I’m so fucking irritable right now, every little thing is annoying me and my chest is tight, I keep clenching my teeth. I’m very familiar with these things, these are how my body is telling me “go smoke a ciggy”
Problem is, I haven’t done that for a year and a half. I’ve had this happen before, sometimes years on into my quittings, its always random and it’s always insufferable, like I’m a former psychonaut who accidentally cracked his spine 20 years later. Does this happen to anyone else out there? Any tips? I had a glass of wine but it didn’t help take the edge off much
I haven’t smoked in 10+ maybe 15+ years, can’t really remember.
I still want a cigarette.
I quit well over 15 years ago (after 10 years or so) and I only had cravings for maybe a year or two. After that, smelling smoke just grossed me out. The worst is that I frequently have dreams where I start smoking again and it feels/smells/tastes absolutely horrible and I have to explain to people why I decided to start again. Still a monkey on my back for sure, but at least when I am awake it is the furthest thing from my mind.
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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.
If a random internet stranger’s comment means anything to you… keep it up dude!
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
I smoked for 20 years. I beat it by successively taking habits away. I quit twice for a year each time and fell back into it at the bar both times.
The first time I went back, I didn’t smoke in the house. That was big but I really didn’t want my house smelling like that. The second time I didn’t smoke in the car… Also a big one.
Then I vaped and successively brought the levels down. Each time it was really hard but my body adjusted. At my last level (3mg), I had bought some 0 for whenever I wanted to take the plunge, and accidentally switched to it. It felt really light on nicotine, but it was only after 3 days that I realized. I decided that was it and kept vaping 0.
It was surprising how badly my body would react if I didn’t get my fix. I knew there was no nicotine in there, but boy did I get irritable and jittery if I didn’t get my hit. By this time, my first child had been born and I knew I’d have to call it. I was contemplating a date when one night she picked up my device and stuck it in her mouth like she’d seen me do. Threw it all away right then. That was about 7 years ago.
Yea, the smell of cigarette smoke is nice and I can still remember the feeling of that first one in the morning with a coffee. The worst I do now is an occasional cigar, but I make sure it’s never repetitive or a lot.
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.
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.
I feel that, 2015 or so when I was about 21 I got a spontaneous pneumothorax (basically a popped lung) everyone has these weak spots on their lungs called blebs, but I had just the right mixture, being white, being tall, being skinny, being male, and being a smoker, to be high risk for those blebs getting too weak and rupturing. Literally happened 3 times before in a row due to complications and my dumb ass still went back to vaping a year or so later. Did stop smoking pot though, so that’s something.
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.
Agree. Quit twice, the 2nd time was real bad. Now I am a stereotypical hardcore ex smoker. Get away from me with that stuff.
You probably don’t hate the smell more, nonsmokers have just learned to be polite about it.
Dated a smoker once. I love the man, but kissing him was like licking ashes. A major turn off. I never let on.
Right, my lived experience isnt valid because of your lived experience.
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.
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.
Sometimes but then I remember the taste and the craving vanishes.
Weird. I loved the taste. Even a decade after I quit for good, I still love the smell. I don’t get the cravings at all though.
I quit about ten years ago and maybe once a year I’ll get a craving but overall, not really.
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.
Not random moments, but intense anxiety is a trigger decades later. And it’s not just traumatic stuff, but positive anxiety like first dates.
