I’m sure every time you tried to quit smoking you quickly discovered how long you can go between cigarettes.
An interesting study involving Israeli flight attendants offered some curious insights.
Flight attendants were selected for two main routes. One from Tel Aviv to Europe, taking 3 hours and the other flying to New York taking 11 hours.
I ask my clients to guess how long different flight attendants might go before wanting to smoke. The answers are variable, but generally focus on the short term.
The results of the study show a different, but consistent result.
Those on the 3 hour European flight on average started wanting a cigarette 20 minutes before the flight landed.
Those on the 11-hour flight from New York on average started wanting a cigarette 20 minutes before the flight landed.
But how is this possible, I hear you think. The result showed that it was not the time attendees were without nicotine, but the time before they expected to be able to smoke.
Aside from landing delays, they could estimate from experience how long it takes to land, disembark, and be able to leave the airport.
So the difference is the story they told themselves. that is, I can smoke in about three and a half hours or I can smoke in about eleven and a half hours.
The point is that it is the story and not the nicotine or its brain receptors and time that controlled the moment of desire.
If you were to calculate the time between your cigarettes, you would find that it was your schedule, which dictated your smoking habit and not your cravings.
Many clients have told me that they would expect to smoke less on vacation due to the lack of work stress, but instead smoke more, simply because they can.
Many tell me that they have to smoke every two hours but that they can survive a long flight just fine. Some may have a brief craving, but it quickly goes away simply because they have no other choice.
And what about you? How long can you get by without a cigarette if you have to, or how long will you allow between cigarettes if you have no restrictions? And what does this tell you about your habit and your addictions?
If you really think about it for a while, you must surely be confused by this drug that has a specific life in your bloodstream but behaves so differently under all sorts of circumstances.