nicotine withdrawal symptoms

have cut my smoking by about 60-80% in the last week and a half, doing well and not got crazy so far, but in the last couple of days i have been feeling winded during the evening, kinda feels like i am breathing but not getting enough oxygen, keep needed to take deep breaths to "fill up" but it doesnt seem to help. anyone know if this is common and if there are any other symptoms i should expect?

have cut my smoking by about 60-80% in the last week and a half, doing well and not got crazy so far, but in the last couple of days i have been feeling winded during the evening, kinda feels like i am breathing but not getting enough oxygen, keep needed to take deep breaths to "fill up" but it doesnt seem to help. anyone know if this is common and if there are any other symptoms i should expect?

Hi, Astaro...this has happened to me too when I've cut back or quit smoking in the past. I don't know the technical details why, though. One thought is that we do take more deep breaths when we're inhaling cigarettes, so even though we're gettng a lot of smoke too, we're getting more oxygen. This is just a random guess, I could be completely wrong. At any rate, we do take deeper breaths when we're smoking, and so maybe we're breathing too shallowly when we quit/cut back, and that's why we get winded.

It's your lungs attempting to remove mucus and tar.

How much do you used to smoke? I used to smoke about a pack in a couple of days and when I quit I went cold turkey and never experienced any problems that you have mentioned above. I guess it varies within people.

been smoking 25-30 cigarets a day for 9 years.

Once you stop smoking, the vilia that have been paralyzed by smoke, start waking up. They begin their job of carrying dust-laden mucus back out of the lungs. Because they have been dormant for so long, there is alot of build-up and the process is clogging up a significant portion of your lungs. Once the mucus is mostly gone, you'll feel better.

Oh, and if your 80% down....toss the suckers! Cold turky is hard, but worth it!

this is a challange for me, i want to make sure i can harness it before i let it go basically. i want to rid myself of the addict mentality, i wanna be able to light up and not care when i go drinking. i basically dont want it to control me anymore, i want to control it.

Actually, if you've cut down that much, that's a terrific accomplishment. It's very hard to cut back, almost as hard as it is to quit cold turkey. The good news is you've got yourself well positioned now to do just that. I bet it's just a matter of time before one morning you're ready to give it a go!

Nicotine is great injury to health....

Another aspect of it is that when you cut back or quit, it's natural to experience some extra tension and anxiety. I remember when I quit, I almost forgot to breathe! I'd have to consciously remind myself to take deep breaths throughout the day because I was holding my breath.

have cut my smoking by about 60-80% in the last week and a half, doing well and not got crazy so far, but in the last couple of days i have been feeling winded during the evening, kinda feels like i am breathing but not getting enough oxygen, keep needed to take deep breaths to "fill up" but it doesnt seem to help. anyone know if this is common and if there are any other symptoms i should expect?

This is a symptom of anxiety not of nicotine withrdawal. You are getting anxiety symptoms as a result of depriving your body of the nicotine it is use to. When I use to get panic attacks they would always start with anxiety and it's first symptom was inability to take in a satisfying breath almost like I was not filling my lungs with oxygen it needs. For your information, stopping smoking cold-turkey is much easier than cutting down, believe me I've stopped smoking at three times in my life for significant amounts of time. When you cut down you put yourself in a semi-withdrawal state which you have to endure for weeks. You start with a pack a day and then you are happy that you got down to only smoking 3-4 cigarettes a day, but this has already made you fight and experience semi withdrawal for weeks and when it comes to cutting out those last few cigarettes it will be practically as hard as stopping a 1pack a day habit. Because you have already suffered in semi withdrawal for weeks you are now weak and when the real withdrawal comes associated with smoking no cigarettes you will be to weak to handle it. I have done it both ways so trust me. My girlfriend didn't believe me and tried to quit smoking 5 times in the past two years. She tried the patch once and tried to cut down on three occasions, failing each time. She finally did it in December of last year going cold turkey.