It is a time of anxiety and uncertainty for people everywhere. There is no part of the society that is unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
While people with existing health problems are wondering how they will manage them for want of facilities that were available to them before have either been altered or closed, health professionals are working round the clock to reduce and prevent the spread of the contagion.
During this time, anxiety can cause an uncomfortable feeling and can create a sense of behavioural paralysis and disengagement from daily tasks and obligations.
As Dr Hamed al Sinawi, Senior Consultant Psychiatrist at Sultan Qaboos University puts it, “It is understandable that for many, the lockdown can cause stress and anxiety, especially with people who have some or the other addiction”.
The most vulnerable individuals to coronavirus are those with low immunity, especially people with a nicotine addiction, since the virus affects the respiratory system.
Dr Hamed says the lockdown is a good time to quit smoking. “Quitting smoking is challenging at any time, but it may seem especially daunting now, during the unsettled, anxiety-ridden days of the current pandemic. But for people who are battling with the smoking or any other addiction and who are very keen to stop them would make use of the current situation,” he says.
A testimony to the fact is my friend who has been trying to kick the butt for the last several years. He tried quitting many times, that too, not smoking for weeks.
“Now the lockdown has come as a shot in the arm as I ran out of stock and my movement is restricted. Moreover, I realise that smokers are more vulnerable to the infection from the coronavirus,” he said.
Suspecting him because of earlier failed attempts, when I insisted, he said, “it’s not like the past, there is an unprecedented risk now. Smokers are more vulnerable to respiratory infection,” he said.
According to a recent report in Harvard University publication, a history of addiction and its psychiatric comorbidity might increase risk for COVID-19 infection. It might also create conditions that threaten recovery.
It’s a harsh reality that if you’re a smoker you’re more likely to get acute respiratory infections and have a higher risk of those infections becoming severe.
“Increased risks may come from the damage smoking does to your lungs and the transmission of a virus from hand to mouth while you’re smoking. Exposure to second-hand smoke also increases the risk of getting acute respiratory infections,” wrote Sarah Chapman, a blogger and Knowledge Broker at Cochrane UK.
The impact of flu or respiratory infections on smokers is more severe than non-smokers.
But quitting is hard for many, and perhaps particularly so at a time of great stress and when many of our routines have been so suddenly disrupted.
According to Dr Hamed, people who are battling addiction and who are very keen to stop would make use of the fact that they are unable to go out and get cigarettes or the substances they are addicted to.
“With family members being around, this could provide them with support to work with the potential withdrawal symptoms, which are disturbing but may not be lethal.”
The fact that smoking can aggregate the symptoms of coronavirus and lockdown should be a motivation for smokers to quit the habit.
Do not forget, smokers who become infected with the coronavirus are at much greater risk of having a worse outcome, perhaps because of smoking’s compromising effect on the body’s immune system.
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