Quit smoking a year ago - sick ever since!

Yep spoken to quacks, psychologists, tried cognitive therapy and had more drugs than Charlie Sheen. Nothing has worked. I am not for one minute saying 'spark a cig if you're sick of feeling ill for years since quitting' but if 3 a day make me feel better then that's what I'll stick to. And luckily I have the willpower not to smoke more than 3 a day.

Rob_From_SoCal : No pain...just discomfort in the abdominal area all the way to the pelvic area. Especially in the morning but also sometimes later in the day. About the probiotics, I've used them for 10 days straight and it was amazing, I stopped for 4 days to see if it was really working...and the discomfort came back.

My update for whom ever is interested:-----------------------------------------------------------------------

This is my 7 week since I am clean. The first 5 weeks were the worst thing ever happened to me. I have experienced dizziness, nausea, digestive problems, metallic taste in my mouth, lung pain , body ache all over the place , tingling on my face and hands, weakness on my legs, throat  pain and infection, insomnia anxiety and depression. Week 6 was far better the 5 and now week 7 is 60%-70% better then 5 and 6. As many of you around here I had x-chest test , ultrasound for my liver, MRI for my brain and C spine, complete blood work done. The only thing that they found was that D vitamin was quite low , mild cervical disease (nothing serious) ,  high cholesterol and abnormal sugar level.   Right now I am on a strict diet, allot of tea and exercise. Because of my nausea although  hungry I couldn’t eat. I lost some weight as well.  I am D vitamin 50 000 unit/week supplements as well.

How do I feel ?  well allot better. I have very good days and not so good. From time to time my lungs hurts and then afterwards, I can actually I feel the clean air coming to my body. It’s a weird sensation and I like it.  No more dizziness or nausea no more throat pain or infections, body aches are less and less severe. The digestive issue is still there. It appears that is less annoying.   Anxiety and depression is mild but from time to time I still have panic attacks or very poor interest in anything that I like. Week 7 brought another symptom: shortness of breath. This is new for me. I have never experienced something like that. It’s mild but I do feel it now.  I have no idea how long is going to last.

In my depression and panic attacks episodes I come here to read about others. It helps allot. I have even copied the thread into a word document so that when a new symptom occurs I can do a quick search.    The way I see it I am not even half way and then there is always something new to come. It’s like body has some sort of cycle to complete until everything comes back to normal. If only my doctor would have known all this …it would have helped me so much more.

I really hope that all this will help others , I really do .

 

I will update soon.        

9 months smoke free - Ive never felt so ill, tired, weepy and depressed - my temper has a hair trigger, very nearly lost my job with anger and panic attacks - paranoid all the time

 

Family life terrible, my daughter hates me and has moved out and my husband doesnt speak to me

Terrible chest pains and indigestion all the time, my hands and feet have stabbing pains

Cant go on like this

Sharon,
hang in there , stay strong
I am no doctor but I think you should try to exercise and drink lots of water. Also try to stay away from fatty foods. Maybe you have already tried all this and didn't worked. In any case please see a doctor if is possible.

sharon, i have the same situation(14 months free for me) Before quitting my wife can't live without me, was trying to spend ALL her spare time with me - my friends were joking. After quitting i turned into anxious complaining bitchy piss of sh1t - nobody, even myself can't stand me anymore - we broke up 1 months ago. Job - forget it. I can't deal with people anymore, i can explode any second - hate it! Now i am afraid to speak to people not to cause any problems. I don't know what's going on with me, but it's ruined my life/personality. The only reason i don't smoke - i hope it's just matter of time, but 14 months? sharon, how did you quit? Have you used any NRT for quitting?

quick update

today I have 2 months (60 days) since stopped smoking

I am not well. Since 2 days now my stomach hurts, mild nausea. I have allot of mucus on the back of my throat.  I lost my appetite. Now I have this horrible feeling that something bad is going to happen. I don't know if this is a withdrawal  symptom but I was never like that when smoking.  One week ago I thought that I passed the stomach problem phase ......Normally at this point I would lit a cigarette and move on. 

