Smoking addiction: how it arises and how to get rid of nicotine addiction

Smoking is one of the oldest bad habits that lead to persistent physiological and psychological dependence. That is, the habit of smoking forms an uncontrollable dependence on cigarettes in a person until such the degree that smoking cessation can cause severe emotional, mental or physical reactions.

Everyone knows that smoking is harmful and addictive, but few understand how risky smoking addiction is. According to statistics, approximately one in three smokers will eventually die due to smoking. On average, heavy smokers die on 10-15 years earlier than people dying from other causes. Most smokers want to stop and actually try to quit, but only one in three have successfully quit their addiction before 60 year old age. By this time, great harm to the body can be done - sometimes irreversible. Those who eventually quit smoking usually try to stop two or three times before they succeed. Only 2.5% of smokers successfully quit smoking addiction every year.

Is it a drug addiction

The reason many people fail to quit smoking is because they are drug addicted to tobacco. Alkaloid

nicotine, which is found in the annual herb tobacco, acts as a psychostimulant, causing a mild-euphoric state. The fact that nicotine is a drug is stated on the website of the World Health Organization (WHO) in the Tobacco Free Initiative.

According to the International Statistical Classification of Diseases (ICD-10), smoking is regarded as a disease from category T 65.2 “Toxic effects of other and unspecified substances”.

Being addicted to smoking doesn't mean you can't stop - just that it can be difficult. Anyone can succeed in giving up a pathological habit if they have strong motivation.

How tobacco dependence occurs

When using tobacco products, nicotine is rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream. Within 10 seconds of entering the body, nicotine reaches the brain. This causes the brain to command an adrenaline rush, creating a sense of pleasure and energy.

This sensation quickly disappears, leaving in the person a feeling of fatigue and a desire to experience the adrenaline rush again. This feeling makes you light the next cigarette.

Since the human body is able to create a high tolerance to nicotine, the smoker has to smoking more and more cigarettes to get the pleasant effects of nicotine and prevent symptoms abstinence.

Research shows that children and adolescents can be particularly sensitive to nicotine, which makes them addicted to smoking more quickly than adults.

Tobacco companies also use additives and chemicals to make smoking more exciting and enjoyable for the smoker.

Signs of nicotine addiction

Tobacco and nicotine are addictive, like alcohol, cocaine and heroin.

When a person stops smoking or reduces the dose of tobacco, withdrawal symptoms begin, such as:

• anxiety;
• irritability;
• headache;
• sweating;
• arrhythmia;
• insomnia;
• strong cravings for cigarettes and other sources of nicotine.

Nicotine withdrawal symptoms are short-lived and usually resolve in less than a week. They are the most uncomfortable part of quitting smoking.

Physical dependence on cigarettes and psychological dependence on nicotine

Smoking is a physical addiction that produces a "chain reaction" in the body.

Nicotine acts on the neurotransmitter receptor acetylcholine. Neurotransmitters are "chemical messengers" released by nerve cells to "communicate" with other cells and change their electrical activity.

The body reacts to nicotine as if it were a natural transmitter (acetylcholine), and the activity and physiological functions of many brain systems are altered.

This is how physical dependence on cigarettes begins to form.

With repeated dosages of nicotine, the body adapts to what it considers to be additional acetylcholine in an attempt to restore normal function. One way to do this is to increase the number of acetylcholine receptors. Thus, nicotine induces structural as well as functional changes in smokers' brains.

As the body becomes accustomed to the constant flow of nicotine, symptoms such as anxiety and stress can occur if the smoker misses a smoke break. This stage means that a person has a physical dependence on cigarettes.

To quickly diagnose nicotine addiction, you can use a test consisting of three questions:

• Do you smoke more than twenty cigarettes a day?
• Do you smoke within 30 minutes of waking up?
• Do you feel strong cravings for smoking or have withdrawal symptoms if you tried to quit smoking?

If the person answered “yes” to all the questions, he is addicted to nicotine.

Psychological addiction

Situations and actions associated with smoking, as well as the mood of the smoker and his psychological state while smoking, become signals or triggers for creating cravings for the effects of nicotine. For example, many people prefer to smoke after meals, when meeting people, at work, while talking on phone, as well as in case of anxiety, irritation, etc. This is how a psychological dependence on nicotine.

The triggers that induce the urge to smoke are numerous because smoking can occur in many situations. Smoking is becoming an ingrained daily ritual, so it is no longer a conscious choice.

For some people, smoking can cause a feeling of relaxation, or calmness, if used during certain situations or when interacting with certain people. For example, the stereotype “smoked after sex” sounds true to many people. Most people feel calm, joyful and peaceful after sex, and if they smoke after lovemaking, then later unconsciously associate pleasant sensations with the act of smoking. These emotional bonds are difficult to "break" because there is no medication to deal with them.

How to get rid of addiction

Self-help is, in fact, the only way to get rid of psychological and physical addiction to cigarettes. Other people can help the smoker mentally, but he must make the decision and refrain from smoking himself. To be successful, a person must have sufficient motivation. At least two thirds of smokers have difficulty trying to quit smoking. Many have already tried and could not stand the rejection of nicotine. They continue to smoke not because they are weak-willed or irresponsible people, but because they are addicted to nicotine.

As a result of long-term exposure to nicotine, the nervous system of addicted smokers has been altered and functions best when given a dose of nicotine. Therefore, they learned to rely on cigarettes to feel normal. Due to addiction to tobacco, smokers usually have to quit gradually so that their the system could function normally without nicotine and learn to feel good again without cigarettes.

Personal health concerns are by far the most important motive for smokers to quit. The appearance of such health problems as cough, sore throat, shortness of breath, and upset stomach are early signs that the body is not coping with the effects of nicotine on it. These warnings convince some smokers to stop and not put themselves at risk of developing oncological diseases, such as lung cancer, as well as dangerous diseases associated with smoking, such how erectile disfunction, coronary artery thrombosis, atherosclerosis and others.

For other smokers, family health is the motivation to quit the habit. Infants and young children are particularly vulnerable to secondhand smoke in the House. If the mother smoked during pregnancy, the baby is more likely to be born with a low birth weight, develop more slowly than peers, he will need treatment for heart disease and disturbances in the work of the nervous systems.

For parents, doctors and teachers, the responsibility to set a good example for others is often an additional motive to end nicotine addiction.

Social pressure can be the motivation to quit smoking or to start, depending on the company. Concerns about secondhand smoke are increasing the pressure on smokers in offices, restaurants and other public places.

Some smokers reach the stage where they realize they have very little pleasure in smoking and continue to smoke just because they are addicted. They begin to resent that they have no control over their own habit and are motivated to regain control over their desires.

To succeed in quitting smoking, a smoker will need to think about their motives and doubts to make sure they are committed to never smoking again. And then visit a drug therapist and work together to plan how to deal with withdrawal symptoms until they gradually improve.

You also need to make two lists:

1. list of all reasons to quit smoking
2. and a similar list of all the positive benefits of smoking.

As you study these two lists, it is important to remember that any suffering one has to endure on the path to freedom from nicotine addiction will be temporary and only last three to four weeks. But the benefits of quitting smoking will be permanent.