The quitters flu; a number of symptoms that combine in such a manner they closely resemble a cold or flu like illness. Most people who quit smoking will experience it. The symptoms can be headaches, flashes of hot and cold, chest congestion, cough, sore throat and nasal congestion.
The moment you quit smoking your body begins to heal and as a result, these physical symptoms will occur. The most notable of these flu like symptoms are those associated with the respiratory system.
A microscopic photo of cilia lining the human wind pipe. Image made available using creative commons licence.
The lungs contain small hair like structures called cilia. (They look more like sea anemones.) These cilia, naturally sweep particles out of the wind pipe to be expelled by coughing. Tobacco smoke coats the lungs with tar and disrupts this process by preventing the cilia from working. When you quit smoking, the tar begins to break down and the cilia once again start cleaning. Quitters will likely notice a blackish – brown and often speckled phlegm as a result. Given the amount of rubbish that builds up in a smokers lungs, this can be quiet extreme and often takes time to settle down.
The ability to breath easier and maintain a greater state of healthiness, more than make up for the unpleasantness of quitters flu. The symptoms of quitters flu should also start to settle after a few weeks.
Tips for Managing the Quitters Flu.
Rest During the Early Stages.
Quitters flu is at its worst in the early days of a quit smoking campaign. It may help to rest and be as comfortable as possible, while allowing the healing process to happen. Consider drinking warm herbal teas to aid relaxation and relieve some of the symptoms.
Eat Quality Foods and Micro Nutrients.
The body gets the majority of nutrients needed to heal, from the foods we eat. If these foods are of a high quality and have sound nutritional value, the more building blocks your body will have to aid the process. Consider eating more fresh fruit and vegetables and less processed and over cooked foods.
When You Feel Ready, Get Some Exercise.
Exercise promotes healthy lung function and helps accelerates the cleaning process. Consider starting with a daily, fast paced, five minute walk around the block.
I just stopped smoking. I’d like to say “escape smoking” because I feel more free. I read 50 pages of Allen Carr’s Easyway to Stop Smoking and it helped me stop my pack a day addiction.
I am indeed feeling flu-like symptoms along with slightly achy, itchy eyes, achy ears and lots of congestion in my chest. My chest burns a bit as I feel stuff loosening up and coming up to be coughed out.
When I was a smoker I didn’t cough but that’s because the cilia is paralyzed and can’t remove the tobacco residue (tar).
I have a headache too but the cravings aren’t bad at all when you see stopping smoking not as giving up or sacrificing something. See it as gaining freedom!
“See it as gaining freedom!”
For sure, the way you perceive your addiction, makes a huge difference!
Well done on quitting!
I’d like to say too that my stomach feels 100% better. I thought I had a peptic ulcer but only 12 hours of abstaining from smoking has stopped the chronic burning sensation I used to have in my stomach.
I am trying to quit smoking since last 2 weeks reducing from 6-7 cigarettes a day to 1-2 and since last 3 days i havent had a smoke at all.
I really feel uneasyness in my chest.
Chest heaviness and coughing in the morning right after waking up is experienced.
Whenever i eat anything even a small portion i feel i have had too much and feel really stuffed.
Heya Shubham, way to go on three days champ!
All sounds pretty normal to me, though I never experienced the “feel really stuffed” feeling. I had a real tight/heavy feeling in my chest and my cough was bad.
I would still see your doctor though, even if only for peace of mind.
wow quitting smoking was way more emotional than i thought…i wish they would make people more awear of the crying and anger …its so real, you think it wont end ….but it passes
I was a wrecking ball for a long time, especially in the early days. Moods were up and down multiple times a day!
I ended up suffering from pneumonia three weeks ago and of course didn’t have the energy or lung capacity to even think about smoking so made the decision to quit smoking. In the meantime I think I went from pneumonia recovery to getting the quitters flu. I am congested in the nose, have the most horrendous seal-like cough but not coughing up much. It’s been 22 days now smoke free but have just experienced (and my family)the anger part of recovery which they don’t understand. I sleep at the drop of a hat and don’t feel like part of the family. How long will I (and my family) have to wait till I feel normal physically and emotionally? Can a naturopath help me recover from the quitters flu any faster?