I exercise a lot - I have 5 horses, do drink lots of water, but also love fatty foods. My doctor has put me on anti-depressants - am currently undergoing disciplinary at work as I lost my temper - I try to think that at the end of the day, I can get another job I cant get another pair of lungs Thanks for the support

Hang in there. This sounds all familiar to me during this time frame. There can be a week when you dont feel any symptoms then all of sudden - BOOM, it hits you. You then become depress and you have this feeling of doom. You will go through a doom phase for awhile. But after you pass that - then its all good. This is my own personal experience and can differ from others. Mucus is a good thing - it is there to protect airways while it heals. But you also have to clear the mucus out if you can. It is only bad when its chronic for months and months. Long steam showers help which you obviously know. 

Stay strong and let your body go through its course. I lost alot of weight during my early stages and had to force myself to eat because of depression. I am at my normal weight now but before i looked really bad. I know you can get through this - hang in there. It may or not be withdrawal symptoms but you are more aware of your body now since you quit and you just have to force yourself to fight it anyway possible. 

It sounds to me like you need to heal your gut--all the issues you described are directly related to how healthy your digestive system is, including what seems like micro nutrient deficiencies connected to improper assimilation (brain fog, anxiety). Nicotine is falsely speeding up your digestion, but when you deprive your body of the nicotine, your digestive problems will resurface unless you maintain your digestion another way. Were you given a blood panel to look for nutrient deficiencies? Have you taken probiotics for any length of time? How long did you try elimination diets, etc. before you determined that they weren't working? What specifically were the diets that you tried? Have you tried the GAPS diet? It is specifically designed as a temporary (can take up to 18 months to heal adults) diet to heal the gut lining and reverse food allergies and auto-immune disorders. As I said, it is temporary, with an introductory diet of meat broths and lacto-fermented foods, then reintroduction of grains, but ONLY grains that are soaked, sprouted or sour leavened. Here's why you should prepare grains by soaking/sprouting/fermenting them before eating them (also keep in mind this should be applied to legumes, nuts and beans as well): http://www.foodrenegade.com/how-to-eat-grains/ http://nourishedkitchen.com/soaking-grains-nuts-legumes/ Resources on the GAPS diet: http://gaps.me/ http://nourishedkitchen.com/what-is-the-gaps-diet/ http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/03/18/mcbride-and-barringer-interview.aspx However, some people need grains, some people dont. Some do well on the GAPS diet, some do well on it for a time...if for whatever reason you need other ideas, here are many simple things that I could recommend you try before you concede to smoking 3 cigarettes a day: -drink at least 1 and up to 6 cups of water in the morning before you do anything else, an hour before eating/drinking anything else. For an even better morning tonic, mix raw apple cider vinegar and/or lemon juice and raw honey in your water. This will help to alkalize the body (detoxifying) and stimulate digestion. -To heal the lining of your gut, it helps to coat it. Aloe juice/gel is most famous for this purpose, and you could also use marshmallow root or slippery elm bark (cold infusions). -Get a digestive bitter tincture and take it 30 minutes before lunch and dinner. Fresh Dandelion root is a great choice because not only will it assist digestion it will help to protect and clean the liver. Here is a great source for dandelion root tincture: http://www.localharvest.org/dandelion-root-tincture-C22306 -Take a high quality probiotic, and incorporate fermented foods into your diet: kombucha, miso, tempeh, sauerkraut, kefir yogurt, kimchi, etc. http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/the-perfect-trifecta-for-intestinal-health/

I would add to this : avoid eating anything 2-3 hours before going to bed. This has helped me alot recently, along with probiotics. When smoking I use to eat anything before bed time without any problems but since I quit almost 8 month ago, I can't do it anymore. So I stopped eating before going to bed even if I'm hungry.

HI Mamabuna,

Yes hang in there...they all seem like withdrawals...I had nausea for 2-3 months...it will pass. Try to have more meals with less food, even if you don't have appetite.

And yes, when you feel like this, anxiety picks up because you think that something else is wrong. At this point you need to find a way to calm yourself and limit your anxiety to the fact that they're withdrawals and that is normal and that all the others on this site went through it..with similar symptoms...Keep on posting

We're with you!

