TIME Magazine recently reported on “The Weird Link Between E-Cigarettes and Mental Health Disorders”. When you think about it, the link is fairly intuitive (and proven by theACE study): people, as it says “suffering from depression, anxiety, and other mental disorders”, are much likelier to smoke something. In fact, the connection is so strong that, the study writes, “People suffering from mental disorders buy upwards of 50 percent of cigarettes sold in the U.S. annually.”
I suspect the percentage is even higher when you view smoking from a trauma-informed perspective. Please note—I am not saying I support smoking. But I do support what people are often trying to achieve when they smoke something—be it a Marlboro, an e-cigarette, or anything else. And true to form, dear reader, I think TIME author Sharon Cummins misses the point when she says that people with mental disorders have been forgotten in the war on smoking.
Why do people with trauma histories light stuff on fire and breathe in deeply? Part of the answer has to do with your breathing when you’re scared. See, from youngest to oldest, we all tend to hold our breath when we’re frightened. At the very least, our breathing becomes shallow and more rapid. If you are frightened at a very early age, and if your fear is not relieved so that you can return to deep, relaxed breathing, then shallow rapid breathing becomes your norm. And your brain yearns for more oxygen, as does your heart and all of your related systems that feed on oxygen. Your brain? It learns and adapts to this new norm, creating state-dependent pathways.
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