How To Info How to info
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Dealing with PTSD is hard. But did you know that smoking actually makes PTSD symptoms worse? It also makes recovery harder.
Think about the goals of your PTSD treatment. How does smoking keep you from reaching those goals?
You can use the same skills to manage your PTSD symptoms and deal with nicotine cravings.
HIV
Research shows that people with HIV are two to three times more likely to be smokers than people who don’t have HIV. Smoking is tough on the body, and that’s especially true for people with HIV. They are more likely to get sick more frequently.
Smokers who have HIV face the same tobacco-related health risks as other smokers—like cancer, cardiac disease, stroke, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Plus, people with HIV who smoke have an increased risk of respiratory tract infections, including acute bronchitis, bacterial pneumonia, and tuberculosis. The risk of pneumocystis pneumonia—a serious infection common among people with HIV—is increased by smoking.
Smoking can affect the metabolism and effectiveness of some medications that are used to treat HIV. So they might not work as well as they should to keep the HIV virus under control. This may cause a faster progression from HIV to AIDS.
Overall, people with HIV who smoke have a shorter life expectancy than people with HIV who don’t smoke. Thinking about quitting? Build your quit plan.
