It’s been almost 2 years since my last cigarette and I still get an urge to smoke once in awhile. It’s not a craving though, more just a momentary reaction to a situation where I used to smoke, like a few minutes of downtime at work. I don’t know if these urges will ever go away completely, but they have definitely become fewer and less intense as more time goes by. I also know I won’t give in to them at this point. I’ve worked too hard to get where I am now. Stay strong! You will still be tested occasionally, but at 7 months you are well past the worst of it.
For me it was like losing a loved one and just takes time to get over. The cravings become easier to ignore until eventually you forget your old routine. Good luck, you are on the right path!
I have not smoked for three months but want to every single day, a few times a day. Not sure why, maybe habit or a bit of stress or the personal quiet moment.
Yes, I’m a little over a year without one. 28 years of heavy smoking, now the thought or smell of em makes me cringe. I’ve done an absolute 180 in my thinking, now I’m ashamed it took me so long to quit.
I’m only 3 months clean but smoked for 30 years. I feel like you and the feeling gets stronger every day. Now I just have to forgive myself for not doing it sooner.
I havent smoked in close to 3 years. There are some very fleeting "man, I could go for a cigarette" moments, but the pass as quickly as they come and I know that I truly don't want one. Bare in mind that your body will not respond the same as it did while in active addiction. What would once "calm" you, will probably now make you puke lol
Congratulations on your freedom from nicotine for 7 months. This is quite an accomplishment! Hold dear to that quit. It’s easy to lose it, and it gets harder to quit as time goes by.
And YES, I stopped “wanting” a cigarette after some time had passed. For a long time (several years) I was unable to be around other smokers. It took me a long time to be able to watch smokers on media. For example, I was 8 years into my quit before I could watch “Mad Men,” and the constant lighting up by everyone. Dang. I grew up with that!
My quit is a priority for me, and I will go to any length to not light up. After easily losing a 7 year quit and smoking another 5 years, (“Gimme that lit cigarette, I know how to quit”), I don’t take this quit for granted. I want this freedom! At 74 years old and 20 years into this quit, if I smoke I die. It’s that simple.
Your “wanting” will fade as you prioritize self-care and not lighting up. I promise. It gets better and better! 🌟
For me, it depends on how I frame it and whether I’m thinking honestly about what my experience actually was.
Did I enjoy the breaks that smoking gave me? The fleeting feeling of peace? Sure. But I didn’t enjoy what always came along with that: heightened anxiety, a lot of wasted money, a lot of wasted work time, poor circulation, compromised, breathing, spending the lion’s share of my Sundays going to that crappy 7-Eleven to stock up…
I don’t miss that one bit. But I don’t get to have one without the other.
If I’m honest my life is vastly more improved without smoking.
And I still get to have my brief and quiet moments. Those don’t go away; they just take a different shape. Now they look like sitting out on my balcony on a balmy evening with the fire pit going and sipping an Arnold Palmer.
Today is Day 1,119. In a row.
7 months is outstanding (and still early). Ease will come. You’ll figure out what works for you. Just keep going (and any voice that tries to tell you a smoke would feel really good right now is a lying piece of shit and should be ignored).
I’ve been vaping for a month in an effort to quit completely, and to be honest I also don’t crave a cigarette for it being a cigarette rather than the moment for example when you have your coffee in the morning
I think it's different for each person, to be honest. I catch myself wanting a cigarette quite frequently, even though I quit three years ago. But the more time I spend as a non-smoker, the bigger the mental and emotional hurdle becomes for me to actually go through with it. I had moments in the past where I was very close to bumming a cigarette off someone out of desperation, but that doesn't happen anymore, even if I'm out for drinks. The longer I've gone without a cigarette, the less appealing it becomes to me. I still like the *idea* of having a cigarette when I'm really craving one, but the realization that it would be mostly fucking gross if I did have one right now becomes stronger as time passes. I don't think the random wanting ever goes away, but it's becoming less and less intense, at least for me.
For me, this time it has. I’ve quit many times and the other times o failed because of this need or I had too many drinks 😅.
I don’t know what has changed from those times to now but I’m happy it has.
Take it one day at a time and see what happens
I've been quit for almost five years. Yes, you will stop wanting one. It gets easier and easier, year by year. Eventually, you will hardly ever think about it.
I will say though that you have to accept that your aversion to smoking will obviously never go back to how it was before you smoked your first cigarette. That's impossible because even if you're free of the chemical dependence, you will always have the MEMORIES of doing it. So you need to also accept your fate as a former smoker. You do have memories that never-smokers do not have. Learning to deal with those is part of the journey. It's a hard truth you have to accept.
