Nowadays more and more people smoke. They consume either usual tobacco cigarette, or electronic cigarettes, or any vaping device. Sociologists say that the path, which brings people to smoking, is stress. We face stress everywhere. Modern society consists of people, who never sleep, who are always happy, who have no chance to mistaken, and who cannot complain. People, who have millions of friends on a social networking profile page, but have to cope with their problems on their own. People with no support. The loneliest people on Earth ever. People, who are in stress 24 hours 7 days/week. They say stress causes the wish to smoke. Why? People believe a puff of a cigarette makes them relaxed and distressed. When people are trying to quit, they undergo a strange process of dissatisfaction and being under constant stress. Therefore, is the nicotine a real panacea from stress? We are going to find it and many other exciting facts out in our article!
NICOTINE VS STRESS: ENEMIES OR FRIENDS?!
Nobody can prove that nicotine has some direct effect against stress or anxiety. However, a human is such kind of animal, which can persuade him/herself that everything works a certain way. Hence, this overthinking, a person might believe that after having smoked or using e-cig vaporizer (see it here), he/she would become the happiest person ever (at least for a short period).
The director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Alan Leshner (Ph.D.) made some references about the effect of tobacco against the anxiety. However, other experts are not so sure about this. A psychologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Jon Kassel (Ph.D.), does not trust nicotine. He is convinced, though it helps to relieve pain, it always creates an unclear picture. Others supported him and said that there are not enough proofs to say that nicotine biologically helps to deal with stress. The variety of researches, in which the scientists included animals, also did not show that nicotine provides anxiety relief.
Experts claim that such notions depend on the behaviors that accompany the process of smoking. That is the behavior that makes smoking so accessible. The processes of lighting the flame, of making a puff and ashing a cigarette are themselves a kind of rituals. They may unconsciously calm a person. Also, in the age of total loneliness, the possibility to join a group of people at work, next to the supermarket or in any other place gives you a feeling of integrity. The last, but never least argument is that nicotine slows your mental processes and makes you focused on the surrounding events. Therefore, if you smoke in a company of pleasant people, you would feel better. If you smoke your electronic cigar alone while listening to sad music, probably you would feel the progression of depressive mood.
Having started smoking for the sake of becoming less nervous, a man can feel dizziness and be unwell because of nicotine. You can read about the negative influences of nicotine on plenty of webpages. Therefore, there comes the moment, when you decide you are fed up with this haze of the smudge and pungent smell. What are the ways to quit?
Step 1. Be ready for a “quit day”.
Once you have decided to quit, you must do it in a relatively close date, because if you would settle a date in a year, probably, that would never happen. There are two controversial approaches to quitting smoking:
- Do it abruptly: if today is the quit day, you throw your cigarettes away and (hope) never do it again!
- Do it step by step: reduce the number of cigarettes (or use an e-cig for a while) per day until your quit day, and on that day you just stop.
The American Cancer Society worked out specific recommendations for those, who are about to quit. They are:
- Tell people you know about your plans to quit (having announced the action, it would be more challenging to alter your mind).
- Start using non-containing tobacco electronic cigarette before final quit.
- Throw away everything that can resemble you about smoking.
- Avoid places, where you can feel burnt tobacco or e vapor.
- If you used to be a heavy smoker, try to use some medicines (e.g., NRT) or sign up for the stop-smoking group.
- Stay busy.
- Drink more water or natural juice. In the same time, drink less alcohol and other similar substances.
After you have stopped smoking, you may feel uncomfortable not only in terms of psychology but also physically. The withdrawal symptoms might be slower heart rate, dizziness, tiredness, weight gain, irritability, insomnia, frustration, chest tightness, sore throat, etc. All these evidently causes stress. It might be quite difficult to cope with all these ostents of “recently smoking person”, which usually result in stress.
THE WAYS OF REDUCING STRESS WHILE QUITTING SMOKING
- Love yourself! Keep being positive! These phrases are not empty words. The more you believe in your success, the easier you would reduce your stress. Such tortures of doubts as “Can I do it?”, “Am I strong enough?” may prevent you from quitting. Allow you a bit of rest. Visit the SPA or buy new perfume.
- If possible, try to solve all the problems that might worry you in advance when you are quitting smoking. The path to your happiness must be neat and clean. Be relaxed and enjoy freedom from problems.
- Focus your attention on some interesting challenges. Try to get a new project at work or buy a beautiful knitting kit. However, be careful, do not start investigating what the best e-cig in your region is. Try to find something, what will bring joy to your soul and business to your mind.
- Make your body busy as well. You would benefit from any type of exercise. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, while exercising, your body would produce some particular hormones, which keep stress away. Secondly, fitness, swimming, badminton – any sport – keeps you fit, which helps to avoid weight gain as a withdrawal syndrome. Thirdly, time, which you spent consuming your electronic cigarette, you can now spend in the gym. Besides, being fit always makes you more confident.
- Stick to the special diet. A balanced diet is one of the first steps to avoid stress in any life situation, especially when we talk about gaining new or getting rid of an old habit. Vitamins may help to renew your organism.
Quitting smoking is not as difficult as you can think. The way is easy.
Find a reason! Make a plan! Stop smoking!
About the author: Christina Matthews, the journalist who studies the latest news in the health industry. Now she studies the effects of smoking and vaping on health and reasons of such its popularity.