Smoking and mental illness

According to a new study, smoking doesn't really reduce stress. It actually increases it by producing withdrawal effects between cigarettes. That stress release you feel when you smoke is actually only the relief of getting nicotine.

"...smokers experience higher levels of stress and tension between cigarettes and lower levels over all when they quit."

So quitting, in the long-term, actually reduces overall levels of stress. But smoking has been long linked to mental illness.

"A proportionally large number of people with mental illness smoke. The smoking rate in the general population is just over 20% (Glassman 1999), while the proportion of people with schizophrenia who smoke may be as high as 90% (Glassman, 1993)."

Like most other stuff that's bad for you, nicotine stimulates dopamine, which is the good stuff in your brain that signals pleasure. Dopamine makes you happy, basically, and so continuing your addictions seems like it makes you happy.

Smoking also can "...relieve boredom and provide a framework for the day." I know I use smoking as a timer. It takes me 5 minutes to smoke, so I know that if I have to be somewhere in 10 minutes, I can waste 5 smoking. It also makes a good timer: oh, I have to walk to a meeting. I wonder how long it takes me? It takes me one cigarette to get to the one near work, and one and probably a half to get to the one near home.

So there's tons of reasons people smoke, and many more reasons why we should all quit. It's getting past the initial withdrawal that's a bitch.