Hi all. Sorry I have not been on here. I messed up my quits so many times that I was kind of embarassed to keep coming on here, but I am now on day 11, which is the longest I've made it in a very long time. I started on the patches (21 mg) a little over 3 weeks ago and made it 4.5 days two different times but then relapsed for a couple days, so I reset my quit date, but in reality, I've only smoked a few days in the past 3.5 weeks and not at all for the past 11 days. I don't want to relapse anymore.
The patches made it so I had zero physical withdrawal symptoms, but every day I wore one, I got a headache in the afternoon, and I'd need to take my migraine medicine, which I'm not really supposed to take every day and they only give me 9/month. I was wearing a patch and also chewing 2-3 pieces of 4 mg gum every day. It was also giving me super vivid, bad dreams that left me feeling very unsettled, despite taking it off before bed. I haven't worn a patch since Saturday and am now just using gum. So far, I haven't had a headache in 2 days, so I'm hoping it was just the patch.
I felt no withdrawal the first day without a patch or the second day during the day, but starting last night at bedtime, I noticed more anxiety, probably because I'm not using enough gum? I think I only had 4 or 5 pieces yesterday, so that means i was only getting about 8-10 mg nicotine, whereas before, I was probably getting 18-19 mg per day since I took it off at night. I'm wondering if I should try a lower dose patch? It worked so well other than the headaches and crazy dreams. I feel like I was getting too much nicotine, even though I smoked about 22-23 cigarettes a day, so I was going according to the directions.
Anyone else have headaches from the patch and find success lowering the dose or just switching to gum? I have the 14 mg patches on hand that I got for free from the state quitline.
I've had an insane amount of stress the past 10 days--car's oil light came on and I thought my car's engine might be ruined (it's still at the mechanic), my cat had health issues, I had health issues myself, huge fight with boyfriend last weekend and possibly breaking up. But I didn't smoke after any of it.
