What Does a Nicotine Craving Feel Like?

What does a nicotine craving feel like? Why don’t people just plain quit smoking, already? It’s not that hard, is it? Well, let me tell you what the first 72 hours (the worst) of nicotine withdrawal feels like, and perhaps you can understand a bit why kicking the habit is such a beast.

Shall I remind everyone that nicotine is the most addictive substance on earth? This means, that even though the mind is saying, “no more cigarettes/chew/snus/snuff!” the body is saying, “Gimme! Gimme! Gimmmmeeeeee! Screw you!” It’s a tough battle. The mind will alternately say “I’m done” and “Well, maybe one a day won’t be so bad”- this is before the actual quitting even begins. Your mind will justify smoking without your consent. Your body will put you in panic mode just thinking about quitting, so just to shut everybody up, you’ll smoke a whole pack in 3 hours until you want to barf. Until you can actually hit that point of pure exhaustion (mind/body and “other” mind fighting it out) you can’t even attempt quitting smoking. You have to really drag yourself through the mud for a few days, “panic smoking” because you are going to quit. At least this prepares you for the battle to come…

Day 1 of nicotine cravings.

What a monster. When you give up smoking (or chewing, nicotine in general) you are basically giving up a bad relationship. And you tell your nicotine “goodbye- I’m done!” and you slam the door…then, just like ending a bad relationship, you want to have “just one more”, or call just one last time. Look them up on Facebook. Say you’re sorry and you didn’t mean it. Drive by their house. You pace around your home bawling (seriously) because you feel lonely (also seriously) because now you don’t have your friend who was always by your side. You know you’re doing the right thing, but your head hurts, you’re shaking, you worry that you can’t make it, and this is before the actual craving for nicotine sets in. At this point, day 1, you’re just dealing with the emotions of the whole thing. Your body hasn’t realized you aren’t giving it nicotine anymore yet. Everything you are experiencing is emotional. Something died in your house- and it was your addiction. You know this is an awesome thing. But just like any divorce, divorcing nicotine is mind-wrenching. And you’re only 2 hours in. The worst is when you let your first “habitual” smoke time pass you by- like your morning smoke or your coffee smoke. You look at your hands and they are empty- and you just drop your head and cry…. it’s a terrifying and deeply upsetting ordeal, and it leaves you physically and emotionally drained.

But hang in there- by the end of the day, your body has (kinda) begun to realize that, hey- something is up! Your mind has already accepted the fact that the nicotine is gone, and even though the smokes are still in the drawer you ignore them because you got through the first 6 hours (and 6 “habitual” smoke breaks passed by) OK. Thank God for coffee. You realize that while your nicotine is gone, your good friend gum, coffee, peppermint, etc is there to console you and help you through the rough times. You thank your coffeepot for being so kind to you. Coffeepot doesn’t ask where cigarette went- coffeepot simply fills your cup with yummy brew to warm your cold tears. You will be OK…hey, look- time for bed! What is that super hungry feeling you have in the back of your throat? Hmm…

Day 2 of nicotine cravings.

You wake up with your mind/body literally screaming at you to have a smoke. Did you really just dream about cigarettes all night? Holy crap- you thought yesterday sucked- you’d rather be bawling over missing your cigarettes than physically feeling like you need to be eating them whole out of the box. The craving for a cigarette is so intense it’s the weirdest, most painful physical urge you’ve ever felt in your life (and you’ve been horny during 3 hours of church before). You get up, and you’re dizzy- you can’t see straight. Did you pour coffee or not? When did you sit down? Who turned the TV on? You are in such an intense fog that you think someone drugged you in your sleep- and all your mind can actually focus on is the fact that you have 4 packs of smokes in your top bedroom drawer. You can taste that smoke as solid as a piece of pie. You need a smoke, for your own physical health. Really. Now that your body has realized the nicotine is gone, guess what? Welcome to withdrawals- the world of dizziness, nausea, agitation, pacing, extreme exhaustion, massive headaches, and extreme hunger for anything but food.

You go lay down since you can hardly drink your coffee. Your head is spinning- your mind is saying, “Way to go! You kicked that cigarette’s ass! So long, loser!” congratulating you on a whole day without smoking. Your body is saying, “Oh, my Gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooodddddddddddd- I can’t take it! You’re killing me! You are absolutely killing me!” It’s the strangest sensation on earth….so you think…

Then, suddenly, your body hits confusion mode. It is the oddest sensation ever. Your mind somehow convinces your body that you have NEVER smoked, so when you get cravings for a cigarette, your body asks you, “why? What is this feeling?” Your body rejects everything you do, wondering what you normally do with the cravings you have, and guesses, “oh yeah- don’t you usually smoke?” But your mind says, “Uhh…NO!” so your body goes, “Really? Then what do I do now, then? Are you sure you don’t usually smoke? I feel like I usually smoke…” and your mind says, “Nope- never did…” and your body goes, “uhh…OK. Do I drink coffee then? Stand up and stretch? Walk in circles? Why is this feeling still here?”
Basically, your body and your mind totally separate from one another, and you wander about for hours with this intense hungry feeling in the back of your throat, and by the end of the day, neither you brain nor your body has any idea why this hunger is there or what they are supposed to do about it. It’s terrifying, confusing, makes you dizzy, you can’t sit still, you’re grumpy- it’s like you can’t remember if you turned the bath water off all day long and you keep checking, and the faucet was never turned on to begin with. But that weird paranoia of “did I?…” lasts all day. You keep drinking coffee, and both your mind and your body are surprised because coffee isn’t what either one was expecting. But what WAS it the body and mind was expecting? Can’t remember…thank goodness it’s almost time for bed. You can’t take any more of this…weirdness.

It does fade after the 2nd day- your mind and body somehow become one again, and admit to one another that hey, I think it was a cigarette we wanted yesterday, but I don’t think we need one today- do you? And both body and mind say, that coffee ain’t so bad. I think we’re good. Occasionally a surprised reaching for a phantom cigarette catches you off-guard, and you gently remind yourself that you don’t need it. Your body agrees. You quit justifying your quitting smoking anymore, and you still have that hungry feeling in the back of your throat. You now realize it’s a nicotine craving, and since you know what it is, it’s not so bad- you can actually ignore it for the most part. At least twice a day you have a panic moment- you forgot your smokes! You forgot to smoke! And you have gotten rid of the smokes in the top drawer- you didn’t even cry when they left the house, but in your panic moment you look for them (where’s even the ashtray?) until you realize that you are a non-smoker now. Oh, yeah. Then you calm down and feel OK again. Not great, that likely comes later (like a few weeks- until then, you are OK at best, body and mind), but OK. Another day down…one day at a time…

The first 72 hours after quitting smoking are the worst, but the nicotine in the body flushes out by the third day, and your body begins to wind down, and relax. Within a few weeks the mind “retrains” to rely on stimulation other than nicotine, and eventually your brain allows you to physically and emotionally almost forget entirely that you ever smoked to begin with. But you have to let your body go through the first 3 days- and think of quitting this way- you only have to really quit smoking ONCE! All it takes is not consuming another tiny bit of nicotine, and you are a non-smoker. Easier said than done, but absolutely doable, and worth it.

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