Are you having a bad day or do you feel depressed?
So what’s happening is either:
1. You’re going through a bad phase, but you’re going through it as a non-smoker, so you’re navigating new unexplored territory.
2. Or your brain is healing, and you’re experiencing depression. This affects only a few people, but let’s explore both scenarios.
1. A bad phase
Having bad days and bad phases is normal. Everyone has them: ex-smokers, smokers, and never-smokers.
The thing is that because these bad days are close to your quit, you may blame quitting smoking for feeling down and seek relief by smoking.
If you had these bad days when you were a smoker, you would probably think “it’s just a bad day”, right?
Same thing now, you have to see this as a bad day or as a bad couple of days that you’re just going through as a non-smoker; so it’s a new experience, unexplored territory.
And if you focus on your freedom, you know that at the end of a bad day, you won and persevered. And a smokefree day is a good day after all!
I understand that the craving mind is trying to find a lot of reasons to tempt you to smoke. But if you smoke, a bad day will turn to many bad days of guilt and struggle in the future… and when you do quit again you will find yourself exactly where you are now.
But if you focus on your freedom, you know that at the end of a bad day, you won and persevered.
2. Depression
First, let’s see what’s the relationship between smoking and depression.
- Stopping smoking decreases anxiety and depression, even for those struggling with mental illness.
- Smoking increases depression and anxiety.
- Ex-smokers are happier than smokers.
These are hard facts, backed up by research.
Then why do some people feel depressed after quitting?
Much like the rain before the rainbow, some people feel worse before feeling better.
To explain this, let’s see how the “happy area” of your brain works before, in-between, and after you quit smoking.
Before – As a smoker.
When you smoke, the nicotine goes to your brain and releases dopamine. Dopamine is a neurochemical your brain produces naturally to make you feel good when you eat, exercise, have sex, or do things that ensure your survival.
With time, your brain stops releasing dopamine naturally and waits for you to smoke to release it. So you feel good only when you smoke. It’s like being hooked in a deadly happiness support machine. (On top of that, you build tolerance, so after a while, you don’t even feel good when you smoke. You just need it to feel “normal”.)
In Between- When you first quit.
When you are nicotine-free, the nicotine receptors in your brain start to perish, and your dopamine pathways start regulating and producing dopamine naturally – without relying on nicotine.
During that period, you might momentarily feel down, lost, or lonely. Don’t let your mind trick you. You have achieved something incredible.
When you have a bad day, see it as an isolated event unrelated to quitting smoking. Everyone has bad days; smokers, non-smokers, never smokers.
Keep yourself busy and remember that everything you feel now is because your brain is claiming its happy chemicals back.
This in-between phase can last up to 4 weeks if you’re nicotine-free. If you occasionally have a puff, it will last longer. If feelings of depression persist for much longer, talk to your doctor.
After – Smoke-free
After your brain adjusts, you can feel happy naturally. This usually happens around the 3-month mark when your dopamine bounces back.
[Scientific Article: “Recovery of Dopamine Function Emerges with Recovery from Smoking” https://www.elsevier.com/about/press-releases/research-and-journals/recovery-of-dopamine-function-emerges-with-recovery-from-smoking]
In the meantime, you can help speed up the healing process.
The brain doesn’t have separate reward pathways for different activities. Feeling rewarded depends on the release of dopamine.
Until your brain heals its dopamine resources (around month #3) you can increase dopamine naturally and feel rewarded.
✅ exercise
✅ massage- It increases dopamine levels by about 30% and it decreases stress
✅ listening to music
✅ meditation
✅ yoga
✅ mindfulness
✅ setting tasks and finishing them – any kind of task, work-related, self-care-related, or fun-related can help you get a dopamine boost.
✅ essential oils.
✅ your dopamine levels are also affected by what you eat. Foods like turkey, fish, eggs, soy, bananas, almonds and probiotics can help your body make dopamine. While drinking too much coffee may give you a quick energy boost, but then your dopamine levels will decrease.
Also, eating sugar gives you a quick “high,” but then your dopamine levels drop, and then you’re likely to want more sugar (just as you wanted another puff of a cigarette)
Additional Resources
1. Check: Are you depressed or sad?
Read this article on depression & quitting smoking.
https://cbqmethod.com/depression-after-quitting-smoking/
2. Watch Elizabeth’s Ask An Ex interview.
Elizabeth used to smoke for 50 years. She has been struggling with bouts of depression throughout her life, and she’s sharing how smoking and quitting smoking affected her depression.
3. Watch Diane’s Ask An Ex interview.
Diane has many great tips for when you’re feeling low, and she’s overall an inspiration! 5 years smoke-free and counting 🎉🎉: