Still Craving Tobacco, after 15 months. Help!

Edgar--

Has your sister been under stress lately? Has she been traveling with smoking friends? Is she bored?

honestly, a cold beer works for me

Get busy. GO DO something so that you dont even have time to think about it

Fill your house with people. Have a last minute dinner party. Nothing fancy, just something to keep you busy and dealing with things other then smoking

Remember there is no physical reason to be having this craving right now. It is all psychological at this point. Something you can completely control

good luck 'sis'

I would she suggest that she chew some sugarless gum.

Can she get through a half an hour? An hour? Sometimes a whole day seems overwhelming, but to be able to get through an hour means that (as shewolf says) the psychological stuff starts to blow over. Get through an hour, then string another one to that one, and so on.

My sister lives far from me. I don't know her friends and personal habits. But, I do recall that when I tried quitting, if I smelled tobacco, I immediately got myself some smokes. I will forward all comments, and see if I can get some feedback.

Two things work for me, whole stick cinnamon broken up into one inch chips. Pop one in your mouth and suck on it. Does wonders for that tobacco craving and empty mouth/fingers feeling that makes you want to gnaw on something.

Another is large glasses of nothing but crushed ice and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice over the ice. Chew on the ice. The smell of the lemon and the fresh coolness of the ice helps cut that craving when around other smokers.

I won't suggest toothpicks yet again, as they really don't quite do the trick. Helped me though, however tacky looking.

I like butrflynet's cinnamon inch thing.

Dunno about the ice. i'm an ice fan with lemon or lime myself but certain kinds of chewing are bad for your teeth... so I'd be careful about chomping any big chunks.

I think when I was most jogging-fervant was within the time I quit smoking.
Once you get started on it, it is partially substituting an addiction for an addiction, but ... I enjoyed it and I think it halped banish any remnants of cig neediness. Now, all these years later, I might think of something like tai chi instead.

Tell her, edgar, that it's normal (if you haven't already).

Tell her to crave them all she wants but do not buy any and, the bottom line, absolutely do not put a cigarette to her lips. Period.
Why did she quit in the first place? Did she do it for herself or for someone else?

I stopped smoking in 1994 and actually this is the first time I've stopped and thought about how long I have been off of them. I guess roughly 13 years.

And then suddenly I'll get the urge and will want to smoke. It's always stress related, and I recognize it is stress related and I make myself stop whatever I am doing and start doing a series of deep breathing exercises until I have the urge under control.

I have this silly sister that still smokes, and when she is not smoking she is chewing nicorettes.

She tried using nicorettes to get off ciggys and got addicted to the nicorettes. Now she has a double addiction.

Deep breathing exercises does it for me. Plus the fact that I can no longer tolerate the odor buildup that nicotine leaves. It really sickens me and its hard to believe that I still get the urge sometimes. But that is the nature of addiction.

Here is my sister's first response:

Howdy! Thanks for the info on the smoking problem. I'll try one of the methods,if it doesn't work then I'll try one of the other methods,hopeully one will work for me. I know why I'm having this problem right now, or at least I think I know. I am under a lot of stress right now , It will go away when I get my trailer house moved onto my property. I can't just up and leave here because there is too much at stake to lose if I did. I am trying to look at the future as much as possible to keep my mind off the situation I am in.

The message concludes with non related stuff.

Is she a victim if Katrina or Rita?

No; she just led a nomad's life most of her existance.

Anything peppermint might help: peppermint tea, gum, or repeatedly
brushing her teeth.

Mantra for stress:

This, too, shall pass. This, too, shall pass. This, too, shall pass.

Edgar--

Itchy feet seem to run in your family.

We were born on the wing, so to speak.

Born in a wardrobe trunk, cradled in a car trunk....

Itchy feet are both born and made.

The other night I watched part of The Matrix 3 and Mary Alice, who played the Oracle, reeeeally made those ciggies look good. I was licking my lips. When I'm craving them, which after almost six years smokefree still happens from time to time, the one person I CANNOT watch is Bette Davis. Absolutely no one smoked like her. You could almost taste it, she made it look so good. arrrrggghhhhh!

I was fortunate, in that I began to hate tobacco, the smell of it, the taste of it - I couldn't start again if I tried.