Will I Miss Smoking Forever?

Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsWhy You Miss SmokingLife Without SmokingChanging Your MindsetWhat to Do When You’re Craving a Cigarette

Table of ContentsView All

View All

Table of Contents

Why You Miss Smoking

Life Without Smoking

Changing Your Mindset

What to Do When You’re Craving a Cigarette

At A GlanceSome former smokers say they “loved smoking” and still miss it, but what they really loved was the relief from the discomfort of nicotine withdrawal that smoking brings when you’re addicted. Once you quit, you won’t miss cigarettes forever.

At A Glance

Some former smokers say they “loved smoking” and still miss it, but what they really loved was the relief from the discomfort of nicotine withdrawal that smoking brings when you’re addicted. Once you quit, you won’t miss cigarettes forever.

As of Dec. 20, 2019, thenew legal age limit is 21 years oldforpurchasing cigarettes, cigars, or any other tobacco productsin the U.S.

When you quit smoking, one of the first and longest-lasting symptoms of nicotine withdrawal is craving cigarettes. Nicotine cravings will stop—they don’t last forever. The longer you go without having a cigarette, the less intense the cravings will be.

In this article, we’ll talk about why you miss smoking, whether you’ll always be addicted to nicotine, and why smokers relapse after they quit.

Everything You Need to Know About Nicotine Addiction

Why Do I Miss Smoking?

Quitting smoking is a process. You have to get through both the physical and mental dependence your body has on nicotine. Maybe smoking was a way for you to reduce stress or bond with friends. Or maybe it was just a habit. Either way, it’s not likely that you’llneverthink of cigarettes ever again—but you won’t think about them all the time.

Cigarette cravings are usually the worst in the first few days after quitting. Over the first month of quitting, you’ll usually start feeling these urges less and less. Once you hit six months without smoking, the cravings for a cigarette will probably be hardly there and may even be completely gone.

An older study found that while nearly 60% of smokers reported at least some desire to smoke within the past year, only around 11% had major, prolonged cravings for a cigarette.More recent research has supported these figures, suggesting that only a minority of former smokers have intense cravings beyond six months after they quit.

The thing about smoking cigarettes is that it’s not just the dependence on nicotine that ties you to them. It’s also the associations you’ve made between cigarettes and parts of your life. You might not even be aware of these links until you quit and all of a sudden, it seems like random things make you want a cigarette.

For example, maybe you get in the car to go to work and are hit with an intense craving. You think about it and realize that you always smoked while you were driving.

People can also become associated with smoking—maybe you always took a “smoke break” with a coworker or had a heart-to-heart with your sister while you were sharing a cigarette. These associations are powerful. Recognizing them and finding ways to change them is going to be key to quitting smoking and avoiding a relapse.

Things That Might Be Triggering a Craving for a Cigarette

Be a Lifelong Learner

Every smoke-free day you get through is teaching you how to live yourlife without cigarettes. In a way, it’s like being in school again as you work on reprogramming your brain and body’s responses to triggers.

While you might be able to avoid some of these triggers at first, you can’t avoid them forever. Duringyour first smoke-free year, you’ll run into a lot of situations where you’ll face triggers. Taking them on is a necessary part of recovery from nicotine addiction.

What Happens to Your Body When You Stop Smoking?

Keep Track of the Calendar

You might be surprised and even a little caught off guard to get a craving for a cigarette months after you quit.

For example, let’s say you’re an avid gardener who quit smoking in the middle of winter and the cravings seem to lessen with every week that passes. Spring rolls around, you head out to the garden and after a morning of digging…you suddenly want a cigarette.

Changing seasons, especially when they’re linked to activities, can be a big smoking trigger. If this happens, don’t panic. It doesn’t mean you’re backsliding. It’s just your body and mind making an old connection.

Just because you’ve acknowledged that these changescouldtrigger a cigarette craving doesn’t mean they will. But if you think about them beforehand, you can prepare yourself for the possibility.

