After smoking 20 a day for many years, I smoked my last cigarette last week.
How soon will it be until my body starts to recover from the damage I've done to it? When will my taste buds & nose regain their best performance?
The weird thing is that after 1 week of not smoking, I actually feel WORSE than I did before! My lungs ache, I've got a sore throat and my mouth feels constantly cruddy.
Any ex-smokers want to share their experiences?
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Quitting Smoking...
Congratulations! You should give yourself a pat on the back!! I am a smoker and have made up my mind that I am going to quit.....I am sick of it and I know that I'm not doing my body any good.
I'm not sure when you will actually be able to pin point any major changes. It will probably be a slow process but never the less it will be better for you in the end!!
Again - Congradulations!
I'm not sure when you will actually be able to pin point any major changes. It will probably be a slow process but never the less it will be better for you in the end!!
Again - Congradulations!
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- Guest
RE: Quitting Smoking...
CONGRATULATIONS! Stick with it! I have now been off cigarettes for over a year now, and have never felt or looked better. I can honestly say I do not miss smoking at all. Quite the opposite, it now thoroughly disgusts me. I never thought I could do it, but I did.
It's mind over matter, as the old saying goes.
It is NORMAL for you to be experiencing the symptons you are. Don't panic or be freaked out by it. It is quite simply your body "cleaning house". The time/length you experience these vary on your own body. It's different for everyone. I myself was sick as a dog for roughly 1 month after quitting. Then it subsided, and dissapeared.
The wonderful thing about the human body is that it can in fact repair itself against smoking damage. Your lungs can take up to 10 years to regain their original oxygen capacity, and clean themselves of the tar and other chemicals.
Hope this helps.
Stay with it. The funny thing I discovered was that quitting smoking was not hard at all!! It was the ANXIETY about quitting that had me put it off.
Drink lots of water each day (to flush out the chemicals and toxins), and check your diet. Your body has been starved of vitamins for years.
Good luck
Canadi>nBoy
YYZ
It's mind over matter, as the old saying goes.
It is NORMAL for you to be experiencing the symptons you are. Don't panic or be freaked out by it. It is quite simply your body "cleaning house". The time/length you experience these vary on your own body. It's different for everyone. I myself was sick as a dog for roughly 1 month after quitting. Then it subsided, and dissapeared.
The wonderful thing about the human body is that it can in fact repair itself against smoking damage. Your lungs can take up to 10 years to regain their original oxygen capacity, and clean themselves of the tar and other chemicals.
Hope this helps.
Stay with it. The funny thing I discovered was that quitting smoking was not hard at all!! It was the ANXIETY about quitting that had me put it off.
Drink lots of water each day (to flush out the chemicals and toxins), and check your diet. Your body has been starved of vitamins for years.
Good luck
Canadi>nBoy
YYZ
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- VirginLover
- Posts: 918
- Joined:
RE: On Quitting Smoking...
This was in my health class..congrats!
20 MINUTES
Blood pressure drops to normal.
Pulse rate drops to normal.
Body temperature of hands and feet increases to normal.
8 HOURS
Carbon monoxide level in blood drops to normal.
Oxygen level in blood increases to normal.
24 HOURS
Chance of heart attack decreases.
48 HOURS
Nerve endings start regrowing.
Ability to smell and taste is enhanced.
2 WEEKS TO 3 MONTHS
Circulation improves.
Walking becomes easier.
Lung function increases up to 30%.
1 TO 9 MONTHS
Coughing, sinus congestion, fatigue, and shortness of breath decrease.
Cilia regrow in lungs, increasing ability to handle mucus, clean the lungs, and reduce infection.
Body's overall energy increases.
1 YEAR
Excess risk of coronary heart disease is half that of a smoker.
5 YEARS
Lung cancer death rate for average smoker (one pack a day) decreases by almost half.
Stroke risk is reduced to that of a nonsmoker 5-15 years after quitting.
Risk of cancer of the mouth, throat and esophagus is half that of a smoker's.
