Health and Medicine Blog

In part 1 of this article, we discussed real chemical addiction and how stopping cold-turkey can be life threatening. We also pointed out that although a smoker claims, “I’m dying for a cigarette,” no one has actually died because they didn’t get a smoke.

The reason it is important to understand that cigarette smoking is a psychological addiction rather than a physical one, is to facilitate effective protocols to remove cigarettes from a smoker’s life. In this article, we are going to discuss examples that demonstrate that nicotine is not physically addictive but that cigarette smoking is psychologically addictive.

What is Nicotine

Talk about a substance that has gotten a bad reputation. Nicotine is presented as the ultimate evil and the culprit that makes quitting cigarettes difficult or for some, impossible. However, just what is nicotine?

According to medical researcher Dr. David G. Williams, nicotine is a chemical substance found in cigarette smoke that stimulates the production of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, which is needed to facilitate the transmission of nerve impulses.

There’s one thing though, there is another chemical called nicotinic acid that is a close cousin of nicotine that also stimulates the production of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. What is this almost identical substance? It is called Vitamin B3!

Could smokers be getting Vitamin B3 from their cigarettes? If so, it’s not a healthy way to do it but look at the symptoms of Vitamin B3 deficiency:

Impaired recent memory
Depression
Hyper irritability
Apprehension
Emotional instability

These are many of the reasons that people give for smoking! It improves their memory, lifts their spirits, calms them down, etc. Since many people don’t have good nutrition, perhaps one of the things that fuels the Psychological Smoking Mechanism is a B3 deficiency. After all, these are water soluble vitamins or chemicals, if you will. They are not stored in the body and must be replaced constantly.

The bottom line here is that people don’t get addicted to vitamins! This is just another indicator that the thing that keeps people smoking is not an addiction to nicotine. Let’s look at some of the other things associated with smoking that do not follow the physical addiction mechanism.

If Cigarettes were Addictive

In the previous article in this series, we discussed a case of accidental addiction to pain medicine. As you recall, when the patient discovered they weren’t getting the same results from the standard dose of medicine, they increased the dose which did, for a time give them relief. It wasn’t long before they had to increase the dose again, and again.

This is what happens with chemical addiction, the body views the chemical as throwing it out of balance (homeostasis) and it creates a counter force. It matches each increase with an increase in counter force.

If nicotine was a truly addictive chemical, the smoker would have to keep increasing intake to achieve the same effects that are claimed for cigarettes just as in our drug example. The consumption of cigarettes would increase over time. However, this doesn’t happen.

Let me give you a real life example. My grandfather was a cigarette smoker. He smoked his entire life starting in his early childhood years. He smoked less than a pack of cigarettes per day. The amount smoked never varied. He had a set amount that he unconsciously metered and for over 70 years maintained this level. The fact that he smoked less than a pack per day was to his benefit and delayed the health issues associated with cigarette smoke. But you can’t avoid it forever and he did eventually develop health problems that years of cigarette smoking produced.

A clear indicator that cigarettes are psychologically addictive and not physically addictive is that the smoker settles into a pattern and stays there for years. You have your half a pack a day person, your pack a day person, your 1.5 pack a day person, your 2 pack a day person and in extreme cases, the three pack a day person. This volume is established pretty early and stays that way. There may be daily fluctuations but they all average out. There is a mental meter that regulates the amount of cigarettes smoked! That’s the Psychological Smoking Mechanism.

If cigarettes were physically addictive, the smoker would be adding more and more cigarettes to achieve whatever claimed benefit they provided. This doesn’t happen. This is a clear indicator that that cigarette consumption is regulated by the Psychological Smoking Mechanism and not the chemicals in the cigarette.

If Nicotine was a Chemical Addiction

There is a whole category of smoking cessation treatment protocols that operate under the idea that providing nicotine will take the place of smoking. The thinking behind this category is that supplying nicotine through vehicles such as patches or gum will eliminate the desire to smoke because the hypothetical nicotine demand is being met. Then by reducing the nicotine over time, just like drug rehab, the compulsion to smoke will be eliminated. Sounds great doesn’t it? If nicotine were the culprit, nicotine patches, gum and lozenges would be 100% successful. After all, they are giving the body the chemical that it theoretically craves which is the supposed mechanism behind the compulsion to smoke.

