A smoking addiction occurs when an individual becomes dependent on cigarettes and cannot cease using them without experiencing severe and unpleasant physical and emotional reactions. Such a condition is dangerous with many health risks associated with smoking (around a third of smokers die as a result of their smoking and on average smokers die around ten years earlier than non smokers), and is also antisocial and expensive. Before you can kick the habit however you need to understand it, and before you can understand a smoking addiction you need to realise that it’s a complex interplay of various factors - which is a large part of what makes the addiction so difficult to overcome with only 2.5% of smokers successfully quitting each year.
One of the main reasons smoking is so addictive, and the one we shall examine here, is that it contains nicotine (which is also what makes it a physical addiction as well as a psychological one). Nicotine is a drug that is absorbed into the blood stream through the lungs when the smoke is inhaled (as well as slightly through the lining of the mouth or buccal mucosa and more so when tobacco is chewed and the nose). This then effects the electrical activity of the brain, aiding the transmissions across synapses of neurotransmitters which the brain responds to in the same way as though it was the original hormone (acetylcholine) which results in a calming effect as well as various other changes to the hormonal systems in the body (it may additionally increase attention and recall and its effectiveness as a nootropic is being examined). Importantly however it’s the effects it has on the ‘pleasure centres’ of the brain (the mesolimbic dopamine system among others) which can partially explain its addictive properties. This is then exacerbated as smokers develop a tolerance to nicotine which enables them to take higher and higher doses before noticing the effects to the same degree. This can then also cause withdrawal symptoms, caused partly by the fact that the brain stops producing as much acetylcholine naturally by way of compensation and has changed to the point where it actually requires more rather than less. The rapid effects of nicotine also mean that it usually doesn’t take long before users develop a physical smoking addiction. For those who have an addiction to nicotine, nicotine patches or nicotine gum can be useful to lessen dependence on cigarettes.
While the inclusion of nicotine explains a large part of the physical, chemical smoking addiction, there are many other factors at play. Smoking for one is a social behaviour, and it can . It can also become a habit that you reach for for comfort much like nail biting or playing with your hair (which is why many people find it helpful to use a plastic cigarette), in these ways it’s possible to become psychologically addicted to too. A successful strategy to quit smoking will take all these factors into account.
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