Answers to Everyday Questions : Does giving up smoking make you more emotional?

Yes it can do that. You are going through Nicotine withdraws. It will pass. Keep strong, this part of quiting is a tough stretch. This is where most people go back to smoking.

yeah, I cried in my car when a stupid song came on. I’m not a crier usually, but I’m still a smoker. Good luck.

You didn’t mention how recently, but it can affect your emotions because you are healing from a physical addiction! That tends to affect all of your brain chemicals. But the important thing is that you have quit!!! I lost my mother last Jan. to Lung cancer. She smoked for 40-50 years but quit in ’93(I think). She was diagnosed the week of Thanksgiving (’05) with stage 4 lung cancer, she progressed from her “normal” self to death in only 6 weeks. It was very hard to watch, and was so painful for her. She died at 4am Jan 1, ’06. So if you feel a bit emotional …stop, take a deeeeep breath, and give yourself a hug from me and a pat on the back, hold your head up and remind yourself how GREAT it is that you quit!!! God bless, and enjoy life!!!

Absolutely it does. Any addictive substance is comforting in its own little twisted way. When my dad passed away I was smoking already but instantly went from about 1.5 packs a day to FIVE (!!!!!) packs a day for about 2 weeks. TELL me that wasn’t in response to an overload of emotions and stress. Honestly, if I hadn’t had the smoking, I may have gone completely over the edge during that time.

When we are overwhelmed or hurting emotionally, we can mask it by eating, having sex, gambling, doing drugs, drinking, and yes…by smoking. It is harmful, but that is one aspect of self-medication. If you are not familiar with the term, self-medication is when you stumble on something (usually inappropriate, dangerous, and/or illegal) that chemically helps you with a real problem…you end up addicted to it. No one necessarily tells you to do this and the addict may not understand, aside from the addictiveness of the substance, why that particular thing is so comforting to them. It has been revealed that a lot of alcoholics are unknowingly self-medicating for anxiety. And a lot of ADD patients are self-medicating with caffeine. If you are self-medicating with a drug that is otherwise harmful, it helps to know that the underlying problem can usually be helped by something else that is a lot less dangerous than your drug of choice.

When I quit smoking a few years ago I eventually gave up after six weeks because I was having wicked WICKED mood swings! I would go from being almost euphoric to raging…everything but extremely sad or suicidal…of course because I was too scared to feel sad. It is much easier to get mad or to fly high. I was preoccupied with the quitting and grieving intensely for my cigarettes. I was a complete basketcase. I recently quit again with almost no cravings, none of that insanity, and I have been very successful. It seems managable this time. Having just lost my mother to emphysema, I am still doing it for my own reasons but, I have more motivation than ever. The only thing I can tell that is different, as in positive different, because as I grieve my mother, I am under more stress than I have seen in a long time…is that I am on anti-depressants. I don’t know but I think they are a sanity saver in this case, and are helping me deal with my emotions without smoking.

Incidently, I am using nicotine replacement items, namely the gum and the lozenges. Extremely high continuous doses for now. (I can’t recommend that but it has reduced my cravings to zero while I manage the BEHAVIOR of smoking.) I did that before too, with the patch but I didn’t OD on them. I hated it. I had nightmares that were like something out of a psych ward, and soreness like a shot where the patch was…which as a needle phobic really sucked. I think I was allergic to the glue. I am pretty sure that the nightmares were from all the stress during the day from quitting that needed “dreaming out” while I slept.

Back to the subject, addictions tend to mask our feelings from us. They protect us from feeling anything as strongly as we would otherwise feel. So when you take that protection away, all the feelings are more intense. If you don’t know what they feel like in their undiluted form, or if you don’t know how to handle them, your emotions can be unbearable.

It is hard for the quitter, and a lot of their supporters. But please don’t give up quitting. It is best that you do, and if you TRY to be kind and explain things without avoiding genuine apologies if you are mean to someone, I am sure they will forgive you.

We can get through this together. If you need a buddy, I am here and I can yell right back at you if you get out of line with me. XOXO.

🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

Yes it can do that. You are going through Nicotine withdraws. It will pass. Keep strong, this part of quiting is a tough stretch. This is where most people go back to smoking.

yeah, I cried in my car when a stupid song came on. I’m not a crier usually, but I’m still a smoker. Good luck.

You didn’t mention how recently, but it can affect your emotions because you are healing from a physical addiction! That tends to affect all of your brain chemicals. But the important thing is that you have quit!!! I lost my mother last Jan. to Lung cancer. She smoked for 40-50 years but quit in ’93(I think). She was diagnosed the week of Thanksgiving (’05) with stage 4 lung cancer, she progressed from her “normal” self to death in only 6 weeks. It was very hard to watch, and was so painful for her. She died at 4am Jan 1, ’06. So if you feel a bit emotional …stop, take a deeeeep breath, and give yourself a hug from me and a pat on the back, hold your head up and remind yourself how GREAT it is that you quit!!! God bless, and enjoy life!!!

Absolutely it does. Any addictive substance is comforting in its own little twisted way. When my dad passed away I was smoking already but instantly went from about 1.5 packs a day to FIVE (!!!!!) packs a day for about 2 weeks. TELL me that wasn’t in response to an overload of emotions and stress. Honestly, if I hadn’t had the smoking, I may have gone completely over the edge during that time.

When we are overwhelmed or hurting emotionally, we can mask it by eating, having sex, gambling, doing drugs, drinking, and yes…by smoking. It is harmful, but that is one aspect of self-medication. If you are not familiar with the term, self-medication is when you stumble on something (usually inappropriate, dangerous, and/or illegal) that chemically helps you with a real problem…you end up addicted to it. No one necessarily tells you to do this and the addict may not understand, aside from the addictiveness of the substance, why that particular thing is so comforting to them. It has been revealed that a lot of alcoholics are unknowingly self-medicating for anxiety. And a lot of ADD patients are self-medicating with caffeine. If you are self-medicating with a drug that is otherwise harmful, it helps to know that the underlying problem can usually be helped by something else that is a lot less dangerous than your drug of choice.

When I quit smoking a few years ago I eventually gave up after six weeks because I was having wicked WICKED mood swings! I would go from being almost euphoric to raging…everything but extremely sad or suicidal…of course because I was too scared to feel sad. It is much easier to get mad or to fly high. I was preoccupied with the quitting and grieving intensely for my cigarettes. I was a complete basketcase. I recently quit again with almost no cravings, none of that insanity, and I have been very successful. It seems managable this time. Having just lost my mother to emphysema, I am still doing it for my own reasons but, I have more motivation than ever. The only thing I can tell that is different, as in positive different, because as I grieve my mother, I am under more stress than I have seen in a long time…is that I am on anti-depressants. I don’t know but I think they are a sanity saver in this case, and are helping me deal with my emotions without smoking.

Incidently, I am using nicotine replacement items, namely the gum and the lozenges. Extremely high continuous doses for now. (I can’t recommend that but it has reduced my cravings to zero while I manage the BEHAVIOR of smoking.) I did that before too, with the patch but I didn’t OD on them. I hated it. I had nightmares that were like something out of a psych ward, and soreness like a shot where the patch was…which as a needle phobic really sucked. I think I was allergic to the glue. I am pretty sure that the nightmares were from all the stress during the day from quitting that needed “dreaming out” while I slept.

Back to the subject, addictions tend to mask our feelings from us. They protect us from feeling anything as strongly as we would otherwise feel. So when you take that protection away, all the feelings are more intense. If you don’t know what they feel like in their undiluted form, or if you don’t know how to handle them, your emotions can be unbearable.

It is hard for the quitter, and a lot of their supporters. But please don’t give up quitting. It is best that you do, and if you TRY to be kind and explain things without avoiding genuine apologies if you are mean to someone, I am sure they will forgive you.

We can get through this together. If you need a buddy, I am here and I can yell right back at you if you get out of line with me. XOXO.

🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