Is life better after quitting ?

The psychological schedule impact of quitting smoking on a person's well-being is often overlooked. A well-designed study published in the new December issue of Annals of Behavioral Medicine offers comfort for smokers who are gearing up to take the plunge as the new year approaches.

According to this new study, comparing life before quitting to life one year after quitting:

1. There was a decrease in "stressful event frequency" for those who had quit. This lends support to previous studies showing that "quitting smoking decreases stress."

2. The "quitters experienced a steep decline in craving while continuing smokers craving levels only decreased slightly."

3. . The "quitters experienced declines in restlessness and anger/irritability from pre-quit to one year while continuing smokers' levels either remained stable or increased."

The study's findings on anger/irritability were a trend only because they fell just short of statistical significance. However, there are many other reasons besides withdrawal that smokers who quit, in comparison to continuing smokers, may still be angry. For example, many quitters need to practice handling anger without smoking, since reaching for a cigarette may have been an automatic response to "anger management" for many years! Despite the stereotype of the angry/irritable quitter, this research suggests that one year after quitting; many former smokers are likely to be less angry than continuing smokers.

Quitters had significantly improved when the study compared their state just after quitting to one year later on many symptoms of nicotine withdrawal syndrome. These include anger, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, restlessness, hunger and craving. The study confirms prior findings that acute smoking withdrawal when present is a temporary state, typically lasting about as long as a bad cold. The smoker is therefore not trading in their smoking life for a lifetime of withdrawal. They are instead trading off some short-term discomfort for a much better outcome in the long term. As summarized in the DSM Manual of Mental Disorders

source :http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-seidman/quitting-smoking_b_2227470.htm

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