Wow, you really really need a plan.
The next time a big craving hits, and it will, use it as motivation to sit down and GET ORGANIZED. If you don't make some decisions and preparations about how you're going to quit, you won't make it. This is HARD!
So set an example for your team of quitters and draw up a personal quit plan.
For example (and this is just me):
I too wanted to use the patch but didn't want to stay on it for two months. That was too long for me, I didn't want to drag out withdrawal that long. I figured it would make me too used to the patch, and I'd only been a smoker for like five years, so I didn't think I needed it.
So I decided to cut down to ten cigarettes a day for two weeks, the 14 mg patch for 2 weeks, the 7 mg patch for 2 weeks, then cold turkey after that. Each step down off the patch, I decided would go back to the one before or use the gum before I would smoke.
The 10 cigarettes attempt wasn't totally successful, although it gave me GREAT practice quitting. I ended up around 12 or 13 every day, but I learned to discipline myself to put off a cigarette, and I got myself thinking about what triggered my smoking, when and how I was smoking. That was a good move, it prepared me.
The 14 mg patch didn't have too many bad things about it. No real side-affects except some itching and burning and it left behind ugly squares on my arm. I had the three bad-bad days, but I was able to not smoke. Nicotine-wise, I sort of felt as though I had smoked. I was able to focus on half of the addiction. It was hard, really really hard, but the patch helped and the preparation helped and I got through the first two weeks.
Moving down to the lower patch was scary. I was afraid I wasn't ready. I decided to follow my plan and try it and then go back up if it didn't work. But I only had two bad-bad days, and I didn't smoke, so it was a successful transition. After that I was used to the 7 and I just had to keep working on the habit and the cravings just like before. It was rough, but possible.
Going cold turkey two weeks later was AWESOME. I felt liberated and proud. And I'd also gone a whole month without smoking at that point, so I felt confident and prepared. It was nowhere near as hard as quitting the first time.
Without the patch, I don't thi
