Shortness of breath after stopping smoking

THAT IS SOO SWEET .THAT SHOWS YOU HAVE DEDICATION,RESPECT AND LOVE FOR YOUR FAMILY

I have quit smoking now for 1 month. I feel short of breath also. Sometimes I get really nervous because it can get pretty bad. I am glad to hear that it's not just me. I'm sure it's just our lungs trying to clear themselves out. 

Thought you got away with it didn't you bud? well life lets no one get away with abuse.

I gave up smoking for a year once and never had any breathing problems, I had anxiety though, and that passed after a few weeks. I went back on the smokes, and now I am trying to quit again I am finding it much harder, and get breathing problems and anxiety which leads me to smoke again. What I have found is that alcohol for me, makes the breathing problems a lot worse, if you want to stop smoking, stay off the alcohol until you are off the smokes for a month or more. Drinking is the worst thing you can do if you are trying to stop smoking. It will make anxiety worse, and cause a lot of other problems in people trying to stop smoking. It can be done, if I stopped smoking for a year, anyone can do it as I was hooked badly and was a anxious person always worrying about everything, but after you stop smoking for a few months, you are calmer than you ever were as a smoker. Just avoid the alcohol as it can lead back to smoking, even a year later if you're not very careful, it's a trigger.

The emotional ride when quitting is the worst aspect for me also, I am normally a calm person, a friendly person, but when I stop smoking everything seems to upset me, I get very emotional. It does go away after a few months, I gave up for a year and never felt better emotionally and physically. I also had to stop drinking though as that also made me depressed and angry when I was having a hangover. When you give up things like drinking and smoking , after a while the amount of tranquility you feel some days is amazing. It's like being born again into a new mind and body, the good days are so much better than when you smoked and drank, and the bad days are not half as bad as they used to be, it's all about getting through the early, terrible days of quitting, then you wake up one day and you just feel, peace. With the anger, you have to be smart, if you know you're walking into a situation where you are going to snap, leave. If you can't do that, look ahead to where you are going to lose your temper, visualize it, before it happens, and stop it from happening. And close your eyes, take a few deep breaths and let that anger and stress leave your body, and know it's just a temporary thing that you must endure to free yourself from a life time of addiction. It's the price you got to pay to be free, but you will be rewarded so many more times over for your suffering. Good luck and don't go back to smoking or you will feel defeated and very depressed. And have to start all over again. You can do it, anyone can do it. We all have the power in us to beat addiction and withdrawal.

What everyone here seems to be describing is anxiety, nothing more, nothing less. I think that most of the addiction to nicotine is  psychological. I know people who can go all day without smoking, doesn't bother them,  but put them in a certain place or situation and they crave a smoke, for no real reason at all. Something is triggered in the mind and that person needs to smoke. Once a smoker stops smoking , I think a lot of things start to happen in the sub conscious or other areas where we have no control over. Fear, anxiety will come to a head, the fear of the unknown, the fear that we must deal with life without nicotene, but it's on a sub conscious level which means no matter how badly we want to stop smoking, another part of us doesn't want to stop and is fighting back. Which results in awful anxiety which shows itself as shortness of breath. The only thing we can do is ride it out, it does go away, once every part of our being accepts that we are a non smoker and it's going to remain that way, then we stop fighting against our self and we find peace and the anxiety involved in quitting smoking is defeated for good. Time is the healer, how much time before we feel better is different with each person. It's all about letting go and accepting that we are no longer smokers. Every part of our being has to accept this, then the battle is won. Everyone here is anxious, looking for a cure to the anxiety felt in quitting, but what's happening is they are in conflict with themselves, accept you no longer smoke and get on with your life, truly accept it, there is a battle of wills taking place. Just accept that you no longer smoke and the anxiety will fade away. The day will come where you no longer think about smoking, no longer want to smoke, and no longer get anxious. Time is a great healer as they say. The longer you go without smoking, the more you will come to accept it. You may think you accept this new you who doesn't smoke, but there is a part of you that is still afraid and wants to smoke, this will pass with time , you will finally realize there is nothing to be afraid of.

COPD. I stopped smoking after 50 years too. Like you, I felt terrible after. short of breath just walking up the stairs and the like!When I lay down I couldn't sleep because of the "wheezing orchestra" that played from my chest when breathing out. Steroids are the only medicine that stops that although the Doctors don't like you to be on them for too long because of side-effects. Don't know how I would sleep if I didn't take them! Impossible. Sat up all night the other night watching TV because couldn't lie down with this bloody chest noise!! (confusion over steroid delivery, surgery women screwed up...too much chatting instead of getting on with their job!!!)). Just glad to hear that others reckon it gets better after time. Hope that's not just wishful thinking!!

Nice explanation. Makes sense a lot of sense, especially #1 and #4. I am having the same problem. I was smoking 5-10 cigarettes a day for the past 10 years and I'm now 33 yrs old. I had asthma when I was a kid, still have mild asthma as an adult. Smoking did suppressed my asthma, helped me breath easier (strange, but true). I have quit for almost 3 months and every day I'm having difficulty breathing. Have had 2-3 bronchitis/chest infections past 3 months since I quit. I exercise (jogging mostly) to get back into better health/circulation/improve my lung function. Yes, exercise has helped me somewhat, but I still feel the need for more air, my chest feels heavy and I feel like I'm out of breath. Sometimes I have to use the inhaler to help me breathe.

