Shortness of breath after stopping smoking

It's 5.41 am and I have not slept. I just stopped Chantix and have SOB which leads to paranoia. I feel a lot better having read these pages, I stopped Chantix because it gave me a taste of blood in in my mouth which also lead to paranoia,

Sir or madam please suggest Me as I was a chain smoker but now I quitted to smoke by 4 days but my heart beat is pumping very fast I'm worried Plz suggest

For 30 years you are use to doing something every day many time witch is smoking a cig don't you thing your phayclagical mind would not be affected when you stop? I pretty sure what you are experiencing is only in your head find you something to do like reading or stay busy and a way of thinking a lot of a cig and you'll be fine. it's like breaking up with a girl you miss things you might never thought you'll miss like that stupid text that it actually use to aggravate you think about it :-) best of luck

I'm going through it myself I felt healthier when I smoked now shortness of breath weird cough also just got over something lack of energy .This sucks.Tracy

OK everyone... My name is Annie... I wrote a couple of months ago about having giving up smoking Cold Turkey last year, had weeks and weeks of Shortage of Breath, low energy, etc. I did not, however, suffer withdrawal symptoms for nicotine and after quitting felt NO desire for a fag, and 5 months on, still don't. The point of my writing is to warn others who feel tremendous pain with lack of breathing, lack of sleep (laying horizontally) and horrendous lack of stamina.... PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE double check with your doctor or the local Hospital in case it's something else. For 3 months I lived a life of hell, couldn't breathe, couldn't walk more than a few paces, couldn't function at all... and then .... the breathing problem got worse and worse until I was lying on the floor, on all fours, desperate for breath... I was still told by others on this Forum that it was all part of the Giving Up on Cigarettes thingy... but NO!!!!! I had perserved for weeks with this problem and thought it all rather odd that I should be suffering so badly when giving up on fags - Life Should Be Better, eh? Oh no.. my last day at home in January was laying on the floor and I was SO deperate for oxygen that I would occasionally pass out for a few minutes. Eventually, I asked my partner to ring for an ambulance because it had got worse and worse and I truly thought I was dying - my lips were turning blue and I kept blacking out. The ambulance took over 45 minutes to get to us (because we live on a mountain top in southern Italy!) but they were very worried about me and gave me an oxygen mask, etc. I was pumped with loads of drugs and before I knew it, I was in the nearest Hospital, some 50 minutes away. I am told that I died twice but on the third attempt I survived and they eventually got a heart beat. I was diagnosed with Acute Heart Failure and was kept in hospital for over 2 weeks. Since then, I have had 2 Strokes - luckily both were not permanent but were nevertheless VERY scary to experience - and now I have an LCD/Pacemaker installed (although VERY painful and awkward). My life has changed immensely - before I was a normal smoking girl who took no medication for anything and enjoyed a healthy life and now I am a feeble specimen with a pacemaker, a sack-full of drugs and a limited capacity to do certain things that I once enjoyed. I am 58 years old. All I would ask of anyone on this Forum is to be VERY careful about their side-effects when giving up the fags - if the breathing problem is painful, long-term, etc. to PLEASE check it out with a doctor. I had never had anything wrong with me before this - arguable MUCH healthier on fags - but now I have been broken. My lungs are fine, apparently, but my heart is knackered (enlarged and dodgy) so I now have to be super-careful, especially when going through Customs at Airports, etc., (hand-scanners are VERY bad...) and anything else electrical, etc. Good luck all of you who have or are trying desperately to give up - it is SO worth it - just be careful if you have breathing problems... do NOT believe everything here that tells you it is somehow "normal" and that it "will pass"... get checked out quickly! Lots of love, Annie xxxx

I'm having same problem.... I did quit for a month I was a 2 pack a day...some days 3 a day smoker...hardest thing I ever did but I never coughed alot or had a smokers cough like one would think but I could cough when I felt the need and it was a productive cough.... NOW I went to er 3 times. ..they said my exhale sounds "diminished" I can breathe in awesome it's breathing out that I struggle...so they ran a bunch of tests and my xray is clear and my blood test that they check your o2 level it's more accurate then the finger one and it was 70 but my finger ranged between 96-100... after nebulizer I feel GREAT!!! But they sent me.home with discharge papers and it says copd flare??? Ugh my bp is through the roof because I panick when I can't breathe. I been smoking since 14 yrs old been around 2nd hand smoke from chain smokers my whole life and still am by smokers... I read all these benefits from quitting but I'm not seeing ANY

I can't breath either.Went to hospital yesterday blood ,fray elf,perfect but says I have mild cops 9 mos ago just now quit I am short of breath right now and I'm still in new I hate it.

