FYI on those thinking about Nicotine Replacement Therapy...Does it Work? Is it Tolerated here? QA
...and we do not tolerate Nicotine Replacement Therapy."
No Sir, we do NOT! Coming from someone who tried Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT), I am here to tell you that it works very well...at making you keep using nicotine. If you want to continue dipping, please, by all means, go for some NRT. You'll be back on the dip quicker than the Browns losing a football game (that one was for you, Jamie). In my opinion, which is shared by quite a few others on this site, the tobacco companies want you to try to quit using NRT. Hell, they even sponsor those commercials for Nicoderm CQ, Nicorette, and the like. Why? Simple. It's because they know you'll eventually say "To Hell with this" and return back to your old habit of choice (i.e. smoking, dipping). It's a win/win for them. As a guy who went to Business School, I'd say it's a great plan! If I was the CEO of Phillip Morris (they own many cigarette brands, including Marlboro), I'd invest money in a company making NRTs. It's simple: you temporarily transfer a segment of your customers to another subsidiary company and grab some more cash from them before they return to your primary enterprise, so you get 'em coming AND going!
For all of you quantitative folks like me, let's talk numbers. A quick Google search will yield the cold, hard truth on NRTs: they don't work. At least not for most people.
http://www.tobaccofree.org/quitlinks.htm If you check out that link, you'll see the results of a study done on NRTs. 23% of participants initially were successful in quitting using NRTs, but only 15% were still quitters at the one-year mark. Sounds pretty solid to me. Think of what a 15% success rate means. 85 out of 100 people were not successful in permanently quitting using NRTs. Imagine if birth control was only 15% effective? Now, I didn't do my due diligence and verify the validity of this study, but here's another one done by Harvard:
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press- ... therapies/ . We also don't know what they considered a success. Was not returning to tobacco and simply remaining dependent on nicotine through NRTs a success? You get the gist.
For those who don't like numbers, how about a personal story for you? I tried the patch, the gum, and the lozenges. Each time, I either still dipped or came right back to it, full force. It didn't work for me, and it very likely won't work for you (see last paragraph). It wasn't until I found this site that I was successful in quitting. You don't need NRTs. You need a support network, accountability, and most importantly, the will to quit. If you have those, you stand a good chance at making it.
SeanK-Day 114