Smoking

Habit: If you continue to smoke because you think it calms you down, think again. Nicotine, the addictive substance in cigarettes, only makes it seem that way.

“The drug nicotine is actually a stimulant which makes you more nervous,” says Benjamin Toll, a clinical psychologist at Yale School of Medicine, where he’s also an assistant professor of psychiatry. What nicotine does is bind to certain sites in your brain, which increases the level of dopamine, a neurotransmitter and feel-good hormone. In other words, Toll says, you need to continue to smoke at fixed intervals to keep enough addictive nicotine in your system to ensure you’ve got plenty of dopamine, which research has associated with pleasure.

Nicotine has another trick up its sleeve, Toll explains. The only way to keep nicotine levels up is to take smoke breaks, which are often welcome relaxing escapes from stressful situations. “Over time, the smoker begins to associate these moments of calm—the cigarette breaks—with the smoking itself,” he says.

Damage:  A massive amount of research associates smoking with lung cancer, respiratory illness and a host of other health issues. Toll says recent research shows that using the nicotine patch and nicotine lozenges, combined with counseling, can be effective. “It’s very important that people get counseling while using the patch and lozenges,” he says. “Smoking is an addiction, and you need to address this habit in the same way you’d address taking drugs.”

Posted in: America’s Top 8 Nervous Habits