Then what did you do after???im having difficult in breathing right now...

I'm 33, smoked approx. 8-10 cigs. a day for about 10 years. I quit in August 2015. Have had WORST of my HEALTH in my life till day! Cough and congestion in the beginning. Followed by muscle pain, GERD (as the doc. said), constipation (still continues), zits on face, forehead and neck (on and off), shortness of breath (had in late nov-dec 2015. Then went off and now again since last 2-3 weeks). I feel tired/fatigued all the time. I feel so helpless, doomed and lack of confidence. As a few posters mentioned, also do not feel going out and socializing. My worst fear at the moment is the acute (yet chronic) shortness of breath. I have breath deeply from mouth to feel the air/oxygen entering my trachea and lungs to make me feel I'm STILL ALIVE!! I'd done a lung X-ray in Dec when I faced shortness of breath first time and doc. said its clean and healthy! I'm shit afraid of the breathing problem and fear if its COPD; as I read on a few forums and websites about my symptoms matching to that of COPD! :-( Any experts/doctors here who can advise, help and give me some hopes? Appreciate it.

Hi there sorry to hear your suffering this way, you sound the same as me I quit September, I'm having same sort of problems and having another attack at the moment, do you have a cough with mucus ? Have you spoke to. Your doc regarding copd as it can't always be detected on X-ray you need a lung function test to establish this, increased mucus production and waking up with headaches are copd factors, I'm in the process myself of being tested for this, but you must stay positive and keep your chin up, the sooner you know what's wrong the quicker you can deal with it best wishes Kerry

Hi there... thanks for responding.. I had mucus/phlegm in the beginning of my quitting, accompanied by congestion; it went off though. I do not have mucus anymore. I've booked an appointment with a pulmologist too for a lung x-ray and spirometry test to confirm if its COPD or just a temporary breathing issue due to my lungs cleaning up and trying to throw off the carbon/tar/toxins accumulated in it. My only fear factor is that its been 8 months since I've quit and I'm not getting any better. I never had any of these health problems when I smoked, infact; felt healthier then!! :-( Well I did think of start smoking again but stayed back recalling what I've been through all this while after quitting cold turkey..!! I'm gonna stick to this..!! BLESS ME!! :-D All the best to you too mate!! Congrats on quitting!! Stick to it!! :-)

I am really sorry to hear this and concerned cuz since I quit 3 weeks ago, I have also developed heart issues. I found out about them from a pulse oximeter that I had purchased due to SOB and then saw that my heart rate is very low. Just a few months ago I was diagnosed w POTS w is basically fast heart beat which was my reason for cutting back and then quitting and since I cut back in the middle of February, I have been more unhealthy than I've been in my entire life! Scared of heart failure also!

Hello! Sorry you're having possible heart problems right now. It's not worth risking that things will somehow improve... not with the heart.... If you haven't been for a some weeks, PLEASE got to your doctor or better still, Out Patients at Hospital who will treat you with urgency (as they do all heart-related things). I thought I'd be fine with the weeks of horrible Shortage of Breath, etc., but my heart thing came on quickly, my legs and feet swelled right up, I COULD NOT breathe and it all happened frightingly fast. Don't risk it - get checked out today please. Annie xxxxxxx

I have been going through this and fighting this for years. Read on and don't worry. It actually does get better. How? Well that was hard for me but I'm now hoping my story can make it easier for someone else. It's terrible. Cant get a full breath and realized how terrible that is. Got checked out by doctors for everything and all clears over and over. Frustrated and scared. Sleepless nights and anxiety which made me think I was dying being I couldn't get a breath. My longstanding opinion is that It's smoking compounded I just found out after quitting 3 times now. It all started before I took my "last puff" I stressed and thought it was because I smoked too much, that turned into me smoking and eating better,....regretting I ever smoked. Months of feeling terrible. Going back to smoking (I shouldn't have) to resolve problem, getting the spins now that lasted for days, scared again. STOPPED WITH PATCHES AND LEARNED TO CALM DOWN, not that I was angry but stressed. It's a big deal to quit, more than just nicotine. 4 months later it's almost back to perfect this time. Feeling that breath all the time. Then I go out and say cheat dayyy :))) Back to "what is wrong with me? Like I wasn't scared enough before?" Am I stupid? Yes, yes I was. Gonna give up smoking? Expect it but I would say that being stuck in that middle zone where you still need them but won't smoke then smoking again but still quitting and not managing stress. Still get checked out for anything you're worried about if you're worried but always no matter what drop the stress. And yes it takes time. 2 years for me of problems around quitting and took it for granted.

No Chantix for me, a heart attack did it for me, and I have SOB