Quitting cigarettes and having a little anxiety

panic and smoking

panic and smoking


Anonymous

I just quit cigarettes yesterday and told my parents I am quitting and then started having anxiety bad and I started barfing alot please help.

Dear A:

Quitting smoking will temporarily increase your anxiety. Smoking is a way of self medicating and its an effective way!

I smoked for 10 years and I know I was terribly anxious and depressed when I guit.

There is no real reason why you can't be anxious. It can't hurt you, and its temporary where as smoking will permanently cause cancer. It takes alot of work and effort to quit, and there is a withdrawal period associated with it!

People with anxiety disorder are also more likely to smoke, so it may be that you have an underlying issue that you need therapy for.
However, if you feel like it might be helpful, you should talk with your primary care physician about some help with medication for your anxiety.

Good luck to you, and good job!

Sincerely

Kristen McClure

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Dec 06, 2017
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starstarstarstarstar 		On day 5
by: Anonymous

Anon

Thanks for your help. I am on day 5 without smoking the only withdrawal I seem to have was anxiety which is weird the reason why I decided to quit was cause I play football and want my breathing better but the weird thing is I only smoked like 2 cigarettes a day since the end of freshmen year I saw a doctor and the reason why I have had anxiety was cause I was thinking about the withdrawals symptoms too much and about what if I go back to smoking ? Which I won’t go but the weird thing is I feel like smoking cause I liked it a little cause it gave me a little head rush and stuff and since my friends did it. Now all I have is a little anxiety not bad at all though and some cravings but not alot is that my mom and her boyfriend smoke but I don’t want to start again. Because they have them around and I would take some of theirs and halfway smoke cigarette and smoke them there. By the way my parents are divorced and II am with my dad and he does not smoke and we switch off every week. This started this sunday but I am sort of worried since they have them around I will want one and relapse but I have told them about it they have hide them and won’t have them around me.

I told myself I will never smoke again cause I never want to go through this shit again especially with the anxiety the weird this right after I smoked my last cig I thought about quitting and then did all a sudden I started having a panic attack then anxiety which caused me to miss school.

I don’t know if I was worrying about it way too much into scaring myself or what.

Please answer back oh yeah the anxiety started right after telling my parents I quit which was 30 minutes after my cigarette please answer back y did this happen so fast with the anxiety?

Hi A

That’s great that you quit for five days! It’s very hard to do, like I said. I don’t know why the anxiety started so fast, but it could be that you were nervous about quitting and failing. Anxiety might be scary but it can’t last and it can’t hurt you. It creates a fear that something will happen that will likely not happen. Panic attacks in particular cannot hurt you. If you don’t feed into them and just wait until they pass they will always go away sooner. It certainly seems like you have a lot of anxiety and maybe you should check in with a therapist who specializes in that? I think it might help you. Your thoughts seem to be racing a little. Good luck to you John.

Sincerely

Kristen McClure

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