Comment by michaelwww
12 years ago
I believe it's called "tapering off" The cravings go away as the dosage goes down, since a sip isn't enough to increase or maintain tolerance.
12 years ago
I believe it's called "tapering off" The cravings go away as the dosage goes down, since a sip isn't enough to increase or maintain tolerance.
Actually, nicotine has a rather short half-life of about 2 hours [1], which means even smaller doses quickly restore it close to previous levels. So in essence, tapering off is like going through many shorter withdrawals (doesn't sound scary but its actually a bit of a torture compared to quitting cold turkey).
[1]: http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/documentStore/m/a/u/mau01c00/...
My withdrawal symptoms don't become noticeable until the 4 hour mark. Quitting cold-turkey from a high daily intake level can be quite difficult for some people, who have intense emotional reactions. This doesn't happen for everyone, so those that say "quit cold turkey, I did" don't know how bad it gets for some. If I understand right, it's about how fast normal dopamine production recovers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotine
Edit: > which means even smaller doses quickly restore it close to previous levels
Not for me it doesn't. I'm quite aware of how much nicotine I have in my system and what effect it's having.