When I first started thinking about quitting smoking, I asked coworkers and acquaintances who were former smokers how they did it. I'm sure you have too. We all wanted to but yet were afraid to take that plunge. The stories I got was I just quit one day and never went back. Oh, I cut down gradually and then just stopped. Now keep in mind that was 30 years ago and the patch wasn't even thought of then. It was invented in 1984.
I remember when I first got my sample from the doctor's office back in the late '80s and did try it then. But back then, I just assumed it would take all the symptoms away and I would feel just fine and not smoke anymore. I didn't know anything about addiction. I never read anything about addiction. I was just told that they would help me quit. This will make you stop smoking. True, it helped with making the cravings more tolerable. But it didn't make me stop. I made me stop.
Quitting smoking is an individual thing. You need to find which one will work for you. You don't magically quit overnight. It take knowledge, willpower, determination, and the willingness to fight through it no matter what it takes. Some people are serial quitters. They will go for 30 to 6 months and go right back to it for as many times as it takes until they finally sit back and realize what made them go back. Could it be a death, a life event, i.e. anniversary, birthday, holiday. Could be a season. Some type of memory or emotion that triggers them every single time to reach out to something that they convinced themselves was the eternal Band-Aid that made everything all right in the universe again.
Please don't keep searching for your individuality in this life changing task. My old motto used to be, well, I have to die of something it might as well be this or I only have one vice in this world so let me alone. Craziness.... I'm telling ya crazinesss. Why in the heck I chose to have something that was taking my breathe away, giving me daily headaches, robbing me of the sweet smells of the earth that god gave me is unfathonable, unbelieveable.
Again, read up on nicotine and your body. Read up on No Man's Land. Read up on Relapse Traps. Read up on Why People Smoke. Read up on What is your biggest trigger. We all started smoking for a reason. We all kept smoking for a reason. We are now quitting for a reason. There really is no right or wrong way to do this. You just simply have to find YOUR way.
