I quit smoking after 10 yrs and today is day 7. My question is when am I going to start feeling better? -
When will my cough go away? When will I stop hacking up junk in the shower? Also about how long does it take for the desire to smoke a cigarette actually go away?
Your cough will go away soon you just have to give your lungs time to recover, which may take years still until they fully recover. The mucus and stuff your hacking up in the shower takes about the same time as the cough.
That desire though, that may never go away. I quit over a year ago, it is hard i know but it gets easier. You see someone smoking and you want to do it so bad but the longer you keep yourself from doing it the easier it gets. More and more everyday it will move further from your mind.
I don-t know what method you are using, but if you don-t manage to do it this time do not give up! Every time you try to quit you get closer to your goal! I strongly suggest trying the patch it really worked for me.
Also, learn your triggers. What makes you want to smoke, when do you smoke, and where do you smoke? Learning the answers to these questions can help you avoid cravings or develop new routines. Replacing your addiction with something more positive really helps. Since you are taking the time to quit smoking, consider getting your whole body healthy. Replace the endorphines you used to release with cigarettes by exercising!
GOOD LUCK!
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Good luck and happy quitting!
You should stop craving after a few weeks, but its those testing times like when you-re having a social drink or after eating (or times when you always used to have a cigarette) that are the toughies.
As for stopping coughing etc, i would imagine that it shouldn-t be long, however they say it takes 5 years before your body totally sorts itself out - by this time though you-re body is as good as new and shows no traces that you used to be a smoker.
Really try to build yourself up over the next few weeks and you-ll reap the benefits even sooner and you-ll be like a new person. I know it tastes foul, but drinking green tea always makes me feel better when i-m feeling a bit below par.
Anyway, well done for giving up!
Hi Brian,
First of all, congrats on 7 days going strong! I can only imagine its a friggin hard thing to do. In response to your health:
After 10 years your body has become used to your daily routine of ciggarettes, its like me coming along and taking your car away saying you have to walk to work, you will not like it one bit... nor does your body - it got used to smoking (not that its good for you). You-re body is now getting rid of the toxins left in your body... Coughing is actually like starting a lawnmower - every time you cough its like you-re pulling the ignition on a lawnmower over and over to get it going... thats all your body is doing. When your body senses something is wrong it will cough to try and shudder everything back into place (this is why a lot of people cough whilst vomiting).
hacking up junk in the shower is because you-re body is in a relaxed warm state, its releasing these toxins.
I-m not going to say hey all of this will go away in one month because its different for different people but it will happen mate.
desire to smoke a cigarette will never go away. However the power to say no or ignore those desires should grow stronger! Think of the money you are going to save and the years you will add to your life.
Good luck on your journey I-m sure you will get there and get better mate.
That-s really the million dollar question isn-t it.
Fortunately I think you-re about done with the hacking up nasty junk stage. But you-ll want a cigarette... for... as long as you want one.
It gets to the point of where you actually, dreadfully miss smoking. For me in particular, it-s every time I bump into rush hour traffic. My first instinct has always been, -Light up a smoke.-
If you stay strong, and don-t give in. You-ll eventually find yourself grossed out by them. If you smell them on a friend who smokes or get into a car that-s been smoked in. The smell and even the feel may even be nauseating. I guess that-s when you aren-t going to want one any more.
As far as feeling better... Technically your body does feel better; it-s just your mindset that makes it seem the opposite.
Smoking is like kicking herione..... the want will always be with you. Eventually it gets worse before better. The steam in the shower is loosening nasty stuff built up. I have totally quite after twenty something years of smoking abuse. It has been a few years an soon your body might start to reject smoking like mine has. The desire is still there when I take a drag nowa days I get sicker than chit. Replace your cravings with healthy eatting and exercise. Spend the money that you would have spent on smokes on something other than smokes. I would say a gym but that is a commitment some cannot make. Put the money toward healthy alternatives. Open a bank account, savings account if you don-t already have one because that extra cash on hand makes it easy to buy a pack of smokes. If you just have an ATM card instead of a card you can use in a store. Makes obtaining smokes that much more difficult. Drink more fruit juices, rather than coffee, I choose coffee an soon had a caffine problem; I stopped smoking an drank two 8cup pots of coffee a day. Sunflower seeds are not good, messy an the salt creates health problems. Chewing gum gets tie-er-ing fast. Always remember that the stress will pass an that each moment without that smoke prolongs your life- maybe. Dn-t worry about the weight gain concentraite on smoke loss an if you fail.... try again as soon as possible to quite. I followed these steps an cold turkey worked best for me. Drink plenty of water too.... tea is good.
I hate to tell you this but it took me almost 3 months to feel better... as far as the with draw part was concerned. Now as far as my body, I felt better within a few weeks but unfortunately the desire to smoke I still deal with everyday and I quit in November of 07. There are times I would love to pick up a pack, especially when hanging out with others that smoke. I even have times I cant hang out with them because the temptation is too much for me to handle. I dont have the cough as much now but it took about 6 months for that to go away. But then again I smoked a pack a day for over 15 years. I-m sorry I dont have a happier answer for you but this is how my experience with it has been but now that I know I can do it I-m never gong back. Stay strong, you can quit too.
Hang in there. I smoked 2 pax/day, for 22 years. After three months- you won-t even think about a cigarette, only if you find a HEALTHY diversion by then. I took up cycling. A serious cyclist will never want to smoke, ever again. Cycling also prevented me from gaining any weight-in fact, I lost more weight than I would ever imagine.....60lbs!
