Why do some people quit drinking, smoking, take up their minds after 40 years, and then begin to mope, get sick and die?

Maybe because they came too late to this and they are no longer able to suppress their addictions. The body has been accustomed to functioning this way for many years. The conclusion is that you need to get rid of this as early as possible, and even better not to come to this at all. Here I think the big mistake of our society is that the image of alcohol and smoking is maintained as legal entertainment substances. Very often and in almost all families you can see a picture when a teenage child is offered to drink alcohol, because "it is already possible". And I personally saw how the child did not like it (he himself was one of those), but he was still taught to drink for the holidays, because that is how it should be. Someone has been disgusted since childhood and then practically does not drink all their lives, but someone sits down to varying degrees and off they go.

Here, in my opinion, the factor is psychological + physiological. First, there is an already established norm of life involving nicotine and alcohol. Refusal to consume substances familiar to the body, which, in addition to everything else, suppressed psychological stress - in itself is stress for the psyche, a rather extreme "way out of the comfort zone", which a person after forty experiences with difficulty. The additional psychological load is wearing out, and how. Secondly, the body, in spite of the fact that the aforementioned substances do harm it, has already adapted to the absorption and processing of these substances, especially when it comes to tens of years. The human body is generally a very adaptable thing. And if he is suddenly deprived of everything to which he has gradually adapted for years - this is the key -, then this is a strong stress for the body too. The result is psychological + physiological stress, an increased load on all systems, because the body, like the psyche, must rebuild itself, we get increased wear and tear and everything that follows from this. It may well come to concomitant diseases and eventually death.

I think there are two different topics here.

1) A quit alcoholic.

If alcohol and everything around drinking a) filled his life, literally created its content, meaning, b) stifled tension, dissatisfaction with how (not) he built his life. It is really possible that - oops! The previous meaning disappeared, all the pain from internal conflicts, anger at the world, myself, my wife and children was kicked out. That is, it sticks out - when it was, it just jammed, sucked the bottle.

This is a crisis, similar to a crisis against the background of the death of a loved one, no matter how blasphemous or sarcastic it may sound.

Attention ! This is not about the fact that getting out of chemical addiction will inevitably lead to all sorts of bugs. - This is about the fact that ... well, a crisis, a sharp deep change in the core around which life was built.

However, - well, how can this in itself lead to death? To depression - quite, to dysphoria - yes. But he fell into decay and just died ... That is, unless he left already in a pre-agonal state, with cirrhosis of the liver and other delights.

2) Not an alcoholic. - And then I won't even know. I have not even heard such urban legends, not to mention the real stories from the first and second hand. And even if you know a real case, I would assume that after - does not mean due.

Well, I suppose that after 40 years of smoking and drunkenness, the body is already quite worn out and weakened and giving up bad habits is not the main cause of death and depression (although abrupt refusal is stressful) I personally do not drink or smoke since birth and I don't feel that my life is less bright. I think it's rather just the consequences of long-term harm to health.