"You will notice changes physically for around 21 days from what I have heard and experienced."

From the string Every Quit is Different.

"The reason I mention this is it is possible that you won't have any major symptoms this time. I have had a lot of four pack a day smokers who smoked 40 plus years who toss them with minimal withdrawal. The reason they never tried to quit before is they witnessed people who smoked one fourth of what they did go thorough terrible side effects and figured, "If it did that to them, it will kill me." But when the time came, their quit was easy in comparison."

and

I have seen a few times lately where a member will write a comment that "ALL" people have "this" experience when quitting or after quitting. The experience written about varies; it may be a specific kind of withdrawal that happens when quitting or a certain kind of thought or crave that occurs long after the person has stopped. The bottom line though is it is never accurate to say "ALL" people experience anything specific when talking about smoking and/or quitting.

This thread is important to clarify that every quit is different.

From above:

No one reading here at Freedom should be getting the idea that there is some predestined number of days, weeks, months of years that that are going to be bad. The only day that we know will end up being bad is the day that you renege on your personal promise to yourself to never take another puff. 

and

With many new members coming in at once, and even more lurking, it is common for people first quitting or those just thinking about quitting to look over our members experiences to help predict what they might experience now. But the truth is, you cannot predict an exact experience of what this quit may hold for you, not if you talk to thousands of people. You cannot even use your own past reactions as an absolute predictor of what this quit holds in store for you.

While we can't predict the exact symptoms you may or may not have, we can predict certain issues. We can predict that once you get through the first 72 hours, physical withdrawal symptoms will have peaked and will then really dissipate and eventually disappear all together. More importantly, we can predict that once you have gotten through whatever withdrawals may have occurred, you will never have to deal with them ever again as long as you learn this time to never take another puff!


I bring up this post most of the time now to discuss seasonal triggers. The original intent of the string though was broader than this. It was designed to dispel the myth that all ex-smokers are destined to have problems at predetermined time frames. Today there was a member who wrote about having a problem into his second month and a few other members joined in saying how hard the second month was for them. For our thousands of long-term members these posts are of no concern. Those who had a tough time at two months would simply agree and those who didn't would simply recognize that the issue didn't apply to them. Either way though both groups were beyond the time frame.

The problem is people who are just off for one month, or a week, or a few days, or people who are here reading just considering quitting will see posts like this and begin to dread the "inevitable" two month mark where they have now been led to believe that they were going to begin to experience a tough and miserable time.

The truth is that there is nothing inherently threatening about the two month mark. Some people may experience some tough times, others will not. This is no different than the three month mark issue discussed above or any time frame.

Everyone reading here needs to know though that as long as they keep reminding themselves of the reasons that they first quit and keep reinforcing their reasons for wanting to stay off that even at these arbitrary moments of smoking thoughts that their quits will stay intact as long as they stick to the commitment that they made to themselves to never take another puff!

and

The very same principle applies to people who have been off for 10 days, or 20 days, or any other denomination of days. No one reading here at Freedom should be getting the idea that there is some predestined number of days, weeks, months of years that that are going to be bad. The only day that we know will end up being bad is the day that you renege on your personal promise to yourself to never take another puff.

----

Saying that people will experience physical changes for 21 days is possibly causing a person who is having no changes to worry that there is something wrong with his or her quit or healing process, and worse yet, give the impression to someone who may be having symptoms of problems that are totally independent to quitting that what he or she is experiencing is to be expected, and result in the individual not seeking needed medical assessment for what may be an actual physical problem that requires medical intervention. The strings "Is anyone else experiencing the symptom of...?" and Giving and getting medical advice online. address these concerns.

See also The Teaching of Conventional Wisdom at Freedom.