10 YEARS
Lung cancer death rate similar to that of nonsmokers.
Precancerous cells are replaced.
Risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, kidney and pancreas decreases.
15 YEARS
Risk of coronary heart disease is that of a nonsmoker.
20 MINUTES
Blood pressure drops to normal.
Pulse rate drops to normal.
Body temperature of hands and feet increases to normal.
8 HOURS
Carbon monoxide level in blood drops to normal.
Oxygen level in blood increases to normal.
24 HOURS
Chance of heart attack decreases.
48 HOURS
Nerve endings start regrowing.
Ability to smell and taste is enhanced.
2 WEEKS TO 3 MONTHS
Circulation improves.
Walking becomes easier.
Lung function increases up to 30%.
1 TO 9 MONTHS
Coughing, sinus congestion, fatigue, and shortness of breath decrease.
Cilia regrow in lungs, increasing ability to handle mucus, clean the lungs, and reduce infection.
Body's overall energy increases.
1 YEAR
Excess risk of coronary heart disease is half that of a smoker.
5 YEARS
Lung cancer death rate for average smoker (one pack a day) decreases by almost half.
Stroke risk is reduced to that of a nonsmoker 5-15 years after quitting.
Risk of cancer of the mouth, throat and esophagus is half that of a smoker's.
10 YEARS
Lung cancer death rate similar to that of nonsmokers.
Precancerous cells are replaced.
Risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, kidney and pancreas decreases.
15 YEARS
Risk of coronary heart disease is that of a nonsmoker.
RE: On Quitting Smoking...
Thanks for all that.
I'm not now so despondent about feeling like crap at the moment; things can only get better!
I had no idea the long term benefits were so marked - if that's not incentive enough for me to remain a non-smoker, nothing will be!
Of course, the financial benefits are the most enjoyable at the moment!
I'm not now so despondent about feeling like crap at the moment; things can only get better!
I had no idea the long term benefits were so marked - if that's not incentive enough for me to remain a non-smoker, nothing will be!
Of course, the financial benefits are the most enjoyable at the moment!
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- IMissPiedmont
- Posts: 6199
- Joined:
RE: On Quitting Smoking...
When I quit smoking in 1983 it was so easy. I just didn't stop on the way home to buy a pack and that was that. I felt better within about a month and great in 6. I, too, became disgusted by the smell of cigarette smoke.
Now the bad news. This is an addiction that will never go away. My grandmother quit 28 years before her death but she always said that sometimes she still wanted one. In my case, like an idiot, in 1992 I took a cigarette from someone. Just like starting the first time, I went months until the next. Then the interval became weeks, days and hours before I was hooked again. And here I am facing the quitting period again. The worst part is that the damage may already be done. My doctor tells me that if I don't quit now, I will be dead rather sooner than need be. OK, he said 10 years. Tops.
Please everyone. If you do not smoke, do not start. If you do, quit.
Now the bad news. This is an addiction that will never go away. My grandmother quit 28 years before her death but she always said that sometimes she still wanted one. In my case, like an idiot, in 1992 I took a cigarette from someone. Just like starting the first time, I went months until the next. Then the interval became weeks, days and hours before I was hooked again. And here I am facing the quitting period again. The worst part is that the damage may already be done. My doctor tells me that if I don't quit now, I will be dead rather sooner than need be. OK, he said 10 years. Tops.
Please everyone. If you do not smoke, do not start. If you do, quit.
The day you stop learning is the day you should die.
RE: On Quitting Smoking...
Unfortunatly the damage to your choppers is pretty much permanent. 
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- Braniff Place
- Posts: 991
- Joined:
RE: On Quitting Smoking...
I guess iam quite a young smoker i had started about two years ago and i have notice some horrible changes like no matter how fit or healthy iam, i feel constantly short of breath and everytime i walk by a cigarette machine or tabacconist i have the feeling that i must go and buy more cigarettes, my house is filled with that awful, embarrassing smell and i have developed this horrible husky, coldish sounding voice Iam on a king size lucky strike packet a day 
somebody please help me!
