Smoking Cessation Through Nicotine Replacement Therapy

Quitting cold turkey, or quitting abruptly, is one of the many ways one can quit the nasty habit of smoking. While this may be beneficial for your physical health, it’s often hard to achieve, so many people opt for nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), which weans them off of the drug gradually.

Withdrawal can be a pain for anyone quitting smoking – not only is it a pain physically, but especially mentally, and most smokers have to wait weeks before the withdrawal blues go away. When a person opts for NRT, he or she would be given cigarette alternatives like nicotine patches, sprays, gums, lozenges, or even inhalers – all with a small amount of nicotine – as a means to slowly wean the person from cigarette smoking.

While the smoker is still ingesting nicotine through the NRT, they are not ingesting the other harmful chemicals found in cigarettes, so it is a healthier option than the cigarettes themselves.

Instead, NRT is a tool for a smoker to concentrate on the psychological aspect of the addiction. Many people neglect the fact that quitting cold turkey causes withdrawal, and when most people can’t cope with withdrawal, they go back to the vice they were trying to quit in the first place.

There would still be withdrawal symptoms when someone uses NRT, but they would be very minimal as the tiny doses of nicotine are enough to satisfy most urges to smoke. When asked about why they were not able to quit, most smokers answered that simply quitting smoking did not work due to the withdrawal symptoms involved.

Be informed that NRT is not a cure-all – it hasn’t been proven to alleviate mental addiction. Its main purpose is still to lessen physical urges to smoke. There are other things a smoker or his/her family and friends can do to take care of this mental element of cigarette craving.

Replacement therapy is also a bit riskier than quitting smoking on your own, so before you give any form of NRT a try, check with your doctor to see if it would be a good idea on you or not.

If you decide to use NRT, then it should be started right when you first quit smoking. NRT and cigarette smoking don’t mix, so don’t do both at the same time. With both NRT and cigarettes supplying nicotine to your system, your smoking habit and health risks could increase drastically.

The last warning would be to beware of side effects when undergoing replacement therapy. If so, consult your doctor and try switching to a different form of NRT until you find one that suits your preferences.

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categories: Quit Smoking,Addictions,Alternative Medicine,Health and Fitness

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