My dad quit cold turkey for 20 years, and picked cigs back up in retirement. He said he craved cigarettes routinely, and had to deal with that on AT least a weekly basis, sometimes more. That's not really the kind of lifestyle I'm into, I don't do well with ongoing, painful cravings. I think the people who are successful with cold turkey are just Done with Cigarettes forever, which is something I don't really understand, but it does seem to happen, and I think it's a different mindset. A lot of cold turkey smokers are really sick of cigarettes, for whatever their reasons. But, I know plenty of quitters who've started back up decades later for various reasons.
I'm a believer in that old saying "You haven't quit smoking successfully until someone you really love dies, and you don't start back up." Stressors are a monstrosity for former smokers. If anything happened to my loved ones, I'd either have to have an outdoor memorial, or the Funeral home would need to let me vape during the service, and even then, I know I'd be on shaky ground.
Whenever I tried to quit cold turkey (sometimes even when I desperately wanted to) the cravings did me in. What did me in the worst? When my cravings stopped for the most part, and I no longer had them. I missed my cravings-- I must say (while it's getting more different societally) there is something to be said for creating a vacuum within oneself that can oh so easily be filled. When I wanted to smoke, food didn't matter, air didn't matter, what mattered was I had created a desire in myself that was SO intense, and So easily fulfilled, it seemed like nothing else mattered. It was actually HARDER when the cravings lessened, and when I'd run across lighters and stuff in the laundry or whatever, and I'd just MISS smoking. I wouldn't CRAVE it, I would miss the cravings, if that makes sense, and miss having a use for something I always considered Very Valuable-- lighters, since I tended to misplace them all the time. I don't know what's wrong with my brain, but that was kind of the stages of Quitting Cold Turkey for me.....
Now, I can have the equivalent of smoking "gear" that's a lot cooler than a bic lighter, harder to misplace, and replaces that feeling of, "I must have SOMETHING to help me feel satiated."
Weird, but there you go.
Anna
I'm a believer in that old saying "You haven't quit smoking successfully until someone you really love dies, and you don't start back up." Stressors are a monstrosity for former smokers. If anything happened to my loved ones, I'd either have to have an outdoor memorial, or the Funeral home would need to let me vape during the service, and even then, I know I'd be on shaky ground.
Whenever I tried to quit cold turkey (sometimes even when I desperately wanted to) the cravings did me in. What did me in the worst? When my cravings stopped for the most part, and I no longer had them. I missed my cravings-- I must say (while it's getting more different societally) there is something to be said for creating a vacuum within oneself that can oh so easily be filled. When I wanted to smoke, food didn't matter, air didn't matter, what mattered was I had created a desire in myself that was SO intense, and So easily fulfilled, it seemed like nothing else mattered. It was actually HARDER when the cravings lessened, and when I'd run across lighters and stuff in the laundry or whatever, and I'd just MISS smoking. I wouldn't CRAVE it, I would miss the cravings, if that makes sense, and miss having a use for something I always considered Very Valuable-- lighters, since I tended to misplace them all the time. I don't know what's wrong with my brain, but that was kind of the stages of Quitting Cold Turkey for me.....
Now, I can have the equivalent of smoking "gear" that's a lot cooler than a bic lighter, harder to misplace, and replaces that feeling of, "I must have SOMETHING to help me feel satiated."
Weird, but there you go.
Anna