Quit smoking a year ago - sick ever since!

I am happy for you Frank . Woow 8 months to feel better ? That's a hard road to walk. Good for you !

I'm happy to read this Frank72!!!!

I'll be posting on my 9 month in a few days.

IStop

Hello fellow ex drug addicts. 

Quick Update. I’ll try to update every month on the 12th. I quit on July 12 2012 – so it makes things easier. I have been successful in not taken a drag of a cigarette for 8 months now.

The early months were very difficult as you all know. My physical symptoms did not subside till my 3rd month but I still had bouts of it off and on after that. Mentally, I did not feel better till my 5th to 7th month concerning anxiety, nervousness and depression. I hope all the new quitters out there realize that I was not in pain for 8 months straight. One week I felt good then all of sudden I feel like cr@p for a week or longer.  It’s just random cr@p for no apparent reason even though I ate well and exercised often.

I was a heavy smoker and my body needed some time to adjust. It took some time to help me understand my body again.  As of now, I am feeling pretty good. I do have some digestive issues still but I tend to just ignore it and it’s not too bothersome. I am not sure if I am having some left over effects from nicotine cessation.

Your mind plays a big role in physical intensity in my opinion – if you fix your brain then your physical symptoms would not be as bad. Anxiety and depression freaking sucks and makes your physical symptoms a lot worst.

So long story short – My mind is almost back to normal – I don’t think about negatives as much – My body is almost there but digestive issues still lingers.

Exercise does help a lot and also everyone is different – You should not use our experience for your own personal time frame.  My closest friends who also quit went through different experiences and time frame. For some it takes a year and for some it took a month – it’s all different for everyone. Trust me – you will know when you are feeling better. I hope it will be all soon for the new quitters out there.

Good Luck All. 

30 days free - Primary care physicians live by the text book. Nurses I find to be more informative in certain things. Keep it up. It’s worth it.

Ankhtemple – All that sounds familiar to me. Those early months were a pain in the butt. I agree don’t give up people – It’s worth it.

Franks72 – Good for you buddy, I’m glad you are feeling better. I did not have any phlegm as well, I hardly coughed at all. It's weird; my friend coughed up phlegm like crazy. Yes – the money I saved was also beneficial. Packs aren’t cheap anymore – I got to spend the extra money on some cool stuff. (I got a telescope) Trust Me – we were drug addicts even if we didn’t have the money we would have found a way to get cigarettes. Years ago I was also struggling with money – I sold stuff on eBay that I thought I would never sell just to support my habit. Nicotine is a hell of a drug. I hope things get better for you with employment. 

Take Care All. 

Rob, iStop, bababouy and all .... I have compleleted 11 months .........things have been eased up for me. BP and Pulse rate came back to normal during my last 2 GP visits .........but still i think i lack strength of handling stress .... moreover mind gets tired quickly ........i rememebr the days when i used to stay up 2-3 days in a row... but now when i dont take enough night sleep the next day is not good for me ..i remain tired and stressed ........ things are much much better but still i think my body needs to improve ...........this forum is no doubt extremely helpyful and it should stay alive for the future quitters........i wish smoking would not have been such a dangerous habbit ;)

Rob : Again...seems like we're having the same trend

Smokefree : "BP and Pulse rate came back to normal" ...that's a good thing...keep it up. I still have anxiety but slowly controling it

I will post my update during the week end.

Keep on posting!

