Surprising, or Just Common Sense? What Researchers Found Out About Smokers

Even if you smoke, you have to know that smoking can be responsible for horrible physical health effects – from something as cosmetic as yellow teeth, to something as deadly as lung cancer. If you aren’t aware of this, you could be in denial, or you just don’t care.

But what about psychological effects? Can smoking (or not smoking) have an impact on your psychological well-being?

Well, here it is: spoiler alert. People who have quit smoking are generally happier and more satisfied with their health compared to their peers who continue to smoke.  What might be considered common sense by some, can certainly be surprising for others who may be living in the comfort of denial. 

To further strengthen this claim, Dr. Megan Piper from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in the U.S. teamed up with fellow colleagues and conducted some in-depth research.  The results support the idea that in addition to being extremely beneficial to your physical health, quitting smoking can also improve your psychological well-being. 

The report was recently published in the online journal Annals of Behavioral Medicine, and outlines a study that took place over the course of three years. 

Typically, smokers who can’t kick the habit continue to adamantly defend their habits, stating that smoking relaxes them and allows them to enjoy life better, and thus allows them to have a higher quality of life.  On the contrary, the study showed that people who quit smoking had many more positive experiences. Upon reaching the successful results, the researchers planned to use these facts to educate and motivate smokers in an effort to get them to stop smoking.
 
Details of the Study

For the experiments, 1,504 American smokers took part in a smoking cessation trial, where the clinicians assessed their overall quality of life, health-related quality of life, emotions (either positive or negative), satisfaction in the relationships of the smokers, and frequency of stress.
 
A year after the initial assessment, the smokers had these factors measured, and then reassessed again after three years.  Some of the factors that were evaluated regarding quality of life included health, self-regard, standard of living, philosophy of life, work, recreation, creativity, social service, friendships, love relationships and relationships with children, relatives, domestic relationships, and community.
 
These results will certainly serve as a great inspiration to many smokers who are interested in quitting but are afraid of the possible effects; and can prove an effective way to motivate any smoker who does not have intentions of quitting. 

Smokers who refuse to quit often cite fears of any possible deterioration in their quality of life; but the research shows that in the long run, quitting smoking will definitely improve that quality of life for each person. Not only that, but there is no evidence to show that a smoker will deteriorate if they choose to quit smoking.