Shortness of breath after stopping smoking

Glad to hear you are learning to overcome the anxiety.Part of the pains can be part of the healing process in your lungs. Just like a very bad injury like a broken bone or bad cut, sometimes the healing process can hurt or cause pain. Getting checked just to be sure is a good thing and can help further to clear you mind.

Good morning everyone...just thought I would check in since it's been a while....I am slowly improving so I am happy.  At least I am not getting worse.  It seems that although I still am getting shortness of breath I am able to recover quickly if that makes any sense...before I had to stop mid walk and wait a few minutes and then continue...now i can walke get to my distination, albeit, winded and recover almost instantly!  How is everyone else doing?

Funny you should ask, I just checked my quit app and today marks my 12th month. Wow, 1 year free. Honestly, I have been good. My SOB has low most likely because my anxiety is low to none. Do I feel 100%? No, but I'm still in recovery mode. I just take 1 day at a time and roll with the punches. I'm glad you are getting better it's amazing what a crazy ride this has been for us. I can say now that I do feel better now than I did as a smoker. I feel more calm as a non smoker if you can believe it and less digestive issues as well. As a smoker I had bad stomach ulcers that never healed because smoking irritates it. Those healed 3 months after quitting. Please keep checking in it's great to hear how we are progressing. Keith

Hi Keith! Glad you ae going better...maybe that is what it is...my anxiety has disappeared and that is why when I have my SOB I am able to bounce back quick...hmmm....and congratulations on making it a year!!!!!!!  

It gives me immense pleaseure to see that the other people are also getting the same symptoms :D My half SOB has just been cured by reading these posts :P I smoked around 15-20 cigerettes per day for around 12 years and I decided to quit smoking around 9 months ago. I started to smoke just 1 cigerette per day and I continued to do so for a month.  On one fine evening just after an hour of smoking the cigerette I started to feel extreme shortness of breathing that I cannot tell in words. I was starving for oxygen. I ended up with a night in Hospital and full of panic attacks. I had X-ray in the morning cursing me that why did I smoke for 12 years and waiting for the positive outcome. I had a lot of panic attacks between the X-ray time and the X-Ray report time but I was so happy to see that everything was normal.   I quit smoking that moment, thinking that this was just one hell night and I might have to face similiar consequences if I continue to smoke. Since then I haven't smoked again but I have been constantly feeling SOB. In the start SOB was much due to panic attacks but those symptoms have gone after treatment. I was wondering that as now I am mentally much stable now but why I am still facing SOB? Again to my immense pleasure I have found out the reason for my SOB. Now I am hoping that my symptoms get better soon.

They will get better. I am convinced that the SOB is due to anxiety/ stress. I hit a year free and like a switch that went off my SOB is gone along with the anxiety which I had daily up until then. I never had any of these issues prior to quitting. I am so glad that i stuck it out and did not go on any meds like the docs wanted. I just knew that if i did, it would be another addiction I needed to get free from. Quitting was the best thing I did because it got me to exercise daily and eat healthy( for the most part). If my anxiety or SOB returns then I am prepared for it because I know what to expect and that it would kill me. I am still here 12 months later and been through so crazy rides from this. That is where not going on the meds have made me stronger. Stay with it and good luck. Keith

I am having a very hard time , I have stopped smoking for 3 weeks and five days , what lead to me quitting is short bouts of gasping for air and feelings of fainting. In light of such, I am having a horrible life , dizziness , sever panic attacks(Daily) , constant shortness of breath and elevated blood pressure (150/120). I have gone and seen my doctor.did ecg, everything was ok. My cholestetol was also high and added to which i am obese.He placed me on a small dosage of lexotan to sleep and relax but it doesn't seem to help.Visited the ER room 4 times in this window as well.I am a wreck, cannot stop thinking about dying and I panic daily, SIB has become a dally part of my life . Someone please tell me it would be ok soon . I am going out of.my.mind .

