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’ve had people who quit 20 years ago say to me they still get random cravings but not often. I think it’s just something some people get.
A few thoughts from someone who quit about 10 years ago.
First, Congratu fucking lations! You quit! That is a BIG GODDAMN DEAL. I hope you appreciate that and celebrate it.
I am very happy that I quit. There is little doubt in my mind that I would be much less healthy now if I still smoked.
Quitting smoking was just the first step on a path to better health. I used the money I saved to buy a Vitamix and a rowing machine. Keep going beyond quitting.
If you must have nicotine do it as safely as you can. I got a prescription for nicotine inhalers. Vaping is better than smoking, etc. If you fall off the wagon, it does not have to be permanent.
Use ANYTHING that MIGHT help you. Rub a worry stone, mastrubate, chew gum, cinnamon oil toothpicks, stress ball, play video games.
The discomfort will not last forever. It will get better.
Best wishes. Keep up the great work!
Hey OP, how ya doing? Try any advice? Anything help?
Lol thank you, I just waited it out and read comments to pass the time. This happens once or twice a year and it’ll probably be a good while before it happens again, appreciate the support though
This is an anxiety response, your body is coursing with cortisol, the stress hormone. These exercises should help. I find square breathing to be especially helpful, but everyone’s different. https://www.choosingtherapy.com/anxiety-exercises/
Another thing to consider: nicotine accelerates caffeine metabolism. Therefore, if you are feeling irritable and have recently ingested caffeine (coffee, tea, energy drink, etc.) then you can expect a craving for the antidote.
Think of all those folks who used to hang out at coffee shops, smoking cigarets. Up on the cup of coffee, down on the smoke. Just riding the roller-coaster all day.
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.
Only sometimes in specific cases. At a bbq, after Xmas dinner, sitting by the campfire etc. other than that, no cravings. Do dream of smoking though…
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It gets less and less but will never go away. The frequency and intensity of craving diminish, but it can still sneak up on you.
I had one occasion where I spent some time in a smoky environment, and didn’t smoke myself. Next day the cravings where back full blow, through secondary smoke.
So what I do now if I get cravings is think back to how long ago it’s been since I’ve had them, is nice to feel those horrible clutches lose their grasp over you. It does take dedication and time though and you’re never truly free of them.
I quit smoking by switching to vape about 12 years ago. I had smoked a pack and a half of Marlboro reds a day for 30 years prior to that. After 30+ years of being hooked on the coffin nails I found a way out and I (and my family) are so grateful.
I still have my nicotine fix, obviously, but I am so much less a slave to it. It used to be that I could not imagine being without a box of Marlboros and a lighter if I was leaving the house. Now, I don’t think twice about heading out for a few hours with no vape (nicotine) with me…it’s just not that important.
I will probably always ingest nicotine in one form or another (vape, gum, patch), as I do caffeine. I no longer feel like I am controlled by it thanks to vaping.
Give alternatives a try.
Vapes actually turned out to be worse for me, something about having the freedom to do it just wherever really shot my nicotine dependance up. Definitely easier on my lungs but oof, glad they work well for you though
I struggle with this and it’s frustrating. That damn ease of fix adds a real detriment to my life in its own way - although I still think even casual smoking is worse.
I hope you can truly resist the temptation if that’s what you want! I am envious of that control.
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.
I’m one of those people who has never really stopped having cravings. It only gets bad when I’m really stressed but it is low key there 24/7.
Thankfully, it’s only really a battle when I’m stressed.
Hey I just want to share,a thought I had about the nature of stress that has helped me reframe a lot in my life, maybe it’ll help you or somebody else
We know scientifically that stress hormones speed up our aging. So stressing is literally life at 2x. If you’re like me, and 95% of the rest of us, then you have to earn a paycheck/ ,have to sell your labor for finances. If you’re like the 75% of us that’s one missed paycheck, or one t-boning that you’re 100% the victim for but still spend weeks in the hospital just to end up evicted but still like 5 years from any insurance payout (murica), and you’re stressing your bills…does the stressing over a debt to a faceless, soulless corporation lower your interest rate? Will the stressing and mental berating you submit yourself too erase those overdraft fees? If you’re stressing over these kind of ‘faceless’ things you’re literally spending your life double time, but…they don’t accept that kind of currency.
If anything, the time lost to stress is also time thats twice lost because you could’ve been working towards a quickfix if not a perm solution.
All I’m saying, is don’t spend your hours on things that don’t appreciate them. I will never get upset at a phone company or utility or whatever’s behest and torture myself for them. They don’t care about any of us, it’s high time we stopped caring about them too.
Try it out. Refuse to stress for a few days. Does life fall apart then? The biological imperative of the day is to simply survive, if youve done that, you’re already winning. Don’t let the faceless steal your thunder. ✌️
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.
I quit about ten years ago and maybe once a year I’ll get a craving but overall, not really.
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.
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.
Agree. Quit twice, the 2nd time was real bad. Now I am a stereotypical hardcore ex smoker. Get away from me with that stuff.
Yes - to the extent I no longer have Sunday roast dinner. Every time I’d just crave a cheeky smoke after a big ol satisfying meal. It’s been several years and I know I’d end up coughing up a lung and it’d taste like shit but that fleeting thought doesn’t care about that… It’s just the enshrined idea of a ‘nice’ smoke after a roast.
