I have been thinking about putting up a topic for quitters who aren't Newbies anymore and/or have been quit for over a year. Sometimes we do get cravings and/or thoughts about smoking, so we can put our thoughts and anything that happened to us after the initial one year. I will go first because I had a thought last night, I wouldn't call it a craving, so it was just a thought. I went out with very good friends of ours last night for dinner. And the wife of the couple who we are friends with smokes. When we finished dinner and left the restaurant, she lights up which is fine with me, I am not one of those bad Ex-smokers that complain that people don't smoke in front of me. Anyway, the moment she lit up, for a split second I looked at her cigarette and just went back to looking around. It really didn't bother me, which is good, but we are always addicts, and we cannot ever go back! That is why this site is so important.👍

I want to have this thread for people who are quit from a year plus. @MarylandQuitter Can you put this as a pin up on the top, so people can post here, if they had the same sort of situation that I did yesterday? I guess that's what you call it when a post stays on the top. Thanks!!👍

I still had weird thoughts, not exactly cravings, but thoughts about lighting up after my first year smoke free.

I have also been someone who has had weird issues with smoking dreams where I would smoke and either feel good or horrible about it, and then wake up and, for a brief moment, wonder if I broke my quit. Then I realize that it was just a dream.

I have not had a craving or serious thought about lighting up in a long time but I still get the occasional smoking dream that I remember after I woke up.

Nicotine is a very addictive drug, both physically and psychologically. It is said that after the first few days nicotine free, your physical addiction becomes dormant, unless you consume nicotine again. You are still an addict but the physical cravings aren't there. I I believe that is true based on my experience.

I think the psychological addiction is the long term threat that does, sadly, lead some ex-smokers back to smoking. You have certain memories or associations that are linked to smoking and some people unfortunately let their guard down with the whole thought of "one smoke will not hurt." After you have been quit for a while, you have to watch out for that occasional psychological thought coming out of nowhere. Those thoughts are not often but they are what you need to watch out for long into your quit.

Guard your quit, even years into it.

4 hours ago, johnny5 said:

I think the psychological addiction is the long term threat

^^^ Absolutely agree with this @johnny5.

I lost many quits before this one by treating quitting as if it was purely an abstinence issue. Which of course it is at the beginning. But the addiction has deep emotional and psychological tap roots. Abstinence by itself, with no other understanding or healing, becomes brittle with time. Breakable.

For me, becoming a permanent nonsmoker requires not just abstinence, but deep recovery work - to heal and build resilience, to understand that triggers and cravings may always be there, but I am not controlled by them any longer, because have tools and choices and a supportive community here.

Your post is timely @QuittingGirl because just this evening I was watching a move where the protagonist sat on a log outside in the forest and smoked a cigarette. It looked so good. I wanted a smoke too, even after 4+ years of being quit.

But I’m not in real danger… because I can recognize that feeling as nostalgia (not a command), and because I have this forum to come share things on. Plus I never ever EVER want to go thru withdrawal again!

KTQ friends.