Stop Smoking Cigs

A common misconception amongst smokers is that if they quit cigarettes, they will suffer from severe depression as a withdrawal symptom from nicotine. This is not the case. The scientific community still does not know why, but smokers statistically have a higher rate of documented depression cases than non-smokers. We just don’t know if cigarettes cause the depression, or if people that already have the condition smoke in order to try and feel better about themselves. The biggest key if you think you suffer from depression is to seek professional treatment of your condition separate from your efforts in quitting tobacco.

Signs of Depression

Depression is a much deeper rooted problem than you just feeling really bad or extremely miserable. Although a person who is suffering from depression will be regularly feeling down or sad, they will also suffer from other indicators such as:
- Not having the drive or desire to do activities that they used to enjoy
- Feeling down all of the time
- Have a feeling of being worthless
- Always being tired even after sleeping a lot
- Having difficulty in going to sleep, or having significant trouble waking up from bed
- Getting frustrated very quickly
- Having issues keeping their focus when trying to think
- Having increased thoughts of suicidal tendencies

If you have five or more of these signs and they have been there for more than a few weeks, you need to see a doctor as soon as you can to see if you do in fact suffer from depression. Overall, about 1 in 6 adults will have depression at some point with an average of 15,000,000 Americans suffering from the condition annually.

Factors that Help Cause Depression

Some fo the factors that will have an impact on you getting depressed are:
- Increased feelings of stress
- Experiencing life changing events that are known or unknown
- Experiencing difficult life events
- Excessive use of alcohol or drugs
- Taking medicine that is known to increase the potential for depression

How Depression Differs from Smoking Withdrawal Symptoms

No matter what stop smoking method you use, you will go through mood swings when you kick the habit. Irritability, restlessness, and generally feeling down can all result from nicotine withdrawal. The biggest difference in this and signs of chronic depression are that the symptoms from nicotine withdrawal will go away in most people within 1 -2 weeks. If you find yourself experiencing these symptoms for an excessive timeframe after quitting cigarettes, then you should contact your doctor about potential screening for depression. You should not start smoking again in order to “get rid of the depression”. This will not help solve the inherent problems that are creating the condition and continuing to smoke will only have negative health effects on your body.

How is Depression Treated?

The worst mistake you can make if you believe you are suffering from depression when trying to quit cigarettes is to take smoking back up and not seen medical help for the signs of depression. There are a number of great treatments to help you get better which normally entail getting counseling, taking medicine, or a combination of both methods depending on your symptoms. If you seek therapy, you are not signing up to see a pyschologist forever. Most sessions to treat depression only last a few weeks and will help you cope with the factors in your life that were causing the condition.

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