Thank you all.  I feel better this morning. Since Tuesday  I have started probiotics  and vitamin B complex. I was on some vitamins for a month but did't really feel any difference. The vitamin  that I am taking now is " Rainbow Light One Energy Vitamin with Probiotics" and I must say that  I really feel that some things are improving. I have no idea what other good vitamins are on the market so I took whatever google point it out to be highest in people's preferences. I paid $30 which for me is very very expensive .The ones that I had before were in the $10 range and like I said before I don't think they really worked. Do you guys recommend anything else ? Yesterday I went to see my doctor. Among other things he said that the digestive system is still recovering but he didn't speculate  how long it will take to heal: his words " hard to say ". However the forum tells me at-least 6 months. He also gave me some  hormonal nasal spray for my sinus. He said that it's possible that the mucus is a "lung product" . My personal opinion is that the mucus goes into my stomach and this create all the discomfort and pain.  Anyway he has recognized the fact the medical world is not aware about the sickness symptoms related with nicotine cessation.  Doctors are learning allot more from people rather than medical studies.   One other point he suggested was that cigarette chemistry  has become more and more complex in the last 30 years and no one has ever measured or defined   

All I know is that before stop smoking I had none of this c**p. Now I am slowly going mad. 

Thank you all for your thoughts and support.

Istop, Rob and Iqbal I am following you status closely because I had most of your symptoms. It's like knowing ahead what is going to happen.

      

mamabuna,

For $30 you are probably getting a fairly decent vitamin. It would probably be less expensive and more effective to try to get as much of those vitamins and probiotics from food sources as possible, though I would try to keep taking the multivitamin if you can afford it. B-vitamins are plentiful in healthy meats, eggs, nuts and green vegetables.

Kombucha, yogurt and other cultured foods will give you a boost in terms of your probiotic intake for a very good price (and they're delicious).

Have you tried using a neti pot for your mucus? It seems to me that it would be a healthier, less expensive way to deal with mucus and keep you off of synthetic hormones. This would also help to prevent the mucus from draining into your stomach and causing any discomfort.

There are a few herbs that come to mind for your situation:

-Mullein is a tonic for the lungs, aids in expectorating mucus and detoxing the lungs from abuse. You can get dried plant and make tea or get it as a tincture.

-Milky Oats tincture combined with skullcap would be a great mixture for you. Both of these are used for anxiety. Milky Oats are restorative to the nervous system, and skullcap brings a calm focus and could help ease your digestive upset.

-Dandelion root, milk thistle seed or burdock root would be great choices for assisting your body in detoxing and protecting your liver during this process.

 I hope that helps.

I’ve been on supplements for awhile now even before I quit smoking. As of now I have limited my intake because I am getting it more naturally now with food. Vitamin reviews can be deceptive – like you I did some research on what brand is the best.

I buy Natures Made products for my vitamins – like super B complex, vitamin c, calcium, magnesium, and zinc. I found it to be fairly cheap on Amazon and you can buy in bulk. I’ve tried so many different companies and supplements my room started to smell like a pharmacy. I also did a multivitamin test once and I found Natures Made dissolves the best. I put it in water at the same time and see which one dissolves faster – I also put it in vinegar. Natures Made dissolves the best. I remember one multivitamin fell in the water like a brick and didn’t seem it dissolved very well. – I forgot what brand.

I also use other companies for essential enzymes and resveratrol. But for the common vitamins I use Natures Made. And for vitamins I don’t think it will just work instantly – you have to continue to use them or get them naturally to see the effect in the future. It’s not like morphine shot and work instantly. This is just my opinion.

I also had sinus problems; my nose area was a pain in the ass in the early months. The nausea and becoming light headed was a scare as well in the early months. Like istop said – it will pass. When I was forcing myself to eat in the early months - I was sitting there and suddenly my hands started to shake like crazy. I was thinking – what the hell is wrong with me. This had never happened to me before while I was smoking. Anxiety and depression sucks – but it will pass in time.

I wouldn’t put a time frame on yourself to feel normal again. It varies from each individual and you will know when it happens. I am feeling a lot better now than my first 3 months but it was hell. It really was the toughest time in my life. I completely understand ex drug addicts now. I used to laugh or make fun of people when they say it was the hardest thing they ever did. I had never given them any sympathy - Not anymore – I understand now.

Hang in there – I seem to write too much when I reply. Sorry about that. I get bored at work so I come on here. Lol