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Irritability While Quitting Smoking (And How to Avoid It)

  • Posted on July 2, 2009 at 10:40 pm

Increased irritability is one of the strangely accepted facts about quitting smoking. As nicotine is slowly removed from the bloodstream, you become irritable and unable to concentrate. Why?

The accepted scientific cause for irritability is that it’s a part of nicotine withdrawal, and has to be dealt with just like the rest of the symptoms of withdrawal. This isn’t exactly the case, however.

Virtually everybody who quits smoking begins to regret their decision a few days in, as their learned connection between daily activities and smoking cause them to have cravings for cigarettes. You become frustrated weighing the benefits of quitting versus the immediate gain of being able to concentrate instead of constantly thinking about smoking.

It’s all understandable, I went through the same thing the first few times I tried quitting smoking, unsuccessfully, I might add. Eventually, you give in to the cravings and go right back to smoking. Alternatively, you could stick to your guns and push through…and keep having the cravings for months. That doesn’t sound very fun at all.

The trick to quitting smoking and not having to look back is to convince your mind, from the beginning, that it doesn’t need cigarettes in order to function. Remember, non-smokers don’t feel the urge to light up when they’re stressed, why should you?

You feel the urge to smoke when, for example, you’re stressed because you’ve trained your mind to believe that smoking somehow eases your stress. Sure, it may take your mind off the fact that you’re stressed, but it doesn’t really solve anything.

Do you want to learn how to quit right now, without feeling any withdrawal? Take a look at these guides on quitting and stop believing that you need cigarettes!

How To Avoid Irritability While Quitting Smoking

Article Source: Irritability While Quitting Smoking (And How to Avoid It)

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Physical Recovery and Changes After Quitting Smoking – What to Expect

  • Posted on July 2, 2009 at 10:40 pm

One of the best things about quitting smoking is just how quickly your body recovers from the ill effects of smoking. While it takes many years to completely recover, your body starts healing itself in just over a quarter of an hour. These are some of the things you can look forward to (and be wary of) in the coming days after stopping smoking.

About twenty minutes after quitting smoking, your blood pressure and heart rate are back to a normal level.

12 hours after stopping, your blood oxygen saturation has become normal, and nicotine levels in the bloodstream are a twentieth of their levels as a smoker.

One day after quitting, you will start to feel the anxiety and withdrawal that comes with quitting smoking. You’ve made it this far, don’t turn back!

Between two and three days from the last time you’ve smoked, your irritability will be at an all time high. You’ll experience several cravings per day for cigarettes, but as time goes on their length and intensity decreases. It also becomes easier to breathe, as your lungs are healing.

After a week, you’ll experience fewer symptoms of withdrawal. Past the three day mark, all withdrawal symptoms are mental, as your body as cleansed itself from the addictive properties of nicotine. Stick with it, because it only gets better from here!

After two weeks, you shouldn’t feel withdrawal any more. Urges to smoke will have dissipated, and you can relax knowing that you have taken control of your life again. In the coming few weeks, irritability, sleeplessness, and depression associated with smoking will subside and you’ll be able to take in just how incredible it is to not be a smoker.

One year after quitting, you are at a massively decreased risk of coronary heart disease, about half that of a smoker. Over the next few years, the rest of your disease risks will return to those of a non-smoker.

The first month is the hardest, but if you stick to it you’ll be rewarded in the end. Make sure that your family and friends know that you’re quitting smoking and to expect you to be more irritable and anxious. The first two weeks after I quit, I was absolutely unbearable to be around, but it went away with time and I never look back and miss smoking.

Remember though, your body won’t start to heal until you’ve actually quit smoking. If you want to quit smoking today, pick up a copy of the EasyQuit System and stop the damaging effects of cigarettes on your body once and for all!

Physical Recovery After Quitting Smoking

Article Source: Physical Recovery and Changes After Quitting Smoking – What to Expect

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How to Stop Panic Attacks by Remembering They Cannot Harm You

  • Posted on July 1, 2009 at 7:36 pm

How to stop panic attacks sounds easy enough when you hear or read what folks tell you. But in reality, during a panic attack, it’s very hard to re-order your thoughts to stop the attack. During panic attacks, you are so overpowered by physical and emotional stress and anxiety that it’s very difficult to organise your mind and do the things that you have been taught.

The first thing to remember is that panic attacks in themselves cannot harm you: your life is not in danger. The symptoms you are experiencing are your body’s way of reacting, in the way it knows how, to ‘perceived’ threats to it. But these threats are all in your head, they aren’t real.

In other words, the tightness in your chest and throat, the rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath, sweating, the feeling that you are having a heart attack, etc. are you body’s natural reactions to the illogical, irrational fear and vulnerability that you are experiencing.

The trigger for it could have been the stress of going for a job interview, making a presentation, being stuck in traffic, in a lift, and many other situations. The stress of this on top of an already anxious condition can help trigger a panic attack due to the release of adrenaline into your bloodstream. And this can happen many hours after the event.

So how to stop panic attacks under these circumstances? It sounds easier than it actually is — I know, I’ve been there — but you must try very hard to do the following…

1. Be confident and think positively: “I know my life is not in danger and I know for sure that these symptoms will go away very shortly”.

2. Breath deeply and steadily: Controlled breathing can help to calm you down and reduce your heart rate. It’s also a good idea to exhale for slightly longer than you inhale. This pattern may help you relax more quickly.

3. If you have had a panic attack previously you may be able to recognise the first signs. Depending on location and circumstances etc., stop what you are doing, walk away, focus on something completely different, relax. Remember, think positively and control your breathing as above.

However, none of the above can actually get rid of your underlying general anxiety. They are purely coping techniques to help you through a panic attack and hopefully shorten it. They cannot prevent further panic attacks and certainly cannot cure your general anxiety.

Did you know that a critical factor in recurrent panic attacks is the actual fear of another panic attack? You need to face this fear head on and defeat it. If not it can be very difficult, if not impossible, to cure your general anxiety.

Would you like to get more information on how to stop panic attacks in the future using a simple, proven drug-free technique? Then go now to http://eliminatepanicattacks.blogspot.com and prepare to get your old confident self back.

Article Source: How to Stop Panic Attacks by Remembering They Cannot Harm You

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