Here’s What Happens Right After You Quit Smoking

Change What Smoking Means to You

The way you think about smoking influences how you feel about it.Maybe you know an ex-smoker who says that “they’ll always miss smoking,” even though they haven’t had a puff in 20 years.

Hearing that might freak you out—are you really going to miss smoking forever? Here’s something to consider: People whoreminisce about how great smoking wasand how much they loved smokingnever changed what cigarettes meant to them.

Nicotine withdrawal starts as soon as you stub out a cigarette. Your physical need to ease the discomfort you feel gets linked to whatever you happen to be doing at the time.

This happens many times each day. Over time, your mind starts to think that smoking is a necessary component of leading a fulfilled life. You may believe that life will be dull without cigarettes when in reality, you’re associating physical addiction with pleasure.

When you quit, you have to change your mindset to one that breaks those links. You can quit smoking and won’t miss smoking forever if you change how you think about it and what it means to you.

Will I Miss Smoking Forever?

How to Change Your Mind About Smoking

Understanding the power of addiction and the health dangers of smoking are part of making the decision to quit and avoiding a relapse.

As a smoker, you might have made a point toavoidthese realities. But being honest with yourself without being hard on yourself is an important step in reframing what smoking means in your life and ultimately feeling like it no longer is a meaningful part of your life.

Here are some steps you can take to start changing your mindset about smoking:

If You’re Craving a Cigarette Right NowHere are just a few things you can do instead of smoking:Go for a walkCall a friendRun an errandHave a healthy snackDo yogaChew gum or mintsDo some exercises

If You’re Craving a Cigarette Right Now

Here are just a few things you can do instead of smoking:Go for a walkCall a friendRun an errandHave a healthy snackDo yogaChew gum or mintsDo some exercises

Here are just a few things you can do instead of smoking:

10 Tips for When You Quit Smoking

You’re Craving a Cigarette—Now What?

You might have gone months or even a year without craving a cigarette only to have the urge pop up again.

In the moment, you might freeze up and feel like you’ve failed. Those associations can be sneaky and powerful—but you’re not powerless against them.

If you’ve been preparing and have a plan, you’ll be able to get through a smoking craving no matter when it happens.

If you need help dealing with the urge to smoke, you can call the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) free helpline at 1-800-784-8669 for assistance.

How to Stop a Nicotine Craving Fast

8 SourcesVerywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.McLaughlin, I, Dani, JA, De Biasi, M.Nicotine withdrawal.Curr Top Behav Neurosci. 2015;24:99-123. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-13482-6_4Hughes JR.Craving among long-abstinent smokers: an Internet survey.Nicotine Tob Res. 2010;12(4):459-462. doi:10.1093/ntr/ntq009Potvin S, Tikàsz A, Dinh-Williams LL, Bourque J, Mendrek A.Cigarette cravings, impulsivity, and the brain.Front Psychiatry. 2015;6:125. Published 2015 Sep 8. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2015.00125Benowitz, NL.Nicotine addiction.N Engl J Med. 2010;362(24):2295-2303. doi:10.1056/NEJMra0809890Bertin L, Lipsky S, Erblich J.Can attitudes about smoking impact cigarette cravings?.Addict Behav. 2018;76:370-375. doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2017.09.001Stead LF, Carroll AJ, Lancaster T.Group behaviour therapy programmes for smoking cessation.Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2017;3:CD001007. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD001007.pub3MedlinePlus.Weight gain after quitting smoking.Nides M, Shanga GM, Bishop A, Becker WD.Nicotine Lozenges in the Relief of Behaviorally Provoked Craving.Am J Health Behav. 2018;42(3):69-80. doi:10.5993/AJHB.42.3.7

