Mental Health: How Quitting Smoking Transforms Your Mindset

If you also have an addiction to smoking, it would be important for you to pay attention to some of the information that we are going to share with you here.

Cigarette smoking forms a strong base in an individual’s life and creates a big load of problems for him with time. Smokers believe that smoking relieves them from anxiety and stressful situations. On the contrary, it increases your levels of stress and tension. In comparison to non-smokers, smokers are likely to develop the symptoms of depression with time. Some people see smoking as more than a habit. They consider it a lifestyle and all their choices they make revolve around smoking. Well, it is time that you know some of the disastrous effects that smoking has on your body and ways to eliminate these problems completely.

What Science has to Say

As it has already been discussed in the points above that notion of the positive effects of smoking to reduce your anxiety levels is purely a misnomer. A lead researcher from University College London has stated that the anxiety levels among the non-smokers and ex-smokers are found to be equal in comparison to active smokers, which were higher. According to him, instead of reducing stress, smoking increases the levels of stress and tension. While smoking a cigarette, the smoker feels relaxed for a limited time; it doesn’t treat the root cause of the problems and even enhance it with time. Another research conducted by a group of British scientists showed that positive results were seen in the mental health of the people who quit smoking with clear signs of reduced depressions and anxiety levels. It was concluded in the research that quitting smoking worked better for these patients than any other anti-depressant treatment.

Does Smoking Improve Mental Health?

Most of the people give this excuse that they start smoking due to their mental health condition but the truth is that they usually smoke much before they face any such disease or condition. It is not that smoking acts as a catalyst to develop symptoms of any medical health condition such as depression among the people but it has been seen that heavy smoking, in turn, leads to major diseases like cancer and health problems. In the long run, smoking never benefits your mental or physical health at any point; instead, it leads you towards more problems.

Smokers with Mental Health Problems

People that are diagnosed with mental health problems such as anxiety, schizophrenia, and depression are more than often chain smokers. It is a popular notion among the smokers that cigarette smoking acts as a relaxing agent during such ailments. With this thought in mind, they start smoking more than the general population and end up attracting more diseases than before. In fact, it is baseless that smoking has any medicinal qualities to rectify any mental disease.

There are cases where addicted smokers create this misnomer in their minds and it leads to further deterioration of their mental health. Various studies have shown that the people that were diagnosed with mental health problems die 10 to 20 years earlier than the normal ones and smoking was the common habit amongst them all. Since the patients suffering from mental health problems require to be treated with high doses of anti-depressants and antipsychotic medicines, it is required that they should quit smoking altogether as smoking interferes with the working of these medicines.

Quitting is Not an Easy Task

If you have just decided that you are going to stop smoking from now on, well it is not going to be an easy road for you. It has been seen that smokers find it really difficult to quit their habits of smoking even if they are too determined to quit it. In this case, you can take the professional help of a therapist, rehab center or even self-help books that encourage you mentally and physically to make a smooth way to follow your quit smoking habits.

It is also very important that you should not walk on this road alone. In many cases, it has been observed that smokers become weak and go back to their previous habits of smoking with greater enthusiasm. This requires that you take help from your friends and colleagues that can stop you from lighting up a cigarette whenever you get triggers. Remember that even taking the baby steps will lead you forward. So start making efforts to quit smoking and you would certainly be able to achieve success.

Ways to Help you Quit Smoking

Quitting the habit of smoking is a life-altering experience and you cannot just plan to quit it in one day and start following the practice religiously from then on. Going ‘cold turkey’ in the case of smoking has more adverse effects than the good ones. If you had been a chain smoker, you would go back to smoking cigarettes with double speed once you stop doing it for a day or two. In other words, trying to quit smoking merely on the basis of your will power would not be a viable and wise idea. You need to make a strong plan to move forward with your motivation.

Understand the ill-effects of smoking first and how is it going to affect you negatively in the long run. Do not start the quitting plan if you are feeling unstable due to any mental health condition. Find out the healthier alternatives that help to quit smoking. You can switch to vaping for some time that is lesser harmful than smoking and fulfills your smoke cravings. Think of all the positive things that you are going to get by quitting smoking – financially, physically and mentally. The road to achieve your purpose is hard but not impossible and choosing the right path shall certainly lead you to your destination.

Free your Mind and Stay Focused

Nicotine cigarettes tend to make you lose your focus by making your brain function in a slow manner. That may have a deteriorating effect on your career and overall living standards. It would be advisable for you to free your mind from all the negative thoughts and start focussing on your goals first. For the same, you need to quit smoking as the first step. Follow all the requisite steps that you need to for fulfilling the same. Switch to alternatives like vaping if you find it really difficult to quit smoking in the first place.

We start smoking as a hobby and it slowly turns into a nightmare for our overall health. It affects our social, personal and professional life in a negative way when there is the case of a mental condition in view, given any chance and occasion. It would be good for you to be determined to fight with your mental illness without taking recourse to smoke, the effects of which are much worse than any mental illness.