Friday, March 29, 2024

5 Ways Quitting Smoking Changes Your Mindset

quitting smoking
Quitting smoking

*After being a smoker for a while, quitting smoking might not seem like a worthy idea. Nicotine withdrawal and cravings can make you give up on the idea of quitting smoking entirely. Many smokers wonder if quitting smoking makes any difference now that the damage is already done. But, quitting smoking has numerous beneficial effects on the body.

The human body is capable of healing itself even after smoking for years. In fact, the body heals faster than many people think. As long as you have made the decision to quit smoking, healing can even start in not more than half an hour after putting out the last cigarette. Your chances of success are higher if you have a well laid out plan for handling cravings that follow the first few days or weeks of quitting.

For instance, if you decide to use devices that help people quit smoking such as best e cig, you might have higher chances of success. Such a device might help you deal with the cravings that follow.

Smoking leads the brain to form specific thought patterns as well as behaviors. These are basically what addiction is more about than they have to do with individual preferences and emotions or feelings. As such, quitting smoking leads to significant changes in the mindset because it alters thought patterns, behaviors, and feelings.

Here are the 5 major ways quitting smoking changes your mindset:

  1. Quitting Smoking Makes You More Conscious about Your Lifestyle

When you quit smoking, you think better about most of the things you do. For instance, you become conscious of other things apart from how smoking affects your health. You become more aware of the things you eat, and this affects your lifestyle. Some former smokers become more thoughtful, patient, and kind than the persons they were while smoking.

There are even smokers that turn to collecting after cigarette butts in their compounds. That’s because they realize that filters can kill aquatic life of salamanders, fish, and other animals when thrown into the water. What’s more, when you quit smoking, you feel healthy, and this enables you to go out and connect with nature.

  1. Improving Memory

A major way quitting smoking changes your mindset is through memory improvement. People that used to smoke have better-functioning memories after they stopped smoking. Although how quitting smoking improves memory remains unclear, researchers say that chronic smoking has a link to atrophy or breakdown of the brain part responsible for preserving memories.

The hypothesis of researchers is that smoking may damage brain parts like the thalamus, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex. These are linked to prospective memory. With an improved memory, a person that quits smoking has a better mindset. That’s because their thinking takes into consideration what they already know.

  1. Quitting Smoking Makes You Feel Happier

Smoking is generally stressful. Some smokers spend a lot of time thinking about their next chance to smoke. They are stressed by thoughts of getting enough cigarettes as well as coping with withdrawal episodes. This stress disappears the moment you quit smoking. Perhaps, that’s because people that stopped smoking find rewarding ways or things to do with the time they used to spend smoking.

A new study by researchers from the University of Wisconsin established that people that quit smoking end up feeling happier for up to three years afterwards than people that keep smoking.

  1. It Makes You More Confident in Your Thinking

When you quit smoking, you become more disciplined and confident in your thinking. When you make decisions, you take time to consider all the possibilities. You feel stronger in your resolve. You realize that you don’t need a cigarette to think when stressed, sad, anxious, surprised, bored, happy, afraid, angry, nervous, impatient, lost, or confused.

Some smokers use gadgets like an e-cig to deal with temporary nicotine withdrawal symptoms. Eventually, they manage to think confidently after quitting their smoking habit completely.

  1. Quitting Smoking Improves Mental Health

Almost everybody knows that quitting smoking enhances physical health. However, many people don’t know that quitting smoking improves mental health and the overall well-being of a person. That’s because it enhances mood while relieving anxiety, stress, and depression.

Some smokers want to quit, but they don’t because they feel like smoking helps with relieving anxiety and stress. In fact, it’s commonly believed that smoking helps smokers relax. However, the fact is that smoking increases tension and anxiety. As such, smokers are likely to develop depression than non-smokers over time.

The reason smoking feels like it induces relaxation is because it interferes with some brain chemicals. When you don’t smoke for some time, you feel anxious or irritable due to your craving for another cigarette. This feeling can be relieved by lighting up a cigarette. However, some people deal with it using an electronic cigar.

The improved mood that a person that is trying to quit gets after lighting up a cigarette is associated with smoking. But, the truth is that it’s the smoking effects that cause anxiety and the irritable feeling initially. Therefore, quitting smoking reduces anxiety while improving moods. And these improvements are great for the overall change of mindset.

Generally, quitting smoking has numerous mental health benefits. It reduces depression, stress, and anxiety levels. It also improves positive mood and life quality. If you smoke and you have mental health issues, the dosage of the medicines that you take can also be reduced.

In fact, evidence suggests that the effects of quitting smoking on mental health problems like depression and anxiety can be similar to the effects of taking antidepressants.

The Bottom Line

The journey to a life free of smoking can seem difficult when you consider the cravings and nicotine withdrawal symptoms that you have to deal with. Nevertheless, when you have the right knowledge, and gadgets like e-cigarette to help you quit, smoking cessation becomes doable. Eventually, you realize that quitting smoking comes with a rewarding experience because it changes your mindset completely.

Although the changes may not be immediate, they start to emerge once you recover from your addiction to nicotine. Therefore, don’t expect changes to happen overnight. Just allow yourself time and the space necessary to recover from addiction and don’t fear to live without cigarette smoking.

 

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