Depression and smoking
Depression has turned into a common malaise among people in the modern days, with depression in most cases being caused by chemical imbalances in the brain. There are various chemicals that regulate the sleep and mood patterns in any individual, with alterations contributing to depression symptoms. Depression is in most cases caused either by a particular incident or event or on something being introduced into the body. It is true that certain incidents like a death in a family, a frustration, stress, or even disappointments that may be difficult to overcome or digest.
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Depression as we know can be caused when certain substances are introduced into the body. These substances could be anything like drugs, alcohol, or even the nicotine found in cigarettes. These substances can prove to be very detrimental to the brain, with cigarette smoking or its cessation leading to these symptoms. So smokers that try to give up smoking, they could go through symptoms of depression. This is contrary to the general notion that is held by many people that smoking made people feel better and helped them to cope with the symptoms of depression.
It is true, as it has been shown by various prominent studies that smoking actually causes depression, with smokers having a risk of 6.6% for developing a lifetime frequency of major depression as compared to 2.9% in non-smokers. Another prominent survey revealed that about 70% of the habitual male smokers and about 80% of the habitual female smokers suffered from depression of a major kind, with about 30% displaying some depression symptoms. The risk of depression was 2 times higher for those that smoked on a regular basis than those that smoked occasionally.
It is again a revealing fact that some neuro-biologic evidences confirm that smoke from tobacco is one of the crucial factors for the cause of depression. It is further shocking to note that being subject to second hand smoking and third hand smoking also subjects one to the health hazards of smoking that includes depression besides other hazards like lung cancer and heart disease to sudden infant death syndrome, ear infections and asthma attacks. Studies have proved that being a passive or second hand smoker could also expose you to greater risk for depression, schizophrenia, mood swings and other psychiatric conditions.
How does smoking cause depression
It is best to start understanding why smoking causes depression with first realizing that nicotine that gives the feeling of pleasure becomes just like a drug that the smoker craves for when he or she is under stress and depressed. Smoking does increase the alertness and mental ability in many cases, but the absence of nicotine could cause symptoms of craving for it and depression. So it is to be well understood that withdrawal or non-availability of nicotine at periodic intervals could lead to adverse physical symptom as well as mental and emotional symptoms like mood swings, depression and other psychiatric conditions in the long run.
It is again necessary to note that the effect of smoking though pleasurable has been shown to be very detrimental to health. It has been found that smoking affects all the parts of the body and is also the main cause of heart disorders and conditions, as well as high blood pressure and cancers of various types. Smoking could also cause a feeling of low because it causes bad odor to the clothes and also gives a horrible appearance to the teeth. It is again important to understand that nicotine acts as the receptor for acetylcholine, the neurotransmitter that plays the impact of indirectly stimulating dopamine, another neurotransmitter that is responsible for the temporary feeling of reward and motivation.
However this effect is short-lived and soon the smoker starts craving for this pleasure and could turn uneasy, irritable and depressed until he or she gets nicotine again. Anxiety, depression and irritability become a regular routine for a smoker.
It is next quite obvious that once a smoker, depression and want for stimulation become a daily routine.
You could well imagine the state of a smoker that wants to quit smoking and would surely agree that such symptoms could be really upsetting with some smokers going through major depression also. So it is not rare to find smokers experience signs of depression like being uneasy without nicotine, finding an excessive desire to consume it followed by extreme depressed moods, increase in appetite that may take quite some time to get over. It has been found to be true in many cases that nicotine craving could take even months to get over fully.
Smokers need not feel stressed because depression while quitting smoking can be effectively treated, as most medicines used to treat depression can help a smoker to get over the depression and find it easy to give up smoking for good. It is found that these drugs work best in those smokers that suffer from quit smoking depression only and not in those that do not experience depression. These smokers are those that took the smoking because of depressed feelings, as in every 4 out of 5 cases smokers that have depression fail in their attempt to give up smoking.
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