STARTING STOPPING

Withdrawal is your transition from being a smoker to being an ex-smoker. It is usually the most difficult part of stopping smoking, and the first question you probably have is : when will it end? You may have heard various estimates- from two days to four weeks – and there is no one answer that applies to everybody.

First of all, it depends on how much you have smoked, and for how long. In general, if you have only smoked for five years you will experience less withdrawal than if you have smoked for fifty. There are, however, always individual variations.

How long withdrawal lasts also depend on how you are dealing mentally with the process of stopping. Symptoms that are the result of physical changes become magnified and prolonged by your mind, so that what would have been a temporary problem becomes a persistent threat to your ability to stay stopped.

The most convincing proof of this comes from studies of smokers who experience the symptomp of withdrawal even though they have nicotine in their systems because they are using nicotine fum.

The duration, intensity and variety of symptoms are essentially a reflection of how resistant you are to changing your thingking in the process of stopping. So how long withdrawal lasts is very much up to you.

Let’s take a closer look at the symptoms of physical change, not necessarily influenced by your state of mind.