Coronavirus teaches us how to live healthier - smoking numbers down the most in a decade, try a whole "dry winter" instead of a "dry February"
There are already two months in English-speaking countries when people can give up alcohol without necessarily being subjected to harsh questioning from friends about the reasons for sudden abstinence - Sober October and Dry January. And now quite naturally we have added the coveted autumn and winter, seasons that need no further anti-alcohol explanation at all. Indeed, the usual opportunities to drink are gone. Weddings are limited by the number of people, and the same goes for funerals, celebrations and parties "can" be held at home at most...and more likely only in very limited numbers. It is equally clear that the otherwise traditional Christmas parties will take over. So, with a little will, it is indeed possible to give alcohol a rest. And the same goes for cigarettes, actually. In this case, the fact that smokers, among others, are the worst affected by the coronavirus may be the driving force for change...
How (not) to blow off steam
According to psychologists, the current times are very challenging for society. However, one does not actually need to be an expert to make such an observation. It is enough to look around. Many people are mired in depression, worried about their existence, about business. So it's clear that in these cases, both cigarettes and a shot of something sharper become a pretty easy "solution" to at least a momentary situation and serve as a kind of emotional blanket. According to Open University health sciences lecturer Claire Roston, our brains then work by evaluating alcohol as "rewarding" - and seeing it as a reward. Which, of course, is multiplied now, at a time when people are stressed - because drinking releases dopamine, which makes you feel better and more satisfied.
No wonder, then, that during a pandemic (and in isolation or quarantine), more than a fifth of people have started drinking more alcohol than usual, according to the current statistics. "Of course, there were plenty of reasons to start drinking more. Alcohol and anxiety are clearly linked; for decades we have been trained to associate any form of stress with the need to drink. So nowadays filling a glass with alcohol is quite natural," clarifies Clare Pooley, author of Sober Diaries, a book in which she describes her own problems with alcohol, but also how she gave it up for good. But not only in her opinion, the current period is also the ideal time to start abstinence. The World Health Organisation (WHO), among others, has also called for a reduction in access to alcohol.
Even the best alcohol will not change the problems that many people face. On the contrary, it can end up putting people in an even worse mental state. Not to mention the day "after" - hangovers, body tremors, sweating, panic and poor sleep simply do not add to your well-being. Of course, everyone knows that alcohol is not exactly "healing". But the truth is that, especially now, it is even more harmful to the body than usual. It interferes with the immune system at a time when good immunity is essential.
While it is clear that the health argument is unlikely to dissuade hard-core drinkers from regularly drinking alcohol, the much smaller number of opportunities to drink might. Because it is one thing for people who have more serious alcohol problems, and another for those who ride the alcohol wave especially when they are social and have a "reason" to drink (not infrequently even those who do not actually like alcohol but would rather have a drink than have to explain to friends or colleagues why they do not want to drink). In the former, of course, professional help is needed, but in the latter, the current situation can be a great starting point for a decision to abstain. And many people have already realised this - indeed, as the same research reports that 21% of people have increased their alcohol consumption, while 35% of the same sample have started drinking less or stopped completely.
Zdroj: Giphy
Cigarettes as a life-threatening pleasure?
Unlike alcohol, the situation is quite different for cigarettes. It is as if people are really aware of the negative effects that smoking can have on their body (not that alcohol, especially in excessive amounts, does not...). According to surveys carried out in the UK, one million people have given up smoking there alone since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Which, according to University College London, is more than in any year since the statistics started being taken 13 years ago.
In this case, then, a number of epidemiological factors are likely to be at work - from the fact that classic smoking opportunities are being missed (breaks at work, sitting in the pub), to the reduction in visits to shops and newsagents, to the clear health risks. In fact, smokers are 14% more likely to develop the full triad of coronavirus symptoms - fever, persistent cough and shortness of breath. Smokers who contract covid-19 are also twice as likely to end up in hospital because of the infection, which corresponds to the fact that smokers hospitalised with coronavirus are also 1.8 times more likely to die.
The golden mean
Of course, there is no need to radically change your whole life right away. "The 'quitting' can be gradual, although, especially in the case of cigarettes, it really is better to give up the pleasure and not return to it, which of course requires a fairly strong will. But on the other hand, the existing motivation could be quite strong...In the case of alcohol, however, the situation is different - because almost everyone consumes it and it is not necessarily a pathology. So if a glass of wine with dinner makes you happy and increases your sense of well-being, or if you have a beer after lunch to improve your digestion, there's not much to change about the practice. As Claire Roston sums up, "alcohol consumption is really a mechanism that people use to cope with stress. However, to a reasonable extent, it's also a way of adapting to a situation, so a glass of beer or wine is certainly not a road to perdition." It's just simply that if you've already tried to give up alcohol completely and failed, the current course of the world is the perfect one to try again.
