Ask Lemmy

Does this happen to anyone else out there?

No, you're completely unique and utterly alone in that uniqueness. Tragic, really. RIP.

Any tips?

Is $5 too little?

Okay enough jokes. Yes, every other addict ever gets craving symptoms down the road, but they'll clear up soon.

In rehab, doc taught me something that's remarkably powerful and yet insanely simple: BHALTS. Are you Bored? Hungry? Angry? Lonely? Tired? Stressed? All those make cravings worse and make relapse more likely, especially since we're talking about the thing we used to do to avoid dealing with those feelings properly.

If anything on that checklist checks out, attend to it ASAP. You'll be shocked how quickly the cravings leave your body.

When I was quitting I swapped cigarettes with tea tree oil infused toothpicks to handle the oral fixation part. Helped a lot. I have (thankfully) never experienced what you describe and haven’t been a smoker for about 7 years now. Maybe get some toothpicks to nom on if it happens again.

Edit: somehow forgot to add “never” to that third sentence. Sorry for any confusion. Hope you can conquer these spells of cravings.

I smoked about 20 a day for nearly 20 years, and gave up the stinkies about 12 years ago. Switched to vaping and then gave up that and nicotine about 8 years ago.

Even after all this time, about once a year my brain tells me it’s time for a smoke break. I don’t think I’m craving a fag, just the downtime and doing something else with my hands/brain/time.

Hey OP, how ya doing? Try any advice? Anything help?

I've had people who quit 20 years ago say to me they still get random cravings but not often. I think it's just something some people get.

I smoked daily for about ten years. I got off the cigarettes and smoked e-cigs (no one called it vaping, then) for another year or two, then quit cold turkey without much issue and only the occasional minor relapse thanks to my significant other continuing the habit for a few years after I quit before she quit, too. That was about fifteen years ago, and I don't crave them at all anymore. The smell is actually a huge turn off for me, now. I can't believe I ever thought I was fooling anyone into not knowing I was a smoker. That shit seeps into everything.

Only sometimes in specific cases. At a bbq, after Xmas dinner, sitting by the campfire etc. other than that, no cravings. Do dream of smoking though...

Months absolutely. Years, very rarely. But wild that it still happens like 8 years later. Even though I rather dislike the smell now.

No. I actually find the idea of doing it again pretty disgusting.

Been clenching my teeth for about two years now, I started when I quit smoking. I actually had to get a splint (mouthgard) because I'm fucking my teeth.

So I quit because I was about to become a dad, a home-owner, and also because ciggies here are about 30 usd a pack that doesn't go well with having a family and and paying a mortgage. But mostly health, I need to be around as long as possible for my family.

I don't think about it nor I miss it most of the times, but every time someone takes a long drag in a movie, I just start salivating and I wish I had one in my hand.

Accidentally I temporarily became a smoker again for a week or so just recently. Wife took the kids away for a few days and I was given some weed, I bought two packs of ciggies with the intention that once they are gone that's it. They are gone now and i am again a non smoker but I thoroughly enjoyed them. Unlike other people on this thread I LOVE the smell, and I really really like smoking. What I don't like is to have an addiction, the fact that they kill you, and the cost.

As for suggestions, nothing that gives immediate relief but microdosing mushrooms really helped me before (I quit many times before, longest i think was 7 years not smoking)

Quit coffin nails five years ago after 15 years. Maybe a couple times a month after work I think about how good a cigarette would be right now

Except maybe ten percent of those times I'll actually bum one from a coworker and it's never ever ever as good as I imagine it'll be in the moment. I bum them less and less because it keeps getting harder to pretend it'll be as good as it used to

So in essence I guess I actually quit pretty effectively overall

Once a junkie, always a junkie. At least for me with nicotine. The cravings have never gone away. I just learn to live with them and not think about them too often. It gets easier with time.

Almost 3 years after quiting a heavy 26 years habit. I quit cold turkey.

Currently being forced to move having no income and no social circle and family is distant.

Super proud I haven't broken yet. I want one ALL THE DAMN TIME.

I use physical exercise to help me get through my cravings.

Quit for 7 years. Didn't miss it for a second after the first week. Starting again was the worst mistake of my life. Hold fast. You'll regret it if you go back. Quitting a second time seems much harder.

On the contrary, i hate the smell way more than my have-never-smoked peers.

I quit cold-turkey ages ago, after a decade as a pack-a-day smoker.

I never missed cigarettes, never really craved them except when binge drinking. But i quit that too, mostly. By the time I quit, I absolutely hated the smell and taste, so that helped a lot. It caused me to just avoid places where I'd encounter lots of smokers. Bans in restaurants and bars helped a lot.

edit: one key being that when I quit, I didn't like smoking. I didn't want to be a smoker anymore. So I stopped thinking of myself as a smoker.

Not random moments, but intense anxiety is a trigger decades later. And it's not just traumatic stuff, but positive anxiety like first dates.

Maybe do shrooms somewhere its legal? Just once has been shown to do wonders for kicking addiction

Quit cold turkey in 2017 after 30 years of pack a day. More if drinking. Tried vaping, just ended up being a way to smoke more.Got a gnarly case of pneumonia and wadded up everything I had left for smoking and threw it all in the trash. No cravings anymore but I still dream about it.

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Alright so I quit vaping the Easy Way, and they explained to me that nicotine withdrawals are pretty much entirely psychological. It's the "I want a vape, I can't have one, AHHHHH!" feeling. Once you realize that you actually don't want a vape because it does absolutely nothing for you and is complete waste of time, money, and energy, you won't get irritable because you don't want to vape. The physical withdrawal symptom- there is just one- is just an empty hungry feeling, and it goes away entirely after about 72 hours.

My grandfather quit smoking after 70 years (he started when he was 6) and lived another 30 years. Apparently he would dream about smoking till he died, and they never smelled nasty to him.

I quit more than a decade ago now. I still occasionally get a craving for one. I don't get the same physically reactions that you listed. Mostly get the cravings when I'm stressed.

I do, the longer it's been the shorter they are (almost 10 years now). My trigger is seeing someone, usually in a TV or movie, take that long, exaggerated drag.

It gets less and less but will never go away. The frequency and intensity of craving diminish, but it can still sneak up on you.

I had one occasion where I spent some time in a smoky environment, and didn't smoke myself. Next day the cravings where back full blow, through secondary smoke.

So what I do now if I get cravings is think back to how long ago it's been since I've had them, is nice to feel those horrible clutches lose their grasp over you. It does take dedication and time though and you're never truly free of them.

I quit Easter Sunday, 1996. I don’t have any cravings when I’m awake, but I have dreams where I’m pulling a packet of cigarettes from my pocket, buying cigarettes, smoking, noticing that I only have a few left in my packet. Something’s going on subconsciously, not sure if it’s cravings or something else.

I did in the first 3 or so years, but now I don't have any cravings at all. I'm now 17 years on from quitting and it has gotten better over time.

I found spite a great tool for keeping emotional investment. The tobacco companies are all steeped in slavery, abuse, scientific fraud, and general indifference to the suffering of others. Those companies are trying very hard to get kids addicted, to insulate themselves from legal accountability, and to stop governments from phasing smoking out. They are evil if that word is going to mean anything and if I am going to be able to do anything about them it is withholding my business.

Sometimes but then I remember the taste and the craving vanishes.

i often have cravings, especially when i'm angry or drinking beer, then i remembering myself how double hangover feels like and whole this stench