breathing problems since I quit smoking 8 months ago

I quit the last day of feb, 2012. I had smoked a pack a day for the last 12 yrs. and  since,I have never felt worse.  I  got adema in my legs, I have shortness of breath most days, I have digestion issues, and cant sleep......I felt better as a smoker, but I am trying to get through this and I wont smoke again. I have also gained 20 lbs  regardless of the 20 miles I run a week and the workouts and weight lifting I do. I also eat very well, but my weight wont budge....nothing that has worked for me in the past , is working now.....just absolutely amazes me.......How long will this "healing" process take, and what more can I do to feel better......kinda done with it, and I am not a lazy person or a quitter, but enough is enough!!!!!

HI Beth,
The pains can be very difficult. Have you checked the other nicotine withdrawal help topics on steady health. Check this one out - It focuses more on long going physical symptoms.
https://www.steadyhealth.com/Quit_smoking_a_year_ago___sick_ever_since__t85171.html

Good Luck

Hi Beth, I had a similar experience....plus persistent mucus and always feeling cold, especially hands and feet. And even when my quit failed, nothing changed. After I quit again a friend suggested that in traditional Chinese medicine I would be considered to suffer from wind-damp-cold. The traditional approach is acupuncture, herbs and diet. I couldn't afford treatment so I opted for hot saunas, hot ginger tea, hot water bottles and warming foods (e.g., soups, stews). Absolutely nothing raw. In 3 weeks my breathing was better. In 6 weeks I started to lose weight. In 3 months I was back to my smoking weight, but without the smoking.

Hey Beth You might want to have your thyroid checked out.

Emphysema will get you after a minimum of 20 years so i completely disbelieve you have such. I quit 2 months ago.. i dont feel better or worse, but we all know it only gets better from D day, even you might feel worst. It could be a common reaction to quitting a decade length habit. Stay Strong !!

"Without being alarmist" - you then went on to make an alarming post.
"You will likely end up with an oxygen mask" = you don't know the person or the circumstances of their health. Just because you ended up a certain way doesn't mean she will as well!

Hi there!

I have been cleansing since last summer of 2011 and I still feel horrible symptoms of shortness of breath along with coughing of globs of phlegm. I have been told that this is normal since all of the chemicals trapped inside a smokers lungs are inside the mucous which accumulates over time and starts to build up. So with this said, one who coughs up all of the phlegm inside their lungs and respiratory tract is going through a normal process of cleansing out the chemicals "dirt" which accumulates within a smoker's lungs over a period of time due to heavy smoking. Once all of this "dirt" is out of one's system they can breathe normally again and will not feel any symptoms of shortness of breath, which can lead to panick attacks and horrible disconfort.

I myself have found that I have been experiencing less shortness of breath and coughing up huge globs of mucous since about 2 years of going through this "healing/cleansing" process. It still happens a lot, due to the fact that I was a very heavy chain smoker and I did a lot of other addictive substances along with this. My habits have changed quite a bit, one would say that I am a totally new person, one that I should have been if I hadn't done any of this c**p.

Now I feel less symptoms of shortness of breath and coughing  since about 2 years ago, as mentioned above. I am looking forward to the day when I am completely cleansed and healed of all of this nonsense I put inside my body and did to my body.  I am so regretfull of what I did to myself and I am so thankful to the Lord that I am still alive and that I did not get sick due to this evil disease called addiction.

Addiction = Suicide. If you hate yourself that much then you might as well just buy a gun,( if you know what I mean )

All addictions are the same, you do them to hide your feelings and to cope with stress ( life ) easier, however it's a bullet in disguise and it's waiting to be shot right through. Please stay strong and learn how to cope and deal with life in a more healthier manner. Substance abuse is not a good way to cope with life's stresses and hardships, it makes things worse and your life shorter. I feels real good when you smoke it, but it doesn't actually fix your problem, it just creates another problem ontop of the problem your are trying to deal with.

Everyone knows, and I know that addiction is a battle and it is very difficult to win this battle, however once your become addicted to something like smoking or drugs, you know you have a problem. Please quit substances and free yourselves from addiction. It only feels good for a second and then it goes away. It's not worth the instant gratification. It's not worth your money, your time, your life , your character, it's not worth anything. Just forget about, detox, cleanse, heal, feel the suffering and live longer. It's easy and it's freedom.