Hi Heather, first, well done on 22 days! It takes a hell of a lot to get that far and it shows great strength on your part. As for relieving quitters flu, I’d suggest talking to your doctor, especially as you have had pneumonia. Having said that, the symptoms of quitters flu should start to weaken soon, though I would expect the coughing to come and go as your lungs clear out the tar. Keep resting!
The rage and anger felt, depend largely on the individual, though, it should weaken as the craves do. (There will be some pretty rough days over the first 6 – 12 weeks.) I spent as much time as I could alone on my bad days, and walked away from any conflicting situations…(Usually cursing or growling as I did so!) You will get better though. Take it one day and one challenge at a time! Hang in there, it will get better, a lot better.
I stopped smoking at the end of oct after over 25 years and am still on the wagon! What’s really getting me cheesed is my ‘quitters flu’ if that’s what it is?! Nose has run and run, then it’s blocked for days, annoying cough continues but without coughing up dirt and grime! Is this quitters flu or something else??!!!! Going to docs, feel like crap! Can’t exercise as not feeling up to it st all, been 3 weeks now!! Have to smile as i never felt like this whilst smoking!!! However I will persist with not smoking! Have to! Any ideas…!!!???
I would still go to docs, though it does sound like quitters flu. It will get better, I promise. It hell to go through but…every single struggle is worth it!
I have also just launched ACHOICE2LIVE CONNECT! which is a social network specifically for quitters. If you join, be sure to add me!
im quitting instantly since last cigar that i took last week. feel horrible, quitting without stages. now, im on the bed 24/7 feel like dying. but the pain especially my headache and flu has decreased.
i quit smoking on 14th dec 2012 and have been experiencing some medical problems since. my cough is terrible and bringing up a lot of stuff but the other day i had a bad do and blacked out for a few seconds and then on mon night sitting quietly reading i kind of blacked out again but i was aware that i was trembling (shaking like i was having a fit).a lot of the time when i cough i experience shaking in the hands and arms!!
It would be worth getting checked out by a doctor. Black outs are not a side effect from quitting and it may be an underlying issue. Well done on the quit so far, btw.
Interesting reading.
I stopped smoking New Years Eve 1985. Never smoked again until about 2003 smoking socially from time to time. About 2006 I became a serious smoker again. I happen to be in a country where smoking is basically part of the culture and cigarettes are cheap, cheap, cheap. In October or November last year (2012) I decided to quit again – I was just getting tired of smoking, it’s a dirty habit to begin with and I had a hell of a cough at night.
I wasn’t sure of my ability to quit this time partly because I actually do enjoy a smoke from time to time and because as I said previously, cigarettes are so readily available here. So this time I enlisted the help of my doctor, an acupuncturist. I had three sessions with her and thus far everything is OK. In fact I don’t really even have a craving for a cigarette. What I still do have though is the cough which drives me crazy, usually at night. I go to the gym regularly, ride my bike almost daily and I think my breathing rate is pretty normal as well as my heart rate, both of which I think are kinda slow compared to some people I know. I have spoken to my doctor about the cough and I will see her this week. Maybe I will need to see a GP, but for now, I’ll go with her.
Not really any point to my comments here other than I’m one of many trying to give up the weed and sometimes it feels good to get on a “soap box” and talk about it. I found you because I was looking for info about the damned cough. I got some – thanks!
Good luck to all. Sometimes being a “quitter” is OK.
BTW, I’ll be 68 this year.
