I just quit smoking, when will I feel better?

Most smokers feel better in three to four weeks. By this time the nicotine withdrawals have subsided or are being effectively managed and "habit" cigarettes have gone away.

Nicotine withdrawal is the main reason why smokers relapse the first month they quit. Physical withdrawal symptoms are: Cravings, depression, anger, irritability, insomnia, hunger or weight gain, fatigue, restlessness and frustration. For some smokers these symptoms can last up to six months.

There is no reason why a smoker should feel uncomfortable during this first month because there are seven FDA approved cessation medications to help with physical withdrawals. Often a combination of medications works better than using one. A recent study showed that the combination of Chantix with the Nicotine Patch worked better and had higher quit rates than using either of them alone. A professional tobacco treatment specialist can help a smoker figure out what combination of medications may work best.

Habit cigarettes are often seen as the hardest to quit. The one with your morning coffee, in the car on the way to work, or the one at break time. The cigarettes are a conditioned response. Your brain has associated different activities with the jolt of nicotine. This is the same conditioning as Pavlov's dogs. The dogs were taught to associate the ringing of a bell with food. Every time they heard a bell, they started salivating because they knew food was coming. A smokers brain is exactly the same - you smell the coffee and your brain immediately thinks of a cigarette. You get into your car and your brain immediately thinks of a cigarette.

What most people are not aware of is that Pavlov also taught the dogs to stop anticipating food when they heard the bell. It's called "extinguishing the condition". It takes about three to four weeks or about 30 different times where you have a cup of coffee without a cigarette. After this amount of time, your brain no longer anticipates getting a cigarette.

When nicotine withdrawals and the habit cigarettes are no longer an issue, a smoker will feel "normal" again. This is when a smoker may think they have the problem beaten. They have mastered their addiction. But they have only mastered two parts and the tools used for withdrawals and habit cigarettes are not the same tools needed to overcome what is needed to overcome the reasons for long-term relapse: stress, weight gain, emotional triggers, alcohol and being around other smokers.

So just because you feel better soon, don't let your guard down but develop new tools and strategies tostay quit for forever.

What is the First Step Towards Quitting Smoking?

After building a desire to quit, many smokers get stuck in a love/hate relationship with their cigarettes. They want to quit but they also don't want to give them up just yet. But if you think of this a process and not a one time event, it will make it easier. So the first step is to start to break your connections to your cigarettes. Most smoker smoke unconsciously. The computer in our head registers a trigger that connects in our mind to light up a cigarette and we have done that without even thinking about it--just like we automatically drive a car--we don't think about pushing the gas pedal or hitting the brake--it is automatic. Our brain is conditioned to smoke and does so automatically. So the first step is to become conscious of the cigarettes you are smoking.
This could be something simple like leaving your cigarettes in another room instead of on the table next to you, so instead of unconsciously reaching for one and lighting it up, you actually have to think for a minute and go get one before you can smoke it. you cold leave them in your car, on top of your refrigerator, in the garage, I know of one person who even left them in their mailbox. Maybe it is just logging in on a piece of paper every time you light up--what time is it, what are you doing and how are you feeling.
I believe in progress, not perfection. You didn't become a smoker over night but your brain had to learn how to smoke and what your individual triggers are before you were a full time smoker. Just like when you learned to drive a car, it took a while before it became automatic. Quitting is a relearning process, the first step is to become aware and conscious. You need to know what you are doing if you are to change it.
Quitting is like a baby learning to walk. First the baby grabs onto the coffee table and holds on, next stands up and immediately falls on their butt and finally takes a first step and falls on butt again. But we would never chastise a baby because they don't take off and start running immediately because we know it is a process and that the baby is learning how to use muscles they have never used before. If you are like so many smokers, you started smoking as a teenager, so you've been smoking longer than you've been doing almost anything else--smoking is connected to sooooo many things in your life, it is a retraining process, a learning process with each cigarette, each instance that you smoke, each habit, each emotion. But often we are too hard on ourselves for not stopping in one day.
So start by learning about your smoking habits, one step at a time.

Classical Conditioning Can Keep You Smoking

Palov was a scientist that discovered that dogs can be conditioned to salivate when they hear a bell rung because the sound had been paired with the presentation of food. The dogs learned that when they hear the bell, they would be fed. This is called classical conditioning. Habit cigarettes are the very same thing. Everything a smoker smokes a cigarette while doing something else, they can become classically conditioned to think of a cigarette every time they do this other activity because it has become paired with smoking--the next time you hear the phone ring, do you want a cigarette? Even if you just had one? Getting into your car, do you need a cigarette first? Habits can be associated with people, places, situations, times, events, objects, and emotions.
This conditioning happens because nictoine goes to a part of the brain that give extra attention to external events. So when you smoke, you are more aware of what is happening at the same time. if you do the same thing many times while smoking the brain now expects to receive nicotine when you do this activity again, every time.
Smokers often think that these habit cigarettes are the harder to give up but the opposite is true. If you smoke every time you answer the phone and this happens 5 times a day, when you quit, 5 times each day you will "crave" the cigarette, so it seems like you are thinking about cigarettes all the time, but what this means is that you get to practice not having a cigarette 5 times each day also. In a very short period of time, you brain extinguishes the connection between the phone and the cigarette. Pavlov also proved this theory too, it is called extinction.
The urge for habit cigarettes falls away within 2 to 3 weeks. When the conditioning is extinguished, most smokers will feel like a non-smoker and believe that they have beat Kid Nicotine but not all conditioning is extinguished and the smoker needs to be aware of the "out-of-the-blue" craving. Often this is a habit cigarette that is paired to an activity that you don't do very often, maybe only once or twice a year, yet your brain still remembers this connection. You need an emergency plan for when those "out-of-the-blue" craving pop up.