Hi, do these exist in China, if so how do I ask for it? Having no luck with signlanguage :)

According to Google Translate:
Nicotine patch: 尼古丁贴片 Nígǔdīng tiē piàn
Nicotine gum: 尼古丁口香糖 Nígǔdīng kǒuxiāngtáng

Just show them the characters

Thanks very much!

I've never tried patches myself, but according to ONE study (ok maybe not the be all and end all, but here goes)...

Of the 2,367 OTC patch users in the study 2,150 relapsed within six months.
Of the 2,981 OTC gum users in the study 2,729 relapsed within six months.

Conclusion of the study: You have better odds of quitting with your own will power than using patches. You're basically flushing your money down the toilet.

My experience: been using patches on and off for about 8 years. Stopping with patches leads to relapse. Basically, its one or the other - but not neither.

..and my philosophy, for what its worth: smoking not just causes sickness - it's a sickness in itself.

It's a freaky coincidence that you started this thread and made that comment because I just stumbled on a smoking article earlier today and the author was quoting stats that the incidence of smoking amongst people with mental illness and criminals is incredibly high.

If you know that patches leads to relapse, why not try something else?

Fasting is highly effective. In fact, many moons ago I used to smoke. I can say from experience that after going on a detox diet / fast, my body was completely and utterly repulsed by cigarettes. Not only did I not have any cravings for them, but I would feel sick taking a puff.

My pseudo-scientific understanding of why it works is this: When you stop smoking, the levels of nicotine in the bloodstream go down and then the body sends a signal to the brain to replenish the levels of nicotine (ie cravings, headaches, etc...). But when you fast, you completely eliminate all the nicotine in the body (ie detoxify the bloodstream), therefore this vicious cycle is ended. Your body stops craving it because it's been completely eliminated from the bloodstream.

:) I'm not prepared to fast. I am however prepared to do just about anything else. The strongest patches work for about 29 hours, then its over. There is no cure in patches, only temporary relief, and thats good enough for me at the moment. No cure exists - if it did, i believe that that cure would spread through the world in a matter of months, like a virus, albeit a good one.

Theres an old movie called "the man who stopped smoking". In the end je quits, but summarizes: the sum of vices is constant. I.e. stop with one vice means starting with another. Food for thought? :)

fasting is not easy to do. but if you're ever in thailand, you can check out a detox spa.

FEAR is the best way to stop smoking. look up pictures of lung cancer on the internet and post them on your walls.