I stopped smoking on the 2nd January and have felt absolutely crap since. I have this cough which is driving me mad, I am coughing up loads of mucous and my nose is dripping, sneezing. Wheezing chest and the only thing that helps is ventolin which I only take when desperate. When I was smoking I could walk seven miles quite briskly and not be really out of breath. Now i’ve stopped I feel like a 90 year old. This happened to me the last time I gave up and I felt so down I started smoking again and I felt fine. This time it has made me more determined to stick with it, but it’s starting to get me down! Ive been Dr and he gave me a coedine linctus, which just make me constipated, but after a few days of that I stopped it.
I am almost, at 8 weeks a smoker for 40 years, I am having the flu like symptoms still my husband only the mood swings.(he 18 years smoking) How much longer will I feel like crap?? It truely is not feeling like a good decision!!!!!!
I have quit for the second time. First time was for 10years and took it up again for 5 years but heavier than the first time. I gave up on the 3rd Feb and you guessed it yes I too feel like crap, lol.I keep saying to my sons that I think I will take it back up cos I feel worst, lol, but I wont gone through the worst bit not going backwards. I feel sorry for my co-workers always asking if I am ok i am just about throwing up when I am coughing now. How long this go on I have been coughing I think for 2 weeks and getting worst.For all you that I have joined stay with it and be proud of yourself because I am proud of you because I know what you are going through
I never want to take it up again but I do believe second quit was easier for me. GOOD LUCK AND STAY FOCUS ALL!!!!!
I have just quit. On my 3rd day. This website is so informative. Especially regarding quitters flu, really helps etc and keeps you positive etc. I am really experiencing the fatigue though, and the cravings are maddening. But I agree with changing your daily rountine, by mixing it up I have found that I do not get as many associated cravings.
I have stopped smoking for more than 27 hours now. I have been smoking for more than 20 years, one pack a day. The last time quitting was three months ago and it went on for only 11 days.
Oddly enough, I am feeling a little tougher than the last time that I tried to quit. I have a question. I have been on bp medication for four months now and wondering if I could possibly do away with the medication once I’ve successfully stopped smoking. Thanks and good luck to all those who try to quit
I quit smoking 6 days ago and I think I am getting the quitters flu now. I am also a recovering alcoholic and drug addict. I have 7 months and 12 days clean. It’s suggested I don’t quit smoking until I reach my first year in sobriety, but I am just so ready to be done! Talk about getting rid of all my vices! I feel like my mind is going crazy and I am having a lot of mood swings. It reminds me of detoxing from alcohol, but not near as bad. My throat hurts, my voice is scratchy, nose running, I feel really anxious and exhausted. Clearly I have showered and washed my hands a millions times in the past 6 days, but I still can smell the smoke on my hands. Disgusting.
Talk about a new champion in the making! Well done Erin, that is awesome
When you get through all of this you will wonder who was the person you used to be and love the person you are becoming!
Stay strong!
I had been smoking since 10 years but its been almost 40 days since I have smoked and I have been experiencing severe respiratory problems,cough,chest congestion,chest tightness,wheezing,nose blockage and running nose for about 4 weeks. I have seen a physician 3weeks back who gave me medicine but I’m still not feeling better. I would also like to inform you that I have asthma and these days even my asthma pump seroflo 250 is ineffective. Please advice
Hi Rahil, grats on 10 days!
I would go back to the doctor and have another check up. As far as I am aware, asthma is a symptom of many conditions.
My last cigarette was December 27, 2012. Before that I was smoking a pack to two packs a day for 15 years. The first few months was the hardest. I had breathing problems. Felt like I couldn’t take in enough air. Went to the doctors and had X-rays, blood work the whole nine. Everything came up normal. Now it’s 5 months from the day I quit still feel horrible. Instead of breathing difficulties which comes and goes I have this nagging cough. And every time I cough I would cough up brown and specks of brown phlegm. But this is not gonna stop me from quitting cigs. So to all that quit keep it up. Cuz if I can go through these horrible times any if you guys can too. Willpower is all we need.
