Will I Miss Smoking Forever?

When you quit smoking, one of the first and longest-lasting symptoms of nicotine withdrawal is craving cigarettes. Nicotine cravings will stop—they don’t last forever. The longer you go without having a cigarette, the less intense the cravings will be. 

In this article, we’ll talk about why you miss smoking, whether you’ll always be addicted to nicotine, and why smokers relapse after they quit. 

Why Do I Miss Smoking?

Quitting smoking is a process. You have to get through both the physical and mental dependence your body has on nicotine. Maybe smoking was a way for you to reduce stress or bond with friends. Or maybe it was just a habit. Either way, it’s not likely that you’ll never think of cigarettes ever again—but you won't think about them all the time.

Cigarette cravings are usually the worst in the first few days after quitting. Over the first month of quitting, you’ll usually start feeling these urges less and less. Once you hit six months without smoking, the cravings for a cigarette will probably be hardly there and may even be completely gone.

An older study found that while nearly 60% of smokers reported at least some desire to smoke within the past year, only around 11% had major, prolonged cravings for a cigarette. More recent research has supported these figures, suggesting that only a minority of former smokers have intense cravings beyond six months after they quit.

The thing about smoking cigarettes is that it’s not just the dependence on nicotine that ties you to them. It’s also the associations you’ve made between cigarettes and parts of your life. You might not even be aware of these links until you quit and all of a sudden, it seems like random things make you want a cigarette. 

For example, maybe you get in the car to go to work and are hit with an intense craving. You think about it and realize that you always smoked while you were driving. 

People can also become associated with smoking—maybe you always took a “smoke break” with a coworker or had a heart-to-heart with your sister while you were sharing a cigarette. These associations are powerful. Recognizing them and finding ways to change them is going to be key to quitting smoking and avoiding a relapse. 

Be a Lifelong Learner 

Every smoke-free day you get through is teaching you how to live your life without cigarettes. In a way, it’s like being in school again as you work on reprogramming your brain and body’s responses to triggers. 

Instead of thinking of a craving for a cigarette as a failure, try to see it as an opportunity to succeed by choosing something that’s not smoking. Replace “practice makes perfect” with “practice makes prepared.” The more you practice resisting a craving for a cigarette, the easier it will get to resist the urge.

While you might be able to avoid some of these triggers at first, you can’t avoid them forever. During your first smoke-free year, you'll run into a lot of situations where you’ll face triggers. Taking them on is a necessary part of recovery from nicotine addiction.

Keep Track of the Calendar

You might be surprised and even a little caught off guard to get a craving for a cigarette months after you quit. 

For example, let’s say you’re an avid gardener who quit smoking in the middle of winter and the cravings seem to lessen with every week that passes. Spring rolls around, you head out to the garden and after a morning of digging…you suddenly want a cigarette. 

Changing seasons, especially when they’re linked to activities, can be a big smoking trigger. If this happens, don’t panic. It doesn’t mean you’re backsliding. It’s just your body and mind making an old connection. 

You might find it useful to look at the calendar as you’re making a quit plan and try to predict what seasonal changes could bring about a craving. Will you be taking a vacation next summer or seeing your family at a wedding? Will you be going back to school or picking up a hobby? Will you be doing certain chores like shoveling snow or raking your yard? 

Just because you’ve acknowledged that these changes could trigger a cigarette craving doesn’t mean they will. But if you think about them beforehand, you can prepare yourself for the possibility. 

Change What Smoking Means to You

The way you think about smoking influences how you feel about it. Maybe you know an ex-smoker who says that "they'll always miss smoking,” even though they haven't had a puff in 20 years.

Hearing that might freak you out—are you really going to miss smoking forever? Here’s something to consider: People who reminisce about how great smoking was and how much they loved smoking never changed what cigarettes meant to them.  

You might believe you love smoking, but the truth is, you probably love the feeling you get when a low level of nicotine in your body is boosted by having a cigarette.

Nicotine withdrawal starts as soon as you stub out a cigarette. Your physical need to ease the discomfort you feel gets linked to whatever you happen to be doing at the time. 

This happens many times each day. Over time, your mind starts to think that smoking is a necessary component of leading a fulfilled life. You may believe that life will be dull without cigarettes when in reality, you’re associating physical addiction with pleasure. 

When you quit, you have to change your mindset to one that breaks those links. You can quit smoking and won’t miss smoking forever if you change how you think about it and what it means to you. 

How to Change Your Mind About Smoking

Understanding the power of addiction and the health dangers of smoking are part of making the decision to quit and avoiding a relapse. 

As a smoker, you might have made a point to avoid these realities. But being honest with yourself without being hard on yourself is an important step in reframing what smoking means in your life and ultimately feeling like it no longer is a meaningful part of your life. 

Here are some steps you can take to start changing your mindset about smoking:

• Get real about the risks: Read up on the research that shows the harms of smoking. You don’t have to think of it as a "scare tactic," though. Being honest with yourself about the realities of smoking—from the health risks to the financial toll—is not about punishing yourself for doing something “bad for you.” Instead, it can encourage you to focus on the good things that will happen when you quit smoking. 
• Find an online smoking cessation support group: Even if you have friends and family members who have quit smoking who are supporting you on your journey, it’s OK if there are times when you’d rather hear from someone else—even strangers. Joining a local support group or an online community for people who are going through the process of quitting extends your support network and allows you to see the range of experiences people have when they quit. What works for one person may not work for you, and the experiences that one person has may not be the same as the ones that you have. 

You’re Craving a Cigarette—Now What? 

You might have gone months or even a year without craving a cigarette only to have the urge pop up again.

In the moment, you might freeze up and feel like you’ve failed. Those associations can be sneaky and powerful—but you’re not powerless against them. 

If you’ve been preparing and have a plan, you’ll be able to get through a smoking craving no matter when it happens. 

• Take care of yourself: The basics of self-care are the foundation of your plan to quit smoking and resist cravings. That means getting plenty of sleep, nourishing your body with a balanced diet, drinking plenty of water, and finding ways to cope with stress.
• Create new habits: When you take smoking out of the equation, certain activities might feel a little off at first. Instead of thinking about what’s been taken away, try to frame it as an opportunity to change up a routine. For example, if you always lit up on your way to work, try taking a new route. Not only does the change shake up your brain and body’s expectations for the drive, but it also gives you something to focus on besides a cigarette (after all, you don’t want to take a wrong turn).
  
• Ask for help: You don’t have to face the hard moments alone. Reach out to a trusted friend or family member, or someone from your support group, when you feel an urge to smoke. If talking through the urge helps, this can be a safe place to do that. But if you don’t want to talk about it, a chat with a friend can also be a distraction. 
• Focus on rewards, not punishment: If you feel the urge to smoke, don’t punish yourself. Don’t take away something you look forward to and try to force yourself to “do better.” Cutting things out of your life that you love will only leave a hole that you might be tempted to fill with a cigarette. Instead, focus on rewards when you hit milestones. For example, maybe when you get to six months without a cigarette, you treat yourself to a new look that emphasizes how much healthier your hair, skin, and nails got after you stopped smoking.
• Find substitutes: Chewing sugar-free gum, sucking on a minty candy, or having a crunchy veggie snack gives your mouth something to do when you feel the urge for a cigarette. Just keep an eye on calories and portions—sometimes, people use food to cope when they quit smoking and may even gain weight from the switch. Another health-supporting thing you can replace smoking? Brushing your teeth! Not only does it get your hands and mouth active, but it also helps your mouth heal from the damage cigarettes cause.