Side Effects of Quitting Smoking

Quitting smoking is extremely hard. More so for people who have smoking heavily for years; your fingers may be at a loss for what to do and your brain will yearn for its dose of nicotine. You'll feel intense cravings for cigarettes. The first few days after your smoking cessation will be the most difficult. Nicotine is a highly addictive substance and you may feel quite uncomfortable when you quit it altogether. You may experience intense nicotine withdrawal symptoms such as dizziness, headache, stuffy nose, aching body, anxiety and insomnia, which will all tempt you to take up smoking again. You'll need to fight such side effects to succeed in your smoking cessation program.

Cold Turkey

You can try to quit smoking through sheer will-power alone. Many people have been able to quit smoking for life going cold turkey. If you are determined to get rid of the harmful habit, you can quit smoking for life. However, it has been observed that many people find it difficult to quit smoking via this method. Most people have to make at least four attempts to quit via the cold turkey method before they are finally able to quit.

Counselling

To help yourself fight against withdrawal symptoms, you can get the help of a professional counsellor. In fact, it is suggested that you get counselling along with whatever smoking cessation method you choose to use. This will keep you motivated and help you to get rid of the addictive habit once and for all.

Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT)

Use of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) is a highly popular way of quitting smoking. You can make use of nicotine patches, gums, lozenges, nicotine inhalers and nicotine nasal sprays. The therapy aims at supplying nicotine to your body without smoking so that the nicotine withdrawal symptoms are relieved. You avoid inhaling the various harmful chemicals in cigarette smoke. However, as nicotine is provided to your body, a risk of re-addiction is involved in this method.

Use Prescription Medications

Use of prescription drugs is the most popular method of quitting smoking these days. Many people make use of medications such as Chantix and Zyban to quit smoking forever. Out of the two medications, Chantix is proven to be better. It not only relieves you of the uncomfortable nicotine withdrawal symptoms but also makes smoking less pleasurable for you so that you are not tempted to smoke again. Clinical studies have shown that your chance of quitting smoking quadruples with Chantix and doubles with Bupropion as compared to quitting by going cold turkey. Therefore, more people quit smoking effectively with the help of Chantix.