-Braniff Place
somebody please help me!
-Braniff Place
RE: On Quitting Smoking...
Ok here's my thoughts.
Firstly, well done. The first step is the hardest.
I smoked 20 a day pretty much every day for 14 years. I quit last April.
Your immediate thoughts should be how to deal with the craving. Patches and gum aren't that great, because they supply a slow constant supply of nicotene when what you need is a short sharp boost, which is what a fag provides.
Nicorette make these inhaler things which contain a cartridge of nicotene, and they give you a dose of nicotene when you have a craving.
I've tried 3 times before, and these are the things that worked.
I fell off the wagon once, last summer in Jamaica. I smoked half a cigarette and lobbed it.
Recently things have started to get harder again. I had VERY bad cravings when I was out on the piss in Berlin at the weekend. I even bought a pack, but didn't smoke them, thank god.
My mate was chuffing away, and it was so hard, but I managed it.
Also, I'm saving £150 a month! If thats not an incentive, then I don't know what is.
I feel better, I look better, don't smell bad (well not as bad... hehe) and I'm a lot fitter again.
Don't think that you can have one, cos it won't matter... because it will. You'll be right back where you started.
If you've any other questions, I'd be happy to help.
Cheers, Tim.
Firstly, well done. The first step is the hardest.
I smoked 20 a day pretty much every day for 14 years. I quit last April.
Your immediate thoughts should be how to deal with the craving. Patches and gum aren't that great, because they supply a slow constant supply of nicotene when what you need is a short sharp boost, which is what a fag provides.
Nicorette make these inhaler things which contain a cartridge of nicotene, and they give you a dose of nicotene when you have a craving.
I've tried 3 times before, and these are the things that worked.
I fell off the wagon once, last summer in Jamaica. I smoked half a cigarette and lobbed it.
Recently things have started to get harder again. I had VERY bad cravings when I was out on the piss in Berlin at the weekend. I even bought a pack, but didn't smoke them, thank god.
My mate was chuffing away, and it was so hard, but I managed it.
Also, I'm saving £150 a month! If thats not an incentive, then I don't know what is.
I feel better, I look better, don't smell bad (well not as bad... hehe) and I'm a lot fitter again.
Don't think that you can have one, cos it won't matter... because it will. You'll be right back where you started.
If you've any other questions, I'd be happy to help.
Cheers, Tim.
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- Guest
RE: On Quitting Smoking...
I've never smoked, and I'm never gonna. I've heard that grapefruit juice takes care of those nicotene cravings though.
Just a thought...
Normal
RE: On Quitting Smoking...
There will be a point where all of a sudden instead of craving smokes all the time that you will instead be repulsed by the concept of smoking. You will look back and wonder how you could smoke all those cigarettes. And you will physically feel better.
Ich haben zwei Platzspielen und ein Microphone
RE: On Quitting Smoking...
Congratulations, Toady, and best of luck to you. I'm not a smoker myself, so I don't have first-hand experience. What you have done, though, (if I may make a comparison to my own excruciating experiences) is started on an endurance race against the addiction. What I found helps in a long, agonizing footrace is to break it up in your mind into more manageable segments. (Don't physically break it up, though!!!) Much as I would tell myself "run this one lap" and then when I rounded the track "run another lap" and so on until I was done, try waking up tomorrow and tell yourself "I will not smoke today" and tell yourself that everyday. If one day is more than you can bite off, then do half-days or even hours. Also, when you reach a milestone (month, etc), reward yourself. Use some of that money you've saved and have a nice dinner. Do something fun for the evening. It won't be easy to quit, but you're a tough guy. You're even tougher than you think you are. Trust me on this. You can do it. Good luck. If you ever need encouragement, I'm sure everyone on this forum, as well as everyone else you know, will give it to you. Just ask for it, and we'll all come through for you.
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- JetService
- Posts: 4611
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RE: On Quitting Smoking...
Turbolet, my dad tried Nicorette, but he couldn't keeps the sonsabitches lit.
"Shaddap you!"
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