Lets face it: Everyone knows that smoking is harmful and addictive, but few people realize just how risky and addictive it is.
Smoking causes addiction.A smoking addiction means a person has formed an uncontrollable dependence on cigarettes to the point where stopping smoking would cause severe emotional, mental, or physical reactions.
The reason why so many people fail despite their wish to stop is because they are addicted. However, being addicted does not mean that you cannot stop - only that it is likely to be difficult. Anyone can succeed if he or she goes about it in the right way and utiizing the most suitable methods.
How you stop - and, especially, when you stop - is a very personal matter. Only you know what you have to give up, and how the benefits of smoking matter to you.
Harassment and pressure from others who do not understand is often unhelpful. You will only stop when you have made a firm decision to quit. When you do make up your mind and follow our recommendations however, you will succeed, regardless of how addicted you may be.
Why Is Smoking Addictive?
Nicotine is the drug in tobacco that causes addiction. It is absorbed and enters the bloodstream, through the lungs when smoke is inhaled, and through the lining of the mouth (buccal mucosa) when tobacco is chewed or used as oral snuff or for non-inhaled pipe and cigar smoking. It is also absorbed through the nose from nasal snuff.
Nicotine is a psychoactive drug with stimulant effects on the electrical activity of the brain. It also has calming effects, especially at times of stress, as well as effects on hormonal and other systems throughout the body. Although its subjective effects are less dramatic and obvious than those of some other addictive drugs, smoking doses of nicotine causes activation of "pleasure centers" in the brain (for example, the mesolimbic dopamine system), which may explain the pleasure, and addictiveness of smoking.
Smokers develop tolerance to nicotine and can take higher doses without feeling sick than when they first started smoking. Many of the unpleasant effects of cigarette withdrawal symptoms that occur after stopping a drug. Smoking withdrawal may include anxiety, irritability, insomnia, dizziness, difficulty in concentrating, fatigue, depression, and constipation.
As with any other addiction, it is difficult to give up smoking, and without help most smokers fail despite trying many times. Even after stopping successfully for a while, most relapse within 2 to 3 months. More alarming perhaps than the strength of the addiction is the ease with which it develops. Although teenagers often start smoking for psychosocial reasons, the effects of nicotine soon gain control.
Stop Smoking: Smoking is a Physical Addiction
Nicotine acts on receptors normally used by one of the main neurotransmitters chemicals in the brain that carry information between nerve cell in the brain and nervous system (acetylcholine). Neurotransmitters are the "chemical messengers" released by nerve cells to communicate with other cells by altering their electrical activity.
The body responds to nicotine at these receptors as if it was the natural transmitter (acetylcholine) and the activity and physiological functions of many brain systems are altered.
With repeated nicotine dosage the body adapts to what it regards as extra acetylcholineA neurotransmitter, or chemical in the brain that carries information between nerve cells. in an attempt to restore normal function. One way it does this is to grow more acetylcholine receptors.
Thus nicotine induces structural as well as functional changes in the brain of smokers. When nicotine is suddenly withdrawn, physiological functions in the brain and other parts of the body are disturbed. This is known as withdrawal syndrome. It takes time for the body to readjust to functioning normally without nicotine.
Stop Smoking: Social and Psychological Factors
In all drug addictions, psychosocial factors determine the initial exposures. Addiction develops subsequently. It is essentially a learning process: Learning when, where, and how to take the drug to get the most rewarding effects. The taste, smell, visual stimuli, handling, and other movements that are closely associated with the rewarding pharmacological effects gradually become rewarding themselves. This is known as conditioning.
The situations and activities associated with smoking, together with the smoker's mood and psychological state at the time, also become linked with its rewards and with the relief of withdrawal. They come to serve as signals or triggers for the urge or craving for nicotine's effects, for example:
- after meals,
- with coffee or alcohol,
- when meeting people,
- working, talking on the phone,
- and when anxious, angry,
- celebrating, or having a well-earned break
- and many more...
Since smoking can take place in so many situations, triggers that bring on the urge to smoke are numerous.
Stop Smoking: Cigarettes act Like Drugs
Modern cigarettes are a highly effective devices for getting nicotine to the brain. Their smoke is mild enough to be inhaled deeply into the lungs. Due to the large surface area of the lungs, nicotine is absorbed rapidly into the bloodstream and reaches the brain within 7 seconds - more rapidly than after an intravenous injection.
In this way the smoker gets a small intravenous-like shot of nicotine after each inhaled puff:
On average, smokers take in about 1 milligram (mg) nicotine, the substance found in tobacco that causes addiction. from each cigarette, although some take 2 milligrams or more while others are satisfied with 0.5 milligrams or less. By altering puff-rate, puff-size and amount of inhalation, smokers unconsciously regulate their nicotine intake to their individually preferred levels, which are kept fairly constant from one day to the next.
The nicotine yields of the cigarettes make little difference. By puffing harder, inhaling more deeply, and smoking down to the tip, smokers can get 2 milligrams of nicotine or more from a low-yield cigarette. Smokers literally do have fingertip control over the delivery of nicotine to their brain.
Disclaimer
The information contained herin is a summary and does not contain all possible information about this product / products. For complete information about this product / products or your specific health needs, ask your health care professional. Always seek the advice of your health care professional if you have any questions about this produ t/ products or your medical condition.
This information is not intended as individual medical advice and does not substitute for the knowledge and judgment of your health care professional. This information does not contain any assurances that this product / products is safe, effective, or appropriate for you.
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