How long just to detox?
Having successfully quit twice before (for 7 and 12 years each), I
remember there’s a physical detox involved, along with all the weird
mind games. I’m trying the cognitive approach in dealing with those,
but can somebody tell me how long to actually flush the nicotine out
of my system? I’m now on day 5 and the disorientation, lack of
concentration, headache, and tight jaw are getting weary. Anybody?
June 25th, 2005 at 1:40 am
Hi Judy,
I’m assuming your quitting CT and aren’t using any sort of nicotine
replacement. It takes about 3 days for the chemical need/feed cycle to
stop. That DOES NOT mean that detox/recovery symptoms are over. It only
means that you won’t have a fluctuating nicotine level creating withdrawal
symptoms. However…. brain fog and general disorientation usually hang in
for a couple of weeks. The muscle tension as it’s effected directly by the
nicotine recovery, I have no idea. But I do know that you must become adept
at stretching in order to deal with tense muscles as they will always be
your primary indicators of stress. Headaches are very often directly
related to muscle tension in the neck and shoulders. If you can find and
press on knotted or tense muscles at teh base of your skull (between your
spinal column and teh back of your ears) and you can ‘feel’ it in your
forhead, then at least some of your headache is due to muscle tension and
can often be relieved almost immdiately by proper neck and shoulder
stretching. Other physical characteristics of recovery are disrupted sleep
(usually settles down within 2-3 weeks, digestive upset i.e.
healtburn/constipation (usually 2-3 weeks), bleeding or sore gums (1-2
weeks), coughing indicating the return of cilia function (anytime within
the first couple of months, sometimes not at all), emotional chaos i.e.
tears to rage and back in a flash (worst initially, can take several months
or more to settle down).
Judy, most of us found that the very worst part of teh quit was always
the internal arguing. If you’re doing the work and getting in step with
Warren, you’ve reduced the ‘difficulty/discomfort factor’ by more than half.
Congrats on your 5 days,
Steve