Trying Desperately To Quit Smoking

I have long been a believer in a healthy body, healthy mind. Although I know that this is not always true, I have come to the conclusion, and not recently, that I need to quit smoking for my overall health--mental and physical.

It was only Wednesday of last week that I quit....until today when I took up smoking again. During the two and a half days that I was smoke-free, I found that I needed less of my neuroleptic medication, as well as functioned psychologically at my peak.

I have a demanding job with plenty of stressors and when some of them get too much, I turn to smoking cigarettes. Research shows that people with mental illness smoke cigarettes much much more than the average population and there is something to it. The smoking seems to TEMPORARILY improve cognitive functioning. However, that is not to say that a person that has mental illness that smokes should not quit immediately.

As I said, my psychological functioning as a WHOLE improved greatly. In fact, I felt as if I was released from a cloud of smoke!