10 Things That Happen When You Quit Smoking

The Support You Need Whether You Quit Suddenly or With a Plan

Medically reviewed by Susan Russell, MD

Quitting smoking, albeit challenging, is one of the most impactful health choices you can make. The physical and mental benefits are numerous. Stopping tobacco helps prevent cardiac and respiratory diseases, lowers cancer risk, and boosts your overall health. Studies show links between smoking and anxiety and depression. When you stop smoking, your body starts to recover, and the health benefits are immediate.

But what makes quitting challenging is the addiction to nicotine in tobacco products. Withdrawal from this substance can cause cravings, irritability, anger, sadness, increased hunger, and insomnia. If you’re thinking about quitting or have a quit plan, knowing what to expect is helpful.

This article details the stages of quitting, coping strategies, and the resources available to help you stop.

What Happens After You Quit Smoking? A Timeline

After you quit, your body begins to repair itself almost immediately, though recovery takes years. You will likely contend with withdrawal symptoms as nicotine clears out from your bloodstream and beyond. While individual experiences vary depending on how much and how long you have been smoking, here’s a timeline of what you can expect after smoking cessation.

Hours Later

You won’t wait long to experience the physical health benefits of quitting tobacco. Within 20 minutes, your heart rate returns to normal.

As your nicotine levels drop, you’ll also start to feel cravings for cigarettes or nicotine within a couple of hours of stopping.

The Next Day

Within 12 to 24 hours after quitting, your bloodstream becomes nicotine-free, and the risk of heart attack begins to decline. You may feel irritable, restless, hopeless, or sad, and you may also have food cravings.

72 Hours

Within a couple of days, the carbon monoxide levels in your blood return to normal. Withdrawal symptoms continue and may become more severe; they tend to peak in intensity within the first three days.

You may feel irritated, agitated, angry, depressed, sad, or have trouble sleeping. Some people may also notice an increased appetite.

Two Weeks to 12 Months

Two weeks to three months after you stop smoking, you will notice improvements in lung function. The cilia—hairlike structures in the lungs damaged by smoke—start to recover after one month and throughout the first year. As your lungs heal, you’ll begin to cough less and have less shortness of breath.

For most people, cravings and other withdrawal symptoms are most severe during the first week after quitting, and they can last for a month or more.

One to Two Years

As you enter the second year after quitting, your risk of coronary heart disease drops to half that of people who smoke. This significantly reduces the chance of heart attack.

Five to 15 Years

Five to 10 years after stopping, your risk of mouth, throat, or voice box (diaphragm) cancer is half that of those who smoke or use tobacco. Your chance of having a stroke also starts to decline.

Maintaining tobacco cessation for 10 years lowers your risk of dying from lung cancer by half. In addition, smoking cessation reduces your chances of developing certain cancers, including those of the cervix, larynx (part of the throat), kidney, and pancreas. Fifteen years after stopping, your risk of coronary heart disease matches that of someone who has never smoked.

20 Years

After 20 years of not smoking, your risk of cancer in the mouth, nose, pancreas, and larynx becomes nearly the same as in someone who doesn’t smoke. By this point, your lungs have functionally recovered from the damage.

What Happens If You Replace Smoking With Vaping?

Vaping nicotine—inhaling a heated, liquid form of the drug—has exploded in popularity over the last two decades. Evidence suggests smoking is more harmful to your lungs, though vaping can lead to inflammation or lung damage. It’s still very addictive. More research is needed about the long-term effects of vaping. The evidence to support vaping as a smoking cessation tool is controversial.

Coping Through Triggers

The physical and psychological symptoms of quitting smoking make it a challenging feat. If you’ve quit before, you know that certain drinks, foods, situations, and emotions can give you a sudden urge to smoke, even if it’s been months or years. These triggers vary from person to person but typically fall into three categories, as follows:

• Social triggers: These are triggers associated with social events, such as being around people who smoke at a party or on a work break.

• Emotional triggers: Emotional states, such as anxiety, stress, boredom, and sadness, can also trigger a craving. Some people who smoke light up to cope with these emotions. This urge may persist after you’ve quit.

