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Anti-smoking campaigns generally home in on the damages cigarettes unleash on the physical body as the primary reason people should quit smoking. Yet according to researchers at University College of London, an equally important rationale for kicking the tobacco habit is improved mental health. Smoking not only causes lung cancer; it is now being linked to an increase in or exaggeration of mood disorders.
Scientists have known for a long time that there is a link between increased nicotine levels in animals and the onset of anxious and depressive feelings and behaviors. Thus, it wasn’t rocket science for researchers at UCL to assume that the same rules applied to human smokers. However, a more alarming find in UCL’s Mark Hamer’s study (published in the Archives of General Psychiatry) was the effect cigarette smoke had on secondhand inhalers. According to Hamer’s team, 50% of secondhand smokers experience similar increases in psychological disturbance vis-à-vis tobacco smoke. Smoking doesn’t just affect the mental health of the smoker—it affects the mental health of anyone in his or her vicinity.
The toxins in cigarette smoke (nicotine in particular) cause the body’s various systems to function poorly, including the neurological system and its ability to help regulate and stabilize moods. Smoking is also a mental health risk because it is a psychosocial habit. It is an unhealthy way for people to deal with stress, gain the confidence to socialize, or rewards themselves after a long day’s work. As smokers, people have a tendency to unload positive and negative emotions and emotional experiences onto the cigarette as an object. This makes it easier for people to avoid confronting such issues alone. While nicotine may negatively affect smokers’ mood from a purely physical vantage point, the smoking habit itself can lead to mental health problems both during smoking and after people have quit smoking.
One of the reasons it is critically important for people to seek professional help in their effort to quit smoking is because smokers need to learn how to manage their emotions in a healthy way that does not involve cigarettes. As a psychosocial habit, smoking can only really be defeated by the power of changing the thoughts and beliefs surrounding tobacco use. This is why enlisting the services of a treatment specialist like a hypnotherapist can be so rewarding. Quit smoking hypnotherapy empowers smokers to improve their mental health and invigorate their lives by helping them find their inner strength and the willpower to re-shape their thoughts so they are no longer dependent on the false security of cigarettes.
Smoking is a psychosocial habit that wreaks havoc on a person’s mental and physical health. If you are someone you know is struggling with a smoking habit, contact us today.