I feel terrible
So I quit smoking cold turkey just over two weeks ago. I never smoked in my life (I’m 41) until 18 months ago approx. Long story but my partner smoked, and it started casually as he smoked in the house at weekends. We aren’t together any more, that’s another horror story but the stress of him dumping me several times before I finally told him I wasn’t going back had me reaching for cigarettes daily and in the last year I was smoking pretty much 20 a day. With the coronavirus pandemic hitting hard now I am scared!! So I decided enough...I know I do it out of habit and I also do it secretly and I really wanted to stop. I have not had any cravings at all but he’ll have I had the worst withdrawal symptoms to the point I’m actually wondering have I got the damned virus!!! Only they come and go. They started on day 3, sweats, headache, sore throat, cough, body/joint aches, runny nose, coughing up mucus, at worst I’ve had racing heart and palpitations! I could have sore I had full blown flu. Only they do come and go. They eased a bit over last couple of days but tonight I’m wide awake at now 3.17am with sore throat, muscle aches, I’m constantly swallowing spit and I’ve a headache and an annoying cough trying to clear what’s in my throat. Please tell me this is “normal” and it will pass soon. Jx
Hi Janey. Symptoms of the virus should be checked out for your sake as well as others. Get the negative result you want so you can stop stressing. That certainly is not condusive to quitting smoking. Of course we know that smoking will not ease the stress but cause even more. If you do have the virus, quitting smoking helps your body and lungs to repair, sometimes a difference is noticed in breathing in just a couple of days. Since it has been a few days and you do not have a heavy chest or having shortness of breath , i doubt that it is serious, however you do need to be responsible and make sure you are not putting others at risk.
That’s just it. Symptoms come and go. They are not persistent. Although I’ve had sweats I haven’t had a temp or a persistent cough. No tightness in my chest or shortness of breath. I just feel under the weather, like a flu. Today I feel much better. No cough at all and the mucus seems to have cleared from my throat. They won’t test for virus here unless you are unwell with persistent symptoms however I have self isolated anyway just in case it was something more or mild virus symptoms. I just didn’t know what to expect and then some symptoms of “quitters flu” are similar to virus which has made me anxious.
We hear you Janey-b. The first two to three weeks are the worst with the cold turkey method. I had sleep disorders, muscle tension, sweats, headaches, body joints aches & pains..fast heart rate (pulse)..you name it. I thought I had some kind of flue, but, that was my symptoms of withdrawal from my total dependency of the nicotine, poisons and other cigarette toxins being cut-off instantly. It was a major shock to my body physically. I had my final smoke exactly 2 months ago, just before the covid-19 was declared a world wide pandemic and can completely understand your concern at your point in time. hopefully you can come out of the withdrawal process any day now? Even though the virus was just getting discovered in china 2 months ago. The doctors declined to test me because I didnt travel out of this country,,,,had no fever (temp always 35.9), had no cough or cold. Despite having all other symptoms.
Hang in there, I got dramatically better after 2 to 3 weeks.
just dont smoke.
not one puff.
I Dont Smoke.
Thankyou for all your advice. I’m glad I’m not alone with my symptoms. Hope fully they will start to ease over the next few days. The good thing is that how I feel I have no cravings at all or desire to even have a puff and I’m disgusted with myself that I ever smoked so late on in life and let it get to this point. Looking forward to feeling a hit more normal. 😌
My advice don’t stress yourself with the virus otherwise it will overcome you. As it did to me. I quit 19 days ago cold turkey as well and had some similar symptoms as you and still having some but they’re getting better. To be honest maybe I regret not quitting using other techniques maybe it would have been easier. However, it’s too late to go back now. We got this 💪🏽
Thankyou so much for the support. I never smoked until about 18 months ago (long story) so I had never tried to quit before and didn’t know that withdrawal symptoms could be like this. I simply thought it was just cravings...which is the only thing I have not had. Disgustingly I was smoking 20 a day and maybe yes I should have tried a different technique to make it easier but as you say too late to go back now and hopefully over the worst. The timing probably wasn’t great with Covid-19 getting inside my head but no looking back now. Well done to you all...and thanks so much. X