Stopping smoking improves your physical health but it is also proven to boost your mental health and wellbeing.

Quitting smoking helps improve feelings of anxiety and depression, reduces stress levels and can give you a more positive outlook on life.

Live Life Better Derbyshire can help you to improve your emotional wellbeing by supporting you to become smoke-free.

The stress cycle of smoking

Most people who smoke want to quit, but some continue because they feel smoking helps them to relax and reduces feelings of stress.

However, smoking actually increases levels of stress, anxiety and tension. Below you can see the stages of smoking stress cycle and how it affects the way you feel.

Stage one

When you haven’t smoked a cigarette for a while, the craving for another one increases feelings of anxiety and stress.

Stage two

This leads to you having a cigarette and the cravings are reduced. You temporarily feel more calm and relaxed. You associate smoking with an improvement in mood.

Stage three

But soon after finishing your cigarette, your nicotine levels begin to fall. Feelings of stress, tension, irritability or anxiety return and you end up back at the start of the smoking stress cycle again.

How we can help

It’s normal to notice an increase in feelings of stress or anxiety when you first quit smoking.

It’s important to remember that these feelings will reduce over time as your body adjusts to life without nicotine.

Finding healthy ways to deal with stress can help you to feel more in control of your quit.

Our health improvement advisors can help you to identify stress reducing techniques that work for you. They can also support you to get mental health support to improve your emotional wellbeing.

If you are currently taking anti-psychotic medications or anti-depressants, it's important to talk to your GP or psychiatrist before you quit, as the dosage of these medicines may need to be monitored or reduced.

How to get involved

It is never too late to stop smoking.

Our friendly health improvement advisors are here to support you to quit for good and improve your mental and physical wellbeing. 

If you are ready to stop smoking for good then you can take part in our online health MOT  or call us on 0800 085 2299.