A
healthy lifestyle goes a long way to reducing stress. A healthy lifestyle
involves giving up alcohol and tobacco. Addiction to these substances is a
source of stress for the body, the mind, and the soul.
Alcohol
Alcohol
is a depressant. Heavy drinking, in particular, interferes with the neurotransmitters
in your brain, and thus damaging your mental health over the long haul.
Kick
the habit of instinctively reaching out for a bottle of beer or a glass of wine
after a stressful day in the office. Yes, alcohol may help you deal with stress
in the short term; in the long term, however, it may contribute to your feeling
of depression and anxiety, and thus make your stress even harder to deal with.
Worst of all, it may create your addiction that is the ultimate source of
stress.
Nicotine
Contrary
to popular belief that nicotine can calm you down, Jon Kassel, a psychologist at
the University of Illinois at Chicago
This
is how. Nicotine creates an immediate
sense of relaxation so you smoke in the erroneous belief that it may reduce
your stress and anxiety. Unfortunately, this feeling of relaxation is only
temporary, and soon gives way to your withdrawal symptoms and your increased
cravings. Smoking reduces nicotine withdrawal symptoms, which are similar to
the symptoms of anxiety; therefore, it does not reduce anxiety or deal with the
underlying causes.
In
addition, nicotine makes you become more vulnerable to depression. Nicotine
stimulates the release of the chemical dopamine in your brain, and thereby
instrumental in triggering positive feelings. Using cigarettes as a way of
temporarily increasing your dopamine supply is unwise because smoking also
encourages your brain to switch off its own mechanism for making dopamine. As a
result, over the long haul, your brain’s supply of dopamine decreases, which in
turn prompts you to smoke more.
Stephen Lau
Copyright©
by Stephen Lau
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