Granted I'm not a smoker and I've never been, but 30 days seems a long time to still be craving them. When I quit caffeine cold turkey, it took four days for the withdrawals to cease. 7-8 times that amount of time, the smokers are still craving nicotine?
share<<Granted I'm not a smoker and I've never been, but 30 days seems a long time to still be craving them. When I quit caffeine cold turkey, it took four days for the withdrawals to cease. 7-8 times that amount of time, the smokers are still craving nicotine? >>
You betcha! I saw a documentary about 10 or 15 years ago, basically more of a public service thing done to teach kids why they shouldn't start smoking. One of the things mentioned on this program was that YEARS or even DECADES later, you'll still have the cravings.
They interviewed a baseball player, his name escapes me now, but he played baseball back in the 50's. Back then, pretty much everyone in the sport did chewing tobaccco. Well, eventually he developed mouth cancer, and had to have a section of one of his cheeks removed. He obviously had to stop doing the tobacco. Well, he was interviewed sometime in the 80's or 90's I think, and he said that if you could guarantee the cancer wouldn't come back, he would probably fall off the wagon, because he was STILL having cravings.
I think this is why there are so many unsuccessful attempts by people to get off other drugs like cocaine or heroin. You can go through rehab and everything, but you'll never quite get over the cravings. That's why you have people like Jerry Garcia, who stopped doing cocaine and heroin in the late 80's, but had a relapse in the early 90's and started using again.
I quit six years ago and still have cravings.
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I'm sure it varies enormously. When I stopped smoking I had serious cravings for about 10 days but after a month I was never really tempted again.
shareI never smoked (sucking on my dad's pipes when I was five (1967) was the closest I ever got. That and CANDY cigarettes but those don't count.
shareIt's not so much a craving for nicotine (which would be gone after 30 days), but missing the ritual of lighting up. Missing the response to uncomfortable situations or aggravation by lighting up. People miss the "ritual" of smoking long after the nicotine cravings have gone.
shareThe psychological and behavioral effects can last the rest of your life. I have't smoked in well over a decade and even today, once in a while I crave a cigarette with my coffee.
Darling, I am trouble of the most spectacular kind!
I quit smoking a few years ago after smoking for many years. It takes about 90 days of zero nicotine to detox. That is why when you get a scrip for a drug like Chantix to help you through that it is a three month regimin.
True, people may still have a craving here and there some time after that, but three months is generally the amount if time it takes for a person to stop thinking about smoking on a daily basis.
I quit snuff and chewing tobacco in 1989, and once in a while I have a dream about chewing. It never seems to leave you once you've started.
shareYou had to have heard the line - once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic.
It is the same for any addiction - smoking, gambling, sex, obsessive eating, etc..