Hi Kelvin. Sorry to hear you still having a tough time with the cough. It should pass soon! I also remember very well the dark specks in my phlegm . For what its worth, I found cardio exercise helped my lungs along.
Keep up the fight!
First, I would like to thank you for this web which helps me a lot to relax and pass the hard time of my 6 weeks of quit smoking. I have been smoking for 12 years, around 7 – 10 sigs a day.
within this 6 weeks of quit, I still have congestion/heavy/tightness/discomfort at chest , nasal congestion and coughing up lots of dark specks only at the morning after waking up from sleep, is it normal to have it this long ? how long will it persist? I also had sleeping problem which seems to getting better.
Hi Amin, grats on SIX weeks! Oh, and thanks for the kind comments.
All of what you are experiencing sounds pretty normal to me. I had these symptoms on and off for the first few months. They did seem to get more intense after a few weeks. Anyway, I would still see a doctor, even if only for peace of mind.
Stay strong!
This is a really good site, very helpful. I am on my second week smoke free, and while I am mentally sound, have no cravings/mood swings, I have had really bad flu symptoms which include bad headaches, badly aching muscles all over, hot and cold flushes and high temperature. I have none of the chest or throat issues, yet anyway. Is this a normal effect of quitting or will I be better off seeing a doctor? Many thanks
Hi Mark, grats on reaching the second week!
Headaches and aching muscles are sometimes experienced by quitters. However, the hot and cold flushes or high temperature, suggests to me you have a fever. That is something I would see a doctor about. I would see a doctor while quitting anyway, as it always helps to have a professional, medical opinion.:)
Thanks and stay strong!
Age 53 (30+ a day)
I finally quite smoking March 2011 after numerous attempts over many years, I tried patches with little or no success, and in the end I opted for a physiological option I decided to take all the pressure off quitting. I never told anyone I was quitting I just said I was cutting down due to price rises and I kept up this pretense for about 3 weeks, I went cold turkey this time but followed my smoking routine with one exception, instead of smoking a cigarettes I sucked a sweet as a treat, this went on for a couple of weeks and when asked how I was doing with cutting down, I simple said it was all going well, but I was really proud when I reach my first month and the next time I was asked how many cigarettes are you down to a day now!!! I proudly said none. and then had the confidence to announced to everyone that I had finally quit and would never smoke again and I never looked back saving over £2000 a year is a really big incentive. Two years on and I have now developed an annoying chesty cough guess my lungs are finally try to clear all the rubbish I have filled them with over the 30 years I have smoked.
In my opinion you have to really want to stop smoking to be successful. good luck one and all
Way to go Shaun!
And thanks for the comments.
I gave up smoking two years ago, after 20 years of smoking. The first week was my biggest challenge, the cycles of of having your smokes with coffee, after dinner, with a glass of red wine (tar+tannin; marriage from heaven), and drinking out with smoker friends at the pub, very challenging.
The flu like symptoms were heavy, loads of coughing, temperature flushes, shortness of breath, the works.
BUT,
Two years on and just the smell of cigarette smoke is truly disgusting, not like how it used to be. Just the smell of it in the old days would have me lighting up, now i can see through its disguise. It really is foul.
I started jogging and have been for 7 months now, short distance 3-5 km, and my ability to breathe, to be able to run around the park with my three boys, smell wine which is my passion and feel physically fit is a great personal feeling of satisfaction. Another bonus has been that since i stopped i haven’t had the flu for two winters in a row, that is a first.
So hang in there, once you have really stopped and have given it sometime, you will never look back, and every time you smell it, you wil be reminded of you achiebed by yourself.
I gave up smoking two years ago, after 20 years of smoking. The first week was my biggest challenge, the cycles of of having your smokes with coffee, after dinner, with a glass of red wine (tar+tannin; marriage from heaven), and drinking out with smoker friends at the pub, very challenging.
The flu like symptoms were heavy, loads of coughing, temperature flushes, shortness of breath, the works.
