When people ask the question “why is quitting smoking so hard?” they usually say to themselves “because nicotine is so addictive”. While this statement is very true, it is not very descriptive. When you go through nicotine withdraw your body is put to an extraordinary test. Ridding your body of nicotine and all of the other additives that come from tobacco use will help add numerous years to your life. However, your body will go through hell in order to get there. Why is quitting smoking so hard? Here is the real answer:
cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by Aaron Van Dike | www.aaronvandike.com |
Unexplanable Boredom: When a long time smoker decided to finally give up tobacco for good, boredom tends to set in. Smoking becomes such a part of a smoker’s everyday routine that when they quit it is almost as if they do not know what to do with their hands. This is too much for a lot of people to take.
Sleeping Problems: Sometimes the body can react to going through nicotine withdraw by messing with a person’s sleep pattern. A person can wake up in the middle of the night, have trouble getting comfortable enough to fall asleep, have cold sweats, or in some extreme cases have bouts with insomnia.
Muscle Fatigue: When you quit smoking sometimes your muscles will contract because they too are going through nicotine withdraw. This can cause pain in areas of the body that have never occurred before. It goes away in time and does not happen to everyone, but to those it does happen too it can be quite painful.
Coughing Fits: When you quit smoking you are supposed to cough less, right? Well yes, eventually that is what will happen once the phlegm in your lungs and throat start to dissipate. At the beginning though, a smoker that is quitting will cough much more than he/she used to. This is the sign that a person’s lungs are going through withdraw. It will see like you have a horrible sinus infection at times, but in reality you are just going through nicotine withdraw.
Digestion: There is a reason a lot of smokers like to smoke after they have eaten a large meal. Smoking is proven to help digestion. So when a person decides to quit they have a tendency to experience problems with digestion during their withdraw period. Smokers have often claimed that one of the hardest times to quit smoking was right after a meal. Although the degree varies from person to person, almost everyone that quits smoking will experience some sort of cramping and/or other digestive problems.
It may not sound like much written down on paper, but these things are very hard to deal with when trying to quit smoking. This is why most smokers are never able to fully quit on their first try. We are lucky to live in an age with products like the electronic cigarette, nicotine gum, and the nicotine patch. These are safe nicotine delivery devices that can help you quit while avoiding the harshest parts of nicotine withdraw. So the next time someone asks “Why is quitting smoking so hard?”, maybe whomever reads this will be the one that can give them the information they need to so that they are fully prepared for is going to happen. The better prepared a person is for something, the higher the chances are for success.
Jason M. is writer for Puffweb, an electronic cigarette reviews website.
