Nicotine withdrawal symptoms can lead quitters back to smoking
When smokers try to cut back or quit, the lack of nicotine leads to withdrawal symptoms. Withdrawal is both physical and mental. Physically, the body reacts to the absence of nicotine. Mentally, the smoker is faced with giving up a habit, which calls for a major change in behavior. Both the physical and mental factors must be addressed for the quitting process to work.
Those who have smoked regularly for a few weeks or longer will have withdrawal symptoms if they suddenly stop using tobacco or greatly reduce the amount they smoke. Symptoms usually start within a few hours of the last cigarette and peak about 2 to 3 days later when most of the nicotine and its by-products are out of the body. Withdrawal symptoms can last for a few days to up to several weeks. They will get better every day that you stay smoke-free.
Withdrawal symptoms can include any of the following:
- Dizziness (which may only last 1 to 2 days after quitting)
- Depression
- Feelings of frustration, impatience, and anger
- Anxiety
- Irritability
- Sleep disturbances, including having trouble falling asleep and staying asleep, and having bad dreams or even nightmares
- Trouble concentrating
- Restlessness or boredom
- Headaches
- Tiredness
- Increased appetite
- Weight gain
- Constipation and gas
- Cough, dry mouth, sore throat, and nasal drip
- Chest tightness
- Slower heart rate
How nicotine hooks smokers
Nicotine causes pleasant feelings and distracts the smoker from unpleasant feelings. This makes the smoker want to smoke again. Nicotine also acts as a kind of depressant by interfering with the flow of information between nerve cells. Smokers tend to smoke more cigarettes as the nervous system adapts to nicotine. This, in turn, increases the amount of nicotine in the smoker’s blood.
Over time, the smoker develops a tolerance to nicotine. Tolerance means that it takes more nicotine to get the same effect that the smoker used to get from smaller amounts. This leads to an increase in smoking. At some point, the smoker reaches a certain nicotine level and then keeps smoking to keep the level of nicotine within a comfortable range.
When a person finishes a cigarette, the nicotine level in the body starts to drop, going lower and lower. The pleasant feelings wear off, and the smoker notices wanting a smoke. If smoking is postponed, the smoker may start to feel irritated and edgy. Usually it doesn’t reach the point of real withdrawal symptoms, but the smoker gets more uncomfortable over time. When the person smokes a cigarette, the unpleasant feelings fade, and the cycle continues.
How nicotine gets in, where it goes, and how long it stays
When you inhale smoke, nicotine is carried deep into your lungs. There it’s quickly absorbed into the bloodstream and carried throughout your body. In fact, nicotine inhaled in cigarette smoke reaches the brain faster than drugs that enter the body through a vein (intravenously or IV).
Nicotine affects many parts of your body, including your heart and blood vessels, your hormones, the way your body uses food (your metabolism), and your brain. Nicotine can be found in breast milk and even in the cervical mucus of a female smoker. During pregnancy, nicotine crosses the placenta and has been found in amniotic fluid and the umbilical cord blood of newborn infants.
Different factors affect how long it takes the body to remove nicotine and its by-products. In most cases, regular smokers will still have nicotine or its by-products, such as cotinine, in their bodies for about 3 to 4 days after stopping.
What do I need to know about quitting?
It’s hard to quit smoking, but you can do it. To have the best chance of quitting and staying a non-smoker, you need to know what you’re up against, what your options are, and where to go for help. You’ll find this information here.
Why is quitting and staying quit hard for so many people? The answer is nicotine.
Nicotine is a drug found naturally in tobacco. It’s as addictive as heroin or cocaine. Over time, a person becomes physically dependent on and emotionally addicted to nicotine. This physical dependence causes unpleasant withdrawal symptoms when you try to quit. The emotional and mental dependence (addiction) make it hard to stay away from nicotine after you quit. Studies have shown that to quit and stay quit smokers must deal with both the physical and mental dependence.
Why is quitting and staying quit hard for so many people? The answer is nicotine.
Nicotine is a drug found naturally in tobacco. It’s as addictive as heroin or cocaine. Over time, a person becomes physically dependent on and emotionally addicted to nicotine. This physical dependence causes unpleasant withdrawal symptoms when you try to quit. The emotional and mental dependence (addiction) make it hard to stay away from nicotine after you quit. Studies have shown that to quit and stay quit smokers must deal with both the physical and mental dependence.
Removing the Blinders
Once you're ready to quit, looking at the hazards smoking presents to your health is powerful medicine. As smokers, we all know tobacco is bad for us, but we keep a layer of denial in place and avoid looking at the dangers too closely. We have to in order to be able to smoke in relative peace. We tell ourselves we have years before we need to worry; that it won't happen to us; that cancer doesn't run in the family...the list of justifications goes on and on.
