What exactly do smokers mean when they talk about “withdrawal” symptoms? Essentially, you are withdrawing from an external stimuli that causes your body to react in certain ways, mentally, physically and emotionally. You can experience withdrawal symptoms when you stop eating certain foods, when you stop taking prescription drugs for certain conditions and of course when you stop some particularly detrimental habits such as drinking a lot of alcohol or smoking cigarettes. Indeed, smoking cessation has been linked to some of the nastiest withdrawal symptoms that we know of and it is often the shock and anxiety associated with these very symptoms that causes us to slip back into our old habits once again.
If you’ve ever tried to quit smoking you may know about some or all of the withdrawal symptoms typically linked to this course. Your body has been relying on a certain drug – nicotine – for a long period of time. When the nicotine is ingested into the body it affects a large number of different organs and causes a reaction. The body becomes used to these “modifications” and when you suddenly remove the trigger, those nasty side effects can manifest themselves.
But it’s not just physical withdrawal as a smoker who is used to the action of lighting up a cigarette, holding it between two fingers, putting it between their lips and inhaling has created a mental habit which is very so difficult to break. This is a behavioural addiction if you like and we should all remember that we are creatures of habit and do get used to acting and behaving in certain ways, as part of life in general.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t take that long for an individual to become addicted to nicotine and used to the habit of smoking. Withdrawal symptoms are almost guaranteed in these situations and it becomes a question of whether or not the individual is able to deal with these symptoms and whether he or she is going to be able to reach that end result, to quit smoking.
It is mentioned that the direct, stimulating effects of nicotine can last in your system for several days. Therefore, the various withdrawal symptoms may take a little while to show themselves but you should understand that the body is adjusting to this new world and the withdrawal effects can last from a few days to anything up to three weeks.
Some of these very bad effects can include anxiety, panic, irritability, bad nightmares, an inability to sleep, impatience, frustration, anger, rage, an inability to concentrate, weight gain, depression and so on. The list goes on and it’s not a good one.
It’s hardly surprising in many respects that people fall back into the old habit. Faced with a list of negative physical and emotional repercussions it often seems as if there is only one way out and that is to have a cigarette. Unfortunately, that just starts the clock ticking all over again until the next time that you need to bite the bullet and try to quit.