Hi, OMG finding these posts is like discovering heaven open up. I have been losing my mind thinking i was dying, that i had some sort of disorder and all it is SOB from increased oxygen levels in the blood! what a lovely thing to find out. It really helps with the anxiety as its a perpetual loop, short breath then the anxiety of having short breath..WHY THE HELL CANT DOCTORS TELL US THIS???? Oh don't worry its just a side effect of quitting smoking!!! Fair enough that they have to scare us by running the tests but i haven't had any nice advice from anyone!! Nearly everyone on this forum is experiencing same thing! This is a little bit of info i found about quitting smoking. Hope it puts your mind at ease.   "chris the science geek" is a scientist (chemist) by trade, a writer by avocation, and a long-time "q-ster" (quitnet slang for a quitter or a member of quitnet). he wrote a series of articles on various quit phenomena, such as "crs (can't remember sh*t) syndrome", "quitzits", and "quitulence" (do i have to explain that?). here's the first of those articles: ---- This is for any newbies (or even oldbies) that wonder, "why is it I feel so light-headed, dopey and stoned now that I have quit smoking...?" Well, pull up a chair and Chris the Science Geek will tell you why... When you burn the leaves of tobacco and inhale the combustion products, you inevidibly inhale a whole bunch of a certain chemical called carbon monoxide. You may be familiar with this chemical; it's the same one that spews out of the, uh , "backside" of your car. So, yup, it's kinda like doing tailpipe hits. The carbon monoxide, aka "CO", takes up space in your bloodstream that would normally be occupied by another certian chemical that goes by the name of oxygen, aka O2. Funny thing is, your body uses the O2 but can *not* use the CO. In fact, in large enough doses, CO will suffocate/poison you. This is why doctors do not recommend that you get into your car in a closed garage, run a hose from the tailpipe into the window and start the engine. Take it from me, this is a Bad Idea. Anyway, your body, being the unbelievable wondrous machine that it is, responds to this mini-suffocation that you are inflicting on it by increasing something called your "packed red cell count". Why does your body do this, you ask? I'll tell you why: in your blood are cells (they're red, go figure) that carry O2 from your lungs to other parts of your body. Because the CO uses up some of their ability to carry O2, you need more to carry the amount of O2 you need to live. So, your body produces about 10-20% more red blood cells. When your doctor is looking at your blood they will often separate out the red blood cells by spinning your blood in a centrifuge. The red blood cells all go to the bottom of the test tube, nicely compacted. The doctor measures the volume of these packed cells and that number is called (wait for it) the packed red cell volume. Neato, huh?! Because humans have a pretty consistent level of red cells, doctors can actually tell if you are a smoker by looking at your level. So, now your body is happily chugging along, coughing and hacking a lot but at least getting enough O2 to keep you alive. Then you quit smoking. Very rapidly the reduction in CO that you are breathing causes a precipitous drop in the amount of CO in your blood. But here YOU are, still walking around with 10-20% higher O2 carrying ability. So, you get a little, well, giddy. Kinda dopey. Hell, you're stoned, let's call it what it is. You are actually walking around in a state of constant, low-level hyperventilation. Eventually your body realizes the big favor you have done it and stops producing red blood cells for awhile so that you can get back down to your normal level. When that happens, the dizziness will go away. What can you do about it? Well, my advice is to breathe deeply and enjoy this free buzz. Ever hear of oxygen bars over in Tokyo? Well, they have them. You go in and belly up to the bar, lay down your coin and huff pure oxygen for awhile. But YOU get to do it for free!!! Take advantage of your inebriated state and blame absolutely every little mistake, faux pas and error on it. You won't often get this opportunity so DON'T BLOW IT!!! One more word of advice: you may want to avoid making major decisions, operating heavy equipment or performing death-defying stunts for awhile. Ya just never know... This has been a public service announcement by Chris the Science Geek. No warranty, expressed or implied, is given - use at your own risk. Offer void where prohibited, please allow 10-12 weeks for delivery. Your mileage may vary._________________keep choosing life! kevin the quit guru

I started smoking when I was 14, I am 24 now. I felt shortness of breath as a smoker as well but not as much while quitting. I quit 2 years and shortness of breath didn't go away until I started smoking again a year ago. The problem went away. Now I quit again almost 2 weeks ago and breathing problem is back but it dissolves when I put my nicotine patch on!! So I conclude that in my case it must be stress that ,mostly creates the problem.I also went to the doctor first time I quit when I felt shortness of breath every day, really really often for weeks. They told that everything is fine and recommended a psychologist. Psychologist told me to just to relax and breathe which is quite hard since the area between stomach and longs feels like made of stone and feeling really anxious and nervous. Now I am giving up smoking again and maybe i have to deal with the breathing problem for years. But I had it also when I smoked just not that extreme.

You failed to read the posts on here, sob is caused by mucus blocking the small passages of the lungs, nothing more nothing less , reqad before speaking, dummy !!

I want to remind everyone once more that shortness of breath is not caused by to much oxygen ih the lungs,it is caused by the lungs not being able to absorb enought oxygen because of all the mucus cloging your exchange vessel in the lungs . got it /

Anyone suffering from shortness of breath after quitting smoking should look into oil pulling. It is a natural detoxification method which helps clear your lungs of built up tar and other unwanted substances, in addition to its many other reported health benefits. Just type in oil pulling on a search engine.  ***this post is edited by moderator *** *** web addresses not allowed*** Please read our Terms of Use is just one of many web sites which advocate this detox method, and they have user testimonials on their site. By the way, I'm not trying to sell anything and I have no financial incentive to suggest oil pulling to anyone, and I have no ties to it. I'm just trying to help, that's all.

In humans, for example, motile cilia are found in the lining of the trachea (windpipe), where they sweep mucus and dirt out of the lungs. This is what is killed when we smoke, and this is why we have sob

you are just wrong for writeing something that is so wrong, do a little research on your own and you will see that you have it backwards .when you quit smoking your lungs start producing lots of mucus to clean out all the tar and that other crap that you inhale while smoking, that blocks the vessels that exchange oxygen for co, so no oxygen.