forum Smokers (of whatever) of notebook, how do i write withdraws?

Started February 06, 2021 by @ClownB*tch eco

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Just asking cuz one of my characters smokes

I used to smoke, but I actually gave it up very easily…Maybe there are some people that the nicotine doesn't work on, just like I've actually had some cats that don't behave in a slovenly way around catnip or even seem to show any interest in it.

If somebody does develop a chemical dependency, then their experiences might be different from mine, but I suspect that if it becomes "addictive" then for me at least it was more like an addictive habit than a physiological dependency. More like a routine, in which if you're prevented from doing it then it shouldn't logically be the end of the world, but it's natural to be annoyed or disappointed or sad or cranky.

Like being able to sit in the sun nook of a public library and read once a week…if that sun nook is getting repaired because of termites, then some people can't simply adjust and read somewhere else. It's not the same, and maybe the one thing they were looking forward to all week can't happen and then that's like a week wasted. Or looking forward to every Wednesday afternoon when there's a happy hour at a corner place that makes the best chocolate egg cream things in shotglasses, but they're out of egg creams that day. Some people…not exactly take for granted that a thing is going to be a specific way, but they just feel so much better with regular reliability.

Sometimes it can be very serious, like if 20 minutes standing outside and getting into a routine like puffing tobacco is the only way that they found to be effective at deescalating sarcasm, or clearing their mind enough to make sense of a lot of emotional information that they've been given…and then they can't do that because they don't want to die of lung cancer like their best friend's spouse did last year, or something…then they're going to miss it, and they're going to feel like they need it, and it's going to be difficult to find something else that becomes a habit to them because of how equally effective it is. Sometimes no other thing to do is equally effective for what a person needs.

So for me the substance in question wasn't tobacco or any other kind of smoking, but it became a little bit like getting "hangry", like how some people actually don't notice that they're hungry because their stomach doesn't hurt, but others notice that they're impatient and snappish, and maybe they feel dizzy and tired and everything is too noisy and they react to that with anger…but if you sit them down in front of a mound of mashed potatoes or stick a cupcake in their mouth, and they eat, then they behave and feel normal because it turns out that it wasn't the fault of whoever was saying something that they snarked at, and it wasn't the fault of the noise. They just needed to eat something, and then they quit acting like they hate the world.

It's like "hangry" except I feel it more in the head than in the stomach, as in like a headache, and less of the general fatigue and physical oversensitivity and more that like "If I can just do that one thing (that I'm addicted to) then the whole world and my life won't hurt so much for maybe just a few minutes!" And if I can't do it because I'm making the effort to make good life choices, then I'll still get "hangry but not". So it's like I really, really, really want something but I have to try not to think about what it is…and then I get cranky.

Personally I have never felt withdrawal, even though I smoke—even when I chainsmoked for a month I didn’t feel any negative effects when cutting down to two a day—so I wish I could help you there.

When I'm going through withdrawals I get really irritated and I have a short temper and very little patience and I'm usually in a bad mood. Also, my cravings for nic get really bad like it feels like a physical weight on my chest. Sometimes people try to get over the cravings with eating, which is what I did. I ate a lot of popcorn that day lol.