What is the hardest day when quitting smoking?
Quitting smoking is beneficial for your health. However, before bringing numerous benefits, quitting smoking causes unpleasant symptoms, sometimes very difficult to endure. In this article, we focus on the hardest day when you quit smoking and explain how to overcome this stage.
What is smoking cessation?
When you quit smoking tobacco, you enter a phase of smoking cessation. This process leads to physical and psychological symptoms from the first few hours after the last cigarette. This phenomenon is completely normal and poses no risk to your health. Your body is craving nicotine and needs to adjust to this change. In other words, your body returns to normal functioning.
The symptoms, their onset, and their intensity vary from person to person depending on several factors, such as the number of years of smoking or the amount of tobacco consumed daily.
When is smoking cessation the hardest?
Generally, the second or third day of cessation is the most challenging when quitting smoking. Afterward, the negative effects of quitting tobacco gradually diminish and eventually disappear.
A craving within the first 24 hours of quitting
The first side effects of withdrawal appear within 24 hours after stopping nicotine. Generally, the smoker first feels an irresistible urge to smoke. This nicotine craving is often accompanied by dizziness.
The peak of withdrawal in 48 to 72 hours
The most difficult period of withdrawal occurs within 48 to 72 hours after the last nicotine intake. Physical and psychological symptoms intensify and reach their peak after two days without tobacco. They are numerous and varied: stress, anxiety, depression, irritability, headaches, concentration problems, hunger, sleep disturbances, nausea, cough, etc.
These hours are crucial for the withdrawal process. Indeed, many smokers tend to relapse due to these intense symptoms.
The reduction of symptoms after 72 hours
After these 72 hours of quitting, the physical dependence on cigarettes decreases. The physical symptoms ease day by day and eventually completely dissipate after several weeks or months.
However, the psychological dependence takes much longer to disappear. Indeed, it is sometimes complicated to get rid of certain ingrained habits. The urge to smoke a cigarette may return in certain everyday situations.
How to overcome this hardest day?
Here are some tips to help you more easily overcome this period.
Avoid triggers
You should avoid all situations that might make you want to smoke a cigarette or remind you of your smoking habits. Refrain from being around people who smoke tobacco and from going to places where you used to smoke.
Also, try to replace your smoking habits with other activities to divert your attention from cigarettes. For example, replace your post-meal cigarette with a walk outside.
Seek support
Surround yourself with people who support your initiative and encourage you. This can include your loved ones, family and friends, a healthcare professional, or people who, like you, want to quit smoking. This psychological support will help you better overcome the toughest moments of your withdrawal.
Use nicotine substitutes
Nicotine substitutes, such as patches, gums, or inhalers, can help you better cope with your withdrawal. They slowly release a dose of nicotine into your body to compensate for the craving. This treatment helps alleviate symptoms, but does not eliminate them.
Choose laser auriculotherapy
Some alternative methods are particularly effective in freeing you from your tobacco dependence. This is the case with laser auriculotherapy. This treatment allows you to eliminate your addiction to cigarettes in a single session by stimulating specific points on the ear. This method of smoking cessation is quick and painless, allowing you to avoid the hardest stages of your withdrawal. Instantly, all cravings disappear!
Reset Laser helps you quit smoking
Want to quit smoking? The therapists at Reset Laser help you overcome your tobacco addiction. With our cessation method, you say goodbye to cigarettes for good, without any unpleasant symptoms! Free yourself from nicotine dependence in a single session!
Why Choose RESET Laser Institute
The best method to quit smoking
Specialist
Our therapists are all addiction experts and specialists in laser auriculotherapy cessation.
Effectiveness
Our success rate after one session is over 86%.
Painless
Non-invasive and painless, our therapy is accessible to everyone.
No Stress
You free yourself from addictions and quit smoking without weight gain, stress, or compensation.
Personalized Support
Since each patient is different, we offer personalized support after the session.
1-Year Guarantee
We guarantee our therapy for 1 year in case of relapse.