BUT,
Two years on and just the smell of cigarette smoke is truly disgusting, not like how it used to be. Just the smell of it in the old days would have me lighting up, now i can see through its disguise. It really is foul.
I started jogging and have been for 7 months now, short distance 3-5 km, and my ability to breathe, to be able to run around the park with my three boys, smell wine which is my passion and feel physically fit is a great personal feeling of satisfaction. Another bonus has been that since i stopped i haven’t had the flu for two winters in a row, that is a first.
So hang in there, once you have really stopped and have given it sometime, you will never look back, and every time you smell it, you will be reminded of what you achieved by yourself.
Thanks for the comments paul!
Your welcome!
After smoking for almost 20years i’m now on my 3rd day trying to quit smoking..
I’ve been experiencing difficulty of breathing, can’t sleep because i can’t hardly breath.. Is this normal??
I wish i can survive this stages.. Please.. God help me..
Hi Rafael, grats on day 3.
If you having a seriously hard time breathing, I would definitely see you doctor as your may have another underlying condition, such as anxiety. If it’s just congestion, than I wouldn’t worry too much as that is pretty normal. Though having said that, I would still see a doctor. Even if only for peace of mind.
I quit smoking January 3rd, 2013. I used chantix for three months, I am not taking anything now and have no desire to smoke. I felt great for the first three months, after finishing the chantix I started developing a cough, I am coughing up flem and have conjestion for the last month. Feels like someone is sitting on my chest. I wake up in the middle of the night (2-3 times) short of breath and coughing. I will take a couple of hits form my inhaler and within a few minutes I can breath again. I smoked for 38 years, about a pack a day. I did smoke menthol cigarettes, I was wondering how long this might last and if the menthol has anything to do with the seriousness of my problem. I do not seem to be getting better at all, actually getting worse. Also have had bronchitus 3 times since December. I am really getting worried that something more serious is going on.
Hi Don, grats on three months.
It is normal to feel some congestion during your quit campaign. Your lungs are clearing out a lot of tar!. Mine came and went for a good 10 months and was aided by exercise. If you are asthmatic, I would still see your doctor. (I recommend that for every quitter.)
Today, I am almost two years as a non smoker and my lung function has DRAMATICALLY improved. I have more lung capacity and can take that extra deep breath when needed. I cough about 1% of what I used to and I don’t get sick anywhere near as much. If I do catch a cold, it is gone in 24-48 hrs, as opposed to the week or more it took me heal as a smoker.
Stay strong!
Wow, some great reassuring stories on this site, I gave up 6 years ago and felt hardly any symptoms. I started again for approx 6 months, but this time I am feeling anxious, depressed and having very bad mood swings. I am 22 days in, but am struggling to sleep and today have been a nightmare, how long will this last?
Hi Gary, grats on 22 days!
I found I hit a pretty big wall somewhere between 3 and 5 weeks. Around week 5 I noticed a huge change for the better. I still had a long way to go, but at least it wasn’t the intense struggle it starts out as.
Stay strong!
This is like therapy, a few days later and I am now in Spain watching everybody sit with their coffee and cigs, it does not get easier.
Thanks for your reassuring words though…….
Like some of you I have been feeling ‘what’s the point?’ I feel worse now than I ever did as a smoker – then I remember what that drug does to the brain and how we want that fix so much we tell ourselves lies to make it ok to light that cigarette.
I know my lungs were tight before I stopped. I just conned myself into believing a fag would ease the pressure. I coughed before and yes could be short of breath.
The lies we tell ourselves, sometimes it’s wise not to listen to us.
Today I was feeling ready to give in (14th day) and then something happened to make me smile and for once in 30 years I did not feel the need to hide my smile, my teeth felt clean and I felt ok and that has kept me going
These tough days, walls I call them, are when the healing really happens. You are physically forcing your brain’s neural connections to weaken and break down. Biological change is always painful for the living. No pain, no gain! Survive today, and you will be one step closer!
Well done!