• Pattern triggers: This refers to regular situations or events that you mentally link to smoking, such as the cigarette you might have had with coffee, after a meal, or when driving.  

Avoid, Change, Escape

Remember the acronym “ACE” to manage triggers, meaning:

• Avoid people, places, and events that you know will trigger a craving.

• Change triggering situations. This is easier said than done, but even minor changes can decrease your desire to smoke or distract you from the craving.

• Escape from tempting situations. Have a plan to excuse yourself from places or conversations that tempt you to smoke.

If you feel a craving and can’t do any of the above, you may wish to consider nicotine replacement therapy (NRT). It can provide you with a small amount of nicotine to help reduce cravings in the short term. NRT is available in various forms, including:

• Patch

• Lozenges

• Gum

Additional strategies for coping with cravings include:

• Chew on a toothpick, cinnamon stick, or sugarless gum as a smoking substitute.

• Try a healthy snack, such as carrots or celery sticks.

• Take a deep breath, inhaling and exhaling slowly.

• Try meditation or other relaxation techniques.

• Remind yourself that the craving will pass within five to 10 minutes.

• Stay focused on your goals; remind yourself that not smoking is good for you and your family.

• Take a walk or take part in light physical activity.

Emotional Support When You Feel Bad

While quitting smoking is good for your physical and mental health, you may experience irritability, anxiety, depression, and hopelessness.

To cope when you’re feeling bad, seek out emotional support. Here’s what you can do:

• Talk to family and friends: Be open and communicative with your family and friends about what you’re going through. They can be an excellent source of support.

• Seek support from a quitline: Quitlines like 1-800-QUIT-NOW (800-784-8669) are free; you can speak with trained counselors who can offer resources and quitting tips.

• Try a tobacco cessation program: Tobacco cessation programs involve taking classes and doing individual or group work with trained counselors; they may help provide tips for dealing with the emotional impact of quitting.

• Consider therapy: Some may benefit from working with a psychiatrist or mental health counselor trained in addiction; in individual or group settings, this work focuses on identifying addictive patterns and coping with the emotional impact.

• Seek out support groups: Meeting in person or online with others going through smoking cessation can provide you with a bedrock of encouragement and support; consider support groups like Nicotine Anonymous.

How Long Does It Take to Quit Smoking?

It takes time for your body and mind to adjust to life without tobacco. Depending on the case, it takes about one to three months for the cravings and other symptoms of withdrawal to resolve. The timing can vary depending on how much and how long you smoked.

Since there’s a psychological component to addiction, you may still have occasional urges to smoke after the physical symptoms have subsided. This can be an added challenge, so coping with your triggers and doing what you can to stay on course is essential.

Don’t Lose Heart

Remember that it’s perfectly normal to relapse once you quit. Medical literature reveals that it takes, on average, eight to 30 attempts for someone to stop successfully. You shouldn’t feel bad or give up if you slip. Though quitting is difficult, there are many resources available to help.

Resources: Apps, Numbers, and More

As you undergo your quitting journey, know that you aren’t alone. There are many easily accessible resources and organizations that can help. You can get help from:

• 1-800-QUIT-NOW, a free phone counseling and support service

• Nicotine Anonymous is a group that connects others who are quitting for accountability and support

• Smokefree.gov, the National Cancer Institute’s website, and support hub

• Freedom From Smoking, the American Lung Association’s support program for smoking cessation

• Tips From Former Smokers, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) hub for information and support services

• Text messaging programs, such as SmokefreeTXT, SmokefreeMOM, and SmokefreeTXT en Español

• The quitSTART app, a phone app that helps guide you through the process

Summary

Quitting smoking boosts your health almost immediately, improving your heart and lung function and preventing cancer, respiratory diseases, cardiac conditions, and more. It takes one to three months for nicotine withdrawal symptoms to stop, and total physical recovery from smoking damage takes up to 20 years. Avoiding triggers and making lifestyle changes can help, with smoking cessation programs, therapy, and support groups among ways to find social support.