Posted on 05/10/2008 11:08:10 PM PDT by neverdem
In Brief:
The brain of an addicted smoker treats nicotine as if it is essential for survival.
Genetic traits may predispose some smokers to stronger addiction.
Most smokers try to quit unaided, resulting in a high failure rate.
If you smoke, no one needs to tell you how bad it is. So why haven’t you quit? Why hasn’t everyone?
Because smoking feels good. It stimulates and focuses the mind at the same time that it soothes and satisfies. The concentrated dose of nicotine in a drag off a cigarette triggers an immediate flood of dopamine and other neurochemicals that wash over the brain’s pleasure centers. Inhaling tobacco smoke is the quickest, most efficient way to get nicotine to the brain.
“I completely understand why you wouldn’t want to give it up,” said Dr. David Abrams, an addiction researcher at the National Institutes of Health. “It’s more difficult to get off nicotine than heroin or cocaine.”
Smoking “hijacks” the reward systems in the brain that drive you to seek food, water and sex, Dr. Abrams explained, driving you to seek nicotine with the same urgency. “Your brain thinks that this has to do with survival of the species,” he said.
Nicotine isn’t equally addictive for everyone. A lot of people do not smoke because they never liked it to begin with. Then there are “chippers,” who smoke occasionally but never seem to get hooked. But most people who smoke will eventually do it all day, every day.
New discoveries in genetics may explain why certain people take to smoking with such gusto and end up so addicted. Some people, for instance, produce a gene-encoded enzyme that clears nicotine from their bloodstreams rapidly, so they tend to smoke more and develop stronger addictions. Others possess special receptors in the brain that bond...
(Excerpt) Read more at health.nytimes.com ...
That URL has more info about smoking and quitting.
Remember, it’s not your fault.
My urge to quit smoking is overwhelmed by the urge to p*ss off the nanny-staters.
PING
I did it for a few years as a teenager, but quit when I was 17. I’ve never missed it.
That “relaxation” after a cigarette a is the result of nicotine relieving the “tension” caused by withdrawal symptoms from nicotine in the first place. I was smoking as I read that one day and had what alcoholics call a “moment of clarity...” Of course that was it all along. What a sucker I was to ruin my blow thousands of dollars and health and almost ruin my health-a gift from God. I finally got off 20 years of smoking but it was incredibly difficult. I needed to taper off for 6 months and got down to a single cigarette at 11 pm. That was exceptionally tough to give up that last one.
I’m convinced that you just have to purge ALL nicotine out of your system, hold tight for 6-10 months while your brain’s entire dendritic network rewires and reboots and then live a life where you exercise your lungs with exercise and fresh air every day.
Great minds...
Chantix. It’s working for me!!
With a couple more months of this drug, I may even quit burying democrat bodies under my house.
FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.
Just remember the worst cravings ony last 5 minutes. Primarily because you’re never more than 5 minutes from a convenience store.
I think you're right about this. It's not so much the pleasure you get from smoking as it is the hell you suffer from not smoking. The nicotine tends to filter out a lot of neural background noise, leading to a higher threshold of stimulation. When the nicotine levels go down, all that background noise comes rushing back, with consequent stress and its related physiological manifestations. Getting another fix relieves the stress caused by the withdrawal.
I’ve quit 2x’s! The 1st time in Feb ‘87. Started up again in ‘93. Quit again in Oct. ‘05. Haven’t smoked since but think about it every day. Quit both times on my own. It takes about 2 weeks to get it out of the system. It’s mostly about breaking the habit at key times...like after a meal, with a cocktail etc.
We have reached a mindset in this country where people are no longer responsible for their actions but rather an uncontrollable addiction forces people against their free will do do things that are harmful. Therefore, we excuse people who smoke, drink too much, snort coke or do smack because they are victims.
Instead, we must understand that everyone has a choice to smoke or do drugs and their substance abuse problem is not an addiction but rather a poor lifestyle choice. Thus, the concept of addiction simply provides an excuse for such behavior.
Quitting was hellish, after smoking for eighteen years. Fighting the cravings put me straight into lala-land a few times. And, when I finally quit for good, it took me three or four years before I could allow myself to think that maybe -- just maybe -- I had shaken the beast.
It took more years before I lost the "fond memories" of smoking -- at least ten, as I recall. I can still remember the day that it dawned on me that returning to smoking was a repellent idea.
I asked someone if they smoked after sex.
They said: “I don’t know, never looked.” :-)
You are 100% right. I have quit smoking using many, many methods and always for the longest time was this ‘deprivation” (psychological ) for months. Either you are educated well in this area or you have tried Allen Carr’s way.
I used hypnosis which was of great help...but the ultimate way is getting the Book..The Easyway to Quit Smoking by Allen Carr. You read the whole book while you are still smoking. Trust me...this will deal with the number one problem, the Brainwashing in the mental part of your brain that keeps you psychologically hooked. This really does make it easier to quit and be comfortable and happy about it.
I know this sounds like such another stupid “Quit smoking “ book, but his method works and you don’t have the deprivation. He now has clinics all over the world. Willpower may work for some, but it never did for me, cause you don’t change the mindset with willpower to be a “nonsmoker.”
I’ve quit smoking cold turkey just this past week. Am tempted to smoke a cig when somebody lights one in company but have resisted the impulse so far.
BTTT
Hold tight for the rest of your life.
You have overlooked the "habit" and the power habitual associations will have over you for the rest of your life. The nicotine is out of your system in less than a week but the habits associated with the nicotine will remain.
The only true words of comfort when confronted with the habitual urge...it will pass.
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