Nicotine patches are powerful products that give the body a steady supply of nicotine. Let’s look at their effectiveness. Since the smoker is getting generous amounts of nicotine which they are supposedly craving, the patches should be incredibly effective. However, some research shows, (Davidson, M., Epstein, M., Burt, R., Schaefer, C., Whitworth, G. & McDonald, A. (1998)), that only 19% of people on patches had stopped smoking at six weeks and that it was reduced to 9.2% at six months. Looking at it another way, at 6 weeks, 81% of the people using nicotine patches were still smoking and at 6 months, about 91% were still smoking. Yes, 10% of those that had stopped were back at it again.

The results for the gum is about the same. Even though the gum was providing the smoker with plenty of nicotine, at 6 weeks, 84% of the people were still smoking and at 6 months, 92% were smoking.

These smokers were getting all the nicotine they supposedly needed. In reality, they were probably getting a great deal more nicotine than the cigarettes they smoked provided. Yet, most of them continued to smoke along WITH the patches or gum. If nicotine doesn’t compel the smoker to smoke, what does? It’s the Psychological Smoking Mechanism.

Another Indicator that It Isn’t Nicotine

With a chemical addiction, more is better for the addict. With nicotine patches, the smoker is getting a great deal of nicotine. They should be satisfied right? Well as mentioned in the last section, only 9% actually stop smoking with the patch. However, putting all that nicotine in a smokers system with patches does have an effect on the smoker. According to the American Lung Association, side effects with the nicotine patch are:

Headache
Dizziness
Upset stomach
Weakness
Blurred vision
Vivid dreams
Mild itching and burning on the skin
Diarrhea

Yes, nicotine does have an effect on the smokers body. However, with all the things that smoking does to the smoker, it doesn’t produce these effects. This is another clue that nicotine is not the motivator to smoke.

Smokers Resume Smoking after Extended Periods

Another clue that nicotine is not the motivator to smoke is the tendency for ex-smokers to resume smoking after a long period of time. Obviously, after an extended period of time, all the nicotine would be out of their system. As has been stated, nicotine is the cousin of Vitamin B3, a water soluble vitamin. These substances are either rapidly used or excess flushed from the body daily. No matter how heavy a smoker, it won’t take very long for all nicotine to be out of their system.

Also, from a strictly habit perspective, a few weeks or months without smoking should have put an end to the habit; the habit of reaching for a cigarette is broken. However, an ex-smoker can pick up a cigarette and resume smoking like they never stopped whether it is weeks, months or even years.

This is because the Psychological Smoking Mechanism is still operating. There is no nicotine in the system, the habit has been abandoned for weeks, months or some time years, yet, cigarette smoking can resume.

Conclusion

The effects of nicotine do not follow the chemical addiction mechanism. Nicotine is similar to Vitamin B3, a water soluble vitamin. It must be replenished daily. It is possible that the smoker has a deficiency of Vitamin B3. Each cigarette provides a small amount of nicotine which is similar to Vitamin B3.

A smoker falls into a pattern of cigarette consumption which doesn’t vary over decades. Whether it is the half pack a day, one pack a day, one and a half pack per day or the extreme of three packs per day, this amount doesn’t vary. Although there may be daily fluctuations, it averages out over time to whatever pattern the smoker follows.

Cigarette consumption is regulated by the Psychological Smoking Mechanism. The only way to remove cigarettes from your life is to remove this mechanism. If the Psychological Smoking Mechanism is not removed, the person quitting cigarettes will continue to be a smoker who doesn’t happen to be smoking right now. When the Psychological Smoking Mechanism is gone, so is smoking because the person has become a NONsmoker!

(c) Copyright 2009, R. Michael Stone

If you’re trying to quit smoking, chances are you’re finding it pretty tough. Most people have to try to quit smoking several times before they find success, and even then approximately thirty percent of people will relapse and start smoking again within a few months.

