Quitting Smoking Symptoms: it is important

A person who is quitting smoking has tough time.

Almost in an hour after you smoked the last cigarette and refuse yourself in another “smoke break”, your organism will start to clean itself.

Hour after hour, day by day the organism will begin eliminating alien chemical compounds, with which you used to block yourself every day inhaling smoke.

However, at the same time the organism, which got used to getting nicotine every day, will demand its dose.

Quitting smoking symptoms are called nicotine withdrawal.

There are different symptoms of this process for every smoker.

Let’s try to figure out what kind of symptoms are there.

Withdrawal syndrome of quitting smoking and its symptoms

Withdrawal symptom is a depressing, very often painful condition, which is represented by the reaction of some systems in the organism (mainly nervous system) on the absence or decrease of dose of the regularly used drug, alcohol and other psychoactive substances, which are able to cause addiction.

Withdrawal syndrome appears mainly when there is a huge addiction to this or that substance.

When a person is quitting smoking, the withdrawal syndrome is called nicotine absistence.

From the first days of quitting smoking a person might have the following symptoms of nicotine absistence:

• strong desire to smoke again,
• worry,
• irritation,
• tension,
• insomnia,
• depression,
• difficulties to concentrate,
• dizziness,
• headache,
• convulsions,
• shaking hands,
• bigger appetite,
• nausea,
• weakness,
• fatigue,
• tachycardia,
• high arterial blood pressure,
• bradycardia,
• dyspnea,
• feeling lack or air,
• excessive sweat,
• allergic reactions,
• strong cough,
• mouth sores, etc.

All these unpleasant symptoms are triggered by the fact that now, when the organism is left without the usual nicotine flow, your organs try to restore the optimal functioning.

This physical (physiological) recovery at a certain level is reflected on the psychological and physical condition, in the organism of which there is no more nicotine.

A person is under stress, the degree of which greatly depends on the attitude of the person who is quitting smoking.

Physiological symptoms of quitting smoking

• Severe cough is one of the most widespread consequences of refusing nicotine.

  When a person smokes, he usually has a cramp in his bronchi – this is the defense reaction of the organism to the poisonous smoke.

  As soon as a person quits smoking, the breathing organs are opened again and they try to get clean from the rest of the poisonous substances as soon as possible.

  Besides, the widened bronchi are more exposed to different infections and the immune system weakened by the cigarette smoke is incapable to resist the infection.

  It increases the risk of having acute respiratory disease and bronchitis.

• Mouth sores at the time of nicotine absistence are connected to the fact that during constant influence of smoke the cell immunity of mouth cavity is rapidly lowered.

  Nicotine is to some extent an antiseptic for the ill mucous membrane and as soon as it disappears the mouth is defenseless to all possible infections.

• Nicotine makes the heart beat faster and narrows the vessels.

  As a result, the arterial blood pressure is increased and there is a feeling that due to the vessels’ spasms the blood flow is improved.

  That’s why a person who quits smoking can sometime observe symptoms of worse blood stream: weakness, headaches, lightheadedness, loss of working efficiency.

• When quit smoking, some people put on weight.

  This interesting symptom is directly connected to the psychological addiction to the tobacco.

  Food is known to be the best natural antidepressant.

  Former smokers, when feeling bad without regular dose of nicotine, often eat.

  Positive emotions, which are triggered by eating, usually kill those negative feelings, which appeared in their nervous system because of the pathological habit to smoke.

  It’s quite logical that trying to fight this desire a smoker switches one addiction on the other one, i.e. instead of cigarettes he eats something.

Stages of quitting smoking symptoms

Withdrawal syndrome when smoking as a rule has three stages, which have their own peculiarities.

1. The first stage is mostly revealed as physical addiction, which is provoked by lack of nicotine.

   It lasts a day or a bit longer and then you either feel better or your condition becomes still worse.

   The following symptoms of quitting smoking are observed:

   • decrease of working efficiency and strength,
   • nervous state, irritation,
   • “laziness” – breakdown,
   • loss of appetite,
   • perversion of organs of digestion.

   The syndrome at this stage is not very expressed.

   A person feels only strong desire to smoke, but this stage either stays at the same degree and fades away with time or gets bigger and worse.

2. The second stage has more expressed symptoms, which people around notice at once.

   The duration of this period usually lasts from 1 to 6 days.

   It’s very difficult to get rid of it because the wish to smoke is enormous.

   • Prominent dermahenia (it mostly concerns the face and limbs)
   • oedemata (when the liquid is accumulated in the texture)
   • corectasia (the pupil dilation)
   • pain in heart, which may look like the fit of breast pang. Rapid increase of arterial and intraocular pressure
   • sharp, nagging headaches
   • loss of appetite
   • nausea and vomit
   • indigestion
   • limbs’ tremor
   • failure in the work of loco-motor system
   • confusion of consciousness
   • aggravation of illnesses of digestive tract, if you have any.

   This stage has another peculiarity – a smoker has an enormous desire to smoke a cigarette right away.

   It’s extremely difficult to control yourself and you might have various psycho-emotional disorders.

   The most important thing at this stage is not to break, because if you reach this moment, it means you’ve gone through some way and it’s only a bit left to finish it and finally quit smoking.

3. The most difficult period that lasts from 2 to 6 days.

   
   You only need to come through this threshold and move on.

   • something like a fever is observed (you are rapidly feeling cold)
   • general apathy, weariness and tiredness
   • pale face and changes in the face form – it becomes more oval and thin
   • cyanosis (blue color of the skin)
   • serious troubles in work of heart and organs of digestion.

How to ease the quitting smoking symptoms?

In any case in order to reduce such hard for everyone period, you should help your organism to get rid of nicotine addiction.

• The simplest piece of advice, which one might give, is to drink more water.

  Nicotine (cotinine) and everything connected to it is removed from the organism with the urine and drinking much water will improve your digestion and stimulate the organism to remove the poisonous substances in the natural way.

• If a smoker does not have any problems with blood pressure, a person may be recommended to go to the bathhouse or sauna.

  Intense sweating will also help to eliminate the poisonous substances.

• In order to improve your metabolism you should drink more juice and eat more fruits.
• Milk products are great in coping with the results of intoxication.

• Running, swimming, any physical exercises (but do not go too far) will also fasten your metabolism (substance exchange).
  The more intense it is the quicker waste and toxins are removed from the organism.

• It’s important at this stage to feel your blood with oxygen, that’s why you must regularly go for a walk in the woods, park or elsewhere.

  Physical load in the open air will double the benefit.

• If you are not sure you can cope with this dreadful habit only by “moral and will”, you can take medication, which blocks nicotine sensors in your head.

• Some doctors advise in the first days after quitting smoking to eat vegetables, which contain a little nicotine.

  These are tomatoes, eggplants, potatoes, cucumbers and cauliflower.

Regardless of all inconveniences, which are caused by quitting smoking symptoms, they are just temporary.

You’ll definitely get better in a couple of weeks, when the toxins will leave your body.

The benefits of quitting smoking will be the lower risk of falling seriously ill and acquiring better health.

Meanwhile, you should warn your close people that you are going to be bad-tempered, so that they treated you with understanding.