40 year smoker - how long cravings last?
 

Hi, I quit smoking December 23, and still have cravings which is depressing. I've also gained weight. Do these cravings last forever? Help :help:

I had them for at least two years, and didn't get rid of them until I tried to inhale one of the very very very old & stale cigarettes that still remained in my last pack of smokes.

It tasted SO wretched, that I actually could NOT inhale it, and left such an awful aftertaste.

I guess that's called Aversion Therapy -- but it would only work with seriously stale cigarettes.

I wish that I had known about KETOSIS back then -- instead I followed all that criminal advice on those stupid Stop.Smoking sites and gains tons of weight.

Had I not been stuffing myself with all those "healthy" carb laden foods, I'm sure that quitting smoking would have been easier.

I am no longer C.R.A.V.I.N.G a cigarette; however, if I do not drop ALL the weight I gained over the past six years, then I will start smoking again.

Also, do some searches at google, there are a ton of quit-smoking websites, filled with forums, and there are thousands of people who C.R.A.V.E nicotine for years.

I don't crave them as much as I run across emotional triggers. I would start my day with a smoke, after breakfast smoke, drive to work or wait for bus smoke, blah blah blah smoke. I'm sure you get the picture. I've learned to recognize those triggers that make me want to smoke or the times I would usually smoke and try to either work around them or ignore them. Don't get me wrong, I didn't go cold turkey, but I still crave them when in certain situations.

The good news is that every time you encounter a trigger and don't respond to it with smoking, you've broken the trigger. :thup:
The bad news is that most of us have/had lots and lots of triggers, so it takes a while to break them all. The key to success is to be aware; sometimes they can pop up years after you have quit.

I'm also a long time smoker, and have been quit for 3+ weeks. I don't see the cravings ending anytime soon, emotional triggers seem to be the worst. Every time I argue with my daughter, the craving hits big-time. And getting into the car is the worst ("start car, light cig, repeat").

Being quit since 12/23 is really good! I hope I can make it that long.

Hi,
Does that mean if i REsist it will no longer be a trigger? Is there a book explaining all this... it's really interesting, and really encouraging to hear that in the midst of all the negative stuff... thanks a lot.

it's been five months and no cigarettes
 

:wave: :agree:
i smoked for 40 years, and it's been five months without a cigarette. i still get cravings - out of the blue, i will want one as much as ever -- but it does seems to be decreasing, and is much much better than the 1-4 month mark.

I'd like to knwo more about triggers -- and how, if you resist one, you've broken the trigger.

This August will be 2 years non smoker after 22 years of smoking. I probably had 10 cravings. They come on like a wave and I get busy and it goes away before I know it. Read the book, The Easyway to Quit Smoking by Allen Carr. You will never smoke again and you will know it when you are done with the book. You are just done forever. I wouldn't have believed it before I read it.

Lisa

I quit smoking 16 years ago. I don't crave cigarettes at this point except occasionally when I dream about smoking. I did quit cold turkey, and the hell I went through those first three days was enough to keep me away when I had those cravings at first.

If you haven't yet, you may want to paint your house and clean your carpets and furniture. Getting rid of the smell helps so much.

Here are a few links regarding psychological triggers:

http://www.articlesbase.com/quit-sm...king-94160.html

http://www.thestopsmokingguide.com/...teAddiction.php

http://ffn.yuku.com/topic/12480

The cravings DO go away. I quit cold turkey 23 years ago after 23 years of daily smoking. Up to 4 packs a day at the end. At first I wanted a cigarette constantly. It's true that every time you don't give in to a desire to smoke you diminish the power of what triggered the desire and eventually it stops being a trigger. About a year after I quit, I suddenly realized that I hadn't wanted a cigarette at all that day and in fact couldn't remember the last time I had even thought about it. It was the hardest and most worthwhile thing I ever did for myself. If Smoker's Anonymous still exists in a neighborhood near you, I highly recommend them. I doubt I could have done it without all their tips and support. Good luck everyone.

thank you
 

:)
Hi, I really appreciate your reply to this thread. Which is weird, because I quit smoking (again, 30 days ago) and had cravings yesterday and today. And then I get this message from you. (I have not been active on this forum since 2009) So I find it really wonderful (and a bit strange) that you should send me this message right now, out of the blue, at the perfectly appropriate time, when I was seriously doubting myself. I think it's a sign. Thank you so very much fo your words of encouragement. I have been struggling and am worried about my lungs. :)

IT'S A SIGN! Seriously, I think it must be because I hadn't looked at the date on your original post so I didn't realise it was 2009. Well done, getting back on the health path for 30 days! Fantastic.

As a word of warning, I've heard over and over again that recidivism makes it harder and harder to quit each time. We hear that on the forums about weight loss and low carb too - that it's actually easier to stick with it until the cravings go than to fall off the wagon and start again. Now you have an entire month under your belt, you are well on your way to never even thinking about a cigarette again - just stick with it long enough. I absolutely guarantee without reservation that the cravings and desire and dependence will go away. You only have to give it enough time.

I believe it is exactly the same kind of addiction as alcoholism. Whereas an ex-alcoholic cannot take even one sip of one glass of alcohol, even out of curiosity, without re-enforcing the desire, so too an ex-smoker cannot try even one puff of one cigarette without setting the mechanism in motion again to get hooked.

Tips that helped me: Sipping water through a straw constantly all day gave my hands something to do and provided "oral satisfaction", so to speak, LOL. Another VERY helpful tip was that all habitual cravings go away after 3 minutes whether you give in to them or not. I found that to be true. When I thought about having a smoke I'd tell myself to wait 3 minutes. Every time the craving went away. At first it would come back again quickly and I'd wait another 3 minutes. Then the cravings became further and further apart until they disappeared. I call it "The 3 Minute Rule" and it works!

Regarding your lungs: obviously you have every reason to worry. But here's another great thing, and forgive me if you already know - the lungs start repairing themselves immediately you stop smoking and if you give it enough time they can repair completely so there is no difference between the lungs of an ex-smoker and a never-smoker. What an amazing gift to take advantage of.

If you have any questions I'd be glad to help. Sorry for the long post. I hope it wasn't too boring.

Again - good luck, you can definitely do this and you are not alone - every ex-smoker in the world wants you to succeed!

Palma, have you ever read Allen Carr's book, Easyway to Quit Smoking? (That's not a typo, by the way, the book title runs "easy" and "way" together into one word.) You can buy it for dead cheap on Amazon and I think it would be massively helpful for you in regard to your thoughts about cravings.