The Three Questions
The Three Questions.
These are designed to provide you or your counselor with enough information to structure a nicotine withdrawal approach, which will give you a ‘steady state’ of nicotine levels and keep you out of acute withdrawal while you learn how to live tobacco free.
1. How old where you when you started smoking?
-If you started before 16 you may have a loss issue in childhood that needs attending to and tobacco is part of your survival strategy. Be alert to this and grieve your losses.
2. How long after rising do you need a smoke?
-If you smoke within 20 minutes after rising it may be skillful to awaken with high nicotine levels so you will not relapse in the morning. Put a patch on at 4:00 a.m. Go back to sleep.
3. How many cigarettes do you smoke on a rough day?
-If you smoke 15 or more on tough days then you may find it helpful to use a self dosing strategy to self regulate your tension and anxiety build up.
Self-Dosing
It has proven very useful to have a means of self-dosing with nicotine when under stress to prevent a build up leading to relapse. We suggest an inhaler, 4 mg. nicotine gum, or the nicotine lozenges. Simply dose until you feel relaxed and the stress build up has passed.
Together this works wonders for most. The patch provides the steady release of nicotine and the self-dosing devices allow for self-regulating under stressful conditions until we learn how to do this on our own without medicating. Good Luck Dear Smokers Trying To Quit.
