Giving Up Cigarettes

Posted by Mike Singh on January 13, 2012

The greatest problem with quitting smoking is the cravings. But you have a better prospect of succeeding if you know what to expect. Find out more in this article.

One third of the adult population globally smoke cigarettes and it is responsible for more untimely deaths than anything else. Most smokers will want to quit at long last but the greatest obstacle is the cravings? How long is it before they stop?

How Do Cravings Work?

Cravings are what you get if you are a smoker and you stop smoking. Actually, you get cravings within a few minutes of finishing your last cigarette. That’s why from time to time you’ll have two cigarettes in a row. But largely when you finish a cigarette you do not get cravings straight away because you recognise that you’ll soon have another cigarette. Normally, you may go at least an hour or two without a cigarette.

So What Is Actually Happening?

Think when it comes to before you were a smoker. You never craved cigarettes. And now that you smoke, do they make you a much happier person? Nope.

The way that cravings work is that you smoke cigarettes to fetch yourself back to normality, the the “ground level”, where you were when you were a non-smoker. And when you don’t have cigarettes then you are basically tardily sinking down. Like someone being tardily buried alive, you crave what will get you out of this hole, in this case – a cigarette!

So with smoking you are always sinking and the cravings are just your natural response to this sinking feeling. Have a cigarette and the cravings are extinguished!

When I Stop, How Long Will They Last?

When you quit smoking, your cravings will get worse. It’s kind of like being tardily buried up to your head. As more time passes by, you will want a cigarette even more. After with regards to 3 days to a week, you’ll reach greatest or most complete or best possible cravings. If you are using willpower to stop then you will have to not give in now.

Then you’ll grow used to your circumstance and the cravings will gradually decrease rapidly over time.

Will The Cravings Disappear?

The problem with cravings is that they’ll never genuinely disappear. After you reach your peak then they will tardily disappear. But most smokers say that they’ll be there for life.

Also what may occur is that you may be walking down the street 2 years after quitting and abruptly get a huge craving. Most ex-smokers will undertake to put it out of their mind but numerous will also relapse. I know smokers who have quit for 10 years and then started again.

Does Everyone Get Cravings?

People who use established willpower based methods of stopping smoking always get cravings. But there is another technique that is used by a silent minority of smokers and thousands of people quit each year using methods that don’t implicate any willpower or cravings whatsoever. These methods don’t use smoking aids and they are very similar to cognitive behavioural therapy.