Shortness of breath after stopping smoking

From what I've read it appears it varies... Someone said it took 2 years for the SOB to stop.

Let me ask you, do you get more colds now that you are a non smoker? Since I quit, I have had some nasty chest colds which I never really had as a smoker. I am going through one now. The funny thing is this is the first time I'm really hacking up Phlegm(not to be gross) in 15 months myself. Keith

Hi Keith...I have not had a single cold or suffer from any allergies since I quit....it's the craziest thing!

Day 52 and I feel worse.... I'm sitting here feeling like someone is smothering me, questioning if this is normal......  I was lifting heavy boxes last evening and I lost the air in my lungs with every box I lifted....... I'm not coughting......  I just can't breath... I woke up 4 times trying to catch my breath..... Anyone else this bad????? Thanks Joe

Yes Joe....I literally thought I was dying every day for 15 months...so, yes...and I can tell you that you will have bad days and better days until you begin to feel better, for good. Hang in there....This forum literally saved my life...nothing worse than feeling alone during this process...

Same here. It was not until after 6 to 8 months for me before having more better days than bad ones. I try to block out how bad I felt because it was not fun. If you read all the posts you will see many of us have been there and have survived so you know that it can be done. It might not take you as long to heal, everyone is different? Waking up in the middle of the night trying to catch your breath I think is from night time anxiety. Now that you are no longer a smoker your breathing patterns are off. Start doing deep breathing exercises. If you think about it, when you were smoking you were taking in deep breaths on each drag. Now you are shallow breathing and you feel as if you cannot get enough air which is where the breathing exercises help. Keep it up. Anytime you have a question just ask. Someone will be able to answer it since we have been through it. Even after 15 months I still think about smoking but it doesn't bother anymore like in the beginning. I can't honestly say I feel any better but it's sure nice not having to worry about getting a smoke in before going to a function and it's nice not smelling like an ashtray. Keith

Thanks Angel and Keith, It helps to hear from you.... Joe

No problem...I know it's a scary time and I found comfort when I joined this forum, especially from Keith and Ralph...pay it forward :-)

I tried the deep Breathing exercise and its helping.  I'm not feeling as short of breath.   Did anyone ever try an enhaler like symbcort? Joe

They had me on an inhaler but when I demanded a pulmonary functioning test be done on me it indicated that the inhalers did absolutely nothing to help with my breathing....doing the deep breathing exercises was the only thing that help me....I can't tell you enough that it's the anxiety I was experiencing and seems to be very common made it more difficult to breathe...over time, the anxiety will go away...but in the meantime...keep up with the breathing exercises...

Yes I"ve had about 8 colds in the last 15 months and they all have been severe, some I had to go to the hospital for,The doc told me that now that I"m not smoking there is nothing to protect my lungs, that the tar and other junk in cigs not only kill people it also kills the germs that causes colds and other problems in the lungs. so at least cigs did some good. THANKS RALPH

Stay away from that stuff if you can. Google the symptoms of symbicort. Many people reporting extreme anxiety and depression which it the last thing you need after quitting. Quitting cigs along causes that and then to add something else on top will really send you to the ER. Which by the way I visited 2x in the first few months of quitting. Not sure if you have good med insurance but what helped me a lot mentally was going to the doctor and getting a complete physical with blood work. Then I did a stress test and lung test with my cardio doc. After everything came back fine I felt better. Until I got all the results back the doc prescribed me zoloft and klonopin to see if that helped because I think they kind of knew this would be all anxiety related. Those 2 drugs really messed me up. After a few weeks I quit that stuff and decided to change my diet, exercise took a good multi vitamin and 2 thous mil of fish oil daily which helps brain function. Those changes and talking to the good people on this site is what got me over this crazy addiction. Funny how time flies, last Oct I was a complete basket case being 3 months into my quit. Now 15 months later all that anxiety is past me or at least 90% gone. I'm still learning to deal with stress now w/o having to grab a cig to clam me down and after 30 years will take longer than 15 months to figure that out but each day at this point gets better and better. Keith

In the last year I've had about 3 but that was 3 more than what I had in 5 years. The last few days I took mucinex DM and it caused an anxiety flare up for me. I read that the Dextromethorphan in the DM can cause that. Next time I will use just plain old muxinex. Keith

Joe i have been on several inhalers some are great in the begining but they soon taper off and become ineffective symbicort is a steroid so try not to be on it to long, its the best out of all of them but its a very dangerous drug so do not stay very long on it maybe 6 months at the most, THANKS RALPH

It has been a long road to quitting but i think i have done it, I wish I had not lost so much weight, and the sad part was it was all muscle that i lost ,because I had no fat on me, now I have a very hard time doing hard work till i rebuild my muscles back up I lost 50 lbs, thats all I had, and thats the reason I now have doing work gotta have muscles,, THANKS RALPH