Now what?
How do you get through the next few hours and days, which will be among the toughest you’ll experience, in your journey to becoming an ex-smoker? You need practical strategies to help you survive the nicotine cravings and nicotine withdrawal, and help you break the psychological addiction to cigarettes.
After You Stop Smoking: What’s Happening?
After you quit smoking, a lot of good things happen to your body very quickly. Within just 20 minutes, your heart rate and blood pressure go down. Within 12 hours, the carbon monoxide levels in your body go back to normal. And within a couple of weeks, your circulation improves and you’re not coughing or wheezing as often.
But some pretty unpleasant things happen right away, too. The symptoms of nicotine withdrawal include:
- Anxiety
- Irritability
- Headache
- Trouble sleeping
- Fatigue
- Hunger
And they kick in fast. Research has found that the typical smoker begins to feel the symptoms of withdrawal within an hour of putting out his last cigarette. Feelings of anxiety, sadness and difficulty concentrating appear within the first three hours.
These unpleasant -- some people might say intolerable -- symptoms of nicotine withdrawal usually hit a peak within the first three days of quitting, and last for about two weeks.
So before you can stop smoking for good, you have to quit for the first two weeks. After that, it gets a little easier. What can you do?