As nicotine is highly addictive, willpower alone may not be enough when you’re trying to quit. The good news is that various forms of support are available for when you want to stop using nicotine products.
For example, you can start learning more by checking out the Health Information section on the FSHS website, with the recently published article Quitting nicotine. It discusses the benefits of quitting and the adverse effects associated with various nicotine products. You’ll also find tips and links to help you quit.
Quitting helps improve your health and your ability to study
First and foremost, quitting nicotine has positive effects on health. It reduces the risk of many serious illnesses, including cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes. With nicotine no longer straining your cardiovascular system, improving your fitness level also becomes possible. Your oral health improves and your breath is fresher.
After quitting, it takes about two days for nicotine to be eliminated from your body. Withdrawal symptoms last for about 3 to 4 weeks on average. Once the addiction has ended, the withdrawal symptoms, which may include irritability, difficulty concentrating, and sleep problems, will also cease. In the long term your mood, concentration and sleep quality may also improve, which will benefit your ability to study.
Before quitting, it’s a good idea to make a clear plan. When you plan ahead instead of basing the change only on emotions, the addiction is less likely to return.
You will save money to spend on other things
Quitting nicotine products also saves money. Here are a couple of examples obtained using the calculators developed by the Irti Nuuskasta (‘Quitting snus’) project.
Student no. 1 smokes five to six cigarettes daily. The cost is 20.6 euros per week and 82.4 euros per month. Over the course of a year, student no. 1 will spend about 988.8 euros on cigarettes.
Student no. 2 uses nicotine pouches. On average, they go through three boxes every week, and at 6.90 euros per box, this amounts to a little over 82 euros per month. Over the course of a year, student no. 2 will spend 993.60 euros on nicotine pouches.
Visit these pages (in Finnish) to make your own calculations:
- Snus or nicotine pouches: Nuuskalaskuri (irtinuuskasta.fi)
- Cigarettes: Tupakkalaskuri (irtinuuskasta.fi)
Quitting is green
As nicotine products have detrimental environmental effects throughout their production chain, respect for the environment may act as another motivator for quitting nicotine. The cigarette butts and snus and nicotine pouches that end up as litter in the environment also cause significant harm to the ecosystem.
- Read more: How nicotine products impact the environment
The FSHS campaign for quitting
At the FSHS, we want to help higher education students to quit nicotine use. Considering that the latest KOTT survey of 2024 found that 15% of higher education students use some type of nicotine product every day, the issue directly affects a considerable number of students.
Week 7 will be the FSHS’s Quitting nicotine – How is your mouth? theme week. The theme week will be highlighted on FSHS digital channels, and in some locations FSHS staff will be advertising the nicotine theme on campuses or in our service unit lobbies.
The “How is your mouth?” week is the FSHS’s own oral health-themed week, happening for the first time this year and to be held annually with a new theme each time. Chosen as the theme for this first year, nicotine addiction has a wide range of effects on students’ health: not only does quitting nicotine have immediate effects on oral health, it also benefits general and mental health.