QuitSA - Stress

Stressed out?

Everyone experiences levels of stress at times. Some people smoke as a way of dealing with stress and difficult emotions like grief, anger and guilt.

Stopping smoking can make you more aware of these feelings and situations. They might be

little stresses - a bad day with the kids, frustrations at work, a fight with your partner

OR

big stresses - a relationship breakup, getting retrenched, serious illness, injury or death of a friend or family member.

When you find yourself in these situations, your brain remembers that you used to smoke. This may trigger feelings of wanting a cigarette. Recognise this as a trick of your memory - a reminder of how things used to be. If you don't, you might give in and have 'just a few' cigarettes to help you get through. But deep down, you know it won't really help.

Smoking again won't help your problems go away! Now you've got another one - you're smoking again.

Remember again

Work out the times you might feel like smoking again

Be on the lookout for the feeling of wanting a cigarette

Go over your personal reasons for quitting

Decide what you'll tell yourself when you really want a cigarette.

What else?

drink something different - it can help you stay alert

make every second drink a soft drink or water

choose low alcohol drinks

leave if it's getting too hard - find something to do where you can't smoke!

What about coffee, tea and cola drinks?

When you're smoking, nicotine counteracts some of the stimulating effects of the caffeine in these drinks. So if you keep drinking the same amounts of these as you did when you were smoking, you may feel restless, irritable and find it hard to sleep.

These are all feelings that you can have during withdrawal too.

It will help if you

drink fewer, or weaker cups of coffee and tea, or try caffeine-free substitutes.

drink water, fruit juice or low-sugar, caffeine-free cola drinks instead.