🌧️ Is it okay to quit smoking during a depressive stretch?
Quitting matters, but when you're low, it isn't a willpower fight. It's the quit you should design most carefully.
When you're feeling low and someone brings up quitting smoking, honestly, it's rough.
Just getting up in the morning feels heavy. Getting to work takes everything you have. You come home and can't summon the will to do anything. Tell someone in that state "quit smoking too," and they think: what else are you going to take from me?
So this topic needs to be handled carefully.
Feeling "not right now" is a natural reaction
Quitting matters. But telling someone who's struggling right now to "just tough it out and quit today" is off the mark.
At the same time, deciding that "people in a bad mental state shouldn't quit" is also off. Tobacco can look like it's holding your mind up, when really it's just temporarily stopping the discomfort of nicotine running low.