So I decided to quit (only my 2nd attempt in the 16 years I’ve smoked) and haven’t had a cigarette since sunday. I hear all these great things like your sense of smell gets better, things taste better, you turn into superman etc. So far all the effect I have is that I’m not doing something that I enjoy and I feel like strangling people a lot more than usual.
So not smoking may add 20 years to my life but at this rate I’ll spend them in prison.
Please tell me it gets better soon.
Every time you pull on a cigarette you send scalding hot air into your lungs burning to a cinder all the scylla - the little hairs that filter out impurities.
For the first few weeks most of the improvements are internal - not necessarily things you’d notice unless you were a very heavy smoker and subject to breathlessness etc.
But the improvements are still happening even if internally and unnoticeable.
All bullshit.
Sounds like you don’t want to quit so light 'em up and enjoy.
I saw a poster on the wall in a doctor’s office once. It was a timeline of events you can expect from the minute you quit. I searched for it, and couldn’t find it, but this is pretty close to what I remember:
[quote]
[ul][li] After 20 minutes - Smoking causes increase in blood pressure. This high blood pressure is very harmful as it increases the danger of heart attack. But as soon as we quit smoking the risk minimizes and blood pressure rate becomes normal.[/li] [li] After 8 hours - Nicotine and carbon monoxide levels in the blood are greatly reduced; oxygen levels in the blood return to normal. The chances of a heart attack start to fall.[/li] [li] After 10 hours - Carbon monoxide (CO) level becomes half after 10 hours of quitting smoking. Carbon monoxide is one of the major pollutants that produce bad effects on cognitive skills and health. It also affects the oxygen, which is one of the most vital substances, which are necessary for survival. When the carbon monoxide level is high, it decreases intake of blood from lungs, which can lead to many serious problems. We increase our energy levels by smoothing the passage of oxygen as we restrict the carbon monoxide level by quitting smoking.[/li] [li] After 24 hours - If you successfully completed 24 hours, it is a marvelous starting, for the chain smokers that provides them strong bearing power, less level of tiredness after exercise and quick recovery.[/li] [li] After 48 Hours - When move to 48 hours from one whole day, it gives us a totally new experience as nicotine is removed from their body, which earlier has resulted in bad side effects by causing stomachache, vomiting and it also develops the probability of hypothermia.[/li] [li] After 72 hours - Bronchial tubes begin to relax; energy levels increase. Breathing becomes easier.[/li] [li] After 2-22 weeks - After 2 to 22 weeks of quitting smoking you will get rid of bad circulation and also of numerous other disorders like slow cold feet, skin healing, peripheral vascular disease (PVT), and Raynaud’s disease.[/li] [li] After 1 year - After you quit smoking for 1 year, you will reduce the risk of heart attack to half. According to the studies conducted in U.K, smoking results in around 20,000 deaths due to heart diseases (Smoking and Heart Diseases).[/li] [li] After 10 years - After reducing the danger of heart attack our good habit of quitting smoking results in minimizing the danger of lung cancer to half.[/li] [li] After 15 years - After 15 years person who once was chain smoker leads a healthy life as a normal man who has never smoked. At last the good habit has repaid back.[/ul][/li][/quote]
http://www.stop-smoking-tips.com/benefits-quitting-smoking.html
I do not vouch for its accuracy or its grammar.
Well, your wallet might be feeling better now.
I think it takes at least a couple of weeks before you start enjoying things. I know my husband was obsessed with cigarettes for a while when he quit smoking. Your body has to detox and get over its addiction.
But congratulations on going this long without a cig.
Ok, so the superman bit may have been an exaggeration. I do want to quit, sort of, but it’s been rough. (gaining 2 pounds even though I’ve been dieting and in the gym every day hasn’t helped anything)
Like I said, this is my second attempt. The first time I quit and things went well for about 3 days. Then my boyfriend and I were out and were assaulted. I was ok but he went to the hospital with a broken jaw. I started again that very night.
This time things were fine until the second day when my job underwent major and not all that pleasant changes. (I was helpfully reminded by my boss that ‘at least you still have a job’, it’s not as comforting as she was hoping)
If I’m not feeling less stabby by tomorrow I’ll probably start up again. Ehh, we’ll see how it goes.
Half a pack a day, so not that heavy. Internal repair is good, but I need some instant gratification. (part of why I was a smoker in the first place!)
