You Have a Nicotine Addiction—Here’s What That Means

Ask a smoker why she smokes and she’ll give you a litany of reasons—that is, excuses; we looked at 5 particularly lame ones in a previous post. But beneath all the excuses lies the simple truth; she has a nicotine addiction.

Nicotine is the most heavily used addictive drug in the world

… and smoking is the most commonly used delivery system. Many claim that nicotine is as addictive as heroin or cocaine. While I’ve never known of anyone injecting nicotine directly into their bloodstream (that would kill you real quick!) a finely ground powder of tobacco called “snuff” is often snorted like cocaine. Nicotine is poison; one drop of pure nicotine would kill you dead in minutes! And nicotine has been used as a weed killer and pesticide for centuries (I remember my dad using it to kill dandelions as a kid).

When you take a drag on a cigarette nicotine is absorbed by the lungs and delivered to the brain in 8-10 seconds; lots of things begin happening then. Nicotine raises your blood pressure and heart rate as well as changing your breathing patterns. Scientists have recently discovered that it raises the levels of a neurotransmitter called “dopamine” in parts of the brain that are associated with pleasure. It has this effect in common with its previously mentioned pals heroin and cocaine.

Nicotine doesn’t hang around for long. In about 30 minutes levels drop to about half, and to one quarter in an hour.

At some point during this decrease the nicotine addiction raises its ugly head; “Feed me! Feed me!” it demands.

The smoker begins to feel “pangs”; there is, contrary to common lore, no physical pain involved. It is merely a feeling of restlessness or that something is missing and can lead to nervousness or agitation on the part of the smoker. And how do we end the nervousness and agitation? “More poison, please!”

The dynamics of nicotine addiction are pretty much the same as those of any other addiction. You experience something that makes you feel good (drugs, alcohol, nicotine) and when the “feel-good” stuff goes away you’re left feeling bad. And the way to stop feeling bad is to ingest more of the feel-good stuff.

And so the cycle continues. The need to recover from an unpleasant state created by the addictive substance of choice demands that the addict ingest more of the substance that is causing the discomfort in the first place.

A needle in the arm, a “toot” up the nose or the seemingly far-less-harmless act of smoking a cigarette—all serve the same purpose.

And that is to deliver the drug of choice in order to relieve symptoms caused by the drug of choice. Get real, smoker. You don’t smoke to relieve stress or look cool or give your hands something to do; you smoke because you’re an addict, just like the street-creature you call a junkie. Recovering from heroin addiction is a nightmare; with the right mindset, recovering from a nicotine addiction is actually pretty easy.

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