The hacking cough and lung chunks will go away, after about nine months. Even almost three years after quitting- I still spit-out loogies, but not as nasty as before. Congrats on quitting. Take 2000mg of vitamin C every day, to heal lung tissue. You just upped your life expectancy, by 10 more years....just by quitting!!!
It takes time, things don-t just happen overnight. There will be times where you would feel like you wan-t to smoke, but if you use patches and stay away from cigarettes you-ll be fine. If you don-t get the urge of smoking than you-re not addicted which would be a good thing. It really depends on your body whether you-re addicted or not. If you are it-s going to hard.
I-m not sure when your cough will go away but hang in there. I-m always quitting smoking but relapsed due to illness. I find that as long as I wash my hands frequently, drink lots of water, and have healthy snacks on-hand, my cravings aren-t so bad. I would suggest altering your routine a bit and stay away from smokers. I think the important step is deciding that you want to quit, so way to go! Also, do some online research. There are lots of support groups and tips all over the net.
If you don-t smoke you don-t know what its like. Your nasty comments don-t help
First of all GOOD JOB! I-m proud of you!
It may take a while (a few months) you-ve got a lot of junk to get out of your lungs and it doesn-t happen overnight. As far as the desire to smoke...you-ll probably get to the point that you don-t want to consider going back on your promise to yourself and will enjoy knowing that you-re getting healthier each day.
Give yourself some time...you smoked for 10 years give your body some time to heal and you will feel so good.
Congrats!
I quit 2 years ago and it took me about 1 month to stop carving ciggs. Gum really really helped me and candy. I gained like 20 lbs but it was worth it. I only smoked for about 4 years so I don-t currently have health problems just yet. But you may have some permanatent damage to your lungs try to get to the dr.
2 weeks. That was when I stopped wanting a cigarette every time I got into my car. Seems like 2 weeks was the point at which wanting to smoke wasn-t dominating my thoughts anymore and I fully settled into a non-smoking routine. It-s been 4 years and I still have an occasional craving. But they-re pretty rare and don-t last long.
It took a month for my lungs to clear completely. It-s amazing how much better you feel when you finally get all the gunk out of there.
Good luck!
Good for you. I quit 5 years ago after a 20 year habit. I won-t lie to you, it took a while for the cravings to go away, but they did. I think I started to feel better after about a month. Keep it up - it does get better. I started walking everyday to keep my mind of it and as a bonus, I didn-t gain any weight.
I smoked a pack or more of camel no filter cigs from age 16 to about 35. I reckon that it took me about 2 months to feel an appreciable difference. After about a month, I had no urge to smoke again.
Good luck with this. It is not easy, but you cannot imagine how much healthier I feel. For your own peace of mind, go get a check up from your doctor in about 6 months.
I heard it takes 7 years for it to clear out of your system..ya know like ur lungs completely clear. Also they say the 1st couple days are the hardest..then the 1st couple weeks...but if uve gone that long you should be able to keep it up. Although when u see someone smoking thats what really makes u want one..some people always still have the desire to smoke and it never goes away for a while u just gotta fight it. My mom has been done over 20 yrs and she still smokes occasionally-not a lot tho
Wow. Well my mother in law quit 19 years ago when my daughter was born. She told me just the other day that she still gets intense cravings and she still has the cough and asthma. She no longer coughs -junk- up unless she-s sick. Keep it up you-re doing great and good luck.
for cravings to go away, it depends on how much you smoked,,, i only smoked about 3 or 4 cigs a day and the cravings went away after two weeks,, completely. it was a hard two weeks, but of course well worth it,,, as far as coughing stuff up,,you might be better off asking a dr, i really am not sure sorry.
http://www.hcma.net/images/smoking-heali…
Here is a timeline that tells you what you can expect to be better by certain time periods. (It-ll take a month - a year before you should expect your cough to completely subside)
its about a month for me now (one day at a time) and the junk that comes up has sorta been slowing down now for a couple of days. my Rabbi told me that it took him ten years of no smoking for him to have no craving.
all i can say is -good luck to us-!
a month after quitting you will stop coughing and start breathing deeper. you will probably always want to smoke, most people do. however i have no desire to after one year.
Hey man you want to speed up the repair of your lungs, go running, or play basketball, if will force you lungs to get rid of all the tar building up that inhibits the proper elasticity. Take vitimans also and drink alot of water
my da smoked for 36 yrs and u get sick right after u stop but with in a month i kno its long but ur vision will improve ull feel all around bttr and ull smell better! haha i hope u stop its the best thing u could do for u and ur fam
You should feel a bit better already - soon your lungs will clear, you won-t become winded walking up a flight of stairs, your sense of smell and your sense of taste will return, etc. You already don-t stink anymore!! Good luck!!
my dad smoked for 30 years and quit cold turkey about 4 years ago. it took him a few years to adjust, and he still gets cravings. keep it up though, you-re doing great!
probably a month
stay strong though
I say eat butterscotch candies or something everytime you have a craving. then you will start wanting those instead
Congrats!!! I have heard people say that it gets easier and better as days go by... I am not a smoker but I know that you can do it, just hang in there!
It will get better soon...
well it depends on the person id suggest chewing gum or eating popsicles that helped my father in law so much.
good luck and congrats :)
i heard it takes 21 days to start a habit... maybe it takes 21 days to quit :)
Good luck ive been there b4
its not something that comes all of a sudden. just keep trying to not smoke and sooner or later you-ll see it has finally paid off!
idk
Youu Shouldent even Smoke in the First Place