Moneymaker79
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Joined: 27 Sep 2005
Location: Slovenia
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Just thought I'd share something important after being away for so long...
I've been doing a lot of research recently on addiction for one of my projects and something important struck me that I thought all smokers would want to know. Maybe this little shift in thinking and understanding addiction to nicotine will help you quit if you so choose... I know it helped me.
First, most people know addiction can be physical and psychological. The hard drugs such as heroin and alcohol produce both addictions. After abusing the substances for too long (each substance, of course, takes a different period to produce physical addiction), one experiences withdrawal symptoms after going without the drug for some time.
This is due to the drug literally changing how the brain works. It messes up the delicate balances in the concentrations of neurotransmitters or receptors in certain parts of the brain. In time, due to tolerance, a certain amount of drug is needed simply to maintain a normal state and a higher concentration is needed to get the desired effect (this is why addicted people have to use the drug more and more often or in a higher dosage).
The good news with nicotine, although also physically and psychologically addictive drug, is that the physical withdrawal symptoms are nowhere near to those that heroin or alcohol produce.
But, there's a catch - smoking produces a very strong psychological addiction and once one was a smoker, the option and temptation to smoke don't go away for some time.
In fact, temptation to smoke can persist anywhere from a week to a month or two. But the option doesn't ever go away! (it's not so harsh as it sounds, stay with me...)
Let me quickly explain the "option" component. I'm going to do it on my own example because very recently I've been going out a lot and for some reason or another I've been smoking almost every time I was out.
A funny thing happened... First, after a while I noticed that when I started smoking for the night, it was very hard for me NOT to smoke if the cigarettes were available. Almost always I'd smoke all my cigarettes and then I'd ask my friends to give me theirs. At first I thought it was the alcohol making me do this but last week I was on vacation with my friends and I noticed I was turning into a regular smoker.
Where just a few short months ago I never even thought of smoking cigarettes (sure, I did an occasional cigar or cigarillos but I did this every few months), now it was strange to me when people didn't smoke.
A new option was born inside my brain - to smoke or not to smoke. Before the option "to smoke" didn't exist at all and this new option will probably stay with me for the rest of my life (or at least many years!).
I noticed I was exhibiting the first signs of psychological addiction and also the first signs of physical addiction - tolerance. Where once, only one cigarette gave me quite a huge buzz, now I could smoke one like it was nothing. In fact, now I have to chain-smoke three cigarettes to feel the same buzz as before from just one.
This made me think and luckily I was just starting to research the problems of addiction so the red flags started to go up all over the place.
To make a long story shorter, this is what I found through research and experience:
1.) Nicotine is a highly addictive substance. In fact, it's one of the most addictive substances we know! It acts by stimulating the pleasure and reward centers in our brain and it happens within seconds after inhaling the smoke. This way our brain very quickly associates smoking with pleasure - a very bad combo!
2.) Nicotine is a brain stimulant. A popular belief is that smoking relaxes you. In reality, nicotine stimulates the brain and body, similarly to caffeine. Why you feel relaxed after smoking is because you're feeding your addiction so to speak. Also, after a while the brain gets wired in a way that it reacts to conflicts by you lighting your cigarette. When presented either by two bad options or two good options, the brain enters into a conflict. The usual response is scratching your head. But here the brain learned a new response behavior - lighting a cigarette. This somewhat relieves the inner tension and in combination of stimulating the reward centers giving an illusion of relaxation.
3.) Cigarettes aren't your friend. They created the problem and are now offering themselves as a solution. This is exactly the same as saying that a racketeer that comes to your place of business and takes your money for "protection" is your friend. Sure, if you pay him, you won't have problems... from him. But the thing is that he created the problem in the first place. So do the cigarettes.
4.) Good news: Nicotine leaves the body very quickly. Within a day the concentrations are very low and within a week there aren't even traces left in the body.
Once you realize that cigarettes are essentially useless, it's easier to kick the habit. I know I did. The physical withdrawal effects are relatively mild and take up to a week. They are very easy to ignore. The psychological dependence is a bit harder, especially if you're surrounded by smokers. But now that you know that the cigarettes are, figuratively speaking, essentially big, bad guys coming to your place of business, disrespecting you, slapping you around a bit and taking your money for protection from themselves, you can turn this slight anger towards them and let it help you kick the habit for good.
Hope this made sense and that it helps anyone. This was my process of thinking and I feel great. The option is still here but the temptation is gone. I opt for "no smoking".
Have a wonderful week.
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Mon May 07, 2012 12:13 am |
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Cash: $ 408.30
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Joined: 16 Jan 2011
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Moneymaker79,
Thanks for sharing this post. Smoking can be very addictive and is a bad habit.
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Tue May 08, 2012 1:46 am |
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