An important part of learning how to quit smoking involves removing the blinders and soaking up every bit of information we can find about the damage tobacco use causes and the diseases it has been linked to. It will help you shift your attitude away from thinking of smoking as a buddy and help you see tobacco for the killer it is.
How will my health benefit?
How will my health benefit?
You will reduce your risk of developing illness, disability or death caused by cancer, heart or lung disease.
You will reduce your risk of gangrene or amputation caused by circulatory problems.
You will protect the health of those around you by not exposing them to secondhand smoke
You will improve your fertility levels and your chance of a healthy pregnancy and baby.
You will improve your breathing and general fitness.
Women who smoke into middle-age
Women who smoke into middle-age have three times the death rate of non-smokers and risk dying at least 10 years early, according to adefinitive study of the effects of tobacco in more than a million women in the UK.
The good news, according to the study by a team of Oxford University researchers led by Sir Richard Peto, is that giving up cigarettes before the age of 40 reduces a woman's risk of smoking-related death by 90%. Quitting by 30 reduces it by 97%.
If you did smoke…
What if you smoked a few cigarettes today?
Remember this:
You may have lost a battle, but that doesnt
mean you lost the war.
1. Follow the plan more carefully.
2. Tonight’s therapy session is to help
strengthen your willpower.
After lunch
1. Get outside for a ten-minute walk. Breathe deeply. Again, deep breathing will blunt the edge of a craving. 2. Say to yourself: “Sure, it may be hard, but right now I’m not smoking!”
Tonight
Plan to go to sleep a bit earlier than usual
tonight, to accomplish the following:
o a good rest for your nerves, so that you
are fresh for tomorrow
o so you can wake up well-rested a bit
earlier in the morning
After breakfast
deep, rhythmic breathing of fresh air
a five-minute walk, if possible
Deep breathing and walking are vital—do
both after every meal. If you are not on a
regular exercise program, consult a clinician as
to what is best for you.
Just before bed
1. Go for a short walk. Practice deep
breathing.
2. Have a warm, not hot, shower or bath
to help you relax.
3. If you usually have a drink to help you
sleep, try an herbal tea or warm milk
instead. You must not drink alcohol
for the next five days.
These videos can help you stop smoking
How to quit smoking http:how to quit smokingstop smoking plan http://youtu.be/rOEx-9230Zkstop smoking plan
one week no cigarettes
After one week it is good idea to treat yourself with something like a meal at your favorite restaurant .
Notice how much better the food tastes.
Notice how much better the food tastes.
feeling the physical effects
You may be felling a dry mouth or cough.
This is still your loungs clearing out the tar and shows you are recovering .
This will take couple of weeks.
A warm drink may ease the cough.
This is still your loungs clearing out the tar and shows you are recovering .
This will take couple of weeks.
A warm drink may ease the cough.
Get support from others
Why not convince a friend to stop smoking with you ?
That way you`ve got the support of someone who knows exactly what you are going throught . You could also try a tree NHS Stop smoking service. Having support makes you 4 times more likely to stop successfully .
That way you`ve got the support of someone who knows exactly what you are going throught . You could also try a tree NHS Stop smoking service. Having support makes you 4 times more likely to stop successfully .
20 MINUTES
- Blood pressure drops to normal
- Pulse rate drops to normal
- Body temperature of hands and feet increases to normal
8 HOURS
- Carbon monoxide level in blood drops to normal
- Oxygen level in blood increases to normal
24 HOURS
- Chance of heart attack decreases
48 H
- Nerve endings start regrowing
- Ability to smell and taste is enhanced
2 WEEKS TO 3 MONTHS
- Circulation improves
- Walking becomes easier
- Lung function increases up to 30 percent
1 TO 9 MONTHS
- Coughing, sinus congestion, fatigue, and shortness of breath decrease
- Cilia regrow in lungs, increasing their ability to handle mucus, clean the lungs, and reduce infection
- Body's overall energy increases
1 YEAR
- Excess risk of coronary heart disease is half that of a smoker
5 YEARS
- Lung cancer death rate for an average former smoker (one pack a day) decreases by almost half
- Stroke risk is reduced to that of a non-smoker five to 15 years after quitting
- Risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, and esophagus is half that of a smoker's
10 YEARS
- Lung cancer death rate is similar to that of a non-smoker
- Precancerous cells are replaced
- Risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, kidney, cervix, and pancreas decreases
15 YEARS
- Risk of coronary heart disease is that of a non-smoker
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