When you decide to quit combustible cigarettes, your body is forced to learn to adjust to being without nicotine. It’s important to understand that although nicotine withdrawal affects everyone differently, the symptoms are often uncomfortable and overwhelming. That’s why it’s crucial to know how nicotine withdrawal is influencing your health and behaviors and what you can do to curb its unfavorable side effects.
What is nicotine withdrawal?
Depending on how addicted you are to nicotine, the receptors in your brain can start sending the craving to your body after as little as 30 minutes; although this is entirely dependent on your daily cigarette intake. The cravings usually come on strong and are often followed by many troublesome side effects that can leave you feeling irritable and annoyed. That’s part of why quitting traditional cigarettes is so hard on the mind and the body.
What are some of the side effects of nicotine withdrawal?
The nicotine within your combustible cigarette is incredibly addictive. In fact, it’s often considered as addictive as alcohol, cocaine and morphine. That being said, this powerful drug has a wide range of effects on your brain.
- Diminished mood swings
- Heightened depression levels
- An increase in your irritability
- Decreased short-term memory
- Increase in appetite
What are some health side effects to watch for?
Nicotine withdrawal has the power to interfere with your sleep patterns, especially when your body is making the adjustment. If you’re trying to combat this, try a few relaxation exercises before bed and even reduce your coffee intake throughout the day.
You should also watch out for the following symptoms of nicotine withdrawal in regards to your health:
- Slower heart rate
- Tingling in the hands and feet
- Intense sweating
- Heightened nausea and abdominal cramping
- Constipation
- Headaches
- Coughing
- A sore throat
- Anxiety
These symptoms can typically last three days to a week, but some people experience the negative effects of nicotine withdrawal for several months when they try and quit cold turkey. Unfortunately, it’s not easy to ignore the symptoms onset by nicotine withdrawal, which is why many ex-smokers ease themselves off the drug by trying various nicotine replacement therapies.
What are nicotine replacement therapies?
Nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) is a treatment that helps people stop smoking. It uses products such as the nicotine patch, nicotine gum and e-cigarettes to supply the person with a lower dose of nicotine. These products don’t contain many of the toxins that are found in combustible cigarettes and they also allow the individual to cut down on their cravings over time by avoiding the horrible symptoms of nicotine withdrawal.
Why are e-cigs the most popular NRT?
E-cigarettes offer vapers the same comforting flavors as combustible cigarettes, but with even more choices. Choose from traditional extracts like tobacco and menthol and experiment with aromatic essences like strawberry and berry mint. Not to mention, they also look and feel like combustible cigarettes with their state-of-the-art, slim design and intuitive vapor technology. E-cigarettes are the ultimate tool to help ex-smokers satisfy all their physical and mental dependencies when they possess a hankering for a cigarette. But the best part is, over time as they feel ready, vapers are able to wean themselves done to zero nicotine e-juices and eventually even wave goodbye to nicotine for good. E-cigarettes put the decision into the hands of the vaper and help avoid the irritability of nicotine withdrawal.
Are there any other ways that you can suggest to avoid nicotine withdrawal? Tell us in the comments section below.