Hi all I just want to say well done to everyone who posted on this forum, and I have a great deal of respect for each of you. Many inspiring and helpful thoughts which kept me sane for the last couple of weeks. I also like everybody else decided to say NO to the damn poison. My story begins like this: One evening I was sitting in my armchair and watching TV, felt a bit awkward and tried to stand up my body felt all numb and couldn't move for approx 30 secs to 1 min. After I started to move again went to take some fresh air and started shaking badly thinking at all what happened scared that maybe had a stroke or smth like that. Called the ambulance made me all the tests( neurological, EKG, blood pressure etc) all was fine, they couldn't find any explanation for what happened. Anyways that night I decided to quit smoking afte 14 years of continuous smoking of averaging 15- 20 cigs a day ( more or less, everybody knows how good they used to be with some alcohol). I think at this moment my anxiety kicked in ( all week I was feeling dizzy, lightheaded, feeling like fainting, always thinking about what happened and maybe I had a stroke and ambulance doctors couldn't detect it). On that that week I had to foot the ER, due to all the above symptoms. There they have done me another neurological test, blood tests, eye tests, blood pressure etc, and everything fine again. The doctor was very nice and explained me everything about strokes and I got a bit more calm, starting to realise thAt I never had the stroke. After that visit to the ER, I felt a bit better and not anxious anymore for a couple of days. All this week ( I can say week 1 for me) I even forgot I quit smoking. Didn't feel any cravings, nothing at all. When second week started the anxiety came back , I started to feel again like before, and my mind went back to stroke again. From that time I believe my psichological withdrawals really started to kick in. I was always under the impression that smth happened in my head or will happen, in the evenings got all sweaty in bed, feeling dizzy and lightheaded all nasty symptoms. Week 3 beside 2nd week symptoms I had a 2 day nasty vertigo. All this time I was trying to find an explanation for my symptoms on Internet. Every time I was reading about any illness ( eg: heart condition, meningitis, stroke, epilepsy etc) I was like feeling all the symptoms described on those forums. For me every illness I was reading about could've been and explanation for why I am feeling wrong. Anyways at the end of the 3 rd week insomnia came. O my god, this is a killer. I am a gamer, and I used sometimes to stay 2 days without sleep just playing, but that didn't feel like this. First night not sleeping wasn't to bad. Second night tho' I started to feel like my head is exploding, I couldn't stop thinking of what is wrong with me. Meanwhile I visited my Gp and he gave me some sleeping pils. They were useless... I was taking 2 at once and nothing... They would make me feel like a vegetable but no sleeping at all. I started feeling cramps in my abdomen, started to pee like every 20 mins or so. Went to the ER again, they took an urinal sample just in case to check for any infection. Everything was normal. They blamed this on my anxiety and tiredness cause of no sleeping. By the end of 4 th week I would've had a total of 20 hrs of sleep from 168 roughly 3 hrs of sleep per day but had 3 continuous days without sleeping. For me insomnia was when I realised everything was happening just because of withdrawals. I was in a narcotic sevraj ( dunno if that is in proper english). In the week 5 my sleep got improved a bit still using some weak sleeping pils ( from the counter) just to make me relax a bit. In week 6 dizziness and nausea got better, had an MRI scan done to my head and everything was normal, got a lot calmer now. Meanwhile I found this site ant I started to read about all the symptoms and somehow save me from going crazy. At the moment ( 13 march 2012) I have 2 months and 2 days since I said I quit! I had 1 smoke on 28 of January and 1 cigar, because was a friends birthday, but after that I felt so guilty... Since then I decided wherever party I go never should smoke again. My symptoms ( after 2 months) are: Anxiety: I describe this a s it follows: do you know when u have an exam or smth very important to do, and u feel like this butterflies in ur stomac? That is adrenaline sent by ur body which is stressed cause u are concerned. My body does that without me concerning of anything. I read somewhere about this effect of the body in situations when it feels threatened ( I think the effec is called run and flight or smth like that). Anyways I think my body is just off balance now cause of nicotine lacking after so much time it used to be a part of the body chemicals, and that's why is trying to substitute that lack of nicotine by sending adrenaline. Lightheaded: dunno if is really lightheaded but I will try to explain. It seems like every time I am the most relaxed I feel this sensation in my head ( front part of the head) like something is squeezing in starting from the top of the head and going down towards the ears. Before it used to end with a very sharp pain, but now there is no pain anymore just the feeling. I have short episodes of this in the evening when going to bed, or when driving or sitting.My Gp blames this on anxiety and it says it will get better with time. Short of breath: I felt this the worst starting in the 4th week. Now is getting better feeling it just when the anxiety moment is at its peak. When relaxing is better. Cravings: all the cigarette cravings I think are gone by now. But now I think I am craving for food instead. I am trying to keep myself as much as I can from over feeding myself. Stomac bloating: yes I have his also. Sometimes is good sometimes is bad. When I was smoking my gf used to tell me hat my sh*t stinks. U should smell it now :) even I cand stand the smell when on the toilet. I think that is cause of all the new bacteria which is now reviving in our stomachs. Bad thoughts: yes sometimes cause of all this symptoms combined I start thinking that maybe I am just lying myself about all the withdrawal symptoms, and maybe I am really ill. But I think that is just my unconscious who is not yet used with the idea of healing and starting a new life. Also sometimes I feel some pain under the either side of the rib cage. I presume are just my lungs healing themselves and expanding a little bit more then used to. overall I feel like getting better, but the only thing still worrying me is the anxiety ( sometimes even now when I know is nothing real it still makes me feel like having an heart attack of some sort), and also the head feeling thingie which I like to think about that is all the fresh air going now thru my head Also sometimes I feel like the scalp all over my head is burning. I hope the day will come again when I can say I am normal, and because I foun this forum now I feel more stronger in dealing with all this withdrwawing symptoms. For half of my life (14years) I was the slave of nicotine. So I even forgot how is it feeling to be normal. Again I would like to thank you all again for posting ur stories. I will try to update in the future when I will feel better Untill then keep strong my dears, and lets live our lives without poisoning our bodies . I apologise for my broken English, not my mother tongue. Regards Alin

