People with mental illness have much higher smoking rates! Today we’ll discuss why tobacco smoke is a problem for your mental wellbeing, and how you can protect yourself. Firstly, let’s think about what tobacco smoke does to you.
What tobacco smoke does to your body
Tobacco harms every part of your body. This is because your lungs are the path to your blood, which circulates everywhere throughout your body. TedEd has a great video explaining why… and watch to the end of the video to find out how quitting smoking (and avoiding secondhand smoke) benefits your body!
What tobacco smoke does to your brain and mind
The brain is part of the body, so the TedEd video above is also relevant. But the brain is the source of your mind. Everything that gets fed into your brain (including tobacco smoke) affects your mind! I bet you can guess what happens when you feed your brain 7000+ harmful tobacco chemicals… yup you guessed it, your mind also suffers. So without further ado, let’s get to the list of reasons why tobacco smoke harms your mental health:
1 – Tobacco smoke makes anxiety worse
Although people who smoke will say it helps them with stress, the truth is that it actually makes anxiety much worse!
People say they smoke cigarettes to feel less stressed. This is because nicotine is calming their withdrawal symptoms. It’s like any addiction that causes repeated behaviors to avoid feeling bad. Who can forget the intense heroin withdrawal scene from Trainspotting. Smoking withdrawal may not be as intense, but it’s not that different, and for many people it’s much worse.
The truth is that smoking tobacco makes anxiety worse (see our information section for links to the research), but it tricks people to believe that it helps. At first it can seem difficult to quit smoking because of the withdrawal symptoms, but most people find that after the first week it gets much easier. Here’s a nice explanation from Mark Freeman.
2 – Depression symptoms improve after quitting smoking tobacco
Would you believe that stopping smoking improves depression symptoms more than taking antidepressants? Well it’s true. A large study published in the British Medical Journal: “Change in mental health after smoking cessation: systematic review and meta-analysis” demonstrates how important quitting tobacco is for mental health.
Some people may feel symptoms of depression soon after quitting tobacco; they might initially feel less enjoyment in life. This has been attributed to what’s called a hypo-hedonic effect. But with maintained abstinence from tobacco, you begin to enjoy life more and your mood improves, as per the BMJ article above!
3 – Even secondhand smoke exposure increases risk of suicide
Traditionally we think of all the problems that tobacco causes smokers. But the 21st century has brought an abundance of research connecting secondhand smoke with physical and mental illness (not to mention the nearly 1 million people dying from secondhand smoke each year!) Along with depression and anxiety, secondhand smoke is associated with increased suicidal thoughts and suicide.
If you are affected by secondhand smoke, you can use our information poster to help educate people about secondhand smoke.
4 – Tobacco smoke causes Irritability and agitation
Just like with suicide, smoking causes irritability and agitation. In Australia, when governments started banning cigarettes in hospitals, some believed that patients would become agitated. Contrary to this it was found that irritability, agitation, and assaults decreased. There are also studies connecting secondhand smoke exposure with irritability and agitation.
For some people who smoke, the irritability and agitation gets so bad that people have been assaulted and killed.
5 – Tobacco smoke causes serious physical illness!
You might wonder why we’re talking about physical illness in this post. Well, that’s because mental and physical health are irrevocably connected! Research shows that chronic illnesses such as COPD (lung disease) and coronary artery disease (heart disease), and life-threatening cancers (lung, mouth, bladder, bowel and more), affect people’s mental health! These are only a few of the diseases that are caused by tobacco smoke.
People with chronic physical health problems have higher levels of mental illness. And since smoking causes a multitude of physical illnesses, it’s no surprise that tobacco smoke is bad for mental health.
Conclusion
Tobacco smoke is harmful to your mental health, including secondhand smoke. Even thirdhand smoke (found on clothes of smokers) causes major health problems! Are you being harmed by tobacco smoke? Tell us about your challenges with tobacco smoke and we’ll post the feedback in September 2020.
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