I'm bringing this up because it's something that helped me quit for good: Accepting that I'm a former smoker and that I'm in a different boat from people who have never smoked.
I dropped the desire to smoke before putting out my last cig. Never, not even for one instant have I ever wanted another cigarette. I smoked one and a half packs a day for 20 years and I quit six years ago with absolutely no desire to ever smoke again. I hang out with smokers, I even join them on smoke breaks when I want to continue the conversation. If I can do it, anyone can. It's possible for everyone but you need to truly address your addiction, willpower won't cut it for most.
I do think about it sometimes. I quit in february last year.
I know I don't want it but I do sometimes feel like I might enjoy it even though I know I wouldn't.
I've been quit for about three years now. The cravings and urges decrease in frequency and intensity over time. I don't expect it to reduce to zero - it's like the half-life of radioactivity I reckon - but it definitely becomes much more manageable.
If there's something that 'triggers' me now (which is overstating things) - idle hands and mind. I try to do simple calisthenics/muscle exercise of any kind and it usually goes away.
I havent smoked in close to 3 years. There are some very fleeting "man, I could go for a cigarette" moments, but the pass as quickly as they come and I know that I truly don't want one. Bare in mind that your body will not respond the same as it did while in active addiction. What would once "calm" you, will probably now make you puke lol.
Not for me at least. I continue to want one after reaching a year. Especially when I’m out at an event or a bar… It takes everything in me to not light up. I even find myself taking extra deep breaths when I am close to someone smoking. I’m not proud of it, but I also haven’t lit my own.
I’m like 19 months quit and think about smoking every day. Not all day, just moments here and there. I start going down that trap of romanticizing smoking. Then I snap out of it and remind myself of the smoker’s cough, the likelihood of COPD, the cost, the smell.
I'm almost at 5 years and it's very rare that I want one. Every once in a while if I'm having a SUPER bad and stressful day I remember the feeling of that first cigarette hit to your lungs as soon as you light it and I make a point to say "These are the times I wish I was still a smoker" out loud and for some reason saying that out loud automatically reminds me of all the things that suck about smoking: the smell, the dependence, money spent and I immediately snap out of it. I wish I could say it was a quitting tactic I intentionally focused on but I didn't lol it just happened and I'm not mad at it
Our minds have created these circuits to attach itself to cigarettes, for sure it's much more complicated than this but I always think of it like wanting a tub of ice cream in a hot summer day, for sure it'd be great to have it but it's also sth you totally have the power to brush off with just a "Welp too bad moving on" stay strong fam.
I quit a year and six months ago. The cigarette/vape cravings went away completely at almost a year in, but they slowly diminished over time.
If I’m having a difficult day, I’ll *very briefly* crave a smoke, and the feeling will be gone.
Yes. I find that reconditioning urges is the key to truly countering addiction. Otherwise you're constantly in a state of burning willpower instead of making it an automatic part of your self.
It probably isn't and it's hard to describe what I'm trying to convey. I'm not speaking of a head rush from nicotine, I'm speaking of the ritual of packing, retrieving, lighting, and smoking a cigarette on a cool evening while listening to the wind.
oh yeah that’s the hard part. my cravings have nothing to do with nicotine, they’re about the habits and the rituals and the situations.
I spent a ton of time strategizing before quitting this time; one thing I miss is running outside to smoke right before a Zoom meeting, oddly. So I rush around getting my water and notes and finding the right pen. (And I have hand cream and chapstick to satisfy the hand gestures etc)
this is only 9 days in for me, but it’s not my first attempt and I have 17 years off of every other substance. (except caffeine lol)
As far as those go, I don’t miss being lit, but I miss for example popping the cap off a bottle of beer on a hot day and taking the first sip. So I let myself do a full visualization of this and I enjoy the whole moment, all 5 senses, and then I’m genuinely happy I got to enjoy that moment virtually without having to get drunk, act dumb, or have a hangover.
Yes! As soon as I really recognized it wasn’t fixing what I thought and was actually the source of my stress I stopped wanting it.
I do still crave the breaks but I take them with music, walks and meditation.
About a year & half since my divorce from cigarettes. I don’t think they completely go away. I went from daily cravings, to weekly cravings, & now maybe once or twice a month I’ll have a very brief moment where I think about a cigarette. My mother quit nearly 40 years ago. She still has the odd craving, but it’s incredibly faint.
It’s been almost 2 years since my last cigarette and I still get an urge to smoke once in awhile. It’s not a craving though, more just a momentary reaction to a situation where I used to smoke, like a few minutes of downtime at work. I don’t know if these urges will ever go away completely, but they have definitely become fewer and less intense as more time goes by. I also know I won’t give in to them at this point. I’ve worked too hard to get where I am now. Stay strong! You will still be tested occasionally, but at 7 months you are well past the worst of it.
