Nicotine – Withdrawal, Info, Research:
I’ve been a smoker — on and off, but mostly on — for 15 years now. Quitting smoking now is harder on my body then when I quit/paused 10 years ago because of pregnancy.
Physical withdrawal symptoms suck. Even with the nic patch, my guts seem a little out of whack… Nicotine made my digestive system function like a Swiss watch. Since I started smoking my bowels have worked as such: I wake up in the morning, and when I drink my coffee and have my first smoke of the day… I’m ready to poo. (Blifaloo’s Guide to Poo coming soon).
Now I actually have to consider what I am eating. For instance: without nicotine I HAVE to make sure I’m getting enough fiber and water or else I’ll end up with gut pains worse than pregnancy. (See my old blog entry & read comments: Quit Smoking, and got IBS).
Quitting smoking made me wonder if a good chunk of my happiness comes from nicotine. That sounds bleak, but let me explain: I started smoking when I was 15…around the same time I got over my teenage angst and mellowed out. Sigh. Nicotine: my Prozac.
Really, its not that I’m unhappy sans smokes… but I am irritable, I find myself getting angry more often. I have to talk myself down. I seem to be getting fewer and less intense irritable spells as time goes on though.
My partner and I are both quitting together. This is our second run at it, we quit last year for 4 months before slipping back into habit.
We are now (at the time of writing this) 3 weeks into quitting.
We use the patch…. which works pretty well, though we still get cravings in the morning and after dinner.