I HAVE BEEN A SMOKER OFF AND ON FOR 30 YEARS..QUIT SEVERAL TIMES WITH LAST BEING 4 MONTHS AGO....I WOULD LIKE TO SHARE SOME IMPORTANT FINDINGS WITH YOU THAT I HAVE LEARNED RECENTLY.
First let me say, if you are finally ready to stop this nasty habit then I must congratulate YOU. That feeling of WANTING to quit deserves some recognition. Doing the quitting part is a little bit more complicated. I want to share my story with you so that you don't set yourself up for failure as doing this for a New Years resolution. It is not just a turn on turn off habit. There is a lot more to it than that and the crazy thing is our doctors don't even tell us about it. Listen up.
(NOTE: IF YOU ARE A NONSMOKER AND READING THIS BLOG, MY ADVICE TO YOU IS NEVER START)
I started smoking at the age of 15. I am currently 44 years of age and female. I quit the first time when I was 21 and was able to quit cold turkey without any issues really with my metabolism. I started again for a short time when I was 27 after a divorce. I remarried and got pregnant when I was 28. I quit smoking while I was pregnant. Funny thing is, my husband at the time brought me a pack of cigarettes while I was still in the hospital recovering from birthing a beautiful son. After going through labor without any meds for 24+ hours I have to say that a pack of cigarettes was a relief to say the least. Not thinking about the future effect smoking was going to have on me, I left the hospital starting this habit all over again. I continued smoking awhile and decided to quit. Now well over 30, as soon as I would quit, I would gain weight. The theory of the weight gain when you stop smoking is that most replace this habit for a food/snack habit. Although some of that is true, those extra few calories should not be adding the amount of weight I was gaining. Especially being as active as I was. So, to fix this issue I would start smoking again and then start to lose weight. WHAT A VICIOUS CYCLE THIS IS! OVER AND OVER AGAIN AND AGAIN. I would get sick with bronchitis then quit, gain weight. That happened this last time at the first of September. I went to the doctor and she gave me an antibiotic for the bronchitis. Well, I had to go back in a week because I wasn't better. This doctor I saw was still in her 20's and looked at me and said these words. "Are you still smoking?" I said, "yes I am still smoking". She said, "What is it that you want ME to do for you?" I said, "huh?" She said, "There is not a pill I can prescribe to get rid of bronchitis for a smoker. I have killed the infection, now the only way to get rid of this cough is to stop smoking." WOW, did I feel STUPID. I am twice her age and well, I should have known that. In fact, somewhere back there in that fogged out brain I did know that answer. I just didn't want to admit to it. I left that doctors office in deep thought and decided, OK I'm not putting another cigarette back into my mouth. To follow is what happened to me after I made this decision.
1) I quit "cold turkey" as its called.
2) I immediately show signs of withdrawals from the nicotine.
3) I start to become EMOTIONAL as I have in the past. Crying all the time.
4) I start to gain weight at a rapid pace.
5) Depression sets in, fatigue. I have NO energy.
6) After a month, my lungs feel great but my body feels like crap.
7) Two months, I don't have any cough or wheezing to speak of and don't need my inhaler. I can't get up out of bed without feeling like my bones are breaking. My mind is toast. I can't think straight and I cry all the time and I start to notice everyone is out to get me. I take everything to heart and become very sensitive to emotions, light, hearing, smelling. I feel like I am losing my mind. I have restless leg syndrome keeping me up and my nerves are shot. I hold my breath from anxiety. My muscles tense up and cause horrible back pain. I have severe twitching and think that I have MS. I can't sleep, breathe right, my blood pressure is out of whack, I can't work, I can't function, everyone wants to know whats wrong with me. I feel lost, alone. I felt like I was worth nothing. I was fighting with my family and wondered why everyone was picking on me and just left me here in this place of doom.
All of this continued until a friend of mine asked me to come 2 hours a way and see her doctor. So I did. This doctor was an endocrinologist. He ran some blood test on me. First, they checked my sugar and my cholesterol levels. My sugar was fine but my cholesterol was off the charts. They tell me that this could be a sign of thyroid issues. But, my thyroid has always checked out normal when my doctor has measured it. Turns out, your primary only checks your TSH levels and does not normally do a full thyroid panel. This is where it gets a little bit complicated so please read carefully.
Your TSH level is checked to see if your thyroid is functioning. Mine was in normal range. But to look to see if your thyroid HORMONE LEVEL is normal, you must read a full panel which includes your T3 and T4 hormones. Your T3 hormone is your ENERGY hormone. If this number is low then your endocrine system is not functioning as a whole properly. It could be your adrenal gland, your pituitary gland or it could be that you have removed something from your metabolic system that helps convert your T4 into your T3 energy hormone. This is what happened to me. My T3 was low BUT still in primary doctor normal range. This T3 level was 113. An endocrinologist treats any T3 level under 150 as hypothyroidism. Are you following me on this? The endo's, primaries, labs the entire medical industry does not have a definitive measure or reading if you will on this subject. They do not agree with one another's findings. I am not here to devise a new measure for your thyroid nor am I qualified to do so. But what I will tell you is this...Once I started taking the thyroid hormone replacement (Synthroid) my symptoms started to diminish. I can now scratch off most of the symptoms above, but sadly not all of them.
TO SUM THIS UP.
After smoking for some years the nicotine becomes part of your metabolic makeup. Your body starts to use the nicotine to help the metabolic process. So where nicotine helps is in the converting of your T4 into your T3. OUCH! Ok, so now we have a reason for the weight gain and feeling fatigued. What about the emotional side of it? Sadly, I don't have an answer to that. My hormones checked out normal. So the crying has not stopped until Christmas Day. I got a pack of cigarettes because I was entirely too emotional and stressed. I stopped crying. I made it 4 months without smoking but I didn't feel myself again until I started smoking again. I HATE SMOKING!
HOW TO STOP SMOKING..
1) If you quit cold turkey, continue taking nicotine replacements and then taper off slowly. (I wish I would have done this so that my metabolism wouldn't have taken such a blow.)
2) You might possibly need an antidepressant or anti-anxiety medication to help.
3) A month or so after you quit, have a full thyroid panel done to check your levels. This will save you from battling the weight gain like I did.
4) Buddy up with your partner and do it together. I quit but my man continued and this was torture to say the least.
5) Don't set yourself up for failure on this. I WILL succeed on this just not in the way I thought. Will power IS the decision to stop. Remember, it is a habit.
6) COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPY. We have to retrain our way of thinking. I associate smoking with RELAXING. This is BAD. Cause when you remove that without any therapy, how are you to learn a new way to relax.
LASTLY - Good luck to all of you and if you figure HOW TO STOP THE CRYING, please send me an email.
TOGETHER ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE. HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!
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