Why Is It That Smoking Is So Addictive

Smoking Is Both Mentally and Physically Addicting

We speak about addiction when a person has great difficulty to make themselves stop using a particular substance, even if he or she knows that it has predominantly negative effects: the desire for the "good feelings" prevails. Addiction is thus primarily a motivation problem. Also, the use of the drug causes physical changes, especially in the brain, which is what creates dependency. Withdrawal symptoms will occur when stopping the use of a drug. Finally, the use can be surrounded with all kinds of actions that become habits, and habits are hard to unlearn again. All these factors play significant roles with smoking. You get used to a certain amount of nicotine (physical addiction) and the habit of smoking (mental addiction). In many daily activities you are used to smoke. For example you smoke in the morning while drinking coffee, during work breaks, after dinner, or with friends. This makes you always feel like smoking when you are going through these everyday routines. Addiction is the main reason why people continue to smoke.

Nicotine has effects on the brain, the neuroendocrine system, the cardio-vascular system, gastrointestinal tract and skeletal muscles. It is also responsible for adrenergic stimulation, resulting in a higher heart rate and higher blood pressure. Furthermore, nicotine has a major effect on the brain. It stimulates specific acetylcholine receptors. In addition, nicotine leads to dopamine release in the brain, resulting in a feeling of comfort, and decreases the expression of dopamine need for nicotine. The dopamine releases play a role in the addictive nature of nicotine, and also in the addiction to many other substances.

The accumulated mental addiction, that need for nicotine connects to a “positive” experience. For example, thoughts like, "It is delicious with coffee," or, "It helps me to relax," are big factors in the success or failure of an attempt to stop smoking. When you come to the point when you realize that the times smoking seems to be nice, that is just purely the need for nicotine, it becomes a lot less difficult to stop. Someone can mourn for months that they no longer smoke and experience that quitting smoking is very difficult, or someone can consider to be happy and no longer has the need to smoke after a few weeks.