not even a little headrush. Nicotine tolerance obviously going up right? But, if I smoke 1 real cig... I still get a rush.. that feeling you get when you haven't smoked all day. (I'm smoking 11mg liquid)

 

[Kate]

I think tolerance and dependence varies a lot between individuals, the smoking rush might also be because of the other chemicals or lack of oxygen to the brain.

The habit of smoking is stronger for me than the nicotine need. If I had to choose between nicotine via gum or 'smoking' without nicotine I would choose to 'smoke'. If we were just addicted to nicotine then swapping to NRT would be as good as smoking.

 

[TropicalBob]

You are so right. There are many ways to get nicotine -- yet virtually none of them have a success rate above about 4 percent. Why? None can duplicate the smoking experience. Smokers want that!

Interesting choice, Kate. I'd make the same decision as you. Fact is, I can dump nicotine from my body in a few days of non-use; I'm "over" the addiction at that time; but I've never been able to replace the pleasure I got from cigarettes by using any nicotine substitute.

It's something else, for sure. Even with e-cigs and massive vapor, something is missing.

 

[trog100]

I think tolerance and dependence varies a lot between individuals, the smoking rush might also be because of the other chemicals or lack of oxygen to the brain.

The habit of smoking is stronger for me than the nicotine need. If I had to choose between nicotine via gum or 'smoking' without nicotine I would choose to 'smoke'. If we were just addicted to nicotine then swapping to NRT would be as good as smoking.

we have done kate.. we just dont dare call it that..

nrt is designed to get people off nicotine.. official nrt stuff.. patches inhalers whatever have just enough nicotine to help wean someone off the real thng..

okay some get addicted to them but that is not the intention..

its this way because the UK medical profession and the government dont want to legitimize other addictive products..

they are also prohibitively expensive.. or at least they would be if anyone tried to use them to get real doses of nictone..

i think we need to define what a real nicotine addict is.. fifty roll ups a day or five ultra lights.. in a real world where folks havnt been scared half to death with anti smoking propaganda five ultra lights a day would not even be considered a risk and there would be no need to even bother trying to give up..

where do we start from.. the propaganda terrified folk or the folks with a real nicotine addiction and real health risk..

okay both types need help.. but it really is a totally different kind of help..

now i am gonna be really honest... when someone tries to tell me i have been coughing myself to death purely because i have a hand to mouth fetish they really are gonna piss me off big time..

trog

ps.. i think US nrt might be stronger than UK nrt..

 

[LaceyUnderall]

But one thing is for sure for me, that even when I did use the patch, and after the last two weeks without nicotine, what drew me back to the cigarette was the hand to mouth... the action... the going outside for a smoke... the taking time to enjoy something totally selfish. For me, it is the action. The nicotine helps with my mental alertness and moodiness. I also know this from quitting as many times as I have. What's wrong with a little nicotine to cure the blues vs getting a pharmaceutical grade death pill that knocks you out enough that driving a car is dangerous?

So with the e-cig... I can basically say "Screw it! I quit trying to Quit smoking. I am a smoker". I will say one thing for Marion's video, she did hit it right on when she started talking about the love of the experience for some of us.

I will give a lovey smilie for smoking too

 

[Kate]

... i think we need to define what a real nicotine addict is.. fifty roll ups a day or five ultra lights ...

You're thinking in terms of quitting smoking, not quitting nicotine. What some of us are trying to say is that for us quitting smoking is harder than quitting nicotine.

Smoking is a way to deliver nicotine but that's not all it is, if nicotine was the only thing addictive then other delivery methods with comparable doses would be perfectly acceptable. Why smoke when you can get clean nicotine another way? Why the inhalation of chemicals if you just need nicotine?

 

[trog100]

okay just my point of view.. after forty odd years of smoking... i hate the f-cking habit... piled up smelly ash trays.. holes in my bloody new shirts.. ... burns in my furniture...

to be honest there really is nothing good to be said about the habit.. its a dirty messy habit.. now its a status lowering habit.. i have spent forty bloody years doing it for one simple reason.. i am addicted to bloody nicotine..

miss it jeesh.. i hate it...

now if my "habit" was a nice gentile five ultra lights a day i might think differently..

trog

 

[rejoice]

Those patches give me nightmares! Sleep hard to find too. I still wanted a cigarette and I would rip that patch off and smoke LOL. I found out that I couldn't do it. I used to sit and try to figure out another way to quit and at the time there was NOT any. I would get online and search for new stop smoking stuff. Spend alot of money on things that did not work. Got the herbal pills, etc. That I how I found out about the e-cig. I am still smoking right now ,but slowly cutting down on analogs. I hope real soon to be able to only vap.

 

[surbitonPete]

I think NRT didn't do anything for me because it isn't the 'amount' of nicotine in my body that I want...........it's the sudden 'shock' of nicotine hitting my brain that gives me the pleasure and inhalation is the only method that can possibly put the nicotine into the blood supply to the brain quickly enough to make it work as a sudden shock...the body rids itself of nicotine quite fast and I think that's how the brain is soon ready to enjoy it's next 'shock'...I have been doing what Kate suggested and vaping almost no nic for an hour or two and then giving myself a 'shock' of high......and it seems to work quite well for me. I can get the 'hit' from it that way.

 

[Kate]

It's good to hear that you are finding that method more satisfying Pete. It makes a lot more sense to me to have occasional spikes for effect than to build tolerance with a steady dose.