Explanations of What Happens When You Quit Smoking

Since nicotine is an intensely difficult addiction to beat, it helps to know what happens when you quit smoking, both physically and emotionally. When these things do happen, you will be prepared and ready. Quitting smoking has an “up” side and a “down” side. By quitting smoking, you will be much healthier and not at risk for smoking-related illness such as cancer, heart disease or emphysema. The down side of quitting smoking is that you will need to deal with behavior modification techniques and with withdrawal symptoms of nicotine.

What Happens When You Quit Smoking Depends on You

The type of physical and emotional nicotine withdrawal symptoms depends upon how much you smoke, how long you have smoked, and what you smoke. There is more nicotine in cigars and pipe tobacco than in cigarettes. The longer you have smoked, the more uncomfortable nicotine withdrawal will be. This is also true with how much you smoke; a two-pack a day habit will be harder conquer than a half-pack a day. Thus, what happens to you when you quit smoking depends upon all these issues.

The physical withdrawal symptoms for nicotine is the worst of what happens to you when you quit smoking. Your body will crave nicotine and will let you know this. You will feel irritable, anxious, you may have some hand tremors and difficulty concentrating. The good news about what happens to you physically when you quit smoking is that nicotine withdrawal reaches its peak about 48 hours after you stop smoking. Think of nicotine withdrawal as being on a bell curve; minor cravings begin several hours after you stop and they steadily rise in discomfort for the next 48 hours. Then your craving for nicotine will gradually decrease within the next few days until you no longer feel a physical craving for nicotine.

What happens to you psychologically when you quit smoking is similar to physical withdrawal. The entire routine that centered around smoking will be disrupted; you will feel some cravings to continue your smoking routine. Behavioral change is difficult. Smoking on the way to and from work, smoking while working at your desk, smoke breaks and after-lunch smoking, smoking after meals, and smoking when you’re talking on the phone; these are all part of your routine. Without them, you may feel lost and anxious. To avoid relapse, you must begin a new routine that does not involve smoking. Although behavior modification is an un-fancy term for doing something differently, this psychological technique is easy to use. Whatever you did that involved smoking, do something else. Fill the gap where smoking used to exist.

In a nutshell, what happens when you stop smoking is that you will feel physically and emotionally uncomfortable. Knowing that these symptoms will soon end can help you quit for good.