![It’s not how long since, it’s how long to [Smoking, but the same with anything]](https://myrise.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Its-not-how-long-since-its-how-long-to-Smoking-but-the-same-with-anything.jpeg)
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It’s amazing to think that up until the late 1980s you could smoke on a plane.
I have vague memories of people doing so.
The Australians were the first to ban smoking on planes in 1987 and the rest of the world followed suit shortly after.
Not long before that it had been practically encouraged.
“Complimentary cigars” on “men only” services in the 50s show how much the world has changed, in more ways than one.
Anyway……..
Studies into people’s cravings for smoking in the years after the ban showed a number of interesting things.
The most interesting (to me, at least) is what had the biggest effect on the levels of cravings.
It wasn’t how long SINCE their last smoke.
It was how long (or how soon) until their next one.
Right from the start of a short flight, people reported high levels of cravings.
They knew they would be able to smoke in an hour or two and really wanted to do it now.
You’d assume that on long haul flights the cravings would start at the same time and continue or worsen for the rest of the flight.
But, in most cases, people found the first bit relatively easy.
The first 8 hours of a 10 hour flight not too bad.
But the last two, when they were only a few hours from being able to smoke, were much harder.
Time since mattered less than time until.
And it’s the same with our eating.
We’ve probably gone days or weeks at times without cake, biscuits, ice cream, alcohol and the like and it not been a big deal.
Put it in front of us?
Put us only seconds from having it?
And the cravings can feel overwhelming.
When we decide on a time on when we can start drinking………
6pm perhaps?
Maybe the weekend?
We have no problem at 10am or 2pm when we are 12 to 16 hours since our last drink.
It gets to 5pm and we’re only, maybe, 20 odd percent longer since our last one, and we’re desperate.
Last drink was last Sunday evening and we’re fine till just after lunch on the Friday even though, proportionally, that’s barely any longer without.
So, what’s the answer?
Maybe some version of “taking it off the table” like the smoking ban did.
We have no option so it’s less of a big deal.
Maybe don’t have certain things in the house.
Doesn’t mean they are “bad” and that we can never have them.
But we might find them really easy to overdo when they’re in, but not miss them too much when they’re not.
When we know it’s not so much “how long since” but “how long till” we can, perhaps, use that to our advantage.
Much love,
Jon ‘Gunns’ Hall
