I have been sick off and on for a couple of years with breathing problems. Sometimes I can't breathe and struggle even to the point of pulling a muscle in my back or side. I think I sleep well, but my husband tells me that I'm restless and often struggle to breathe. I'll tell you how bad this is. When I smoke, I can only have a puff or two before I am so sick I have to put it out. I save the darn things and light up again in five minutes! I have not been able to smoke an entire cigarette for over a year.
When it gets bad enough I stop smoking and the symptoms rapidly disappear by the second night of no smoking I'm sleeping peacefully. The chest pains go away. Is there any reason an intelligent person would continue to smoke? I can't believe I am so utterly dense that as soon as I feel better, I'm out there buying a carton! The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, yet expecting a different result. When am I going to just stop being insane! I'm a reasonable intelligent person with a college education and a doctorate degree. It's like I just cannot get this simple cause and effect into my head.
My husband smokes too, in the last six months my breathing difficulties have gotten so severe that I don't have to smoke to choke. He smokes, and I can't breathe. It's not practical at all for him to go outside to smoke so he's quitting too. He can breathe just fine sitting still, just can't walk across the street without getting winded. In fact if ANYBODY smokes and I get it into my lungs I immediately can't breathe. This is driving me crazy because I still smoke myself! I'll light up, inhale, can't breathe, put it out, and light up again in a couple of minutes. I can breeze through a couple of packs a day like this. WHY?
I feel like I'm going totally crazy.
I have heard that because so many people have quit smoking, cigarette companies are manipulating the nicotine levels of cigarettes to make it harder to quit. This might have the effect of also making people like me a lot sicker than if the levels had just remained the same. This would account for my rather bizarre behavior. Do you think this is true? Is this what's happening?
Every other time I quit, it didn't take long for me to abandon it an