Good Thursday morning and Welcome to my diary,
GUS: Stress and Smoking...with Open Thread
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So there we were, Mom and I, sitting at the drive-thru of her bank on our way to breakfast. The car was off and the windows were down as it was already 90 degrees at 9:45 in the morning and I hate to just idle at a drive thru. Mom's transaction is finished and I turn the key. The car starts and then immediately dies. My 2 year old Volvo that had just been serviced last month is dead.
Fortunately, my warranty comes with free wrecker service and so I have him towed home - after explaining to the bank manager that no, I cannot just push the car out of the way. The immobilizer has kicked in and I can't get him out of park and no, a few tellers helping aren't going to work.
Now this is prime smoking time because everybody knows a good smoke can relax you, right?
Studies have found, however, that in reality, lighting up has the opposite effect, causing long-term stress levels to rise, not fall. For those dependent on smoking, the only stress it relieves is the withdrawal between cigarettes.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
It is perception that connects the cigarette with stress relief. The same article quoted above relates a study conducted ca. 2010 by the London School of Medicine and Dentistry. They studied a group of people who tried to quit smoking after heart surgery and who had similar levels of stress and reported smoking helped alleviate that stress. After a year, they found that those who quit reported up to 20% less stress than those who continued to smoke.
So then...what?
Accept that the best laid plans of mice and men often come to naught. Take a few deep breaths and deal with the problem at hand..and be glad that you CAN take those deep breaths.
Smokefree.gov has a nice list of alternatives for relieving stress here: http://www.smokefree.gov/...
And my car? Turns out the battery "had issues" and so they replaced it - for free under warranty. Of course not until Tuesday and I had to rent a car to get around because I can't be without a car with an 82 year old mother but hey...it could be worse.
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