The notion that smoking helps relieves emotions such as anxiety and depression is a myth, say researchers at Brown University. People are known to smoke when they are feeling stressed in an attempt to relieve tension. However a study published in the Nicotine & Tobacco Research, indicates that people who are in the process of giving up smoking have never felt happier!
Christopher Kahler, corresponding author of "Time-Varying Smoking Abstinence Predicts Lower Depressive Symptoms Following Smoking Cessation Treatment" says smokers thinking of quitting should be encouraged by the double benefit - both physical and mental. Not only will giving up smoking improve your physical health but evidence suggests that your mental health is also likely to improve. Therefore, stopping smoking is far from a psychological nightmare done to live longer, Kahler added.
Kahler noted that "The assumption has often been that people might smoke because it has anti-depressant properties and that if they quit it might unmask a depressive episode. What's surprising is that at the time when you measure smokers' mood, even if they've only succeeded for a little while, they are already reporting less symptoms of depression."
Scientists at the Peninsula Medical School in the UK, in a study called the English Longitudinal Study of Aging, assessed the wellbeing of nearly 10,000 people over the age of 50. It was found that smokers in that group reported lower average levels of pleasure and less satisfaction with their lives than the non smokers. The lead researcher on the team, Iain Lang, reported that smokers feel pleasure when they initially light up. But that's because they're feeding their addiction. Overall they're not any happier than non smokers. In fact, they're less so.
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