Is it okay to have just one cigarette as a recovering smoker?

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  A Dr. Michael Roizen, MD , Internal Medicine, answered

  No.  That 1 cigarette will often cause you to have a life full of injury and have to quit again.  About a third of smokers are genetically addicted.  What we mean by that is that 1 cigarette will hook them for a long, long, time.  And by hook them for a long, long time, we mean they will be addicted again, as addicted as if they had a pack of cigarettes.  For the other two-thirds of smokers, they might be able to try one, but they might get addicted again.  It just is not genetically programmed into them.  So, the answer will be "no it is not okay to just have one.  That will addict you in a bad way again."  

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  A Dr. Robert S. Kaufmann, MD , Internal Medicine, answered

  No.  Because unfortunately if you are a true addict one cigarette can lead to you smoking full bore again.  I think that you don't want to trigger that addiction once you have fought through it.

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  A Dr. Ivan A. Hernandez, MD , Neurology, answered on behalf of Bayview Center for Mental Health, Inc.

  This depends on the individual. For some smokers, just having a single cigarette can lead to a relapse of smoking; for most smokers, abstaining from all cigarettes for longer than 3 months reduces the chances of a relapse.
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  A Irwin Isaacs , Psychology, answered on behalf of TherapyLiveCare

  No, because that can lead back into the addiction.
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  A Dr. Mehmet Oz, MD , Cardiology (Cardiovascular Disease), answered

  If it were okay to have just one cigarette, let's face it, quitting wouldn't be so hard. Your body and brain crave nicotine. That's why it takes most people more than six stabs before finally kicking the habit. Any time you give in to the urge, you make it that much harder to stop for good. When you're a recovering smoker, you need to avoid cigarettes completely. Even one little puff can cause you to relapse.
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