A large percentage of people who smoke will do so in times of stress.
Some people will use cigarettes to help them manage their stress and most people will tend to smoke more cigarettes during times of stress.
The reason for this is because the nicotine in the cigarettes helps to change your mood and when faced with a stressful situation people will always look for the easiest solution to relieve that stress or at least some of it.
There is another factor where smoking can help people to cope with stress and that is by allowing them to focus on something other than the stress for a short while when they first encounter it by taking time out to light up a cigarette.
Often this is done away from the stressful situation where people will walk outside to have a smoke giving them an excuse to withdraw from the situation at hand.
Anything that you can do to eliminate or manage your stress levels will help you to smoke less and also help you to quit smoking and not revert back to it when faced again with stress.
There are better ways at handling stress than smoking cigarettes and learning good stress management skills will help in many more areas of your life so it is well worth looking at the alternatives.
Exercise is one of the best forms of stress management as it has the added benefits of improving your health and managing weight.
Yoga and meditation are regarded as two of the best forms of stress management and they can both help to gain a healthy balance in life that will also assist in quitting smoking.
If there are recurring stress problems in your life then you really need to address these at the source and see if you can resolve the issues that are causing the stress. It is always better to eliminate the stress rather than find ways to help deal with it.