People who are fond of smoking often smoke when they are stressed. They believe that cigarettes are a stress reliever. In the office, people often go for a ‘sutta break’ during lunch break, after a meeting or after a quarrel with the boss, but does smoking really reduce stress or is it just a fad in the minds of people who smoke? If you also do this, then know the truth before taking a break.
Stress is related to nicotine
According to the National Health Service, people who do not smoke usually have lower levels of stress than smokers. However, people say they feel relaxed after smoking a cigarette. This is because the nicotine level in your body returns to the level your body is used to after smoking a cigarette. When you smoke, you will feel that you need a cigarette to regulate your dopamine levels. Therefore, smoking a cigarette may seem like it is helping you relax. But in reality, it is increasing the physical stress on your body.
Stress reduces not by smoking but by quitting it
After 3 months of quitting smoking, the ability to regulate dopamine returns to normal. Quitting smoking can reduce stress. Nicotine addiction increases stress, and mood is normal during smoking, but mood worsens with the lack of cigarettes. Therefore, the stress-reducing effect of cigarettes only offsets the stress and irritability caused by the lack of nicotine.
Addiction specialist Dr Anil Shekhawat says that usually when you go out of the office environment and take a walk in the open air, you feel a new energy. But people addicted to nicotine feel that they have got that freshness by smoking cigarettes. Although taking nicotine gives them this kind of feeling for some time, but they suffer many times more physical harm from this addiction.
Source (PTI) (NDTV) (HINDUSTANTIMES)