Some people try to quit smoking by will-power alone, and this is the hardest method (although it is also the most rewarding if you can succeed) but many people choose to quit by weaning-off the drug using nicotine replacement therapy – patches or gum. Some try to use hypnotherapy to support their will-power.

Nicotine is a powerfully addictive substance that has several effects upon brain chemistry, including on levels of dopamine. It has been demonstrated that breaking addiction to nicotine can be harder than breaking addiction to opiates such as heroin – it is simply the case that the effects of opiates are profoundly more dangerous, and the withdrawal symptoms much more unpleasant.

Symptoms of nicotine withdrawal include anxiety, irritation, restlessness, difficulty sleeping and a profound craving to smoke or otherwise ingest nicotine. These symptoms are most acute from approximately 24 hours after the last intake of nicotine to approximately 72 hours after, although cravings may continue for several weeks at reduced intensity. Folklore says that if you can survive the first two weeks without smoking, you’ll never worry about it again, although many people (this author included) have found themselves becoming tempted on occasion, especially after consuming alcohol.

A little known but highly effective technique of eliminating nicotine completely but without suffering the withdrawal symptoms too badly is to use an herbal medication such as EZ Quit. These herbal supplements work by reducing anxiety and by eliminating residual nicotine from the system, making it much easier to completely break addiction to nicotine in a short space of time, without suffering painful cravings.

When it comes to addiction, some people may naturally think that it only applies to drugs such as heroin or cocaine. It wouldn’t be surprising if you hear some people actually saying that they are not addicted to cigarettes at all and as if they can quit at will.

Unfortunately, the reality is that as much as some smokers would not want to admit that they are addicted to cigarettes, studies have shown that nicotine is indeed more addictive than heroin. This mentality can be dangerous, because the smoker will not be prepared to position his or herself to quit smoking.

Nicotine is the main substance in cigarettes that makes you addicted that wanting to smoke more and more. Even in small substantial amounts, nicotine can be lethal. Just a drop of pure nicotine on your skin could end up killing you.

When you start smoking a cigarette, it will only take seven seconds for the nicotine to reach your brain. What you may not know is that is actually faster than nicotine being injected into your veins.

The fact that nicotine can reach your brain cells so quickly is what also makes it so addictive.

What you may not know is that cigarette companies have spent millions of dollars have on research to ensure cigarettes are design in a way to most effectively deliver nicotine to your body?

Once nicotine is in your brain, it will make you ‘feel’ good by stimulating certain parts of your brain cells. The more you feed your brain to nicotine, the more your brain will be used to it. The sudden lack of nicotine fed to your brain will make your brain crave for it, and hence the whole feeling of addiction.The relaxation effect comes from satisfying your addiction rather than actually relaxing it, giving the false feeling that cigarettes actually help you to reduce stress! The truth is it certainly doesn’t!

What’s more dangerous is that your brain will get more used and used to it, resulting in even greater feeding nicotine and you ending up smoking more and more! That’s why most smokers who start with few cigarettes a day can end up with more than 2 packs a day.

Lately, when I’ve been interviewed about smoking cessation, the host will usually ask, “Isn’t nicotine addiction the reason most people are not able to successfully quit smoking?” They are surprised when I tell them nicotine is not a real addictive substance because it doesn’t have the characteristics of an addictive substance. The drive or compulsion to smoke cigarettes is strictly psychological.

The interviewers are surprised because addiction to cigarettes (nicotine) has been used as a rationalization as to why it is so hard to quit smoking. The truth is, nicotine does not present the characteristics of a physical addiction. The real cause of the difficulty to simply quit smoking cigarettes is the Psychological Smoking Mechanism. If you stop cigarettes and don’t remove this mechanism, you will continue to be a smoker who isn’t smoking right now. It is the real reason why the smoker, after being off cigarettes for weeks or months, is compelled to start again.

In this article, I will discuss the dynamics of true physical addiction. You will see that nicotine doesn’t fit in this category. In part 2 of this article, I will discuss more specifics that demonstrate how nicotine is not a true addictive substance and how the Psychological Smoking Mechanism is the real power behind smoking.

What is Addiction?

Any substance that alters the physiology of the body is capable of being addictive. Many people accidentally become addicted to pain medicine so we will use that as an example.

