Can you articulate what cravings feel like?

xoxyx

I have always found it difficult to describe how I felt when I wanted a cigarette. It was like the top of my mouth wanted to be hugged, kind of. I'm talking about that feeling when you go on a long plane journey and you want to smoke. Not the feeling of irritability or anything - the physical sensation.

How would you describe it??

OldGoat

Hunger of the lungs rather then the belly.

Elle Collins

z_topaz wrote: »

How would you describe it??

Depends how long I've been without a cigarette. After about two hours I begin to develop very painful aches in my jaws. That's the start of it.

xoxyx

Really? I remember I always first got a feeling around the roof of my mouth. It was like it was humming sharply. I have never ever been able to properly describe it but always assumed that other people went through the same thing.

I got the jaw thing too if I hadn't had one in a while, but I think that was more due to clenching when tense.

Think my lungs were more grateful than hungry tbh!

Grolschevik

I would begin to feel very hot and start sweating...

brownacid

A kind of pressure deep in my chest if I haven't had one in about 2 hours, then if I start to think about it I kind of get a lighteheaded feeling like the way your head feels when your dying of the man-flu and have taken all sorts to fix ya. If I don't have one then I start to get very irratible, fidgety and un able to concentrate.

2manyconditions

An intense longing.

I feel it in my mouth. Its tingly, or feels like its missing something. Sometimes it waters.

I feel like crxp actually cause I haven't hadn't smoked in 4 years until last Saturday. On an extrememly boring night out (and I was quite drunk) and with the help of the bouncer managed to buy 20 and smoke 3.

Now I've had cravings all day today. And I'm afraid of my sh!te I'm gonna cave.

I'm very disappointed, but still feel like a ciggi.

(the last 17 are somewhere in this room)

Goldstein

You can't sit still. Like a restless feeling that you want, no need, to go somewhere right now (But you don't care about where you go, so long as there's a cigaratte there) Out in the rain, to a smoking area, for a drive, whatever, but you want to go there and now!

Concentration becomes increasingly difficult as you become pre-occupied with your plight. Irritability and anxiety start to rise and you'll find yourself much more fidgety than usual. I also found I used to breathe shallowly subconsciously because what I really wanted to take a deep breath of was a cigarette, mere air seemed almost pointless in comparison - I exaggerate, but you get the idea.

You feel like you're imprisoned but you're completely free so you may find yourself wandering around the house or further afield for no reason. You turn to Food / drink / other tasks etc to fill the void and quell the (now extreme) restlessness but they won't do the trick, like that feeling you have when you want to take a deep, satisfying yawn but can't.

Persist and the craving will subside slightly, but it'll be back. Smoke and you've pressed the reset button and the countdown is on until it starts again (Assuming you go that long without another one)

xoxyx

2manyconditions wrote: »

An intense longing.

I feel it in my mouth. Its tingly, or feels like its missing something. Sometimes it waters.

I feel like crxp actually cause I haven't hadn't smoked in 4 years until last Saturday. On an extrememly boring night out (and I was quite drunk) and with the help of the bouncer managed to buy 20 and smoke 3.

Now I've had cravings all day today. And I'm afraid of my sh!te I'm gonna cave.

I'm very disappointed, but still feel like a ciggi.

(the last 17 are somewhere in this room)

Oh 2many - I may be a bit late, but don't go back. I'm off almost five months and delighted. Four years is amazing. Everybody slips sometimes, but just accept it as a slip and move on!

Thanks for your reply though. I think your cravings are the same as mine - that mouth feeling.

I eat a raw carrot when I'm craving and then I'm too busy choking on carrot pieces in my throat to want to smoke!