Article Summary: Quitting Smoking is Associated with Recovery from other Addictions

Written by: Derya Ozes, MA, LMFT, Chief Program Officer

Article reference: https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/quitting-smoking-associated-recovery-other-addictions

NIH research published on August 13^th, 2025, claims that individuals who smoke and have substance-use disorders are more likely to have stronger recovery outcomes from substance use recovery if they also quit smoking.

Specifically, the article suggests:

• Those who are dependent or continue to smoke nicotine-based compounds will also show lower probability and prolonged dependency on use of other substances.
• Smoking cessation also promotes recovery from substance use.

This study was based on a cohort of 2,652 individuals 18 and older who were monitored for four consecutive years during their recovery journey. Forty-two percent of individuals who quit nicotine-based smoking had positive recovery outcomes of their substance dependency (alcohol and other substances) compared to those who continued nicotine-based smoking.

While the article discourages nicotine-based smoking for those in substance-use recovery, it is essential for mental health and substance use providers to promote cessation in client-centric approaches. While not stated in the article, clinical experience suggests that abruptly quitting smoking may increase psychological risks, such as heightened depressive symptoms. It is important for treatment centers to provide person-centered and evidence-based processes such as desensitization and exposure prevention response therapy, coupled with nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) options. Gradually, these modalities empower an individual to learn new methods of coping, increasing distress-tolerance while gaining self-confidence when enduring the withdrawal symptoms from cessation. These land as methodological, mindful, and ethical processes.

In this way, I tend to think of a person’s learning and coping journey as though rebuilding a house that requires replacement of all four walls while maintaining the same roof. If you knock down all four walls at once, the roof will immediately collapse, causing a catastrophic injury, and perhaps one that will not be recoverable.

Consider that example as an analogy for a client who is in pain and needs to knock down old walls. Suddenly stripping away the very thing that functioned as a coping mechanism can lead to a rough collapse of the entire structure if not withdrawn mindfully.

For these reasons, at Horizon, we recognize that one’s long-term recovery outcomes are better when quitting smoking concurrently with other substances. We offer desensitization and titration techniques that help individuals build skills from within while also engaging in nicotine replacement therapy (NRT).  These integrated interventions work together to support the client’s psychological and physical well-being, while empowering them to dismantle personal barriers (old walls) at their own pace.