Nicotine Patch Help?

[Deep C]

Sick of smoking... Lifetime of it has sucked and its starting to catch up with me in various forms. Anyway... Started on a patch yesterday...
Cravings are down somewhat thats a good thing but side effects seem to be there. When I have tried to quit before I have found myself suddenly going "off'. This patch though has my head spinning. Hell, I went on an hours long cleaning spree. Tons of nervous energy can best describe it. ADD if you will?
Flipped and flopped in bed on and off sleep. Chest pounding type stuff. Felt a strange feeling in my upper jaw. Realized I had been grinding my "teeth" and somehow peeled the gum back from one of the upper bone grafts/ implant in my jaw.
Instead of driving to airport and trying to catch a last minute flight up to the rally I decided to skip it and go get seen by my dentist. Bottom line there was he wasn't terribly concerned and dropped a couple stitches. Driving there and back was an issue though. Its like I'm there one second then the next don't remember the minute before. Not safe and came straight home.

Have any of you been on the patch to quit smoking and had this type stuff happen? Does it get better? I want to quit in the worst way and this seems to be helping quite a bit. Kicking 35 years of bad habit I know isn't gonna be easy. I have failed so many times before. Just concerned about these side effects. If they're normal, I guess I will continue especially if it helps me shed the cowboy killers.

[Tuna Tyme]

Deep, Been there dont that. When I stopped I was on Wellbutrin and the Patch. Yes I went through everything you are talking about and more. I had to take the patch off me so I could get some good sleep at night, made my dreams crazy!!
I stuck with it and after a week it got better and then a month, I finished the patch the pills and that was 8 years ago and haven't touched a cig since then, shit I fell off the wagon twice,smoked a lefthander from time to time but have NEVER touched a cig. Those things are freaken nasty, the smell makes me sick and I payed for a 25' Cat boat with what I was spending on them. So hang in there and kick those nasty ass things before they Kill you.

Dave

[Deep C]

So the"not being there" gets better? Right now I'm pretty non functional...

[striper swiper]

I used Zyban (Wellbutrin) For me getting in the car was the hardest thing. I ended up quitting drinking as well because with a couple frosty's I wanted a choke stick badly. I have not had a single cigarette since. I had gone cold turkey for over a year 2 times before.
Find out what your triggers are and stay away as much as possible for the first 21 days. 21days is the magic number to form a habit as well as break a habit. It's hard to do the first couple weeks after that it gets much easier.
Deep don't think of it as non-functional. Think of it as a huge positive. You won't contaminate baits with nasty scent. Your clothes will smell better as well as the inside of your vehicle. One thing to do with your hands that I did. get a note pad you can put in a pocket with a writing utensil. Start logging everything you do so you can see what stress factors cause cravings. It will occupy you hands and help prevent destructive actions.
If you start to feel anxious Take 5 deep breaths inhaling through the nose and exhaling as much and as slowly as you can. Do this slowly and that will also help calm you down
Best of luck it is beatable every other former smoker did it so can you

[Deep C]

A lot of similarities to when I quit drinking as far as staying busy. Hell I filled three notebooks with thoughts while getting through that. There I went cold turnkey and had life threatening DT's. This smoking thing has been a different kind of tough though.

Cold turkey that I've tried before with smokes had me in complete and utter psychotic fits. Painful cravings then going off on inanimate objects. Beating a chair to death really had me scared... Really quitting several things at once is what it amounts to.
Gotta quit the smoking habit part then gotta beat the nicotine addiction. With marlboros maybe more physical addictions too. I'm hoping with this patch to beat the smoking part first then tackle the nicotine instead of trying to kill it all at once.

One huge trigger I'm worried about is when I'm running the big boat. I can manage fine fishing without smoking. But running has always been a terrible place where I am wound up and light up...

[blackwell50]

A lot of similarities to when I quit drinking as far as staying busy. Hell I filled three notebooks with thoughts while getting through that. There I went cold turnkey and had life threatening DT's. This smoking thing has been a different kind of tough though.

Cold turkey that I've tried before with smokes had me in complete and utter psychotic fits. Painful cravings then going off on inanimate objects. Beating a chair to death really had me scared... Really quitting several things at once is what it amounts to.
Gotta quit the smoking habit part then gotta beat the nicotine addiction. With marlboros maybe more physical addictions too. I'm hoping with this patch to beat the smoking part first then tackle the nicotine instead of trying to kill it all at once.

One huge trigger I'm worried about is when I'm running the big boat. I can manage fine fishing without smoking. But running has always been a terrible place where I am wound up and light up...

those long hours at the helm running home or to my next destination is what got me back on them.Of course being in Costa Rica and having way to much rum every night didnt help either.

[Deep C]

Man! I had to go to the boat for a while. Took three tries to leave with that "did I lock the doors? Did I turn off the coffee pot? " syndrome.
Good thing I went. We're having some ugly weather here today. Had a buffing crew on there yesterday. They did a nice job but there was fibers from the buffing wheels that had gathered over the scupper drains. Also when they turned their power off they turned it off to the boat too. Not the end of the world but glad I caught it now...
Leaving the boat was the same multi tries. "Did I turn the hose off, did I turn the power on, did I put this or that away?"
Tried to watch or listen to the rally and for the most part was able to follow. Lights on and off though sometimes. Not near as bad as this morning though. Bad news is that I have had a couple smokes today. Good news is that I didn't have the outher 18 or so that I normally would have...

[B Cartlidge]

Good luck with it Deep. Quitting any habit is tough and I wish you success. I have not had a chew in 48 days. It will only get better for you as each day passes.

Brian
Pez Machine Sportfishing
www.pezmachine.com

[000's]

Hang on Deep I know what you are going through.It does get better.I quit last october.Try only half patch at knight,it helped on the crazy dreams some,whats that all about anyway?

[Deep C]

Took the patch off way late in the night. Finally got some broken sleep but woke up craving too bad to stand. Had one then patch went back on. Starting to see some of the "outburst shit" I had when trying cold turkey. Just broke stuff on an old 6/0 instead of just being gentle and turning the screwdriver like I should.