8 Sources

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.McLaughlin, I, Dani, JA, De Biasi, M.Nicotine withdrawal.Curr Top Behav Neurosci. 2015;24:99-123. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-13482-6_4Hughes JR.Craving among long-abstinent smokers: an Internet survey.Nicotine Tob Res. 2010;12(4):459-462. doi:10.1093/ntr/ntq009Potvin S, Tikàsz A, Dinh-Williams LL, Bourque J, Mendrek A.Cigarette cravings, impulsivity, and the brain.Front Psychiatry. 2015;6:125. Published 2015 Sep 8. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2015.00125Benowitz, NL.Nicotine addiction.N Engl J Med. 2010;362(24):2295-2303. doi:10.1056/NEJMra0809890Bertin L, Lipsky S, Erblich J.Can attitudes about smoking impact cigarette cravings?.Addict Behav. 2018;76:370-375. doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2017.09.001Stead LF, Carroll AJ, Lancaster T.Group behaviour therapy programmes for smoking cessation.Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2017;3:CD001007. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD001007.pub3MedlinePlus.Weight gain after quitting smoking.Nides M, Shanga GM, Bishop A, Becker WD.Nicotine Lozenges in the Relief of Behaviorally Provoked Craving.Am J Health Behav. 2018;42(3):69-80. doi:10.5993/AJHB.42.3.7

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

McLaughlin, I, Dani, JA, De Biasi, M.Nicotine withdrawal.Curr Top Behav Neurosci. 2015;24:99-123. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-13482-6_4Hughes JR.Craving among long-abstinent smokers: an Internet survey.Nicotine Tob Res. 2010;12(4):459-462. doi:10.1093/ntr/ntq009Potvin S, Tikàsz A, Dinh-Williams LL, Bourque J, Mendrek A.Cigarette cravings, impulsivity, and the brain.Front Psychiatry. 2015;6:125. Published 2015 Sep 8. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2015.00125Benowitz, NL.Nicotine addiction.N Engl J Med. 2010;362(24):2295-2303. doi:10.1056/NEJMra0809890Bertin L, Lipsky S, Erblich J.Can attitudes about smoking impact cigarette cravings?.Addict Behav. 2018;76:370-375. doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2017.09.001Stead LF, Carroll AJ, Lancaster T.Group behaviour therapy programmes for smoking cessation.Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2017;3:CD001007. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD001007.pub3MedlinePlus.Weight gain after quitting smoking.Nides M, Shanga GM, Bishop A, Becker WD.Nicotine Lozenges in the Relief of Behaviorally Provoked Craving.Am J Health Behav. 2018;42(3):69-80. doi:10.5993/AJHB.42.3.7

McLaughlin, I, Dani, JA, De Biasi, M.Nicotine withdrawal.Curr Top Behav Neurosci. 2015;24:99-123. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-13482-6_4

Hughes JR.Craving among long-abstinent smokers: an Internet survey.Nicotine Tob Res. 2010;12(4):459-462. doi:10.1093/ntr/ntq009

Potvin S, Tikàsz A, Dinh-Williams LL, Bourque J, Mendrek A.Cigarette cravings, impulsivity, and the brain.Front Psychiatry. 2015;6:125. Published 2015 Sep 8. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2015.00125

Benowitz, NL.Nicotine addiction.N Engl J Med. 2010;362(24):2295-2303. doi:10.1056/NEJMra0809890

Bertin L, Lipsky S, Erblich J.Can attitudes about smoking impact cigarette cravings?.Addict Behav. 2018;76:370-375. doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2017.09.001

Stead LF, Carroll AJ, Lancaster T.Group behaviour therapy programmes for smoking cessation.Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2017;3:CD001007. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD001007.pub3

MedlinePlus.Weight gain after quitting smoking.

Nides M, Shanga GM, Bishop A, Becker WD.Nicotine Lozenges in the Relief of Behaviorally Provoked Craving.Am J Health Behav. 2018;42(3):69-80. doi:10.5993/AJHB.42.3.7

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