Psychological addiction to tobacco: How does it work
Nicotine in blood disappears after 12 hours and CO2 levels normalize. Physical dependence is there from a few minutes after the last cigarette but it disappears in about 3 weeks. The psychological addiction however endures. It does not disappear until after about 6 months. Click here for Sana Lake Recovery Center.
How is this psychological addiction manifested? When a person quits smoking, they often face symptoms of depression, irritability, anxiety, restlessness, and insomnia, related to withdrawal or monkey syndrome.
Habit associations that play against
Psychological addiction is the association and longing for the effects that smokers associate with their habit. Calming, relaxing, stimulating effects of the imagination or creativity … In addition, smokers associate smoking with other habits, such as drinking coffee, alcohol, meeting friends, talking on the phone, leaving work, relaxing breaks … Visit this site for Lake Recovery Center.
For this reason, doctors who work against smoking agree on how important it is to know how to identify those moments. Be aware of the habits associated with tobacco to be able to counter them. Because quitting smoking is the time when you will remember the seemingly positive effects of smoking. This is also when the psychotic addiction is most likely to lead you to relapse.
False myths, the classics of psychological addiction
The way to combat them is to undo that association, replace those habits with healthier ones. Exchanging tea for coffee for a while, avoiding meetings with other smokers or asking them not to smoke in your presence, changing routines to avoid the memory of tobacco are a good start. Remember that thoughts like “just smoking relaxes me” are false myths. It is better to think about everything you earn in health and money every day that you stay smoke-free.
Quitting tobacco: the phases
To do it with guarantees, it is important to be aware of the limitations that addiction imposes on you. For this reason, psychologists establish three phases to achieve the abandonment of this pernicious habit.
Preparation: Previous phase in which the smoker becomes aware of the need to stop smoking and prepares for it.
Quitting tobacco: When you actually quit smoking, a phase during which it is important to have family support, at work, from friends. To achieve the goal, it is important that it is not a particularly stressful phase.
Maintenance: Perhaps the most important phase to do it successfully. It is the moment in which the smoker trains to overcome abstinence and psychological dependence and to avoid relapse.
