Smoking and stress are deeply connected for smokers.
But smoking doesn’t really relieve stress. If it did then smokers would be less stressed than non-smokers. But they’re not.
Perhaps it’s an illusion. Perhaps it’s not that smoking really relieves stress; it’s that when a smoker puts a cigarette out, they begin to go into nicotine withdrawal, causing feelings of tension and anxiety, which is stressful.
When they light the next cigarette the nicotine’s restored and that stress disappears. That’s why so many smokers think it relieves stress.
But the cigarette’s only relieving stress that was caused by the previous cigarette. Non-smokers never even feel that stress because they aren’t in withdrawal.
Smokers get tricked into seeing the cause of their stress as the cure for it!
Smoking to relieve stress is like having a cold shower to warm up.
