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. www.choosingtherapy.com/anxiety-exercises/

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.

I still vape but I haven’t had a real cigarette in almost a decade and I still get cravings for them when I’m stressed. Whenever I think about buying a pack I try to remember waking up coughing up phlegm every morning, getting winded from even a little bit of exercise, and how I used to get sick way more often and I can talk myself out of it

Try doing deep breaths. You get the relaxation of inhaling, but no toxic smoke. Avoid the vapes and alcohol. Drink water. Lots!

I quit 24 years ago. And although I don’t have cravings, I sometimes having smoking dreams. So much of it is about breathing to relax.

An ex of mine would only smoke when she was drinking.

Nothing better with your 3rd beer than a cigarette… Apparently.

If she didn’t have that 3rd beer. She’d never drink.

I quit about ten years ago and maybe once a year I’ll get a craving but overall, not really.

I haven’t smoked in 10+ maybe 15+ years, can’t really remember.

I still want a cigarette.

I used to smoke a shit ton of pot and never smoked cigarettes. I did grow up in a home where 4 people smoked a pack a day inside.

Yeah I sometimes get cravings for pot even 9 years later

And for the first couple years after I moved out of that place I was craving cigarettes sometimes

No.

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 quit years ago, and very seldom does a day go by where I don't find myself craving nicotine for at least a little bit.

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!

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.

Mostly, I just want to hang outside work, bum or share a smoke and socialize.

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.

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.

i often have cravings, especially when i’m angry or drinking beer, then i remembering myself how double hangover feels like and whole this stench

Sometimes but then I remember the taste and the craving vanishes.

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.

My fiance is LOVING the quit-go nicotine-free inhaler I got him. It’s designed to mimic the feel of a cigarette as much as possible right down to the shape, lightness, and even the flicking motion. He carries it around the house like a safety blanket; I’m not even sure he knows he does it fits into his muscle memory so well.

I quit Easter Sunday, 1996. I don’t have any cravings when I’m awake, but I have dreams where I’m pulling a packet of cigarettes from my pocket, buying cigarettes, smoking, noticing that I only have a few left in my packet. Something’s going on subconsciously, not sure if it’s cravings or something else.

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 do, the longer it’s been the shorter they are (almost 10 years now). My trigger is seeing someone, usually in a TV or movie, take that long, exaggerated drag.

I quit more than a decade ago now. I still occasionally get a craving for one. I don’t get the same physically reactions that you listed. Mostly get the cravings when I’m stressed.

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.

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.

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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.

Maybe do shrooms somewhere its legal? Just once has been shown to do wonders for kicking addiction

Not random moments, but intense anxiety is a trigger decades later. And it’s not just traumatic stuff, but positive anxiety like first dates.

On the contrary, i hate the smell way more than my have-never-smoked peers.

I quit good 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.

Quit for 7 years. Didn’t miss it for a second after the first week. Starting again was the worst mistake of my life. Hold fast. You’ll regret it if you go back. Quitting a second time seems much harder.

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.