I was watching a gentleman in a truck next to me at a red light yesterday. He was smoking and I noticed his facial expression and body language. On the one hand, he appeared relaxed with his cigarette. But upon looking closer, I saw details that I could relate to in myself when I smoked. There was tightness about him, in the set of his jaw, in the way he held his shoulders, and in the way he moved his head and arms. I have seen these same phenomena in other smokers, as well.
I could easily remember smoking in my van while sitting at a traffic light. Everything I saw in him, I remembered in myself. I used to believe I was so relaxed with my cigarette, too. But comparing what I really felt back then to how I feel now, I can tell you that I was stressed. And the cig did nothing to relieve it; it only gave the illusion of relief because it was giving me my fix, ending the early withdrawal symptoms.
Nicotine stresses the body. Withdrawal from nicotine (even before one is consciously aware of it) adds to that stress. When one smokes (gets their fix), the withdrawal symptoms are temporarily alleviated. THAT is what the addicted brain calls “stress relief.” But the truth is that only one aspect of stress is temporarily reduced. Overall stress, especially the external one(s), is not eliminated entirely.
We are all stressed in various ways and degrees by our day-to-day life. The stress caused by nicotine adds to this normal “life stress.” Withdrawal from nicotine adds even more on top of that. So you have the equation “smoker’s stress = life stress + nicotine stress + withdrawal stress.” By quitting, you remove the last two, for a total reduction in stress. Believe me: life stress alone is much more manageable without the other two added to it.
