Your treatment plan may include nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), such as nicotine patches and gum or lozenge, and/or medications, such as Chantix.
More often than not, your clinician may combine two different cessation aids (i.e. two types of NRT) to help you stop smoking and stop smoking tobacco. Studies have shown this strategy is very effective in smoking cessation compared to using just one medication alone. It’s also important to use enough medication and long enough to manage your withdrawal symptoms, desires and urges to help you stop smoking for good. You and your clinician can determine which cessation aids are the best for you.
Smoking cessation aids are offered free of charge for students enrolled in RTQ.
Students enrolled in RTQ will have weekly follow-up and coaching meetings with a TTS. Students receive supportive, encouraging texts one to three times per week and receive follow-up phone calls at least once a week to provide support to remain tobacco-free. Students also have the option to meet with mental health for concerns regarding smoking cessation if desired.
The American Lung Association has a great list of benefits on why quitting is a good idea.
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Cessation aids help decrease withdrawal symptoms (i.e. trouble sleeping, mood changes, and trouble concentrating, etc.) from nicotine that is found in tobacco products. Additionally, cessation aids help in reducing desires and urges to smoke and use tobacco. By decreasing withdrawal symptoms, reducing desires and urges allows you to focus on modifying behaviors that may be associated with smoking and tobacco use.
Smoking cessation aids such as Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) (contains nicotine) and/or medications that do not contain nicotine may increase your chances of quitting tobacco successfully. To read more about the different types of NRT and medications, please view this PDF.
When tobacco is burned, for example cigarette smoke, approximately 4,000 (i.e. cyanide, arsenic, lead, etc.) chemicals are released and inhaled into your body. Exposure to these chemicals has been shown to cause various types of cancer (i.e. mouth, throat, lungs, stomach, etc). Although nicotine alone, like that found in cigarettes, has not been shown to cause cancer, many other chemicals in tobacco products do. When you stop smoking or stop using other tobacco products, most chemicals leave your body quickly (hours, days, months), however many may remain for years. Read more about What’s in a Cigarette? by the American Lung Association.
Cigarettes, electronic cigarettes, cigars and cigarillos, chewing tobacco, hookahs, and spliffs are the most widely used tobacco products. View this PDF to learn more about these products and their impacts on health.
View this PDF for a list of additional resources, such as helplines, apps, and more.
