those pesky withdrawal symptoms

in the process of feeding your addiction to nicotine, you've been poisoning yourself 20, 30, 40 times a day (or more); probably for a lot of years. your body has adjusted many of its processes to deal with that poisoning and allow you to live in spite of it.

in effect, you're in a constant state of hyperventilation. you're high on oxygen. you feel a little dizzy. a bit lightheaded. somewhat scatter-brained.

for instance, one of the deadliest poisons known to man is carbon monoxide, and cigarette smoke is loaded with it. when you inhale cigarette smoke, the carbon monoxide takes up part of the space in your bloodstream that would normally be used to carry oxygen.

your body — being the amazingly adaptable machine it is — reacts to this situation by producing more red blood cells (since the carbon monoxide is taking up space needed to transport oxygen, and oxygen is carried by red blood cells, you need more red blood cells to carry a proper level of oxygen along with the carbon monoxide).

when you stop smoking, the level of carbon monoxide in your blood drops to almost nothing very quickly, but your body is still producing all those extra red blood cells, so now you're getting a lot more oxygen than you strictly need.

in effect, you're in a constant state of hyperventilation. you're high on oxygen. you feel a little dizzy. a bit lightheaded. somewhat scatter-brained.

eventually, your body will realize that you're not sucking in elevated levels of carbon monoxide any more, and it'll stop producing all those extra red blood cells, and you'll start to feel normal again.

it just takes a little time.