I'm not an expert, but I'm doing pretty well with this 'quit smoking' thing so far. I see a lot of newbies talking about craves (and I sure remember THEM) so I thought I'd offer what I learned about craves:
First of all, they have very little staying power. Mine never lasted even ten minutes - and they only lasted that long when I kept paying attention to them.
Second, in the beginning, there are a lot of them. Dozens. Hundreds maybe. They're all lined up like candy in a Pez dispenser. At first, when you have one and work through it, another pops up a short time later to take it's place.
Darn it! Didn't I just deal with you???
Nope, it's a fresh one. BUT IT WON'T LAST!
How to get rid of craves?
I had several strategies. One was to distract myself - that's the best way of all, I think. Just start thinking about something else and it goes away.
Another was to amplify it. Make the crave bigger and badder. Expand it. Pretty soon, it explodes. And goes away.
I also began talking to my craves. "Is that you again?" "Is that the best you can do?" "Seriously! Another crave?"
I know it sounds dumb. But it worked for me. I used to tell my craves - "The worst day quitting is better than the best day smoking."