Quitting Smoking
 

How long does it take before the cravings stop if one quits smoking cold turkey? I mean how long does it take to quit. Anyone have any tips for quitting cold turkey. It's been 33 hours since my last cigarette.

Re: Quitting Smoking
 

The conventional wisdom I always heard was 2 weeks, but when I went cold turkey, I still found myself wanting a cigarette when I was drinking for at least a month.

I quit 2 hours ago and again 15 minutes ago.....so I think the time varies. Good Luck.

chew gum??

i smoked for 6 years and just up and stopped one day last year at the end of October, here I am going on 6 months later and I still have no craving or uge. At the beginning I'd get the "a cigarette would be nice right now" but that was the extent of my cravings. I went from atleast a pack a day to none.

I quit cold turkey over 5 years ago. I think it was about two weeks for the real cravings to go away. I played with a pen or pencil, to keep my hands busy. You really need to watch what you eat in these first days. If you don't pay attention, you will eat to replace the satisfaction you got from the smoke and gain quite a few pounds real quick. It is best to try to stay out of places where you will come in contact with a lot of smoke, Namely bars. being in that environment will only make it tougher to stay off the cigarettes. If you go drinking, then you will find all of the sudden, you have one in you hand and then have to start over.
Good luck and remember, it is worth it to quit. Just be patience.

Is there an over the hump day, a day when it starts getting easier? I've only been smoking for a year.

I stopped cold turkey 5 months ago, with succes!
for an over the hump day, yes, I found the fourth day starting getting a tiny bit easier (I didn't yell that day and smiled for a second or so...) after that... second week, still difficult but not comparable to the first 3 days...
Then slowly, you find yourself from thinking every second at cigarettes to every minute, then hours and then, hey!, not once in the whole day you thinked about a cigarette.

If you want to set milestones, go for the fours (four days, four weeks, four months, ...)

I hope you succeed!

Zyban and lots of joints worked for me. Now if I can just beat the M&M addition...

I still get surprise cravings every now and then. I quit just over three years ago.

It'll start getting easier soon, I promise. Drink a bunch of water (like, a BUNCH) to flush out your system.

I see 3 smoking threads in the top 10 latest threads... Maybe some condensing is in order?

zyban or wellbutrin (same drug) worked very well for me. cravings were slight and fleeting - I literally laughed at how lame they were.

To reduce cravings:
- Orbit gum, green variety - can't beat it.
- Drink half your normal coffee intake for first two weeks.
- Don't drink for at least a month.
- Keep low fat, low cal health snacks handy. Popsicles work well for me at home and old fashioned brick-hard granola bars at work.
- Drink extra water - being thirsty can feel like needing a cig. Buy some straws for drinking h20
- Bad craving - breath really deeply and slowly for 30 secs. to a min.
- If above doesn't work then literally take a walk around the block.
- Stick with it - if you fail, keep trying b/c it gets easier each time.

I use patch at weakest strength for a week to take the edge off then cold turkey it. This current quit will be my last - sick of smoking and worrying about death, etc.

I tried the same method and it worked grand, I haven't smoked in 3 1\2 years, but I like brownies instead of M&M's.

When I was 13 I made a note to never start smoking, so I didn't have to quit.

That said, if I were in your situation I would be giving some poor girlf an angry, violent anal invasion every time I had a craving. I'm not trying to be funny either, I would think that focusing that energy on something like going batshit insane on a punching bag, sprinting down the street until I dropped or something would help keep me from hurting from the cravings.

Grin and bear it I guess eh?