Reciprocity

Yes it's an addiction Kdad but you are correct in your second response saying that the craving response occurs less often and isn't nearly as intense. After a long quit, and I would even say 1 year or more relapse is completely a mental thing. Yes we are nicotine addicts and those receptors in our brains are dormant but ever ready to be fully awakened if we foolishly think we can have just one for what ever reason. We can't have any. Plain and simple. As long as we understand that, we're good to go.

It's an addiction Kdad, plain & simple and we are all nicotine addicts. Weak moment years down the road - too much to drink at a social gathering & someone offers a smoke and you momentarily think; "I beat this smoking thing for years. I can have one .... it won't hurt". You have one or even a few drags and it awakens your junkie brain. A day or two later you buy a pack thinking you can just have another one. Surely you could smoke just one a day and not 20 or 30 like you used to. Within a week you're back up to a pack a day and the regret over what you did is crushing. It's really easy to maintain your quit once you have a full year or more under your belt but you must always guard against doing something foolish on a whim. People don't smoke years after they quit because they have some overwhelming urge to smoke again. It's always something that starts out very innocently but ends up badly. The circumstances vary but the story is always the same ..... I thought I could have just one!

OO

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Good to hear Foe! Keep on going

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Dammit!! I threw my money saved in the fire instead

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Hey JB! I'm just a little ahead of you in time at a year and a half or so and I still have thoughts, bordering on weak cravings for a smoke here and there. They are fleeting thoughts but they are strong enough still that when they do come, it's surprising and if I was in a weak moment and like you noted, if I actually had a cigarette handy, I might light up just on a whim. That's why we always have to be on our guard and aware that it CAN happen if we were to get careless. We see people coming back here after a year or more quit for this very reason. They dropped their guard just one time and fell for that sinister thought .... Surely I can have just one! Now just to put this in perspective for those behind us in their quits, these craves or thoughts of smoking are not in the same category as those we experience during our first months or even year of our quit. These thoughts of smoking or suggestions from deep in our mind that we should be lighting up are pretty weak and last only seconds and, they are not coming frequently which is what makes them dangerous. We aren't expecting them and most days we have no thoughts or urges to smoke. They come out of nowhere. I can't even identify a trigger when they come upon me. I will be just going about a normal everyday routine and one just comes into my head from nowhere. It's weird. But I do figure that these too will continue to get more and more infrequent as time goes by. Just like the rest of our quit though, progress is so gradual we don't notice it happening - it just does. That's it folks; time! It all just takes time so our job, once our quits are well established, is just to remain on guard and to be sure we aren't one of those coming back here after a year or so with our tails between our legs and starting this whole process over again.

OO

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