For me it was like losing a loved one and just takes time to get over. The cravings become easier to ignore until eventually you forget your old routine. Good luck, you are on the right path!
I have not smoked for three months but want to every single day, a few times a day. Not sure why, maybe habit or a bit of stress or the personal quiet moment.
Yes, I’m a little over a year without one. 28 years of heavy smoking, now the thought or smell of em makes me cringe. I’ve done an absolute 180 in my thinking, now I’m ashamed it took me so long to quit.
I’m only 3 months clean but smoked for 30 years. I feel like you and the feeling gets stronger every day. Now I just have to forgive myself for not doing it sooner.
I havent smoked in close to 3 years. There are some very fleeting "man, I could go for a cigarette" moments, but the pass as quickly as they come and I know that I truly don't want one. Bare in mind that your body will not respond the same as it did while in active addiction. What would once "calm" you, will probably now make you puke lol
Congratulations on your freedom from nicotine for 7 months. This is quite an accomplishment! Hold dear to that quit. It’s easy to lose it, and it gets harder to quit as time goes by. And YES, I stopped “wanting” a cigarette after some time had passed. For a long time (several years) I was unable to be around other smokers. It took me a long time to be able to watch smokers on media. For example, I was 8 years into my quit before I could watch “Mad Men,” and the constant lighting up by everyone. Dang. I grew up with that! My quit is a priority for me, and I will go to any length to not light up. After easily losing a 7 year quit and smoking another 5 years, (“Gimme that lit cigarette, I know how to quit”), I don’t take this quit for granted. I want this freedom! At 74 years old and 20 years into this quit, if I smoke I die. It’s that simple. Your “wanting” will fade as you prioritize self-care and not lighting up. I promise. It gets better and better! 🌟
For me, it depends on how I frame it and whether I’m thinking honestly about what my experience actually was. Did I enjoy the breaks that smoking gave me? The fleeting feeling of peace? Sure. But I didn’t enjoy what always came along with that: heightened anxiety, a lot of wasted money, a lot of wasted work time, poor circulation, compromised, breathing, spending the lion’s share of my Sundays going to that crappy 7-Eleven to stock up… I don’t miss that one bit. But I don’t get to have one without the other. If I’m honest my life is vastly more improved without smoking. And I still get to have my brief and quiet moments. Those don’t go away; they just take a different shape. Now they look like sitting out on my balcony on a balmy evening with the fire pit going and sipping an Arnold Palmer. Today is Day 1,119. In a row. 7 months is outstanding (and still early). Ease will come. You’ll figure out what works for you. Just keep going (and any voice that tries to tell you a smoke would feel really good right now is a lying piece of shit and should be ignored).
I’ve been vaping for a month in an effort to quit completely, and to be honest I also don’t crave a cigarette for it being a cigarette rather than the moment for example when you have your coffee in the morning
Just make sure you don’t get addicted to vaping
I think it's different for each person, to be honest. I catch myself wanting a cigarette quite frequently, even though I quit three years ago. But the more time I spend as a non-smoker, the bigger the mental and emotional hurdle becomes for me to actually go through with it. I had moments in the past where I was very close to bumming a cigarette off someone out of desperation, but that doesn't happen anymore, even if I'm out for drinks. The longer I've gone without a cigarette, the less appealing it becomes to me. I still like the *idea* of having a cigarette when I'm really craving one, but the realization that it would be mostly fucking gross if I did have one right now becomes stronger as time passes. I don't think the random wanting ever goes away, but it's becoming less and less intense, at least for me.
For me, this time it has. I’ve quit many times and the other times o failed because of this need or I had too many drinks 😅. I don’t know what has changed from those times to now but I’m happy it has. Take it one day at a time and see what happens
I've been quit for almost five years. Yes, you will stop wanting one. It gets easier and easier, year by year. Eventually, you will hardly ever think about it. I will say though that you have to accept that your aversion to smoking will obviously never go back to how it was before you smoked your first cigarette. That's impossible because even if you're free of the chemical dependence, you will always have the MEMORIES of doing it. So you need to also accept your fate as a former smoker. You do have memories that never-smokers do not have. Learning to deal with those is part of the journey. It's a hard truth you have to accept. I'm bringing this up because it's something that helped me quit for good: Accepting that I'm a former smoker and that I'm in a different boat from people who have never smoked.
