Table of contents:
- How does smoking affect a person's mental state?
- Dependence due to smoking also triggers behavior change
- Is it true that smoking makes you calmer?
- Depressive symptoms in smokers
- 1. Mood swing
- 2. Changes in the dopamine hormone
- What can be done?
Smoking is known as a risk factor for various degenerative diseases because of its various dangerous ingredients. But did you know that smoking can also affect a person's psychological condition? The mental effects of smoking on a person can vary and not everyone experiences it. Some smokers may actually be aware of the emotional changes as a result of smoking, but choose to ignore them.
How does smoking affect a person's mental state?
Nicotine affects the performance of the brain, causing dependence, which in turn changes the way a person thinks and behaves. This effect can be permanent because nicotine easily accumulates in the brain. Nicotine can be absorbed by the oral mucosa when smoking, and reaches the brain within 10 seconds of being inhaled. The more nicotine, the stronger the effects of addiction and psychological changes a person experiences.
Dependence on smokers also involves other mechanisms that trigger an imbalance in brain function. Nicotine makes a person dependent by triggering an increase in the hormone dopamine in the brain. The increase in excess dopamine in smokers is also accompanied by a decrease in the enzyme monoamineoxidase which plays a role in lowering dopamine levels. Without this enzyme, dopamine levels will be more difficult to control, causing dependence.
Dependence due to smoking also triggers behavior change
Most smokers perceive the effects of increasing dopamine in excess as a sense of calm, happiness, or pleasure while smoking. This causes a person to have difficulty calming his own mind if he does not smoke a cigarette. If that happens, then the smoker will seek and use cigarettes non-stop.
Without realizing it, smokers also become more aggressive and irritable when they have to resist the urge to smoke. This of course will affect the social life of smokers which actually makes stress, and triggers more severe behavior changes.
Is it true that smoking makes you calmer?
"Smoking makes me calmer" is just an assumption that a smoker believes. The effects of dependence and increased dopamine hormone may make a person calmer for a moment, but after smoking or quitting smoking within a few hours, this can lead to stress due to the desire to smoke. Basically, the feeling of stress and anxiety when you want to smoke is not the same as feeling "calm" when smoking a cigarette.
Smoking itself is also a bad stress relief strategy because it does not encourage a person to face problems in his life. Many smokers realize that they have financial problems, but still buy cigarettes just because they want to avoid the problems they face. In the end, a smoker will only continue to experience stress by continuing to smoke. In contrast, one study showed that individuals who quit smoking after six consecutive weeks experienced improved quality of life and were happier than individuals who continued to smoke.
Depressive symptoms in smokers
Depression is a mental illness which is greatly influenced by many factors such as genetics, social environment, and health. In people who are already depressed, smoking will only make a person experience more serious depressive symptoms.
Although it is not known which precedes depression and smoking behavior, individuals who smoke are likely to experience depression. A study shows that about 30% of adult smokers are depressed, this proportion is much higher than in the general population where only 20% of adults are depressed. The incidence of depression was also more likely to be experienced by female smokers and in younger age groups. Most smokers who realize that they are depressed also just ignore the condition they are experiencing.
Smoking makes a person feel depressed in several ways, including:
1. Mood swing
Due to dependence and feeling calmer when smoking, a person's mood becomes better but then changes drastically quickly after quitting smoking. This can make a person feel more depressed.
2. Changes in the dopamine hormone
An uncontrolled increase in the hormone dopamine can also make the brain not respond to the hormone as well as it used to. As a result, a smoker is less likely to feel happy, but will still smoke just because of the effects of dependence.
What can be done?
Avoiding smoking and making efforts to quit smoking as soon as possible is one way to avoid more severe psychological effects. Reducing the number of cigarettes, diverting attention when feeling anxious, and seeking appropriate professional help if you are depressed, are all ways to combat the effects of addiction.
