For The NRT Users

Hey Everyone,Herbal cigarettes, I was just reading some of the concerns about stepping down with the patch and wondering if it is going to get harder or make the craves more intense. I would say to try and not to worry so much about this. A lot of times the anticipation of an event and the wall of fear we build up to that event is actually a lot worse than the actual experience. If we keep this wall of fear built up, it makes it a lot harder to tear down when the event does happen. In this case,smoking cessation, stepping down the patches. What this can do is create a self induced anxiety. This can make the event much worse than it would originally be. Just to share my experience of fear of this. The first 2 days of my quit, I was on the 21 mg. patch. I was actually going to give up and buy cigarettes on my 2nd day. I was literally on my way to the store while at work, when I asked the shipping guy if I could use his computer. I wanted to get on the internet to maybe try and find something that might be able to help me try to quit in the future. I think I was actually doing this to relieve the guilt I was having for giving up my quit. I stumbled upon WhyQuit.com and ended up reading my whole lunch hour. I didn't go get those cigarettes. Happily I have never smoked a cigarette since. That was 2 years and 5 months ago. I did do something that day though tha did scare me. I took off the patch. I went home that night and threw the rest of my patches away. This made me a bit scared, because I thought to myself that I was having a hard time with the patches, how hard was it going to be without them? I was anticipating bad things to happen and anticipated having horrible craves. I had visions of me withering on the ground, going through horrible detox. To my amazement. I didn't feel too much different. Sure it felt a bit more intense, but I think with the reading I was doing at WhyQuit.com, it was teaching me what to expect and helping me to tear down that wall of fear I had. After a few days though, it started to go away. I think that we all have had these horrible thoughts in our head about what quitting smoking is all about. I think that they tend to fuel a fear and it is more the fear that makes it hard to quit. When we first quit, we get a crave. Well when we smoked we would just put a stop to the crave by smoking. Now when we first quit though, we have a crave and now we say Oh my God, I'm having a crave and now I can't put a stop to it. This tends to fuel the crave, because we are also creating an anxiety on top of a crave. Understand though, a crave is just a heightened anxiety and an empty feeling. An itch so to speak. It is really the fear of not being able to scratch that itch that seems to make it so hard. The craves won't hurt you. They don't cause pain and they will pass whether you smoke or not. Remember though. Craves do not last forever. The only people who have craves forever are people who do not quit smoking. I guess what I'm trying to get at is don't let the anticipation of the event fuel your fear. When you release the fear, it will make things so much easier for you. When you step down to a lower dosage, try not to worry about it. Enjoy the fact that you are freeing yourself!Eric Enjoy the fact that you no longer have to smoke anymore.