{"id":6779,"date":"2022-03-09T14:40:50","date_gmt":"2022-03-09T14:40:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/?p=6779"},"modified":"2022-03-09T14:40:50","modified_gmt":"2022-03-09T14:40:50","slug":"wellness-wednesday-quitting-doesnt-have-to-be-stressful-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wellness-wednesday-quitting-doesnt-have-to-be-stressful-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Wellness Wednesday: Quitting Doesn\u2019t Have To Be Stressful"},"content":{"rendered":"

National No Smoking Day, 09 March 2022<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Quit Smoking: Get Happy<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

It is well researched and accepted across all sectors of society that smoking cigarettes is catastrophically bad for a person\u2019s health. 1 in 2 smokers will die of a disease directly linked to their smoking habit. In addition, the effects of smoking cause debilitating diseases that badly affect a smoker\u2019s quality of life in their declining years up to their death; a death which is a lot earlier than their non-smoking friends and relatives.<\/p>\n

National No Smoking Day this year focusses on the positive mental health effects<\/u> of giving up smoking. Smokers make a strong association between their habit and the calming emotional effect they believe it gives them. However, smoking actually promotes anxiety, especially when the brain starts to register that it needs a nicotine hit! There is an unpleasant withdrawal period when one gives up smoking and this does come with feelings of low mood, irritability and anxiety. This withdrawal phase usually lasts for between 2-4 weeks. Once a person is through this, they start to feel mentally less anxious and more balanced emotionally. When I gave up smoking, after about 6 weeks, I remember feeling that I wasn\u2019t always waiting to do something any longer. I realised that I had been perpetually waiting to smoke my next cigarette; it occurred to me that while stubbing out a cigarette, my brain was calculating how long would be the wait until I could get my next fix of nicotine. When a substance has its hooks into you at that level, it is dominating your emotional mood completely.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the reason that a non-smoker\u2019s positive mental health exceeds that of a smoker. It\u2019s also the reason that smokers demonstrate such anxious behaviours. Take a look at the \u2018Today Is The Day\u2019 Illustration video below for the link between smoking and anxiety. In addition, there are links below to the BMJ research article on the positive change in mental health after giving up smoking and a YouTube video on the same subject.<\/p>\n

Another important message for this year\u2019s No Smoking Day is that quitting doesn\u2019t need to be stressful or painful. It highlights the range of aids that are available nowadays to help smokers quit; see the \u2018Today Is The Day\u2019 link below and hit the tab marked \u2018Support\u2019 for more information. There are prescription medicines and nicotine replacement therapy in the form of gum, sprays or tablets. The NHS is there to help you. You can even get counselling support; consider using the University\u2019s Employee Assistance Programme<\/a> telephone support line for help to get you through giving up the evil weed.<\/p>\n

Make Today Your Day for Giving Up Smoking and Getting Happy!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2018Today Is The Day\u2019<\/a>: National No Smoking Day 2021 for advice on support to quit and success stories<\/p>\n

\u2018Stress-free Quitting\u2019<\/a>: Robert West on \u2018Today Is The Day\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Today Is The Day\u2019 Illustrative video<\/a>: shows how smoking causes feelings of negative mental health<\/p>\n

\u2018Change in mental health after smoking cessation: systematic review and meta-analysis\u2019<\/a>: Gemma Taylor, Ann McNeill,\u00a0 Alan Girling, Amanda Farley, Nicola Lindson-Hawley, Paul Aveyard, BMJ website<\/p>\n

\u2018Stopping Smoking Linked to Improved Mental Health\u2019<\/a>: YouTube video, BMJ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

National No Smoking Day, 09 March 2022 Quit Smoking: Get Happy It is well researched and accepted across all sectors of society that smoking cigarettes … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64307,"featured_media":6781,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[124],"tags":[167395,212583,212605],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6779"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64307"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6779"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6782,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6779\/revisions\/6782"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}