SolveYourProblem eLearning Series: Smoking
I'd Rather Not Die From Smoking
Learn The Harmful Effects & Quit Smoking Now
( 27 pages )

Withdrawl Symptoms When You Quit Smoking

Withdrawal Symptoms, What’s That?

This is the stumbling block over which many a would-be quitters trip. The problem with many smokers is that they fail to recognize these symptoms as symptoms. A withdrawal symptom is something that a person experiences once he or she stops using a substance that gives them a kick. Oops, is that too hard to digest? Well, let’s try to make it simpler.

There are many things that are identified with substance abuse. Alcohol is one of them, narcotic drugs are another and tobacco is in no way to be left behind. The problem, or let us say that the similarity among all these substances, is that once you get used to them, breaking away is not that easy.

Contrary to popular belief, it is not the fear of deprivation of the pleasantly high feeling that drives you to use the substance again and again so that it is used, misused and eventually abused.You return for your daily shot because of certain altered conditions in the body. These substances are indeed very potent and they affect certain specific spots or centers of the brain.

The brain quickly gets used to these alterations and then before we know it, these centers of the brain cannot do without the daily dose of the substance. The brain did not ask for the substance in the first place but we gave them to it. When we experience that pleasantly high feeling we do not bother to think about the changes that are taking place within.

It is common knowledge that the processes carried about in the brain are maintained by a delicate balance of the various chemical salts there. Once we start using substances like the above mentioned tobacco, narcotics and alcohol, the balance of these chemical salts gets altered. The body, as I mentioned earlier, is a self adjusting machine and so this new chemical balance is established and it takes little time for the brain cells to get adjusted to the new balance.

Then, when the brain cells do not get what is required to maintain the new balance (read that as the daily puffs), things go haywire. The old balance was disturbed and altered and a new balance was set up. But this new balance is not the real, natural thing. It is something that has to be artificially supported and when that daily, or timely dose of nicotine does not get to the brain, the new balance gets upset.

That is when a person gets those peculiar feelings, which can be broadly called the withdrawal symptoms. You know what I am talking about don’t you? Haven’t you felt uneasy, jittery or downright irritated when you were unable to get that puff? It’s an awful feeling isn’t it?

It’s a feeling that can only be soothed when you take that long refreshing pull of highly toxic smoke. Some people break into a sweat, some get the tremors, some feel queasy, some get constipated…

All these are withdrawal symptoms, so unless you prepare yourself to face the pressure of withdrawal, you’re going to face a losing battle.

Psst…let’s not leave out an important detail...

The new balance in the brain that was established with the help of the used substance can indeed be broken. I’m not saying that it is easy, but once you start conditioning your brain that it is just not going to get what it wants (that is the external substance), the brain will be left with no alternative than to go back and restore the old balance.

Of course, the brain is not going to give up without a fight and that is what we are going to experience as the withdrawal symptom. Initially, the brain had been doing all too well without the help of any external substance; and then we made the brain become dependent on something. So when we stop using that something, it is only a matter of time before the brain goes back to its original state of functioning. All we have to do is to muster up the willpower to overcome the withdrawal symptoms that might set in.

But again, I do admit that it is easier said than done. In the end, however, knowing that withdrawals will come (and recognizing them as such), is a vital part of the quitting process.

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