Quitting smoking has always been a popular New Year’s resolution, and now, with the dangers of smoking well known and smoking restricted to fewer and fewer places, it’s more important than ever for smokers to try to quit.
It’s also important to be aware of what quitting may do to your mental state. The good news is that you won’t feel this way forever.
Nicotine withdrawal has many mental and physical effects. Smokefree.gov says symptoms include:
* Feeling down or sad
* Having trouble sleeping
* Feeling irritable, on edge, grouchy
* Having trouble thinking clearly and concentrating
* Feeling restless and jumpy
* Slower heart rate
* Feeling more hungry or gaining weight
It’s easy to see how withdrawal can be mistaken for depression. The difference is that withdrawal symptoms usually go away after one or two weeks. They’re also less severe than depression symptoms — they shouldn’t interfere with your daily life.
However, depression is still a possibility. In fact, smokers are more likely to suffer from it than non-smokers. Other risk factors are stress, medical problems, and simply being female (though some experts believe male depression is just harder to detect). It’s not clear whether smoking contributes to depression, or depressed people turn to smoking seeking relief.
If your “withdrawal” symptoms drag on too long, you should get screening for depression. A quiz is available here to help you get started.
Believe it or not, going back to smoking won’t help your depression. Treatment has a good chance, however.
You can look forward to a smoke-free year of good mental health.
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