I'm a smoker. My blood pressure is very, very high. I want to quit. Anyone know if anxiety and worry can make it harder to quit. I'm also bipolar. Sometimes I think if I could just calm down, maybe I would smoke less or quit.

Just looking for ideas. Bipolar verbal outbursts got me fired before being diagnosed. So now my anxiety/worry factor is same as when working. Then I worried about the place going under which it did. Now I worry how I'm going to survive.

So in short, can anxiety make you smoke or if I had anxiety treated, could I stop smoking easier?

[kaliope]

I know I smoke because of my anxiety. I believe it is because it forces me to breathe deeply that it makes me feel better. I was able to quit for a couple months last year after I had hypnosis for my anxiety and I wasn't anxious anymore but then the anxiety came back and I started smoking again.

I was a smoker in my youth (2+ packs a day).

I was motivated to quit, I went through hypnosis - and I have never WANTED to smoke since.

[cherrykix]

I'm a smoker too, and hoping to quite this summer!

My doctor has told me that while smoking seems like it calms anxiety (it's really just the nicotine rush), it actually causes more anxiety in people with mental illnesses. I've tried to quit a few times, but it's never stuck because of stress reasons. I'm a stress chain-smoker (it's horrible!!).

Generally, smoking exacerbates anxiety and panic.

Smoking always made me feel better because I knew it was damaging me. That one cigarette meant 5 minutes less living this hell.

Like kaliope I also feel that it helped during full blown panic attacks. When I was hyperventilating having a cigarette helped me focus on my breathing and slow it down.