After 22 years of smoking almost a pack a day, I decided to stop 8 months ago today. About once or twice per day, I get a strong nicotine craving and want to smoke so bad. I’d like to know from former smokers when and if the cravings go away. The cravings I have today are far worse than the cravings I had early in my quit. However, the cravings are less frequent now.
I smoked at least a pack a day for over fifteen year years. I quit a little over a year ago when I found out I was going to have a baby. Although I still get cravings, they seem to be less powerful and less frequent as time goes on. Still, every so often I have a have a full-scale fit . . . usually related to particularly difficult math homework.
Congratulations on quitting, btw. It’s extremely difficult, but I think it’s worth it.
They get less and less frequent but they never, ever go away. To me, certain specific activities triggered cravings. Eating, drinking, etc. were all hard without a smoke. Took a long time to get past that.
Now, the two worst things are home improvement and auto repair. After 20+ years of working on cars with a Benson & Hedges hanging out the corner of my mouth, every time I open the hood on anything for any reason I want a smoke. When I’m tuckpointing, hammering, building anything, cleaning gutters, etc. I want a smoke so bad I can taste it. Other times, I do OK.
I do sometimes go to the smoking area at work and suck back a little secondhand smoke. Then I cough for half an hour.
Other times if someone smokes anywhere near me it’s horribly annoying.
Best of luck. I’m about the same as you, eight, maybe nine months. This is the longest I’ve ever gone, I hope I can stick with it, hope you can keep it up as well.
b.
whatever you do… don’t be stupid like me, “oh, what the hell… I’ll buy a pack”
DO’H!
so, yeah, I’m a smoker again… stupid stupid stupid…
hang in there, don’t give in to that urge, you will regret it… listen to bobo, if you can find the words in between the coughs… I’m too young to sound this old <grumble>.
I quit 9 years ago and it has been a few years since I have had the urge to light up. My wife fell off the wagon after being smoke free for 5 years. She has now started the process of quitting again. I think the vision of the way my mother died was enough for me to never want to light up again.
Going on ten years now. Basically what Billy Rubin said - certain activities bring the cravings back in a baaaaad way. My biggest problem: vacation. Sitting on the beach / fishing / having a drink watching the sunset…I get it in the worst way. So, to answer your question: if the cravings go away, it hasn’t happened for me yet, ten years later. 
To be sure - if they invented a way to cure all the bad things that cigarettes do to your body, I would start smoking again IMMEDIATELY. But they haven’t, and I’m having too much fun to die because of it. 
Hang in there!!
I quit 10 years ago - in a very dangerous way, resulting in my being allergic to smoke.
Needless to say, I have no urges.
In earlier attempts, I had constant triggers - that first smoke in the morning was a biggie, as was any intense mental concentration, as was a beer - damn near impossible.
But yes, your body will flush/rejuvenate - after that it’s psychological - a relaspe would require re-starting with the physical addiction - don’t go there.
Good luck
happyheathen, could you please expand on the dangerous way of quitting and the resultant allergy? I’ve never heard of such a thing.
Thanks
I quit in 1984 after smoking for 9 years, and being up to just short of a pack a day habit at the time. I went to a hypnotist. Came home, dumped my remaining cigarettes and pipe tobacco out on the ground, added my pipes to the pile, poured a cup or two of kerosene on them, and torched 'em.
I haven’t felt any craving for nicotine since. I could take a job in a smoke shop, selling cigars and cigarettes and fine cut tobacco and it wouldn’t bother me. I can and sometimes do hang out with friends who are smokers and aside from preferring that they not smoke up my room, I’m fine with that (if we can hang out in THEIR room, so much the better).
I can remember being a smoker, but within a week of quitting it was like remembering sucking my thumb when I was a kid – I can recall that I was fond of it at the time, but there’s no trace of the urge left at this point.
(Not all hypnotists use the same methods. I recommend NOT going to one who uses aversion techniques. If you decide to utilize hypnosis, select one who will guide you towards finding tobacco irrelevant to your life)
I quit about 23 years ago. I started in jr high school, and finally gave it up when I took up jogging. But I’d have butt every now and then, no big deal. And then in France on vacation I smoke a ciggie once a day while having a coffee and reading Le Monde. Boy did I feel like Sartre or what. Anyway, I haven’t had one now for must be 10 years. It has finally gone out of my head. The trick is to just not think about it. Smoke in your lungs? Does not compute. Then again, I do look forward to my next cigarette, though I may not have it for a decade or two. Well, on to other things…
I doubt most of the people whom posted in this thread will count me as a member as I only smoked about four years and then only about 3-5 packs a week. Whether or not you count me among you, I have not smoked one since my brother told me I couldn’t stop. I have wanted too, but I have not. Stuborn or determined, whichever you choose I still rub it in his face (and he still smokes).
bobo I too fell off the wagon well sorta.
