Thinking a nicotine patch is your ticket to becoming a non smoker? Think again! Does this story sound familiar? You've smoked for some time now and are starting to get a bit worried about the damage its doing to your health.
On top of that your getting fed up with people judging you for smoking.
You really want to give up but then there's the biggest question "How to give up smoking?" You probably know that its far easier said than done and you may have even tried it yourself but failed (very few succeed).
One day though you switch on the TV and in-between programs you see an advert for a nicotine patch and they tell you how great it is.
This gets you thinking and now your getting excited because you've just found an easy way out.
If you thought that you're not alone.
You may have even experienced the next part of the story.
You go down to the local shop and by the box of patches you saw advertised and you take them home.
Your smoking days are nearly over now and you can't wait so you stick a patch on your arm thinking you'll never need a cigarette again.
But Alas! The cravings start to come.
So what do you do? Stick a load more on yourself until the cravings start to become bearable again but they never disappear completely.
After a while you begin to realise that your spending a fortune on these patches (more than the cigarettes themselves) and still not feeling any less like you need to smoke.
So you just give up trying and go back to where you were.
If you've got to the end of that story yourself you know it all to well.
Do you want to know why these so called patches have such a low success rate? Simple, the reason people continue to smoke is: The deep parts of the brain constantly tells you that you need nicotine and if you don't get it you'll start becoming stressed.
All a nicotine patch does is feed the nicotine cravings in place of a cigarette it doesn't get to the route of the problem.
You'll still be addicted to nicotine.
Another problem is that they simply aren't strong enough to make a huge difference unless you use more than one (sometimes a lot more).
Nicotine patches may increase your chances of giving up smoking but not by a huge amount and remember that they're not a quick fix.
By all means try them but don't expect them to be the holy grail.