Quit Smoking Effects-Tobacco Withdrawal

The symptoms many people experience when they stop smoking...common quit smoking effects and ways to minimize them, along with additional pages on why, how, aids and tips to quit smoking. Everything you need to finally quit.

Quit Smoking Effects

Many of us worry so much about the effects, or withdrawal symptoms if we quit smoking that we never really try. This page covers the quit smoking effects. It's part of our Tips To Quit Smoking pages, including 20 Reasons To Quit Smoking, Ways To Quit Smoking, and Quit Smoking Aids.

Any time you change something in your body, the body reacts. When you quit drinking coffee and other caffeinated drinks, you get headaches and sometimes sleepiness. When most of us started smoking, we coughed, sneezed, had headaches and almost vomited...but we wanted to smoke enough to tolerate these bodily reactions. A few weeks later, we wondered what all the fuss was about because all those symptoms disappeared and we regularly lit up with our friends. For me, it was basically the same thing when I quit smoking 16 years ago. I was very uncomfortable for about a week, mildly uncomfortable for the next 2-3 weeks and never had the desire for a cigarette after 3 months. I've learned, since, that my experience was about normal. To help you understand what happens, here are some recent popular books on quit smoking withdrawal effects.

When you quit smoking, the hardest thing is deciding.

The quit smoking effects, or withdrawal symptoms, may vary somewhat from person to person, but almost all people are through the worst of it in a week or two. Here's what most people can expect the first week: Heightened nervousness and anxiety feelings, possible sleep difficulties, irritability and impatience, frequent and repetitive strong cravings to smoke. A few people experience occasional headaches and or nausea during the first week. After the first week, you should have no physical withdrawal symptoms. What most people can expect the second and third weeks are slightly elevated anxiety and irritability and frequent normal desires to smoke. If you have not gone back to cigarettes, your desire for cigarettes and your irritability and anxiety will drop dramatically between 3 weeks and 3 months. After 3 months, most people are amazed at how easy it was to quit smoking and very excited at what's happening to their body.

About 1-3 months after quitting, you should begin to experience some very surprising things. Your lips, fingers, toes, ears and other appendages will have sensations and feelings you forgot was normal...a whole new level of sensitivity. At about 3 months, you will notice flavors in your food and drinks that you didn't know were always there. This is when many people replace tobacco addiction with food addiction and begin gaining weight. A great many people keep smoking because of the fear of weight gain. You don't have to gain weight. I lost 30 pounds during the 3 months after I quit smoking. You can do the same thing by reducing the fat, sugar and salt in your diet about 1 month after you quit smoking. Because you're more sensitive to taste, you won't notice the flavor change. Slowly add aerobic exercise at about 3 months to fully capitalize on this opportunity.

From 3 months after you quit smoking, you'll notice that when you think about cigarettes it won't be a craving...just an odd thought you easily dismiss. You may or may not notice that the nagging cough is gone. You'll gradually increase in stamina and energy. If you're like me, a year after you quit, you won't be able to remember the last time you wanted a cigarette. You'll come across a smoker and almost gag yourself because of the smell. Then you'll realize that's the way you smelled just a year ago. Be patient with them and pray they find the courage to quit...like you did.

Finally, sometimes we need more help to quit smoking than information, aids and methods provide. Smoking is an addiction. Like any other addiction, sometimes it requires healing the underlying cause before we can end the addiction. Addiction is caused by an emptiness or low self-esteem that causes us to use substances to try and fill the void. The only One who can fill this void in us is God. If you want help from God to quit smoking, click God help me.

Addiction Recovery Support Forum - Help from others in recovery from alcoholism, drugs, sex, gambling, food, codependency and other addictions.

Quit Smoking Effects-Tobacco Withdrawal

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Love & Hugs,
Glen

The symptoms many people experience when they stop smoking...common quit smoking effects and ways to minimize them, along with additional pages on why, how, aids and tips to quit smoking. Everything you need to finally quit.