Why Nicotine Is So Addictive

When someone says a substance is addictive, they can mean two separate things.

Physically addictive, more accurately physically dependent, is when your body begins to depend on the presence of a particular substance for its physical well being. It’s begun compensating its normal processes to adjust for the new artificial normal.

The sudden absence of that substance won’t allow enough time for the body to compensate without the substance. The result will be withdrawal symptoms like nausea, vomiting, chest pains, head and body aches, seizures, uncontrolled body sweats, and shortness of breath.

Alcohol is a great example. If you don’t normally consume it, and then all of a sudden decide to drink like a college student on spring break, your body would be unable to compensate for the sudden influx of booze and you will get nauseated, most likely puke, could have seizures, become unconscious and potentially stop breathing.

The same thing happens when you decide to go on a two-year-long spring break bender and then suddenly stop. The body, once again, is unable to compensate for what it considers abnormal.
Substances that are considered to be addictive, yet do not cause the physical withdrawal symptoms when suddenly stopped, tend to be classified as being psychologically addictive, not physically dependent. Meaning the person might still crave the substance, like a stereotypical fat cop does doughnuts, but won’t have to deal with the physical withdrawals that go along with other substances.

Gambling, high risk behaviors like bungee jumping and skydiving, or anything considered psychologically addictive, and yet doesn’t cause physical dependence, tend to stimulate the reward centers of the brain and cause the person to crave whatever action will cause further stimulation. Just try and ring a bell around Pavlov’s dogs and see if they don’t go a little crazy for the reward to come.

Nicotine, like other substances such as heroin, and alcohol, has been shown to cause some level of physical dependence as well as causing the cravings associated with being psychologically addicted. To understand why, let’s talk about what affects nicotine has on the body.

Nicotine is a natural substance produced by a family of plants known as Solanaceae or Nightshade. Dried tobacco leaves contain between .6-3% nicotine. The drug acts on what are known as nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (NCR’s) and affects two main areas of the body- one called the adrenal medulla, and the other affects the central nervous system (CNS).

Inside of the CNS, nicotine binds to those NCR’s and causes the release of several “feel-good” neurotransmitters like dopamine.

Tobacco smoke also contains several substances known as monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAO). MAO’s enzymes are responsible for breaking down “feel-good” neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine. The result is more of these neurotransmitters circulating than would otherwise be. When you smoke tobacco, nicotine is able to begin acting on these receptors within about 7 seconds and has a half life of around 2 hours. This sudden reward pathway is one of the reasons some people think nicotine cravings are so intense.

Inside of your adrenal medulla (and several other areas of the body) by binding to NCR’s, nicotine will cause an increase in the amount of calcium that is infused into your cells. The result is a release of the hormone epinephrine (adrenaline). This will cause an increase in your blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rate, and blood sugar levels. The stuff “adrenaline-junkie” dreams are made of!
One of the under-talked about problems with nicotine is it’s toxicity. NCR’s will increase the amount of neurotransmitter released in response to the amount of nicotine present. The more nicotine in your system, the more toxic the reaction. The average amount of absorbed nicotine in a cigarette is about 1mg. At those levels, all the feel good centers of the brain are working like a charm. The higher the dose, the more unwanted the reaction. Things like nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, headaches, muscle spasms will progress into seizures, low blood pressures, respiratory failure, and finally around 40-60 milligrams, it will kill you.

The physical and psychological addictive properties of nicotine revolve around your body compensating for these increases in neurotransmitters and hormones. When you stop taking in nicotine the body begins compensating by either increasing or decreasing their release. The end result is the body trying to continue adjusting for nicotine in your system. AKA, withdrawals.
Physical withdrawals with nicotine are considered to be much more mild than withdrawals from other drugs like heroin, alcohol, and methamphetamine’s. Depending on the length of time and amount of nicotine used, the symptoms will vary in intensity and length. They usually begin around 2-3 hours after the last nicotine ingestion and peak at around 2-3 days. The symptoms include anxiety, depression, trouble sleeping, drowsiness, headaches, increased appetite, problems concentrating and feelings of restlessness and frustration. Once the body is able to begin secreting the correct amount of neurotransmitters and hormones to deal with your nicotine-free existence, the remaining addiction tends to be psychological and revolves around cravings.

