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 ...
Chantix, Chantix, Chantix. Amazing stuff.
Really, REALLY works.
You actually bury them?
Well, I am very careful about my dogs diet.
He occasionally likes to roll around on the stench of dead animals.
I mean, road kill or some other stinking animal is one thing, but a democrat.....yuck!
;>)
BTW, I wonder how many lurking idiots won't realize that we're only joking? After all, Democrats aren't known for their sense of humor.
Thanks for the ping.
Mine was exactly the same for a long time, then my urge to qit paying them more than a dollar per pack in taxes finally overwhelmed my urge to piss of the nanny-staters.
Yep.
Worked great for me. Been one year in 19 days.
It's not for everyone though, as it's a fairly powerful psychoactive. Anything that attempts to change the way your brain works needs to be watched closely.
They haven't quite figured out how to tax those, yet. ;-)
The first time was in 1970 and I'd been smoking about a pack a day for five years. Was very difficult but was sucessful with willpower alone. Actually carried with me a pack of cigarettes in my pocket but did not light them. Only used it as something to do with my hands when I had the urge to smoke. After a few weeks the pack was gone, mostly to someone bumming a smoke.
Starting smoking again 3 year later, at first only one weekend a month on National Guard weekends while playing poker and drinking beer in the evenings. For a while I thought I could only smoke once a month but after about 6 months was back to smoking all the time again.
Quit again in 1981 and this time quiting was much easier. I realized the difficult time in quiting only lasted about 3 days, after that it was all down hill.
Started again after a divorce a few years later and this time only smoked for about a year and quiting was even easier than the last time, the three day rough period still applied.
It's now been over 25 years since I've smoked. Maybe have an occasional urge to light up but it is very minor.
Bookmark...thanks for the book advice...i may pick that up.
Holy Cow! I was just talking about a freaking Marlboro...
I call BS on the entire article based on this one comment.
I will tell you from experience, stopping smoking is a WALK IN THE PARK compared to trying to get the cocaine monkey off your back.
I know exactly of what he speaks.
Many years ago we were celebrating our father's 80th birthday. I commented to one of my brothers that we may not make it to 80. He replied, well, I know what I am going to do if I do reach 80; "I'm going to start smoking again".
Chantix. It’s working for me!!”
FDA is alerting healthcare professionals about new safety warnings for Chantix (varenicline), a drug used to help people stop smoking.
Chantix has been linked to serious neuropsychiatric problems, including changes in behavior, agitation, depressed mood, suicidal ideation and suicide. The drug may cause an existing psychiatric illness to worsen, or an old psychiatric illness to recur. The symptoms may occur even after the drug is discontinued.
http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/psn/transcript.cfm?show=74#3
I call BS on the entire article based on this one comment.
I will tell you from experience, stopping smoking is a WALK IN THE PARK compared to trying to get the cocaine monkey off your back.
IIRC, numerous studies have documented the relative difficulty of nicotine addiction compared to opiates and various stimulants. Everyone is free to have their own opinion. The fact remains that there are large numbers of former heroin and cocaine addicts who are still smoking tobacco. Many detox centers would not attempt withdrawal from opiates or stimulants like cocaine simultaneously with quitting tobacco. It was too hard. Nicotine, cocaine, heroin and alcohol all involve the dopaminergic system. Nicotine also involves those nerves using acetylcholine as the neurotransmitter.
Neuronal nicotinic receptors: a perspective on two decades of drug discovery research.
LOL...me too
I quit smoking and never looked back.
Those who say that nicotine is harder to quit than cocaine are liars, period.
They have an agenda, period.
I have experienced the FACT, unlike some doctors, medical professionals, etc opinions.
A single person’s experience is called an anecdote. That’s why they do tests with sample populations greater than one, usually much greater.
Congratulations on your good luck. I know someone who quit two heroin habits, literally with “cold turkey” physical symptoms twice, but still smokes cigarettes.
Go find people that have been addicted to cocaine or heroin.
Ask them which is harder, kicking smoking tobacco or kicking cocaine or heroin.
They will tell you to an overwhelming degree that tobacco is NOTHING.
It ain't just me.
I know people that have kicked it and I know people that have not kicked it with both tobacco and hard drugs.
If it's anecdotal, it's OVERWHELMINGLY anecdotal.
Until you , the singular you, have experienced it you, the plural you, have no idea.
Doctors, medical professionals, researchers, grant suckers, government teat suckers, etc have agendas.
Go talk to the people that have NO agenda. They're the ones you get the truth from.
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