Does Nicotine Cravings Ever Stop?

[McG]

Been cigarette free since July 2010, nicotine free since November 2010. vaping only DIY 0 nic liquid on a 510 box mod at home & an ego in the car. Can go several hours and sometimes an entire day without vaping. Over the past couple of weeks my nicotine craving/withdrawl pangs have been getting more frequent. Shouldn't cravings be decreasing over time? DOES IT EVER END?

 

[juicejunky]

I've quit cigs/nicotine twice for a year and would still get haunted by urges. Usually when I least expected it. Like all addictions I think it's one day at a time.

Don't give in or you'll be right back where you started. Vape those cravings down! I'd bet you've hit the mark when your brain is realizing you are beating the addiction so it's fighting harder to break you.

 

[keyzygirl]

Seems like every three months I crave a cig,but it passes.

 

[Elwin]

I know this is a nit-picking point, but it's my understanding that after 21 days your body should be flushed of nicotine, and actual physical cravings for nicotine should be gone.

But we all know that it's not as simple as that.
The physical addiction to nicotine is just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak.

The first time I "quit" smoking I had been smoke free for about a year and a half when I entered a fairly conservative seminary. No one smoked - period. No faculty, staff or student used tobacco of any kind.

But the dorm that I lived in had soda machines on my floor that needed to be filled about 3 times a week, and the fella that filled those machines smoked a cigar, and he wasn't about to put it out for a minute.
My room was 150 feet from those machines, and yet the first time I got just a WHIFF of that smoke - (in my room, 15 doors away!) - my body and mind took on a complete life of it's own. I followed that scent like a starving man would follow the smell of a steak dinner. I started hanging out around those machines when I knew he was due to fill them up.

I fought that craving for another 6 months, until I left seminary. I fought that craving for another month until I joined the Navy. I signed my paperwork to enlist, walked out the door, paused long enough to realize that I had just entered into a contract for 4 years of military service...

And went and bought a pack of cigarettes.

2 years I had been nicotine free. All the best minds told me I was long free from nicotine and all of the habits involved in them. The repetition "cycle" was broke too. I didn't even do that whole "chew on a pencil, suck on an ink pen, get my oral fixation" thing that many continue to do. I didn't even bite my fingernails anymore.
So just what in the hell sent me running back to tobacco after that long?


That was over 30 years ago. I've had a long time to think about it, with some very short breaks in between.
I think I have the inkling of an answer, but the answer is just for me. Because it's not a simple question, and there is no answer set in stone. If there is, then how come the guy or gal down the street can just go cold turkey and stay smoke free for 20 years, and not me?
Every smoker I know can point to someone in their life that did that very thing. (And yet, the last time I tried to quit cold turkey, I became such a miserable wretch after 2 weeks that the men that I worked with and worked for actually handed me a carton of cigarettes and told me to please Shut Up!)

The answer - for me - came after asking myself more questions.
Why does any addict - Her0in, Coke, alcohol, etc. - go back? 90 day treatment, flushed completely out of the system, clean and sober... Bam! Off the wagon they go.


OK, here's another question. It may appear to not be related at all. But then again...

How many people do you know - man or woman - that have had experienced satisfying sex, and then just stopped? I mean that after that ONE time just said to themselves, "Well, that was nice, but I really don't need that in my life, so I quit."
After the physical act itself, the body returns to a "normal" state - right? And yet every day women and men will enter into long term physical relationships with partners that are not only socially and psychologically incompatible, but in some cases mentally and physically damaging to them. All in order to meet what we would consider to NOT be a physical "addiction".

As I just said, it may appear to not be related at all. But then again...


So to make a long story even longer - for me it has NEVER been about a physical craving or addiction. It's always been in the mind. Since the first time that I lit up a cigarette and my brain said to itself, "YES! This is it! I want this sensation, and I WILL have it again! I will never be happy with anything less than what I feel right now!"

I've been able to trick my brain with lesser means like vaping and snus. But even that is a daily struggle. And my mind is a stubborn one. If it wasn't, I wouldn't be here on this forum right now.

And most of us are here for the same reasons. We've tried EVERYTHING else, and it hasn't worked. This is the last stop.
At least until something better comes along...



P.S. To the original poster: I know that this has been poor help at best. If I had the definitive answer to your question, I would gladly share it with you - free of charge. But the bottom line is that while we have the support of friends and fellow addicts here, we still have to face it with nothing but our own minds for closest company. And in our cases, the mind is a tricky ....... that will find a way to get it's way.

Good luck, and best wishes.

 

[classwife]

Like keyzy...I seem to "cycle" too about every 3 months....have to up the nic a bit...then back down to 0 and 6.....I am on an up right now at 10......

 

[wv2win]

I had a friend, who had quite for 10 years, tell me he still wanted to smoke.

 

[Kams Cats]

Love your post Elwin. Like you i really believe it's the mind and there will always be times when we crave that cigarette.

 

[PaulB]

I had a friend, who had quite for 10 years, tell me he still wanted to smoke.

For some reason, I'll never forget what a professor of mine said around 1980. He was just about to hand out the final exam we were to take when one of my classmates jokingly asked if there was still time for her to go out and have a cigarette because she really needed one now. He just smiled and said, "Me too--and I quit back in 1951."

