Quitting smoking has been a nearly lifelong battle for me, as I have smoked 13 out of the 30 years I’ve been alive. Recently, I decided it was finally time for me to quit smoking and I embarked on my tenth serious smoking cessation attempt to date. I spoke with my doctor before I quit smoking, and she told me that she highly recommended using the nicotine patch in conjunction with another nicotine replacement therapy. I had tried Chantix and Wellbutrin before, however these drugs gave me serious psychiatric side effects. I took my doctor’s advice, and decided to use the nicotine patch along with the nicotine nasal spray.
The nicotine patch provides a base level of nicotine to your bloodstream, effectively eliminating any uncomfortable nicotine withdrawal symptoms. My doctor recommended a supplement to the patches to deal with those sudden, strong urges to smoke a cigarette. So, I requested a free 28-day supply of the nicotine patches from the Maryland Tobacco Quitline, and the patches arrived shortly thereafter. When the patches showed up less than a week later, I noticed they were generic, “Habitrol” patches and not the name-brand Nicoderm CQ patches I was expecting. Regardless, I had my patches in hand and I was ready to quit smoking.
When my quit date arrived, I applied the store-brand nicotine patch to my skin as directed, but I was surprised to find that within a few hours, the nicotine patch was not sticking to my skin very well and the adhesive around the edges of the patch had failed. Just by running my finger over the patch, I was able to lift the edges, and on some days, the patch would fall off of my skin altogether.
After a few days of using the Habitrol generic nicotine patch, I realized that the adhesive on the patch was not very high-quality. I needed a patch that would stick to my skin better than the store-brand one, so I decided to invest in a box of the name-brand nicotine patch, Nicoderm CQ Clear. The first time I applied a Nicoderm CQ Clear patch, I could tell it was very different.
The Nicoderm patch seemed to have a stronger adhesive, and it immediately clung to my skin without much pressure unlike what I had experienced with the store-brand nicotine patches. As the day went on, I noticed that the Nicoderm patch was not coming loose around the edges. This was a nice change of pace for me. I found that the Nicoderm CQ patch could securely stick to my skin throughout the day whereas the generic patch would definitely be falling off by the end of the day.
I am four-weeks into my smoking cessation attempt, and I am very pleased with my decision to invest in name-brand nicotine patches. It is important to use nicotine replacement therapies at the recommended doses in order for them to be effective. I found that it was much easier to use the Nicoderm CQ patches as opposed to the Habitrol ones. In the end, I would recommend that any smoker ready to make a serious quit attempt invest in the Nicoderm patches-you will save yourself a lot of time and frustration by choosing the name-brand over generic nicotine patches.
