Nicotine Addiction

So if so many really want to stop, why do so many fail? Why is it so hard to quit smoking?

Quitting is so hard because there are really 3 facets to nicotine addiction that must be overcome.

1. Physiological aspect:
Neuroscientists call anything that turns on the reward pathways in the brain – addictive. This is because stimulating this neural circuitry makes you feel so good that you will keep repeating the action over again and again to repeat the good feeling.
2. Psychological aspect:
People who are addicted to something will continue to use it regardless of negative consequences. For example, some people will use an inhaler to open passages enough so they can have a cigarette. Or continue smoking even though they know the health risks of smoking.
3. Habitual aspect:

• The type of the tobacco
• The amount of cigarettes smoked and
• Whether or not the smoke is inhaled.

Nicotine is one of the most addictive of all drugs. This is largely because it can both stimulate and relax you. In small doses, nicotine produces alertness so it acts like a stimulant. In larger doses, it is acts more like a sedative, calming down the smoker when anxious.

Many drugs can’t penetrate the blood-brain barrier which is a system that selectively allows only certain molecules into the brain. But nicotine manages to indirectly defeat that protective mechanism. In fact, nicotine enters the brain within 7 seconds of inhaling. (This is faster than if you injected nicotine directly into your brain.) This is partially due to some of the chemicals which cigarette manufacturers add to tobacco. One such chemical is ammonia which increases the speed at which nicotine reaches the brain. Tobacco industry chemists knew that the faster it reaches your brain, the more addictive it is.

When in the brain nicotine:

• Increases the levels of endorphins (the “runners high” compounds)
• Affects the availability of dopamine which is responsible for the positive feelings associated with smoking. Signals are sent that say “smoking is pleasurable”. (Unfortunately, it doesn’t also send signals that inform the smoker that “smoking is also harmful”.)
• stimulates the adrenal glands causing the release of adrenaline which causes a spike in glucose levels. This results in an increase in respiration and heart – raising blood pressure which, within limits, is perceived as desirable.

Your body then becomes used to having certain levels of nicotine in your blood. So when that level falls, you begin to crave cigarettes and start to experience nicotine withdrawal. This means you have become addicted to nicotine.

Remember when we said that nicotine is both a stimulant and a relaxant? Well, those properties are the reason that people also become psychologically addicted to nicotine.

Smokers learn to use nicotine to cope with emotions. They light up when they are bored anxious, angry, frustrated, etc.

For example:

• When stuck in traffic, may be anxious so want to relax.
• Waiting for someone, wants a stimulant because they may be bored.

So nicotine becomes a coping mechanism to deal with cravings and symptoms of nicotine withdrawal and to even out moods.

When you first started smoking, you probably had only a few cigarettes a day, but over time you began to associate most of the cigarettes you smoke with certain activities. Most often, these activities when you smoked are ones that you were able to take out a cigarette and spend time smoking.

For example, these situations could include:

• Shortly after waking,
• Relaxing after meals,
• Talking on the phone,
• Having a cup of coffee or drink of alcohol,
• Waiting for someone.

As time went by, your brain began to make a connection between these certain activities and having a cigarette. Therefore, every time you were in that situation you want to smoke.

To quit smoking you must work on breaking this connection so you are literally “breaking the habit”.

To be successful in quitting smoking, you must learn to recognize all the aspects of nicotine addiction and develop coping mechanisms to deal with each of them.

So, when trying to quit, try to keep in mind that “long–term harmful” is much worse than “short-term pleasurable” and the health benefits that you will achieve by stopping is worth the effort.

Return to Top
Tips for Quitting
Leave Nicotine Addiction and Return Home