How come if you quit smoking you still crave years later? -
like they say the nicotine leaves your body from a few days to a week after you quit smoking, but then how come you still crave years later when there-s no nictine in your body to make you crave??? i don-t get it?? plz help me, thnx everyone
While you-re a smoker, the feeling of craving isn-t caused by nicotine, but by the changes in the brain that compensate for the presence of nicotine. Those physiological changes go away within perhaps a year and a half after you stop. But nicotine is still a pleasurable drug that reduces stress. And when you-re in a situation in which a cigarette would make you feel good, the brain remembers how good the nicotine made you feel and you desire one. The brain can also mistake anxiety for the symptoms of nicotine withdrawal, since from a physiological perspective they can-t be distinguished.
Usually it-s because of the setting your in. For example, there may have been a time in your life where you-d light up a smoke if you were at a concert. If you go to a concert even years later, your mind will associate cigarettes and concerts, and you will crave a cigarette because there was a time when that used to be the norm for you.
This can go with anything. Maybe you smoked when you mowed the lawn. Maybe you smoked when you went bowling. Maybe you smoked because you were just bored. Unfortunately, people smoke while doing mostly anything so there-s a lot of associations the mind makes. Hopes this helps!
A lot of it is just habit, once you get rid of the nicotine craving and all the chemicals out of your body.
Make note of when you most feel like a smoke. Then see when you most feel like one. I can even sit with smokers now and nor feel like one.
I gave up 4 years ago and very occasionally now I feel like smoking.
Apparently, even buying cigarettes is part of the habit. Undoing the pack, lighting up, having a smoke with a beer or alcohol, having a smoke with coffee or after meals. These are all learned procedures/habits that you will gradually leave behind.
Keep up the good work, you won;t regret it!
There are receptors in your brain that crave the nicotine. These receptors are used to your body ingesting nicotine. It-s a chemical thing that you can-t prevent. Well, Chantix, is a nicotine receptor blocking agent. Don-t know for sure how long the cravings will last. But I-ve been told by relatives - friends that years even decades later they will have a moment where a cig would be good.
Smoking is also a big habit addiction. You get used to something in your mouth or fingers. I-ve tried cutting a straw to cigarrette size. I think it helps. Also keep hard candy - toothpicks on hand. These both helped me.
Good luck!
its not the nicotine ppl crave..its the action of smoking..your body remembers the act of smoking, and the effects, how it makes you feel..its like if you lose a limb, and you always feel it there, although its not..thats what it is like when you take away cigs..
Your body has developed an addiction, and even though the nicotine has physically left your body, your body can still remember the craving it had for the nicotine. The addiction is not gone. Your body is the problem.
I wish the world would just stop smoking.
Once you-re addicted to cigarettes, you-re always addicted, regardless of whether you still smoke them.
It-s the same with alcohol or drugs.. If you become addicted to them, you-ll always be addicted, whether you give them up or not.
Areas in the brain control various cravings. I doubt medical science yet knows why. I have read that researchers believe exercise helps to control cravings. Exercising must help to release or inhibit he release of certain chemicals in the brain.
because it is a powerful addiction. It gets into your psyche. I quit many years ago, and I still occasionaly would like a taste, But I dont give in to it, and It goes away quickly. I really know I DONT want to smoke.
Speak for yourself. . . I suffered for three months by quiting and once I got past those three months of hell I never thought about it again. I quit when smokes were $0.75 after smoking for 15 years
because its not that the drugs were addicting, they made you feel good, that is the real addictive force.
It-s the addiction talking