NRT is based on the idea that you are addicted to nicotine. It is thought that if you are given nicotine via a different source then the need for smoking will disappear. On the surface this seems to make sense since it is the kind of process used with other addictions. If you were a heroin addict seeking help you would be weaned off the drug onto a similar less harmful one called methadone. The dose of this would be gradually reduced until you were no longer dependant. All logical stuff.

However nicotine replacement therapy doesn't work like that. A nicotine patch contains about as much nicotine as you would find in 16 cigarettes! That's a pretty strange way of weaning someone off an addictive drug. They are very expensive too. We leave it to your imagination as to which industry is best placed to supply all this nicotine and so reep the profits.

We often hear reports from people who have suffered skin irritation from the patches and quite often see people who have developed a psychological reliance on nicotine gum.

At the end of the day, while NRT will work for some people, the majority that we see have tried it and it did not work. This is because it does not address the real problem faced by smokers. That of the conditioned response covered in the previous page, Pavlov's Dog. 

Now let's go on to look at will power and Peer Support .