Please don't panic this all happened to me as well. The first month or two were tough. After having all test done and reading all the posts I knew it was something that would pass over time and to just hang tough. If you want a speedy recovery, then you need to start eating healthy and try to exercise. Start off with taking short walks. Something that helped me a lot mentally was taking a good fish oil pill daily. Country Life Mood Support is great and has the highest EPA. A good multi vitamin as well. I have taken 2 of the fish oil pills daily for the last year now. My blood pressure was high in the beginning as well but after awhile it came down now it's great 103/63 and my BPM is usually in the low 50's. As a smoker it was never that good. I'm not going to lie it's a tough road but you can do it just hang in there it will get easier over time. In the beginning I leaned a lot of family members. Also, learn deep breathing exercises. There are many to look at on Youtube. to calm your nerves you can try Calmes Forte. It says for sleep but I take it anytime I feel stressed. It does not make you sleepy like sleeping pills would it just clams your mind from racing. Keith

Also, if you can try to lay off the anti-anxiety meds. I tried them for 2 weeks and made things worse. I had severe panics and guess what I'm still here. I read up a lot on this and it's true you will not die from one no matter how much you think so and can't breath. Just think you have been through it now for weeks and still ok. Keep busy hang with the kids more accept the SOB and you will see that it will pass. the key is to continue doing everything you would normally do like when you smoked.

Today marks 1 year for Ralph, CONGRATS I know where you are its mighty cold up there in Barrow Alaska flying as a bush pilot. not my cup of tea . Just wanted to remember you and all the good you have brought in my life and i'm sure a lot of other people again thank you very much and you be careful flying in that nasty place. see you when you get home ,.k,

Welcome "newbies"... I stopped April 26, 2013 and it took a little over a year to begin seeing major improvement...no more anxiety and I still have shortness of breath however, not nearly as bad as before. Before there were times I was only able to take a few steps before having SOB...it was horrible...and the feeling that you were dying....i felt that EVERYDAY....I felt I was alone and that no one was understanding how I was feeling because no one ever heard of someone quitting and developing SOB to this degree. Thank g-d for this forum. You will get better, it takes time...hang in there...

I hate telling prople that they are so wrong on their outlook on life, but you got to do what you got to do, Keith you are so wrong on your choice of drugs you swear about they are nothing but garbage, I tried them all, then carried them to the lab where we ran test on them, just garbage , I could go into what they are but I may get sued, please in the future just keep the info to yourself so you want look so stupid, an Angel 123 we all know that you are grossely overweight so lose some of it and you have told us 184 times you got SOB 3 weeks after your quit so we know so well now so please no more of your quit.

Ouch... Apparently someone feels unloved and probably wasn't hugged as a child.  Very sad.  I feel sorry for you because you didn't ask to enter this world.  But while you are here...try not to bring others down to where you are at, by no fault of your own, simply because you were not loved as a child, but nonetheless...you are so transparent.  Move along.  

20 year smoker here. Over the past year, I've smoked at work and wore patches at home.  In the past few months, I began smoking less and less.  I ended up having what doctors diagnosed as a panic attack one afternoon.  Since then, I deal with breathing issues.  It's worst about 30min to hour after I wake in the morning.  The doc prescribed me low dose ativan.  It helps some. Over the past 4 days, I didn't smoke at all (wore patches though).  This morning was the worst day in months with breathing issues, chills, and a general jittery feeling (thought I was gonna hit the panic button).  I just encountered this thread today and have found lots of helpful info.  Thanks everyone. I have a tip to add too.  During my 30min morning commute to work, I sing outloud to a few of my favorite MELLOW songs.  This takes my mind off my breathing and helps it become more natural.  Sure, my exhaling is long (singing) and my inhaling rather quick. It helps calm me and improves my breathing for a while. 

Maybe you should go crawl back under a rock? I just give suggestions as what worked for me that's it. Maybe they are placebo who cares they made me feel better. All I know is I got through this w/o having to take man made synthetic drugs that get you addicted and hard to get off of. People that come on to forums bashing others are nothing but losers that have no life and no one to be happy with. If you don't have anything encouraging to same then shut up. I will look into having your IP address blocked from further comments.