Nicotine dependency is a true drug addiction, which progressively takes hold. Realization is often gradual. If you have decided to stop, you should be prepared to face withdrawal symptoms since your body is nicotine dependent.

Smokers can be dependent in 2 manners:

• Psychological dependency, characterized by the pleasure to smoke, taste for tobacco, smoking is regarded as a way to communicate more easily with others; it is strongly linked to rituals, habits and gesture.
• Physical dependency characterized by the irrepressible urge to smoke (directly related to nicotine’s mechanism of action at brain level) and by the fact that the smoker is addicted and suffers from withdrawal symptoms if he/she longer smokes. These disorders appear below the “withdrawal threshold”: they include irritability, anxiety, concentration difficulties, sleepiness, hunger.

The first thing to do is therefore to assess your physical dependency (or nicotine dependency) through a specific test (Fagerström test), and possibly your behavioural and psychological dependency; you will then eliminate withdrawal symptoms induced by physical dependency by using nicotine replacement therapies (such as Nicopatch® or Nicopass®).

Successful cessation isn’t only due to willpower; it’s also about choosing the right method. If you fail, it doesn’t mean you are “weak”, but rather that you don’t hold all the cards. Browse through this site, inform yourself, talk to your doctor or pharmacist.

Ask for help: you too can do it!