Smoking is one of the habits you see frequently, along with alcohol addictions. Both are harmful to your long term health, but you may not know that smoking has a strong link to the state of your mental health.
When you are living with a mental illness, even trying to stay alive is a challenge. For many of them, drugs are simply a way to escape from their various problems they face due to their condition. However, over the years, scientific research has gone ahead to show that smoking does affect your mental health too, even through it is in the long term.
Even through many people are fully aware of the risks that smoking presents to their health, they still continue to do it. Mental health patients are particularly affected – after all, nicotine is a powerful drug that you should not underestimate, because of its effects on the brain.
The statistics are even more discouraging. Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of almost half a million deaths, all preventable, on a yearly basis. There may be fewer current smokers today than in the past, but the overall number is still high. If you have someone who is struggling with quitting smoking, it may be helpful to understand why they are addicted to the substance in the first place.
The effects of smoking – addiction
For you to understand why smoking becomes really addictive, it is important to understand the response to nicotine in the brain. The reaction is very fast, occurring within less than a minute.
When you smoke, the nicotine will reach the brain in a time of seven to ten seconds. This is because once the substance gets to the lungs, it is quickly absorbed in the bloodstream and moves to the brain. Once it reaches the brain, it sets off a series of chemical reactions to release adrenaline. This makes your heart rate and blood pressure increase, while the blood vessels also constrict and reduce flow of blood to the heart. This makes the smoker have shallow breathing, a racing heartbeat, and greater energy levels (because of adrenaline making the body release glucose into the bloodstream). These make the smoker have some pleasant and relaxing feelings – all which are short lived and last for only a few minutes.
When their effect is reducing and the levels of nicotine drop in the blood, the smoker begins to feel agitated and edgy, which sets off the symptoms of nicotine withdrawal. Because they want to relieve the discomfort, they take another puff, light another cigarette, and soon find themselves having finished a whole pack. This sets off a vicious cycle of cigarette addiction, similar to other drug addictions that you can click here to learn more about – one is never enough.
When a smoker decides to quit, it is useful for them to understand the cycle of addiction to nicotine and what you need to do to break free. Many smokers are therefore surprised to discover that they were actually addicted to it, as popular opinion will tell you that smoking is simply a bad habit you should break.
Smoking and stress levels
Also known as self-medication, this is the practice of using drugs and alcohol to reduce the symptoms of stress and other illnesses. This does not mean stress is not a common theme in out daily lives, because it can lead to physical illness when not dealt with properly.
When the person smokes, it brings a sense of losing the pressure of dealing with what they are going through – but this is always short term relief that can bring on depression and anxiety.
Anxiety and smoking
The various scientific studies on smoking and its link to anxiety prove that smoking does not help a person relieve their anxiety, it actually increases it. Even though the immediate effects are that of relaxation, the feeling is only temporary and will result in stronger cravings and increasing tension.
The truth is smoking does not solve the root causes of anxiety, it only deals with the surface problems that it brings.
Depression and smoking
The rate of patients suffering from depression and the smoking rates is very high – in fact, it is almost twice as high compared to adults who do not have depression. They particularly have a harder time when trying to quit, and their withdrawal symptoms are more severe when they occur.
This is because of the effect of nicotine on dopamine within the brain, and dopamine is the key neurotransmitter that increases positive feelings. For people with depression, dopamine is particularly low, so cigarettes are their way of increasing dopamine levels in the brain. The bad news is that smoking will encourage the brain to stop its own methods of creating dopamine, so the supply will reduce further, making them smoke more often.
It is not clear whether depression causes smoking or whether the reverse is true, as the relationship is very complex – but it is not something to underestimate.
Schizophrenia and smoking
A person that is suffering from schizophrenia will have higher chances of smoking compared to other people. This is because the person will likely use smoking to control the symptoms they experience, as well as reducing the side effects of the medication they are taking.
In a recent study, there was a link that was found between the two. However, it is important to keep in mind that there are some factors that could increase the risk of getting this condition, but further research needs to be done to fully understand how these affect each other.
Final thoughts
The link between smoking and poor general health is evident, but not so much regarding mental health. Many people who have mental health issues will tell you that smoking is an escape from the problems they face, but they fail to realize that it only gives you short term benefits.