Hi everyone. I've just hit the 9 month mark of being cigarette free, and about the 8 month mark of being nicotine free. I used nicotine gum for about a month after quitting smoking. I smoked a pack a day for 18 years. I'm a 36 yr old male in Ohio, with no remarkable medical conditions.

If you're reading this and you're thinking about quitting: Do it. Quit smoking. It is hard, it is horrible, but it is worth it.

If you're reading this, and like me 8 months ago, and you are struggling with your quit: Hang in there, it may get worse, but I promise it will get better. Every day you've quit is a bad day behind you, and many more better days ahead of you.

I'm at the point where I feel good, though not *great*. I'm guessing I'm at about 85% of the way to feeling great, however. It's certainly an improvement over week 1 where I went to the ER because I thought I was dying, and month 2 where I was convinced I was dying, just a more slowly and therefore not requiring an ER visit.

The big problems I've dealt with since quitting: spikes in blood pressure (going up to 180/120 for short periods of time), heart palpitations, digestive issues, anxiety, and weight gain.

The BP spikes, heart palpitations, anxiety, were all related to stress. Cigarettes were my crutch, my reward to myself, and my way to relax for 5 minutes at a time. When I took those away, I let every day stress get to me. The stress lead to the blood pressure spikes (picture a nuclear reactor about to melt down - that was me). The heart palpitations were something called "premature atrial complexes" that happen when something (stress in my case) irritates the heart and causes extra heartbeats originating in the atria. Those happened so often that they initiated two episodes of atrial fibrillation - a more serious arrhythmia that if allowed to continue untreated could lead to serious complications. Fortunately for me, the afib episodes lasted only minutes.

It took months, but I learned how to deal with stress and the BP spikes stopped and the heart palpitations faded away (though, the palpitations can come back if I've had a stressful couple of days paired with a lack of sleep).

The digestive issues have gotten much better after I learned to modify my lifestyle. When I was a smoker I could eat anything, anytime, anywhere between raw and rotten, and I was as regular as the seasons. When I quit smoking, my entire digestive system went haywire. I'll spare everyone details, but it wasn't pretty. From what I've read, nicotine is a strong anti-inflammatory agent and for some people, taking nicotine away causes things similar to irritable bowel syndrome and crohn's disease. I started eating smaller portions, cutting way back on fried and greasy foods, and never eating within 3 hours of going to bed, and that seems to have helped things return close to normal. Maybe I'll never go back to eating like an 18 yr old again, but I had a good run with it and should've been done with that lifestyle anyway.

Since quitting smoking, I've worked out regularly and have eaten healthier than I have in my entire life. I've also put on 15-20 lbs. that will not go away. WTF? I don't know. I always lose about 10-15 lbs. in the spring and summer. I'm hoping once I'm more active my metabolism will pick back up. If not, maybe I'll see a nutritionist. I plan on checking back in at the 12 month mark, and hopefully I will have something good to report on that front. For that matter, hopefully I can report that I do feel *great*.