 

Thanks for reading, please pray to the Lord for strength, and please reply,

Free Forever.

 

 

Im just wondering if you ever started feeling better its been 25 days since i stopped smoking and I am doing the same having breathing problems its very scary and tonight i felt really bad at night i feel like im going to die...gasping for air i have to hit my pro air almost every night they think i have sleep disorder but not checked yet i have had lung scan they say clear and look good i do have abnormal heart beats but that test was done while smoking they said heart was pumping good no blockages but that was by using ultra sound on my chest I have not cough up much of anything when i smoked every once in a while it would be a very small ball of clear mucous...Im so proud of myself but i hate feeling this way but you wouldnt pay me no money to smoke again my word on that

Carry on Holly!

Stay with it.

Things will get better. Join an aerobic class if possible or take long walks!

best wiishes,

Ranjit

hmmmm ...best 1

Hey, your problem with allergies could be to do with your thyroid..get your doctor to do a blood test and check your thyroid antibodies...you could have hashimotos...look it up...just found out i have it after suffering allergies to literally everything...developed asthma out of the blue and got worse and worse...since being on thyroxin the asthma has all but gone along with the allergies...may not be what you have but worth a shot!

Hi All. Try Lobelia tea with some cayene powder. Sip on it through out the day. It is cheap and works wonders in getting the lungs cleaned.

Now thats the truth anything to make a dollar whatever happened to just loving one another and bettering life for the sake of life not this dog eat dog im here to make a dollar!. i wish i could get rich just to give it all away.

I am 33 years old and was having a slight problem breathing I went to the doctors and she sent me to a Pulmonologist. I passed all of the breathing tests except for one and I just barely failed it. The Pulmonologist told me not to worry and it could just be the way I breathe. My chest X-ray came back perfect so he sent me for a cat scan and they found mild emphysema of apical paraseptal predominance. I smoked a pack plus for about 15 years. I quit smoking 40 days ago and I am having some trouble breathing my Pulmonologist said that it can not be my lungs bc the emphysema is so mild. The told me that even though my lungs won't heal the emphysema the rest of my lungs will heal and I will be fine. He also said that the shortness of breath can come from quitting. I am riding it out andhope it passes soon. Good luck!

I smoked, on average, a pack a day for approximately 15 years.  My last cigarette was on December 3, 2012 - exactly one week before my third daughter was born.  Since that point, I have been completely smoke free.

I don't seem to have a lot of the issues that previous posters have/had.  I have yet to really cough anything up.  In fact, I never coughed that much while smoking.  Some of my friends would - at times - sound like they were in the running to play Doc Holliday in the movie 'Tombstone' (especially in the mornings), but I never had that happen.  Ever.  Which, honestly, is sort of disconcerting.

Anyhow, I have not been coughing non-stop, I haven't felt overly fatigued (outside of getting about 4 hours of sleep a night, due to the new baby), and I really wouldn't say that I have shortness of breath.  I will say, I feel almost as if I am in an extremely dry environment (it is winter time, and we do not have a humidifier in the house), or that I am trying to get sick (sinus infection or cold, something along those lines).  Almost like I feel a stuffiness, but my head isn't congested, if that makes any sense.  And even with that, I'll spray some nose moisturizing drops, and I feel better (at least until it wears off).  What worries me the most, however, is that I seem to get winded a lot easier than before.

Granted, it has been since I was a teenager, but I used to be athletic.  Constantly playing baseball and basketball, so maybe I'm just harkening back to those days when it happens and become irritated...but the smallest things make me feel like i just ran a 100 yard dash.  I don't breath hard, gasping for breath...but it is definitely noticeable.

I realize the fact that I am not very active anymore, coupled with the fact that I have gained some weight over the winter, could be playing big parts in how I feel.  And after reading some of the posts in this thread, the healing process itself of my lungs could also be playing a part, too.  I still can't help but worry, however.

As an aside, I do have allergies during certain times of the year, but I have never been diagnosed with asthma, and other than a cholesterol issue a few years back, have always been relatively healthy.  So I guess I was just looking for other people that had similar things happen once they quit smoking, because it's very weird to think that I felt better (breathing wise) while smoking, than I have the first few months being smoke free.  That doesn't mean that I'm planning on going back to it...just ironic when you think about it.

Thank you for your time.