It is pretty widely known that smoking is detrimental to your health. It has come to a point where, in order to promote a smoke-free society, it is mandatory that cigarette boxes come with warning labels to deter smokers. However, smoking isn’t bad for your physical health only. It can impact your mental health as well. In this article we look at the negative impact of smoking, breaking free from smoking and building a roadmap to a better and healthier life.
Smoking and its impact on mental health
Your mental health is greatly impacted by the lifestyle you lead. Many suggestions that are put forth when you want to improve your mental wellness are working on your quality of sleep, following a healthy diet, and getting in a reasonable amount of exercise. However, when you experience stress, many find solace in lighting up a cigarette. While many may claim that smoking may help alleviate tension and anxiety, the NHS states that it may, in fact, make it a bit worse.
Cigarette smoking interferes with the chemicals in our brains. And due to the addictive nature of nicotine, craving causes irritability and more anxiousness, which is only relieved by smoking again.
Reasons to quit smoking and health benefits of quitting
• When you quit smoking, you will notice that your anxiety, stress and tension levels are lower.
• Your quality of life and mood will improve by a large margin.
• In certain situations, if are any medication to improve certain health conditions, the dosages can be lowered.
• Some people are able to effectively manage their mental health problems after they quit smoking as it is no longer affecting the chemicals in their brain negatively.
How to quit: your roadmap to smoking cessatio
Some people are lucky enough to be able to quit smoking cold turkey, meaning that they just stop one day and don’t go back. However, not everyone is that fortunate. And it requires a lot more intention and effort to truly kick the habit.
Understand your smoking habits
Before you stop smoking, you need to understand your smoking habits and triggers. Think about when you are most likely to smoke and why. For some, it can be stressful situations, for others, it could be routines or being in certain social situations. If you are uncertain about your particular habits, keep a tracker for a few weeks so you can identify patterns which will help you understand your habits better.
Set a date
Setting a date of when you would like to stop smoking completely helps provide you with a goalpost to aim for. This will help you create a larger timeline and smaller milestones that can help you work your way up to quitting entirely. You can slowly work toward unravelling your habits and put your energy toward living a healthier lifestyle.
Ways to cut back
• Start off by reducing the amount of cigarettes you are smoking each day. If you are smoking a pack a day, try to keep it under a pack each day.
• Try to put more time between each cigarette. By delaying your next cigarette, you will be able to break out of the routine and reduce the amount you smoke in a day.
• Reduce the places where you smoke. For example, if you are prone to smoking anywhere and everywhere in your home, try to limit your smoke breaks to outside your home.
• If you are prone to chain-smoking, take a single cigarette with you instead of the whole pack to remove the temptation of smoking more than one.
• You can speak to a health professional to prescribe you smoking cessation medication like Champix tablets to aid you in the process.
• Use tools like a journal or a chart to help track your progress to help motivate you to keep going.
Milestones and rewards
In order for your journey to quit smoking to be positive, you may want to set up a system to reward yourself once you hit one of the milestones that you set out. Rewards create positive reinforcement, which can motivate you to keep pushing with your goals. You can save up the money to use toward a treat for yourself.
What to do if you relapse
Quitting is difficult, but relapsing is very easy, it is important that you strive to reach your goals and be kind to yourself in the process. If you hit a hurdle, it is important that you recalibrate yourself and try again.
Summary
Living a healthier lifestyle is something that everyone should strive for. Smoking not only negatively affects your physical health but also your mental well-being, especially if you suffer from mental health troubles.
Breaking free from smoking is a difficult task which requires ongoing effort, but it is one that is extremely rewarding in the long run. By analyzing your smoking habits, you can slowly but surely cut back on how many cigarettes you smoke a day until you quit smoking completely.