Thanks to everyone - every single person - who has posted here over the years. Please continue to update us on your progress, your stumbles, or just to say hi. From your words I found understand and commiseration that I did not get from friends, family, or my doctor. By posting here, you're helping others.

Talk to you in a few months, if not sooner.

Hi guys ,

did any of you had any sinus/throat issues in your 3rd month of quitting ?   How long did it last ?  I fed up with it 

thank for sharing

 

 

 

Yesterday marks my 6 weeks of being smoke free. I did the hypnotist thing and quit cold turkey. I got the soreness all over, still am off and on. I didn't cough so much as clearing my throat more, but it's more productive than when I smoked. I am a 60 yr old woman who smoked anywhere from 1-2 packs a day since I was about 16. I did quit once for 2 years (using a hypnotist) so I wanted to use what worked for me before. That was 21 years ago.

I noticed a week or so back that I had light, continuous gas, but haven't had problems with my intestines and now the gas is gone. In the 6 weeks I've quit, I've noticed I have heartburn more often. Depression and anxiety don't seem to be a problem, but I did have some allergy reactions a few times and I get a low grade headache a couple times a week. It could also be the pollen that's about kick in though. I still think about having a cigarette and I miss them occasionally, but I can breathe better, I'm not yellow looking anymore and my fingernails are much pinker, so I'm getting there and determined not to smoke another cigarette. When I hit a milestone, like this 6 weeks, I go online and look sites like this for support. Thanks to all on this site and a couple of other sites too.

Good for you bababooey !!!!

It's not over yet but it seems like you're getting there...very encouraging for others!!! I didn't not know about the anti-inflammatory agent and the digestive issues.

I'll post my update in a few days.

IStop

...to answer to my own question, today I went to an ENT doctor. He did an examination of my sinus and throat using an " electronic  camera scope". Everything looks normal. ( I was so worried..) The reason I went was that my throat was given me allot of weird sensations on my neck and face. My sinuses were not in good shape either, same for my ears. Now to make a long story short here is what the doctor told me:

-the throat , sinuses and ears are connected to each other with some channels (I don't remember the exact name for those channels)  . Smoking affects these communications channels to the point that they become numb. The reverse process or recovery can take a while and most of the time is accompanied with weird sensations. (like congestion or sore throat  although there is no virus or bacteria found)  

This doctor was very familiar with the withdrawal  symptoms. He said that many of the former smokers are concern about throat cancer and sinus infections. His recommendation was: wait and see. If it gets worse come back.  

I hope this will help all other fellows around here.

 good day everyone.       

Thanks for your mail. my problem and symptom was photo copy of you post. now i have completed i year of necotine free life and almost 90% won the race. so pls hang on all the quitter one day will come when you will one smooth floor. Take care and thanks

Hi to all

 

This is my 9 month update.

Quick summary : I ‘am 44 years old and I started smoking at 15ish – 1 pack+ / day… close to 29 years of continuous smoking. I quick smoking on June 18 2012. I started with patches for 1 week then simply stop using them. The first 3 weeks were amazing then…hell started!

Symptoms: Nausea, headache, High blood pressure, fast heartbeat, Anxiety, digestive issues (gas, bloating)

All symptoms are gone except Anxiety (low) and digestive issues. The anxiety is again much better. Note that I’m seeing and psychologist and has help me very much. I learned that the anxiety that I have is linked to the fact that I’m scared of the being sick. Therefore, to get out of the anxiety, I need to do exercise and perform many activities (walking, playing drums, etc). This is how we can get out of being in a state of anxiety. As for the digestive issues, well they’re still there. One week it’s better and the other is worst. For some reason that I can’t explain yet, it seems like a cycle. But one thing for sure, the anxiety is linked to my digestive issues…When I get these issues, if I start thinking about the possibility that I might be sick, then the anxiety level goes up…and some of you well know how anxiety level can go up very very fast! So, this is why now, I try not think about it and instead I’m trying to “accept” it.

In summary it’s better than last month but not yet finished. I will post on my 10 month.

Thanks to all on this forum! We’re all on the same team…Keep on posting!

Istop

 

Istop, Rob, Bababooey, Smokefree and others thank you for sharing. I will update my status at my 4th month mark.