My father started smoking at 17. At his peak (aged 44-46) he was smoking 5 packs a day; his usual rate was pack and a half.
He was diagnosed with lung cancer* at 60 and quit smoking. It took him about one year and a half to realize that food was tasting like something other than tobacco, but this delay was in part due to the chemo. When he was on chemo, everything tasted like wet cardboard.
Two of my aunts were pack, pack’n’a half smokers. They would quit while pregnant or breastfeeding, then take it back up. Dad’s sister says that for her it would take about three months for her tastebuds to wake back up.
I finally convinced Mom to replace the living room’s curtains five years after Dad quit smoking. They still stank, and yes, we’d washed them repeatedly.
My husband had to try to quit several times. Usually, he started again when he got really stressed out. This last time, he used a patch, and was successful, he hasn’t lit up for several years.
It’s been almost 18 years since I quit after smoking for 17-1/2 years. I have to say that I never noticed any improvement in senses like taste and smell. But I’m still glad I quit. Definitely worth it.
The rest of your life.
I started feeling better after two or three weeks - but until then I cried a lot.
The first couple of days are rough, the first couple of weeks are rough, seems to get easier after 6 months. I found to that if I didn’t hang out in a bar with smokers, and have 6 or 8 beers, I had a lot more will power. I always started as a social smoker after some drinks. So, now after dunno 6 or 7 years I still am careful when it so happens I’m in a bar, it’s late, I’m with smokers, and I’ve had more than a few. I can’t believe sometimes I still get a pretty powerful urge, but it usually passes after a few minutes or at most a few hours. Evil shit that stuff is. It was much easier to kick the barbituate addiction I had as a teenager.
One of the first improvements I noticed was that I could laugh really, really hard at something without it turning into a coughing fit.
Yeah, the first week sucks massively, and the first month just plain sucks. It does get easier, though.
twicks, who’s coming up on 10 years smoke-free after a 20-year, two-pack-a-day habit
The biggest improvement I noticed was that it reduced that constant whining sound in your ears that was all the smoking nazis saying, “it’s such a filthy habit,” or something similarly inane.
Your sense of taste and smell will revive before too much longer. Everything will taste like the nectar of the gods. The down side is that you’re likely to put on some weight. When I finally managed to quit (it took ten years of repeated efforts) I put on thirty five pounds before I realized it, making me borderline obese. My doctor was overjoyed. She seemed to think that the weight wasn’t nearly as much of a problem as the tobacco abuse.
Hang in there. See if there are any support groups in your community. Make sure everybody knows you’re trying to quit so they’ll understand why you’re so touchy lately.
Good luck.
I never experienced the better sense of taste and smell. But almost immediately the ever-present buildup of phlegm in my throat was gone and I stopped coughing so much. You know how when you wake up in the morning after a night of drinking and chain smoking, and your throat feels like there a thousand needles in it? That went away too.
At least tell yourself that you no longer stink like an ashtray, and your teeth and skin are longer turning yellow at an alarming rate.
My mother died at 82 from emphysema. She had quit smoking for about 15 years after smoking heavily for 50. The doctor said that sometimes real and lasting damage is done. She wished she never started.
The whole better sense of taste/smell is a myth in my experience. Maybe if you’re sucking down everything in sight that’s on fire (2+ packs a day) it might make a difference, but I never lost my senses of taste and smell. There was nothing missing to “get back.”
Serious question, do you even realize how much it sounds like you don’t want to quit?
It’s different for everybody. My brother and I started around the same time, maybe 16-17 years ago. He quit in 2002 and I quit in 2006. He still has cravings every single day, sometimes intense ones. I have a craving maybe once a month, and it’s usually almost laughably mild. I credit the difference with me reading Allan Carr’s Easyway to Stop Smoking. Pick it up when you’re ready to quit. Don’t waste your time or money now because you’re not ready.
I had my first cigarette at 11, became a pack a day smoker at 13. I still smoke, but i’ve tried quitting about a dozen times. I’ll be trying again soon. All I can tell you is please please please stick with it. It sucks big old stanky donkey dick now, but it gets harder everytime. Next time, I’m going to schedule a day in bed with nothing but my tears, a pound of chocolate and a bottle of Crown Royal to get me started. Sounds unhealthy, but it’s better than smoking. I wish you the best. (I almost said luck, but luck has nothing to do with it, you gotta be friggin’ tough)