Understanding your triggers and how nicotine impacts you can help when thinking about quitting.
When you smoke or vape, a lot is happening in your body and much of it isn’t visible. It can feel appealing in the moment, but over time it can lead to nicotine dependence and increase the risk of serious health harm. This World No Tobacco Day, we’re taking a closer look at what feels appealing, and unmasking what’s really happening.
Having insight into why you smoke or vape and understanding the effects can help when thinking about quitting.
You may associate smoking or vaping with enjoyable moments, such as after a meal or when socialising. This can make quitting feel challenging.
Nicotine products are designed to be addictive.
The nicotine industry creates products to be as addictive as possible. This makes it really difficult to quit, even if you really want to.
The nicotine in cigarettes and vapes is highly addictive and works to continually reinforce the desire for more. Over time, your brain starts looking for nicotine in certain moments, these are known as triggers. When you respond to that urge for nicotine, a feel-good hormone called dopamine is released, creating a positive association in your brain and body.
Finding out more about how addiction works can help you understand how to quit.
Get curious about what you’re really getting from smoking or vaping.
Both smoking and vaping have serious health effects. To understand the health risks of smoking or vaping, use Quit’s Health Effects tool.
There are so many benefits to quitting smoking or vaping. As soon as you quit smoking or vaping your body starts to heal itself.
Support is available.
There are many ways to quit smoking or vaping, starting with making a quit plan and contacting Quitline on 13 7848.