I’ve smoked for 9 years and have quit for about a two months, but I bought a pack recently. I have to admit though when I lit up it did taste like I licked an ashtray and I coughed and I couldnt finish it either, but now the familiar taste has come back. I really have to get out of the social smoking and stress smoking phase habit and tomorrow well today actually I will stop again. How I resist the urge or have been prior to this has been to eat something and it helps not to have a pack lying around.
Eleusis -
Massive nicotine overdose (think: multiple, simultaneous, sources).
The danger is to the heart - nicotine is an extreme stimulant.
(I don’t specify method since being informed that some could (at least theortically) die from using it).
And NEVER have smoking materials handy - no smokes, no matches, no ashtrays - nothing to make it easy/convenient.
It’s been two months (exactly, as of today) for me, and I’ve still got an oral fixation thing going. I know I’ve gained some weight, even with ice chomping and facial isometrics to get my mind off food…but I can safely say I haven’t had a single craving for a cigarette since about three days after I quit.
I’ve reached for my case, or looked for the ashtray before I sat down, but there have been no fretful longings, and I’ve spent quite a bit of time around heavy smokers lately.
I don’t know what it is; maybe I hypnotized myself, but all I think about is how crappy I felt when I’d cough and taste smoke the next morning. Or how I smoked even when it hurt. Or how much it really does stink being trapped in a car with two chain smokers for six hours. I was wheezing by the end of the trip.
BTW, congrats. Wow, eight months seems like an eternity at this point!
It been just over five years for me and I still experience a craving. On the good side, the craving only happens about once a month and only lasts for maybe ten minutes. I sometimes dream that I am smoking and wake up with a craving, but a drink of water takes care of it.
Congratulations on quitting. You are over the worst of it and it does get easier as time goes on. Hang in there; its worth it.
Former 2 pack a day smoker. Quit cold turkey in 94. I fell off the wagon once at a christmas party a couple years back and had about 4 or 10 smokes after getting just blitzed. I thought I was going to puke the next morning. The taste was just awful. Since then, I haven’t even really been tempted again.
Hang in there, don’t relapse. You’ll make it. Just think of the $$$ you’re saving, that should be enough incentive alone if you even forget the health benifits.
That was it for me, mostly, the money. Couldn’t see paying as much for a carton of smokes as I was, it sucked. Saves me at least $2k a year. Biggest pain in the ass? the wife still smokes. She doesn’t do it in the house(we have a 7 year old) but it is VERY hard having her and her smokes and lighter and ashtrays around all the time. Still, I did it. Think of something that costs 40 or 50 bucks a week, then think that you can have it now you don’t smoke. A nice bottle of Sauternes, for instance, or a high-end DSL service.
b.
I was a moderate smoker (a pack or less per day) for about ten years, quit about twelve years ago because of all the evidence about second-hand smoke, and I still want to smoke if I see someone on TV smoking. It isn’t a strong urge–more like: “I wouldn’t mind having a smoke right now…”
The odd thing is that I frequently (several times per week) dream about smoking, so vividly that upon waking I have to stop and think: “Do I still smoke?” It’s unsettling.
So, for me, the physical compulsion has all but disappeared, but my mind is still seriously addicted.
I quit just over 10 years ago after smoking a pack a day for several years. I was lucky enough to work where they had a water cooler with good water and I could take a leak as often as I needed. Drinking tons of water helped.
I still have cravings once in a while. Just last night I dreamed about smoking.
“More water please?”
I’ve only gone six months at a time without smoking. I quit, get over the initial hump, and I’m fine… for six months. Around the six month mark, I suddenly have an incredible urge to smoke again. I start liking the smell again. When I see smokers, I don’t automatically think “death warrant” and actually feel jealous that they “get to” smoke and I don’t… And then I get my hands on a cigarette (thinking “just this one”), and that’s the end of that.
The periods where I’m smoking are becoming shorter, though, so perhaps one day I’ll stay quit.