In our example, we have a person who has been severely injured and is in a great deal of pain. Pain is the body signal to our conscious selves that we have a problem that needs to be immediately corrected.

With modern medicine today, injuries are quickly and effectively treated. However, although the mechanical damage has been repaired, the healing process, which only the body can do, has not yet taken place. To make things easier on ourselves, we take pain medicine. After all, we know we are injured and it’s been treated, we don’t need to be reminded with unpleasant pain.

The chemicals in the medicine interfere with the pain signals reducing them so we are more comfortable. If we take the pain medication as directed, there is little chance of addiction. If the body heals in a timely manner, the pain medicine continues to help because the healing process is reducing the need for pain.

What the patient doesn’t realize is that each day on the pain medicine, it becomes less and less effective! Why? Because the body is trying to do it’s natural process of pain generation. When it is artificially suppressed, the body boosts the pain signal.

As long as healing is taking place and reducing the pain intensity, this signal boost isn’t noticed by the patient. It’s only when the healing process lags, e.g. takes an extended period of time, that the patient notices the pain medication isn’t working as well.

To achieve the same level of pain control requires more medicine. The patient’s doctor will not allow this because of the problem with addiction. You should listen to your doctor. However, some people won’t listen. They’re hurting, what they were taking had helped and they want the same level of relief. Perhaps they have a friend that had left over pain medicine and persuades them to give it to them because they need it. Not a good idea but people do it.

So on their own, they boost the dosage. They have the pain relief they were getting initially. But the body doesn’t like this at all. It again boosts the pain signal weakening the effects of the medicine. If the patient managed to get a large amount of extra pain medication, they continue to increase the dosage to get the same amount of relief. The body, seeking balance, continues to boost the pain signal.

At this point the person is in a hazardous situation. They cannot simply stop the pain medication because if they’ve taken it too long and increased the dosage too much, the physical backlash might be life threatening!

The Potentially Deadly Tug-of-war: Body vs. Pain Medication

Look at it like the game tug-of-war. The pain medicine is on one side and the body is on the other. The pain medicine side adds a member (increased dosage), the body side adds a member (puts out more pressure), not to win the tug-of-war, but to get the marker back in the middle. To the body, the pain medicine has gotten it out of balance and it uses it’s biochemical and physiological resources to bring itself back into balance. This is why the pain medicine loses effectiveness over time. This is technically called habituation -Physiological tolerance to a drug resulting from repeated use.

What happens if you stop taking the pain medicine cold-turkey? In our tug-of-war analogy, stopping cold-turkey is like one side, the pain medication, letting go of the rope. The side still applying force, the body, backlashes into jumbled pile. In real tug-of-war, the people on the side still pulling slam into each other, possibly being injured if they were pulling hard enough. In our example, it is your body that’s going to be the jumbled pile with possible injuries!

Solution to the Problem

You can’t safely stop taking excessive pain medication cold-turkey. This requires a stay in rehab where the addicted person is medically monitored and the pain medication reduced slowly over time. As the pain medication is reduced, the body counter reaction to it is also reduced. The body is happy because it keeps itself in balance which is all it was trying to do anyway. You are happy because your body doesn’t end up in a jumbled pile!

Chemical Addiction Pattern

Remember, the body always works to keep balance. The technical term is homeostasis. Whenever the body is confronted with a chemical that pushes it out of balance, it applies a counter force to get back to balance. The stronger the chemical, e.g. high dosage of pain medication, the stronger the body pushes back.

You cannot safely stop after overusing pain medicine without giving the body time to adjust slowly.

Nicotine

As you can see, nicotine simply doesn’t fit this pattern. No one ever had a life threatening experience being deprived of cigarettes. Granted, there have been many smokers tell you, “I’m dying for a cigarette.” However, it’s a certain physiological fact that a smoker will not die if they don’t get a cigarette!

In part 2 of this article, we will discuss specifics that demonstrate why nicotine is not chemically addictive and why the Psychological Smoking Mechanism is the real factor that makes quitting smoking difficult.

(c) Copyright 2009, R. Michael Stone