Smoking

Vaping can be addictive too as it contains nicotine!

Signs and symptoms, medical conditions are similar to smoking:

A strong, almost irresistible urge to vape.
Continuing to vape even if you think that it’s harmful to you.
Irritability when you can’t vape.
Intrusive thoughts about vaping.
Vaping behavior that causes problems with family, friends, school, or work.
The inability to stop vaping even when you try.

Source: https://www.laborposters.org/nevada/1860-nv-no-smoking-sign-poster.htm

E-cigarettes contain nicotine, a drug that’s highly addictive.

You don’t have to vape every day to get addicted. anxiety and depression: Nicotine makes anxiety and depression worse. It also affects memory, concentration, self-control, and attention, especially in developing brains.

KidsHealth

STOP SMOKING

Stop smoking is the single most important preventable illness and death

5 MILLION PEOPLE DEATHS worldwide From smoking and related causes

DO YOU WANT TO BE ONE OF THEM?

Stopping smoking is not easy!
Smoking treatments will not make customers stop smoking alone.
WILLPOWER is needed and with behavioural support and treatment it is more likely you will quit four times more than doing it alone.

One will have urges or cravings to smoke, but these last for a couple of minutes and they disappear and come back a little while later, the key is to resist the urges.The first few weeks are the toughest!!!

YOU CAN DO IT!!!

NOT A SINGLE PUFF!!!!!

BECOME A NON-SMOKER !!!!!
It’s also good to REMEMBER IT’S NEVER TOO LATE.

LOOK AT THE BENEFITS OF QUITTING

Time	Beneficial health changes that take place
20 minutes	Blood pressure and pulse rates return to normal
8 hours	Nicotine and carbon monoxide levels in blood reduce by half. Oxygen levels will start to return to normal
24 hours (1 day)	Carbon monoxide should be eliminated from the body. Lungs start to clear out mucus and other smoking debris
48 hours (2 days)	Should be no nicotine cigarettes left in the body. Ability to taste and smell improves.
72 hours (3 days)	Breathing becomes easier. Airway tubes begin to relax and energy levels increase
2-12 weeks	Circulation improves
3- 9 months	Coughs and breathing problems improve as lung function is increased by 10%.
1 year	Risk of heart attack falls to half that of a smoker
10 years	Risk of lung cancer fall about half of that of a smoker
15 years	Risk of heart attack falls to the same as someone who has never smoked

Source: ASH fact sheet No.11 November 2005

The reasons that cigarette smoking is so highly addictive are thought to be:

Pleasure — nicotine affects the dopamine pathway in the brain, making smoking a pleasurable thing to do. For some people this turns into a dependence; their natural dopamine levels decrease and they need to keep smoking to maintain normal brain chemistry (1).
Behavioural aspects — smoking becomes a habit and an integral part of the daily ritual. This is particularly hard to break because the brain associates the chemical pleasure of dopamine release from smoking a cigarette with everyday actions (e.g. finishing a meal or work for the day). The enforced isolation of the smoker is often used as ‘my time’ or as a series of ‘mindful’ pauses throughout the day.
Environmental triggers — smokers’ brains know that smoking a cigarette will stimulate their pleasure pathways, and visual and other stimuli make them crave a cigarette. The simple act of seeing someone else smoking, or even just seeing a cigarette, can trigger this(2).

(1)Benowitz NL. Nicotine addiction. N Engl J Med 2010;362(24):2295–2303. doi: 10.1056/NEJMra0809890

(2) Mogg K, Bradley BP, Field M et al. Eye movements to smoking-related pictures in smokers: relationship between attentional biases and implicit and explicit measures of stimulus valence. Addiction 2003;98(6):825–836. doi: 10.1046/j.1360-0443.2003.00392.x

The Pharmaceutical Journal, January 2018;Online:DOI:10.1211/PJ.2018.20204033

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