I don’t get it. I’ve been smoke free for months. Sure, there was a couple days there a few weeks ago when I lit up, but I only had a few smokes, then I was good for weeks afterwards.
Today, inexplicably, I really really really really really want a cigarette.
Any ex-smokers have any advice? Anyone else still get hit from nowhere with strong cravings even weeks after you’ve quit and thought you had it beat for good?
<<Any ex-smokers have any advice? Anyone else still get hit from nowhere with strong cravings even weeks after you’ve quit and thought you had it beat for good?>>
Yeah. A year and three months after I quit (the occasion of my quitting being kicking out the ex for being a disrespectful loser–if you’re going to be a bitch, do it right!) I had three blood tests and was at my doctor’s office for four hours, went to work, got called some names by my first, second, and THIRD callers, and according to reports stood up, ears smoking, nostrils spewing green fire, and said “I WANT…A CIGARETTE!” then sprinted out to the smoking porch.
After two cigs, I went back inside, sat down, and haven’t smoked one since. I now have a new method for coping with unbearable stress, called Tell Them What You Think (TTWYT). When phrased politely, you can get away with almost anything, including nicely asking someone to tell you the truth, suggesting they have someone assist them since they plainly have no clue, or telling them to wash their mouth out, because you aren’t going to assist them after potty mouth, because that would just teach them that verbal abuse is effective <insert saccharine smile here>.
TTWYT is quite effective when used with a nicotine patch or other stop-smoking program. 
Corr
I had some strong cravings while studying for my organic chemistry final. I just kept repeating “Not right now, not right now, not right now” until the craving stopped, which was fairly soon. Also, getting out and exercising helped a lot.
Cravings, for me, seem to show up when I’m really tired and really stressed. Of course, I haven’t smoked in 11 years so I don’t get cravings very often.
It’s an illusion, Crunchy. It’s the addict-monster whispering in your head.
Tell it to sod off.
(Just FYI: the best trick for me when I would have cravings, which I don’t anymore, is conjure up the REAL feeling, taste and smell of smoking, all of which are actually painful and disgusting.)
stoid
That sounds suspiciously like my friend Dave’s advice on quitting smoking:
“You know what helps curb my nicotine cravings? Smoking. I’ve found lighting up a cigarette really takes the edge off when you’re trying to quit.”
Dave can be a bit of a smart-ass.
Remember that the cravings never entirely go away. No, not all the time, but it isn’t unusual to go for months, even years, without once thinking of a cigarette, and then out of the blue “Hey, a cigarette would be nice.”
It’s also typical to have dreams about smoking.
Just an innocent, “random” thought. A whisper. Apparently alcoholics have this same problem, with sometimes tragic result.
Short term- A shower. Exercise. Plenty of water. Knowledge the craving will only last about 5 or ten minutes. It also helps to write down a list of things that you enjoy about quitting. Remember not to look at quitting as “not smoking” because this is negative thinking, like you are depriving yourself of something you “deserve”; This is standard rationalization-- How long have you been “not smoking?” the smokers will ask you, as if you’re into self-flagellation.
The main problem is, I usually get a craving when I’m at work (I’m sure boredom has something to do with it). That rules out exercise, showers, etc.
I guess I’ll just have to take Stoid and xcheopis advice on telling the craving to sod off. The list writing and water-drinking is do-able here too.
Thanks people. Another 35 minutes, then I can go home and occupy my mind a little better, that always helps get rid of the cravings.
I’ve never smoked. But I heard trapping and releasing lizard’s/gecko’s is a good nicotine antidote.
Wow. I have never tried the reptile catch & release method…
Crunchy, not unusual. The longest I quit for (prior to the current quit, since February) was almost three years. Cravings, you bet. They come out of nowhere & sucker-punch you. If you give in, you will feel like an idiot. I still get them.
Tell it to sod off :), you are in control thank you very much. Remember…whether you have a cigarette or don’t, the craving will go away. Hang in there! How long has it been?
For me this works.
Ya know, I hate to be a broken record, but I’m doing so for a good cause.
I was the weakest, most useless person when it came to quitting smoking. There was no way i was ever going to make it.
Then I read Allen Carr’s “Easy way to stop smoking” and not only did I quit, * but it was easy. * Within two weeks it was utterly painless. It’s been ten months and I swear I have completely forgotten I smoked until reminded by seeing someone smoke on TV or in life.
Read that book. Your cravings will stop.
stoid
If that’s Stoid’s addict-monster whispering, then I’d sure listen!!! Imagine what it’d be like if you made it mad!! :eek:
That would be the Lung Monkey. Every smoker has one. He’s a small monkey that dwells in your lungs, and its his primary job to keep busy - which manifests itself into trying to clean your lungs with a little chimney sweep brush. You can feel him in the mornings after a big night out, when you smoked WAY too many cigarettes. He scratches and pokes, scurries and squeals.
However, despite his good intentions, the Lung Monkey does more harm than good. He wants to make you clean and healthy, but he also wants to keep busy, and desires you to smoke more. The more you smoke, the more he scratches. The more you wheeze, the more he wants. The more he wants, the more you want to appease him, in order to make the awfulness of his scratching stop.
That’s my theory, and I’m sticking to it.
My mother quit smoking thirty-four years ago and says she still gets cravings! She jokes sometimes that the second she finds out she’s terminal, she’s going out to the shop for a bottle of whiskey and a carton of cigarettes.
I’ve been trying to quit since I found out my mom was terminal a copule of months ago, with pretty poor results, truth be told. This sounds like a good book, but I wasn’t able to find it on Amazon. Do you have a link or a site?
Thanks.
I’m now past the point of patting my breast pocket searching for the cigarettes I no longer carry, but every once and a while I get a fleeting feeling that a cigarette would really go down smooth at that particular point in time.
But then I think about the hacking couch I used to have, and the money that is flowing out of my pockets now (yeah, right!) and the feeling goes away.
I’ve yet to become an anti-smoking crusader yet, though.
And Crunchy, I tried to get your attention in the Ex-Smoker’s thread (toward the bottom of the page [I don’t know how ti link to a specific post]), but failed miserably. Is it because we quit at the same time and you fell (briefly) off the wagon?
Don’t worry - we forgive you.
My Smoke-Out Meter:
Barnes & Noble has it online.
Alan Carr’s Easy Way to Stop Smoking at Barnes and Noble Online.
Sounds like my method would NEVER work for you. When I finally decided to quit (after about 20 years of smoking) I bought one final pack. I didn’t open it, just took a black magic marker and wrote the date on it and carried it with me for the next few months. Any time I felt like having a smoke, I’d pull the thing out of my pocket and compare the date on the pack with the current date and talk myself out of breaking the cellophane. That pack is still around here somewhere - unopened - after over five years without a cigarette. If you’re gonna quit, you just have to put your mind to it and quit. In any case, good luck…
<waving to Stoid and Fallen Angel, who are responsible for me being a non-smoker>
The Carr book worked for me too. It was painless from the start, and every day I’m glad I don’t have to smoke anymore.
A friend who quit over a year ago is reading it too. She only smokes when she drinks, but she says lately she’s been drinking so she’ll have an excuse to smoke. Aren’t we pitiful sometimes?