 

[HarmonyPB]

For me there are 2 "types" of cravings. I have the withdrawal cravings where I haven't had any nicotine and I want some NOW. And I have trigger cravings. If I smell cigarette smoke or if I see someone smoking (even if it's someone on tv or in the car in front of me in traffic) I get an instant craving!! Sometimes if my husband even says the word cigarette, although I wasn't craving one, instant craving. Although I'm hoping the withdrawal cravings will settle down after awhile, I don't know how long the trigger ones will stick around Hopefully I always have my PV readily available for those situations.

 

[Steef]

Excellent post Elwin,,,,

I was having a conversation with my Dad the other day and he asked, Do you still want to smoke after using your e-cig???
I had to say yes!!! But It comes & goes..... In my case I smoked for a very long time and with the schedule I have(3rd Shift) I was putting down about 30 analogs a day.... Really got to be toooooo much and I knew it!!!! I still hit my Ego hard and have had a small panic attacks when my juice gets low or a battery starts flashing!! I get over it real fast.....Then start thinking about how it was when I needed a analog.... I for one really enjoyed smoking....But knew deep down it was an accident waiting to happen... Look to the positive: I'm breathing better,,, My chest pains have gone away,,, Have not had a cough since quitting,,,Have not had a headache since quitting,,, And My best news,,,,, My blood pressure has returned to normal(perfect at the Dr. office last week)....Trust me the urge passes quickly.... Stick with vaping and if you feel you need to vent or need support,,, This IS the place to find it.....

Good Vapes~~~~~~~

Steef

 

[MrSmith99]

Your brain is just an organic computer. It has circuits just like a computer. For 30 years I ran to a smoke every time I felt stress or wanted to feel good (Classical conditioning). Somewhere in my brain are neurons that are locked-into/etched with those memories. I may never be able to escape that occasional mental nicotine craving. But hopefully, I can retrain those neurons to associate "PV" instead of "Cigarette" with stress and feeling good. I think I'm doing pretty well at that right now. I will always keep a working PV around with some juice, even if I were to quit vaping. You just don't know how you will "feel" tomorrow.

The question is really; "Can I wipe out decades of very strong classical conditioning?"
I think you can change it, manage it, and even beat it. But I doubt you can get rid of it entirely. I'm OK with that as long as I have a PV to fall back on when I have to.

 

[Kams Cats]

I wish I could tell the difference between a nicotine craving and a habit craving. That would really help.

I do notice that I no longer dream about smoking. Actually had a dream about vaping instead. In the mornings I look for the PV and want to sit and relax with a vape instead of a smoke. So I think I am moving in the right direction. I do worry about those moments when it hits harder. Right now I do find myself stressed and irritated a bit easier. Then again, maybe it's my inner b@tch emerging.

 

[wv2win]

I wish I could tell the difference between a nicotine craving and a habit craving. That would really help.

I do notice that I no longer dream about smoking. Actually had a dream about vaping instead. In the mornings I look for the PV and want to sit and relax with a vape instead of a smoke. So I think I am moving in the right direction. I do worry about those moments when it hits harder. Right now I do find myself stressed and irritated a bit easier. Then again, maybe it's my inner b@tch emerging.

If you get the right PV that more closely simulates the "inhaled feel" of an analog, coupled with the right nic strength, for most, the cravings for an analog disappear.

 

[McG]

Thanks for all your replies and support. I would like to believe juicejunky has it right & something in my brain has realized Ive won. After all, the cravings I occasionally feel are very minor compared to the pangs I experienced after giving up cigs and later giving up nic.

 

[dagnagan]

But WHY give up nicotine? Almost all the research shows that it is an addiction, but a mostly benign and often beneficial one. Some people are addicted to their daily run and the "high" they get from that. Should they give it up just because their brains have become habituated to the endorphins running releases and they "crave" that feeling when they miss a day? Unless you've identified some real deleterious physical effects from nicotine, I just don't understand putting yourself through this struggle to abstain.

I know this is a very personal matter, and I don't have a right to judge someone else's decision about what to put in his body. I just don't understand, that's all.

 

[McG]

But WHY give up nicotine? Almost all the research shows that it is an addiction, but a mostly benign and often beneficial one. Some people are addicted to their daily run and the "high" they get from that. Should they give it up just because their brains have become habituated to the endorphins running releases and they "crave" that feeling when they miss a day? Unless you've identified some real deleterious physical effects from nicotine, I just don't understand putting yourself through this struggle to abstain.

I know this is a very personal matter, and I don't have a right to judge someone else's decision about what to put in his body. I just don't understand, that's all.

1) As you have stated its a personal choice. I have chosen not to suffer from the physical addicition to nicotine. The feelings of irritability and anxiety that used to come if I didn't have some nic every hour. 6 months ago I cound not travel anywhere without a PV, filled carts, extra juice/atty/batteries. Leaving home without vape gear was unthinkable. Now I can leave the house without my vaping gear and no worries.

2) I prefer to vape my own DIY and do not want to deal with liquid nic juice that IS proven dangerous. I can mix and not worry about having safety gloves, glasses, spilling nic juice, getting it on my skin, my daughter getting into it, etc.

3) $Money. I cant believe how cheap vaping is now. Juice & hardware stretches way farther with less vaping. There is no nic juice to buy. Between making my own mods and DIY liquid I now spend about $25 a month to vape.

4) The hardest part of the strugge you refer to is over. As described by others on this thread I now belong among the throng of people who quit cigs/nic but will occasionally have cravings.

 

[classwife]

Hugs to you McG...I am impressed !!