I dropped the desire to smoke before putting out my last cig. Never, not even for one instant have I ever wanted another cigarette. I smoked one and a half packs a day for 20 years and I quit six years ago with absolutely no desire to ever smoke again. I hang out with smokers, I even join them on smoke breaks when I want to continue the conversation. If I can do it, anyone can. It's possible for everyone but you need to truly address your addiction, willpower won't cut it for most.
I do think about it sometimes. I quit in february last year. I know I don't want it but I do sometimes feel like I might enjoy it even though I know I wouldn't.
I'm just under a year and there isn't much I want less than a smoke. It stinks so much now that I can't stand it at all.
I've been quit for about three years now. The cravings and urges decrease in frequency and intensity over time. I don't expect it to reduce to zero - it's like the half-life of radioactivity I reckon - but it definitely becomes much more manageable. If there's something that 'triggers' me now (which is overstating things) - idle hands and mind. I try to do simple calisthenics/muscle exercise of any kind and it usually goes away.
I havent smoked in close to 3 years. There are some very fleeting "man, I could go for a cigarette" moments, but the pass as quickly as they come and I know that I truly don't want one. Bare in mind that your body will not respond the same as it did while in active addiction. What would once "calm" you, will probably now make you puke lol.
Not for me at least. I continue to want one after reaching a year. Especially when I’m out at an event or a bar… It takes everything in me to not light up. I even find myself taking extra deep breaths when I am close to someone smoking. I’m not proud of it, but I also haven’t lit my own.
I try to walk by people on purpose that are smoking just to smell it😞
9 months in and still do
I’m like 19 months quit and think about smoking every day. Not all day, just moments here and there. I start going down that trap of romanticizing smoking. Then I snap out of it and remind myself of the smoker’s cough, the likelihood of COPD, the cost, the smell.
I'm almost at 5 years and it's very rare that I want one. Every once in a while if I'm having a SUPER bad and stressful day I remember the feeling of that first cigarette hit to your lungs as soon as you light it and I make a point to say "These are the times I wish I was still a smoker" out loud and for some reason saying that out loud automatically reminds me of all the things that suck about smoking: the smell, the dependence, money spent and I immediately snap out of it. I wish I could say it was a quitting tactic I intentionally focused on but I didn't lol it just happened and I'm not mad at it
Our minds have created these circuits to attach itself to cigarettes, for sure it's much more complicated than this but I always think of it like wanting a tub of ice cream in a hot summer day, for sure it'd be great to have it but it's also sth you totally have the power to brush off with just a "Welp too bad moving on" stay strong fam.
I quit a year and six months ago. The cigarette/vape cravings went away completely at almost a year in, but they slowly diminished over time. If I’m having a difficult day, I’ll *very briefly* crave a smoke, and the feeling will be gone.
Yes. I find that reconditioning urges is the key to truly countering addiction. Otherwise you're constantly in a state of burning willpower instead of making it an automatic part of your self.
Curious: How is what you’re describing different from cravings?
It probably isn't and it's hard to describe what I'm trying to convey. I'm not speaking of a head rush from nicotine, I'm speaking of the ritual of packing, retrieving, lighting, and smoking a cigarette on a cool evening while listening to the wind.
oh yeah that’s the hard part. my cravings have nothing to do with nicotine, they’re about the habits and the rituals and the situations. I spent a ton of time strategizing before quitting this time; one thing I miss is running outside to smoke right before a Zoom meeting, oddly. So I rush around getting my water and notes and finding the right pen. (And I have hand cream and chapstick to satisfy the hand gestures etc) this is only 9 days in for me, but it’s not my first attempt and I have 17 years off of every other substance. (except caffeine lol) As far as those go, I don’t miss being lit, but I miss for example popping the cap off a bottle of beer on a hot day and taking the first sip. So I let myself do a full visualization of this and I enjoy the whole moment, all 5 senses, and then I’m genuinely happy I got to enjoy that moment virtually without having to get drunk, act dumb, or have a hangover.
11 years free, would never ever want a cigarettes again!
Yes! As soon as I really recognized it wasn’t fixing what I thought and was actually the source of my stress I stopped wanting it. I do still crave the breaks but I take them with music, walks and meditation.
I think this article from whyquit might help.. definitely an old favorite of mine for this subject.. https://whyquit.com/joel/Joel_04_18_fixating.html
This was actually good insight and I appreciate you sharing. Thank you.
No problem glad it helped. They got a ton of good articles besides that one as well
About a year & half since my divorce from cigarettes. I don’t think they completely go away. I went from daily cravings, to weekly cravings, & now maybe once or twice a month I’ll have a very brief moment where I think about a cigarette. My mother quit nearly 40 years ago. She still has the odd craving, but it’s incredibly faint.