You may continue to experience symptoms like fatigue or shortness of breath for several months after stopping smoking as your body continues to heal itself.
Quitting smoking is a significant step toward better health, jumpstarting your body’s healing process within days. However, the journey to feeling “normal” again might take some time.
For a while, you may feel worse, potentially experiencing weight gain, anxiety, fatigue, and the temptation to restart smoking. These feelings may even persist for a few months. Hang in there — there are brighter days ahead.
When you quit smoking, your body initiates the healing process to repair smoking-related damage and to adapt to a life without nicotine. Initially, these changes might bring about some discomfort.
This transformation involves metabolic shifts, detoxification, physiological adjustments, and changes in neurotransmitter function, notably dopamine, that can contribute to feelings of tiredness or fatigue. Even after a few months, some of these processes are still ongoing.
Research indicates that after 3 months of successful abstinence, individuals tend to show improved dopamine function compared with when they were smoking. So, if it hasn’t happened yet, it will likely happen soon.
Three months after quitting smoking, you may still experience the following:
- Psychological adjustments: For some individuals, cigarettes serve as a coping mechanism. Once you quit, it may be difficult to find new ways to manage stress or deal with emotions, leading to a temporary worsening of mood or well-being.
- Weight gain: Some people may gain weight after quitting smoking. This weight gain, especially if significant, might make you feel discomfort or dissatisfaction.
- Underlying health issues: Sometimes, quitting smoking might reveal underlying health issues that were masked by smoking. This could lead to a perception of feeling worse, even though the symptoms are not directly related to quitting smoking.
- Withdrawal symptoms: Even…
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