Mental withdrawal symptoms six years after last cigarette!

Stabat Mater said:

I thought I were through this a few years ago, but apparently not
In recent weeks I've been so drawn towards nicotine that its absurd!
The last time I felt this way was Christmas three years ago, but now for some stupid reason all I can think of is smoking.

People say that physical withdrawal is the worst, but that's nonsense. It's the psychological withdrawal that lasts seemingly forever! I'm dead serious! When I quit cold Turkey six years ago i suffered from abstinence for two weeks and then i were fine, but this mental mess went on for two-three years on and off.
To feel this desire now for the first time in over half a decade since quiting is downright depressing.

I guess ones brain never leave the idea of smoking if it once were addicted.
Sorry for my rant, but I just felt like typing this somewhere.

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You may be afflicted with a demon of nicotine. Don't laugh, it is more common than you'd expect. A friend of mine was delivered and instantly lost all cravings. Smoking has to be one of the most pointless of human activities. Yet it is highly addictive. My daughter and her husband spend thousands of dollars a year on cigarettes. They struggle to find money to keep their car on the road. 4 kids, they need a car. Neither daughter or son-in-law are stupid. Satan is behind this social blight, as he is with many others.

Stabat Mater said:

To feel this desire now for the first time in over half a decade since quiting is downright depressing.

I guess ones brain never leave the idea of smoking if it once were addicted.
Sorry for my rant, but I just felt like typing this somewhere.

Click to expand...

I imagine an addiction never goes all the way away. Could it be some stresses and anxieties that bring it to the surface. I've felt some of that lately but I never had a tobacco addiction to fall back on. Courage in your resistance to falling back into this.

Stabat Mater said:

I thought I were through this a few years ago, but apparently not
In recent weeks I've been so drawn towards nicotine that its absurd!
The last time I felt this way was Christmas three years ago, but now for some stupid reason all I can think of is smoking.

People say that physical withdrawal is the worst, but that's nonsense. It's the psychological withdrawal that lasts seemingly forever! I'm dead serious! When I quit cold Turkey six years ago i suffered from abstinence for two weeks and then i were fine, but this mental mess went on for two-three years on and off.
To feel this desire now for the first time in over half a decade since quiting is downright depressing.

I guess ones brain never leave the idea of smoking if it once were addicted.
Sorry for my rant, but I just felt like typing this somewhere.

Click to expand...

It's actually true. We just get used to not having one, but some of us end up having craves here and there regardless of how many years has passed.

I wish they can make an actual cig that reverses nicotine completely.

I still have occasional cravings and have relapsed once or twice over the past several years. Maybe something is triggering the memory. I like to distract myself and remember how the tobacco companies deliberately add addictive chemicals to make cigarettes even more addictive. They add addictive chemicals for the sake of addiction. Straight, unprocessed tobacco probably wouldn't have been so addictive. Isn't that infuriating? Google 'how many chemicals are added to cigarettes"

It had been something like 35 years clean of cigarettes when I chatted with a guy who was saying how he quit years ago. He said something that stuck with me, "And I know I don't dare pick up the first one now." I had concluded the same thing years ago. I have continued to believe that God, who freed me from the addiction in the first place, wanted me to stay out of that trap. That's what has kept me clean for close to 45 years. Oddly, the time I wanted a cigarette the most was during pregnancy - when I had every reason to avoid it! Spirit of addiction - yea, I could go along with that. Resist such spirits! Lately I've had that same inclination now and then, and my answer is always, I know I dare not pick up the first one." Even now. It's a NO. No, go away.

Now along those same lines, (take note that I'm inserting a health advice disclaimer here - I'm only commenting, not advising!) I've wondered if there is any relationship with nicotine in the body with how the body uses a B-vitamin (Niacin, B3) which is also called nicotinic acid. It functions in a lot of areas in our health, but I'll leave you to research it if you care to and than do whatever you think best with what you find. For me, the draw was the relationship between B3 and neurotransmitters, which has a lot to do with how your brain maintains emotional balance and manages stress. It's not the only vitamin involved, but it was the one with the curious name. I'm all for stacking the deck when it comes to fortifying a weak inclination: build the fence around the problem (or around yourself, whichever works) so you can't fall in, and build up your body/mind/soul so you can more readily resist. Be encouraged, Friend.

Understand, our primary drivers are the need to avoid pain and the desire to attain pleasure. However, whatever is more 'real' in the moment is what will drive us. The desire to attain pleasure was more 'real' for you in the moment than the pain that I am sure you are aware of that comes with picking up the habit again in the long term.

You need to sit down and realign your brain.

What will it mean for you in 5,10,15,20 years if you keep smoking? What is all the pain associated with the habit?
What is all the pleasure associated to quitting? What will it mean for you in 5,10,15,20 years if you quit now?

Pray on this as well! Definitely ask God to relieve your affliction.

At the same time (as the ancient Greek saying goes) "With Athena use your hands, too."

God Bless
+++

It's a real thing for sure and it is terrible.

It seems like I will never be completely free from these periodic cravings either. But they are much less frequent for me than they used to be and much less powerful too.

It's the same with other things for me too. I just back up and take things one minute at a time until the power of it diminishes. It eventually does diminish. Of course I don't sit around and wait for it to, I get busy doing something productive and six hours later, I realize it has been gone for hours.

I hope you find a way to see how much better off you are without it.
God Bless you!

Stabat said:

I thought I were through this a few years ago, but apparently not
In recent weeks I've been so drawn towards nicotine that its absurd!
The last time I felt this way was Christmas three years ago, but now for some stupid reason all I can think of is smoking.

People say that physical withdrawal is the worst, but that's nonsense. It's the psychological withdrawal that lasts seemingly forever! I'm dead serious! When I quit cold Turkey six years ago i suffered from abstinence for two weeks and then i were fine, but this mental mess went on for two-three years on and off.
To feel this desire now for the first time in over half a decade since quiting is downright depressing.

I guess ones brain never leave the idea of smoking if it once were addicted.
Sorry for my rant, but I just felt like typing this somewhere.

Click to expand...

Withdrawal syndrome is really painful, especially when it leads to depression, when we think we can't live without something and the process of training our brain or even shifting our focus can be so demanding especially when we have no support around us. This is the time when I rely on podcasts and show like which really made me feel like someone is there to help us out.