I Want to Quit Smoking. What Do I Do?
So you’ve decided to quit smoking. That’s fantastic! Once you have quit smoking, you will feel better, save a ton of money and live a longer life. But before you can successfully quit, you need to get a strategy in mind for kicking the habit. Most people aren’t going to be able to quit just like that. They need a plan and some help to make it through the tough weeks ahead.
Keep Reminding Yourself Why You Are Quitting
One of the most common ways people fail at quitting their smoking habit is from losing their focus. They start getting a craving and it clouds their mind. This causes them to lose track of why they are quitting in the first place.
Don’t Give Up
You are probably going to fail at quitting a little here and there. You might give in to temptation, but that doesn’t; necessarily put you back at square one. If you can keep on going and not let the setbacks get you down, you can overcome this toxic habit.
How to Quit Smoking: Collection of Guides
There are a plethora of tools out there that can help ease the pain of quitting smoking. Some are great and others aren’t so great, but our ‘Quit Smoking Tools’ section covers them all. Whether you are thinking about using the patch, nicotine gum, electronic cigarettes, Chantix, or something else, this section has you covered.
How to Handle Anger and Rage When Quitting Smoking
When you quit smoking, your emotions may not be as in check as they were before. Even if you are not an emotional person, the effect that cravings can have on you can turn you into that kind of person.
You may find it is harder to stay in control, keep calm and be reasonable. These are feelings that pretty much everyone going through withdrawal symptoms experiences. Thankfully, there are ways to cope with these feelings and to move past your rage and anger. Here are some of the best coping strategies.
Deal with the Anger
You can’t always avoid the anger. There will be times where it comes out of you and you just have to deal with it. In that instance, you cannot let it control you, and you cannot try to marginalize it. Instead, focus on what is causing you that anger. Is it really a big deal and worth being angry about? Are you really angry about that trigger or is it just that you miss your cigarettes?
Avoid the Triggers
The best treatment is prevention. This holds true for any disease, and it applies equally as well to withdrawal symptom rage. If you know what makes you angry, you can simply avoid it and avoid the anger.
For many people, the cravings are triggered by revisiting locations, people and memories that involved them smoking a lot in the past. If you can make an effort to steer clear of them, then you can sidestep the rage more easily. This may involve staying away from people you care about and places you love, but it may be necessary to make some changes to your life if you are going to make the big change of quitting actually last.
The Stages of Quitting Smoking
There are many reasons that people will quit smoking, and they often have to do with their own health or the health of those around them. But many smokers fear what will happen to their bodies when they quit, and they are afraid that they won’t be able to handle the side effects.
You will feel the effects of quitting smoking almost immediately. Just 20 minutes after your last cigarette, your heart rate will start to return to its normal levels. This means that your blood pressure is decreased as well, and you won’t be as anxious or jittery.
The First Day
Around 12 hours after your last cigarette, your respiratory system will start to feel the effects. The carbon monoxide which you inhale with your cigarettes bonds to your blood cells. It makes it difficult to breathe at times, and it can cause you to feel exhausted or out of breath after short exertions.
The Next Day
Your cravings will be worse by the next day, and many regular smokers cave in at this point. Your anxiety will be greater, and you may suffer from shaking fingers.
Two Days Later
Once you stop smoking, about 48 hours later your nerve endings will regrow. These were stymied by the chemical in the cigarettes, but they can start to heal now. This means that you will have increased sensation on your extremities and you will be able to taste things better. As your sense of taste and smell return, you may be more prone to notice cigarette smoke nearby, and your cravings will only have gotten worse.
Three Days Later
At this point, nicotine will be completely out of your system. This means your cravings will be at their peak, and you will suffer the severe symptoms of nicotine withdrawal. You will feel emotional symptoms, such as cravings and the need to hold a cigarette or other similar object. And you will feel physical symptoms as well. These include nausea, headaches, and cramps. Different people will experience these in individual ways.
Two to Three Weeks Later
In two to three weeks, the cravings and withdrawal symptoms should be completely out of your system. You should no longer feel the need to smoke or even hold a cigarette.
Months Later
Even the heaviest of smokers will lose all their withdrawal symptoms after a month or two. And the lungs will be repaired even more, and your risk of heart disease will decrease by as much as 50 percent over the next months.
In the following months and years, your body will have more healing to do, and you will continue to lower your risks for numerous diseases.