Smoking cessation is the act of no longer smoking. However, this state may last one day or it can last a lifetime. Lapsing is when you have 1 or more cigarettes during a quit or cessation attempt. Relapse occurs when you are no longer trying to actively quit and have returned to a regular habitual smoking routine.
So the question is this, can you get back on the wagon after you've fallen off? Can the quit attempt remain in place even though you had a 'bad day' and smoked half a pack of cigarettes? The answer is absolutely 'yes'! That's why it is important to review the definitions above. Lapsing does not have to lead to relapsing.
A recent study in the journal Addiction, looked at this phenomena and how to treat the lapse before it became a full blown relapse. Interestingly, they looked to the good old nicotine patch to see if it could promote recovery to abstinence.
As we all know, one of the effects of nicotine withdrawal is the craving. Nicotine patches were designed to counteract that craving with a dose of nicotine replacement to the brain using a far more clinical platform.
What happens when you relapse? You smoke for a day or two; you feel like a failure; you throw your hands up, put away your stop smoking aids and figure you've completely relapsed. This 'give-up' is one reason why smoking has such a high rate of recidivism. But it is possible to climb back up on that horse and start riding again without waiting two or three months.
The researchers discovered that using the patch increased the tendency to re-initiate abstinence at the critical 6 and 10 week interval, after lapsing. They conclude that continuing treatment with active patches does promote recovery from lapses and helps smokers regain their cessation 'mo-jo'. Let's face it, when you're trying to quit, you've got to have mo-jo and it looks like patches might be able to help you find it after a lapse.
