What Happens When You Quit Smoking?

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The biggest immediate change I’ve noticed when I removed cigarette smoking from my list of activities was light-headedness that bordered on dizziness and a general sense of manic energy that was quite unpleasant. There’s a tingling all over the body, but its down in the muscles not on the skin. This is very nasty if you don’t know what’s going on?

Know why you feel that way? Too much oxygen in your bloodstream!

Actually, that isn’t quite it. The oxygen levels in your blood have returned to what they should be without the influence of smoking.

One of the main by-products of smoking is carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide attaches to the red blood cells more readily than oxygen does, so there are fewer available to transport the oxygen you really need.

Smokers are basically always oxygen deprived. This leads to a sort of lethargy which is often mistaken for relaxation, and all the senses are deadened by the presence of carbon-monoxide.

When you quit, levels of oxygen in your blood return to normal, but, because we aren’t used to that much sensory input its almost painful. The light-headedness is actually the brain getting the oxygen it needed all this time. Overall, it feels like you just took a hit of some very stimulating drug. These are not cravings, guys. Its just the body returning to the state it should have been in the whole time.

Once you know this, you can tough it out. It only lasts for a couple of days, then you’re used to the new regime. Have a cigarette after two or three days without one, and you’ll know for sure what cigarettes really do. Dizziness, nausea, heavy arms and legs. Those are the real results of sucking smoke into your lungs.

Smokes are not our buddies! Tough it out, or be a slave forever.