Hi, Jordan. What's happening is the cilia are waking up. Smoking numbed the little hairs that are meant to move mucus out of your nasal, sinus, and broncheal passages. And it numbed the mucus producing cells as well.

Now they are waking up and that means congestion. You may clear some really nasty, perhaps foul smelling/tasting crud, over the next few days or weeks. That is really good. That is healing taking place.

The need to smoke is your body trying to tell you that something is different and it has learned that smoking will put it "right". Your body is rather stupid, so don't listen to it. You know better than it does. It could also be the junkie seizing an opportunity to have you relapse (youve already had a couple, or so). Flippin junkie will lie to you, so dont listen to it either. ( I do believe the junkie and your body are in cahoots. Beware!)

Know that this is a temporary condition, it will not harm you, and it is a sign of great healing taking place. What you are doing is wonderful and what you will be once the icky is over with is truly amazing. Focus on the future and let today care for itself.

Peace and blessings,
Shevie
Quit May, 2005

shevie thank you so much for your advice it was a big help and also gave me a giggle too! Yeah i do kep having the odd one here and there but i know that could easily make me fall back into regular smoking again so thats gotta stop too hasnt it! I,ll get there i want this more than ever! thank you xxxxxxx

Glad I could help, Jordan.

I noticed on your profile that it seems you have some acid reflux, too. I used to have that as well, back when I smoked. I'm 56 and the ENT said I have the esophgus of an 80 year old man, from years of acid reflux. Heck, even a glass of water would give me heartburn. He had me on Prilosec OTC up until I quit smoking. After I quit, I didn't need it. Now I can eat things (i.e., spicy food) I would not have touched back then and I rarely have any heartburn at all.

You keep at it, Jordan. Practice makes perfect.
Shevie
Quit May, 2005

Hi Jordan! Shevie is so right on the mark here. I quit 9 months ago and the myriad of physical problems I had when I quit seem to have pretty much disappeared. I used to chalk up all my physical woes to getting older. Well that was a bunch of baloney. I have the energy of someone 15 years to my junior and can now eat pretty much whatever I want to eat. Smoking brings on so many ailments and think about it...when we smoke we are inhaling and ingesting tons of poisons. Ever wonder why little critters that tend to invade our homes (yep I've had the occasional mouse and squirrel get in my house) never chew up our smokes? They don't rationalize addiction, they just know they don't want poison for a meal. You can do this Jordan. The initial stuff that goes with quitting is no doubt uncomfortable but push past it and you will understand that it's not easy for a reason. If it were easy to quit would we not revert back to smoking because it was easy to quit? It really is a big deal to go days, and then weeks and then hit your first one month mark smoke free. You can do this! Get some friends on your list and read our journals and then write some of your won. You're worth saving your life.

Truth is, you will never quit as long as you take one puff or smoke one. The addiction is what is making you think your congested, it found your weak place. It trys to play all kinds of tricks to get you to smoke. You will even dream your smoking. No one knows what the tobacco company puts in them.

What you said about needing to smoke to relieve the congestion reminded me of something I experienced in my quit.

I live in a major metropolitan area that has some serious air pollution problems (no, not LA, lol). During the high pollution days, especially when the ozone level was up, I'd smoke more. Normal was a pack a day, but on "dirty days" I'd smoke another 1/2 to 3/4 pack. Makes no sense does it? But I could actually roughly gauge the pollution level by how much I smoked.

After I quit I went through periods of a low level, nagging, constant crave that sometimes lasted for days. Could not figure out how to shake it, even after over a year quit. Then one day it hit me what it was. Air pollution.

I have an allergy to the air pollution around here, and something about smoking masks its effects. I'd smoke and feel better, but the masking effect would wear off in about 10 - 15 minutes, long before the nicotine level dropped enough to create a withdrawal feeling. So my stupid brain learned that smoking = "feel better" when the pollution levels were up.

After I quit my stupid brain was still wanting a smoke to cure the feeling the pollution caused, so it put me into that constant, low level crave whenever the pollution levels went up.

The solution was to retrain the stupid brain. At least it is trainable. When that weak crave started, Id repeat to myself, This is not a crave, its a pollution allergy. After a few months Id convinced the stupid brain to not want that smoke cure anymore.

So perhaps you could do something similar with your smoking cures congestion issue.

Peace and blessings to you,
Shevie
Quit May, 2005