Many people feel that cigarettes help them with stress or anxiety. But what is really happening in the brain is something else. When nicotine levels drop in the body, withdrawal symptoms appear: irritability, nervousness or anxiety. When smoking again, that discomfort disappears… and it seems that the cigarette “relaxes”, but in reality what it does is relieve the discomfort that the nicotine itself generated when it disappeared.
Therefore, the real challenge is not smoking, but learning to manage real stress without resorting to tobacco.
