Host: Why do so many people relapse, even with medication to quit smoking?

Eletta Hansen: The most important thing about medication is that you take it as long as the manufacturer recommends. Again, each of the medications, I have described should be taken for at least 12 weeks. Many people continue to use the nicotine replacement much longer. Because you have been a smoker, your brain is primed for nicotine, anytime you are around the triggers, other people smoking, smoke filled places, it is very easy for the receptors which have a memory to be reactivated. If you have taken the medication and completed the course it is far more likely that those receptors are going to remain dormant. But you must always be vigilant because you are always going to be addicted to the nicotine.