How to Stop Smoking With the Patch or Gum

Quitting smoking is a very difficult task. Nicotine and cigarettes are highly habit-forming. The key to using quitting aids like the patch and nicotine gum is to fight cravings and break habits that have been formed over the years.

Instructions

• 1

  Apply the patch at the beginning of your day or whenever you traditionally have your first cigarette of the day. The patch will release nicotine into your system to help satiate your desires. Some people retain the desire to smoke despite the nicotine being released into the body while wearing the patch. If this happens and you cannot control your cravings, switch to the gum.

• 2

  Chew nicotine gum when you have a craving. It is not a good idea to chew the gum while wearing the patch, so make sure you don't mix the two together. The benefit of the gum is that it is taken orally, which can help with break the habit formed by extended cigarette smoking.

• 3

  Chew nicotine gum at the times when you normally would have a cigarette. Doing so will begin to reform the pattern of the habit until the nicotine is no longer needed.

• 4

  Do not chew the gum consistently as you would a normal stick. Instead, take a few chews at a time--to replace the sensation of a "hit" of nicotine--then keep the gum in your mouth for a time, chewing again when you have your next craving.

• 5

  Quit the gum and/or the patch. Like methadone to heroin, nicotine gum and patches only replace the addiction. If you are chewing nicotine gum, begin to swap it for normal gum and again wean yourself off the amount of nicotine you are taking in. Continue doing this gradually until you are chewing only normal gum.