DeadlyChicken

yeah I stopped taking the lozenges and everything. Im 3 months in and cant say I feel any better, still feeling much worse than before I quit. I don't desire to go back to smoking but its really depressing feeling so much worse 3 months into quitting. it doesn't seem to be easing at all, just slowly getting worse. More lethargic, less energy, Still feeling like I am just about to get a cold / flu every day, gums bleed so much I wake up with the taste of blood in my mouth. pretty shitty experience all said and done. Makes me feel like a lot of these posts and lists of things that are "Facts about when you quit smoking" are just made up BS written by people that never smoked in the first place ...

Thanks for posting, but I am now around 3 months quit and have never felt worse, Im scared to go to the dentist because my gums bleed so much when I brush and they never used to bleed ever. never felt more lethargic, and less healthy than I do now, its really quite depressing. My diet hasn't really changed but I am bloated and my trousers are now a squeeze to get into ( I was never overweight quite tall and lanky ) its not like I want to smoke again but its really annoying reading all these BS "things that happen when you quit smoking" pamphlets and websites which bear no relation to what actually happened for me at all. I stopped taking the Nicorette lozenges because I was hoping it was them that made my gums bleed so much when I brush, but it wasn't they just bleed all the time now, I wake up with the taste of blood in my mouth most days. Im happy for people that say they feel better and their life has turned around, but that's not whats going on for me.

Hey guys thanks for the support, I survived Christmas just using the lozenges, they are helpful but there are some side effects ( at least I hope its them having side effects ) Firstly I have never ever had issues with bleeding gums when brushing teeth, but I often wake up with the taste of blood in my mouth and a fair bit of bleeding when brushing my teeth. Also I noticed I feel quite bloated and have gas ( farts )when I last spoke to the quitline I said not to bother with the final package of lozenges and I will just see how I go when they run out. I still feel like I need some sort of replacement for smoking at times, not like I am craving a smoke but more craving some sort of habit ? I agree that I thought quitting would be harder than it has been, not that it has been easy, but I figured it would be a fair bit more difficult and I would feel more strung out than I have. One thing that has been disappointing is that I really haven't felt "better" I have actually felt mostly worse since not smoking. I felt more lethargic, and actually have felt like I am on the cusp of coming down with a cold of some sort for pretty much the entire time. My diet hasn't changed other than around 5 or 6 lozenges a day and yet I have gained about 10 kilos ? still getting the same amount of exercise .. so that's all been fairly disappointing considering all the info you read about how much better you will feel and be when you quit. Don't feel like I will slip but its been an odd journey so far.

Hi, thanks for the support, I will say if I didn't make myself clear in the opening post. that quitlline is awesome, they give you 3 months of patches and gum or lozenges for free, in three deliveries. So I have the first delivery and am thinking about just telling them to not bother with the others when it comes time ( they ring you once a week to chat about your week etc ) I think its a really good way to kick things off. And it does make you answerable to someone if you don't have anyone else at the moment to be answerable to so I found that it was one of those sort of steps you cant take back once youo taken it and helps get your head in the right space. Recommend to anyone who may have tried alone and struggled before, or who thinks that they want to try the NRT stuff but are scared of the price. 3 months should be enough to quit and not have to spend a cent. Tonight we went to a friends for a BBQ and beers … normally would have been a time that I might have smoked a lot more than normal, but didn't really crave at all. I took some lozenges with me but didn't need to pop any ( would have messed up the beers flavour ) fingers crossed. Now to see if a hangover without smoking is any better than one with smoking nn

So I called quit line and got some help to quit smokes. I wasn't a huge smoker, had cut down to between 6 - 10 a day most days but for a long time. anyway I got the patches and lozenges they send out and started using them. Had a pretty good week at first. using the patches and a few lozenges a day was making it through. One thing that I felt really helped was forgetting the patch one day about 3 days in and being so strung out that it helped me realise that the patches were helping and gave me a huge boost in confidence for the following days. The problem I have is that on the first day after applying the patch I felt like I had a pain in the bone of my arm, all day like someone gave me a really good dead arm, the next day I move the patch to mu other arm, and the pain followed. I looked it up online and found this wasn't the most uncommon thing and that my pain seemed mild compared to some of the posts. The n ext day I put the patch on the back o0f my shoulder, and from this point I had pain in my kidneys .. it started mild but after a few more days was getting quite pronounced and playing on my thoughts all the time. I decided to stop using the patches and see how I went with just the lozenges, still only using maybe 5 or 6 lozenges a day I managed to push thorough but the kidney pain persisted. I hoped it would subside, the next day it was just as bad if not worse and had not been using a patch for 2 days. So then I stopped taking the lozenges, and after a couple of days the pain had all but gone, but I was really struggling with my mood and generally ability to focus on literally anything at all, So now I am at the point where I feel like the patches and lozenges are causing side effects that I just cannot deal with, even though I could tell they were helping me with the smoking. I know some people that used those Champix tablets and basically went mental, my sister in law for one so much so that we no longer have any contact with them at all and we used to see them most weekends. I guess my only way forward is cold turkey but that's really tough on everyone and difficult with work. I feel like I need a 'something to look forward to' like how when you get home from work and can turn on your 'relax' mode I don't really drink much except occasional 'events' like a big BBQ or whatever but day to day I don't really drink at all. I've gotten some green tea with lemon which is quite nice and almost fills that hole but I guess maybe I was wondering if anyone else had experienced similar problems wioth the NRT patches and lozenges. thanks DC