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Quitting Smoking Side Effects: What Are They?

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Smoking is a very tough habit to quit. Anybody that has attempted to quit can testify to the powerful hold that cigarettes can have. The main reason why cigarettes are addicting is because of nicotine. As everybody knows, cigarettes contain nicotine. Nicotine is a drug that is every bit as addicting as heroin or cocaine.

In humans, nicotine acts as stimulant. Nicotine also acts as relaxant. Therefore, the ingestion of nicotine makes people feel more alert and relaxed at the same time. Many people find the combination of being alert and relaxed to be a very pleasurable experience. Since cigarettes contain nicotine, smoking is a very pleasurable act for many people.

Unfortunately, nicotine changes the way the brain functions, which causes people to become physically addicted to it. Accordingly, people addicted to nicotine experience very unpleaseant feelings when they are deprived of nicotine. Hence, the reason so many people have a hard time quitting smoking. Common side effects of nicotine withdrawal include:
  • irritability
  • impatience
  • hostility
  • anxiety
  • depressed mood
  • difficulty concentrating
  • restlessness
  • decreased heart rate
  • increased appetite or weight gain

After quitting smoking, nicotine withdrawal symptoms will appear in a few hours. The withdrawal symptoms usually reach their peak about 24 to 48 hours after quitting. For some smokers who have quit, the symptoms can last up to six months. However, for most smokers, withdrawal symptoms usually last about a month.

The side effects of quitting smoking are the main reason smokers often fail to quit. It is also why quitting "cold turkey" has a very low success rate. Most smokers, who successfully quit smoking, do it by getting some sort of help to deal with the effects of nicotine withdrawal.

The most common form of help is some variation of nicotine replacement therapy. As its name suggest, the idea behind nicotine replacement therapy is to mitigate the desire to smoke by supplying the smoker with nicotine in some form other than cigarettes. Nicotine replacement therapies typically come in the form of patches, lozenges, gums, and nasal sprays. Most nicotine replacement therapies are well known to most smokers.

After nicotine replacement therapies, herbal treatments are popular to help smokers quit. There are many herbs that give the same pleasurable sensations as nicotine, but they are not as addicting.

Smokers who have a plan for dealing with the side effects of quitting smoking will be more successful than those who don't. Accordingly, if you are a smoker and want to quit, do some research on the help you will need to deal with the side effects of quitting smoking.
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