Stress makes giving up smoking tough

Mariecar Jara-Puyod, Senior Reporter

Smoking and the use of tobacco and related products remain a challenge because of stress and the addictive nature of nicotine.

The conclusion was derived from interviews with Respiratory Medicine specialists or pulmonologists asked to answer this main question: “The World Health Organisation and all public and private stakeholders have been doing their part, some, actively, in the promotion of health and wellness in the past decade or so. May we have your take on why people—including those in the medical and health sectors—still smoke?”

The question was raised since on May 31, Friday, the world will again be observing the No Tobacco Day, 32 years after the World Health Assembly (WHA) in 1987 passed Resolution WHA 40.8 that would make April 7, 1988 “World No Tobacco Day.”

Additional global programmes followed.

Yet, data from the World Health Organization have shown that as of 2018, there were one billion smokers all over the world, 800 million of whom were residing in the poor or developing states.

Worst, every day, 2,500 children have been found to have tried their first cigarette before 18 years old with over 400 of them getting addicted. It has been noted too, that second hand smoke is as deadlier as ever with babies and infants either succumbing to sudden infant death syndrome or sustaining severe asthma, as well as respiratory and ear infections

Canadian Specialist Hospital’s Dr. Noordin Wadhvaniya said: “Most people that I have come across, who continue to smoke blame the stress in their lives. They are educated on the harmful aspects of smoking but cannot help it due to the temporary relief it provides from the stress. The other aspect is their addiction to smoking which has been (ingrained in themselves) for so long.”

He warned on the misperceptions on electronic cigarettes and sisha.

Burjeel Hospital-Abu Dhabi’s Dr. Trilok Chand said: “The smoking habit starts with just fun to distract the mind from a stressful situation, but later on it becomes a bad habit. The nicotine is the only known psychoactive ingredient in tobacco smoke that gives the sense of enhanced pleasure, decreased anxiety and a state of alert relaxation.

He said nicotine is a “positive reinforcement.”

Chand added: “Surprisingly, almost every smoker knows the bad effects of smoking, but still smoke because of this sense of boosting.”