The psychologically mediated factors around nicotine addiction are thought to be more responsible than the physical factors in the difficulty in becoming nicotine-free. In several withdrawal symptom studies, participants quitting smoking continually listed cravings as the thing having the most negative affects when trying to quit. While most listed physical side effects as an issue, it was the cravings that had more of an impact on them relapsing. Curse you Pavlov! So the physical side effects in this case are typically gone within several days after one’s last nicotine ingestion, but cravings can sometimes last for years.
So, in the end, the higher the dose, the greater the chance of toxic side effects. The more you use it, the greater chance you have of getting cancer, heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. If you do get these diseases and you continue smoking, the greater chance you will have of dying from them. So, needless to say, if you’re a smoker, there are probably few things you can do for yourself that will benefit your long term well-being, and the happiness of those who love you, more than quitting smoking or using other tobacco products, as difficult as that stopping can be. If you happen to also be overweight and a smoker, then whew, you’ve got your work cutout for you. But in the end, fixing both of those problems, hopefully including a healthy dose of regular exercise and eating lots of veggies and fruit with the fix, will be well worth it for your quality and length of life, and will even save you a boatload of money with fewer medical bills and saving the cost of cigarettes and the like.

Try Osho's Stretegy To Stress-free life: Alone At Last!

Confronting oneself in aloneness is fearful and it is painful, and one has to suffer it. Nothing should be done to avoid it, nothing should be done to divert the mind and nothing should be done to escape from it. One has to suffer it and go through it. This suffering and this pain is just a good sign that you are near a new birth, because every birth is preceded by pain. It cannot be avoided and it should not be avoided because it is part of your growth.

But why is this pain there?

This should be understood because understanding will help you to go through it, and if you go through it knowingly you will come out of it more easily and sooner.

Why is there pain when you are alone? The first thing is that your ego gets ill. Your ego can exist only with others. It has grown in relationship, it cannot exist alone. So if the situation is one in which it can exist no more, it feels suffocated; it feels just on the verge of death. This is the deepest suffering. You feel as if you are dying. But it is not you who is dying, only the ego, which you have taken to be yourself, with which you have become identified. It cannot exist because it has been given to you by others. It is a contribution. When you leave others you cannot carry it with you.

So in aloneness all that you know about yourself will fall; by and by it will disappear. You can prolong your ego for a certain period – and that too you will have to do through imagination – but you cannot prolong it for long. Without society you are uprooted; the soil is not there from where to get food. This is the basic pain.

You are no longer sure who you are: you are just a dispersing personality, a dissolving personality. But this is good, because unless this false you disappears the real cannot emerge. Unless you are completely washed and become clean again the real cannot emerge.

This false you is occupying the throne. It must be dethroned. By living in solitariness all that is false can go. And all that is given by society is false. Really, all that is given is false; all that is born with you is real. All that is you by yourself, not contributed by someone else, is real, authentic. But the false must go and the false is a great investment. You have invested so much in it; you have been looking after it so much; all your hopes hang on it. So when it starts dissolving you will feel fearful, afraid and trembling: What are you doing to yourself? You are destroying your whole life, the whole structure.

There will be fear. But you have to go through this fear; only then will you become fearless. I don’t say you will become brave, no. I say you will become fearless.

Bravery is just part of fear. Howsoever brave you are, the fear is hidden behind. I say fearless. You will not be brave; there is no need to be brave when there is no fear. Both bravery and fear become irrelevant. They are both aspects of the same coin. So your brave men are nothing but you standing on your head. Your bravery is hidden within you and your fear is on the surface; their fear is hidden within and their bravery is on the surface. So when you are alone you are very brave. When you think about something you are very brave, but when a real situation comes you are fearful.

One becomes fearless only when one has gone through the deepest fear of all – that is the dissolving of the ego, the dissolving of the image and the dissolving of the personality.

This is death because you don’t know if a new life is going to emerge from it. During the process you will know only death. Only when you are dead as you are, as the false entity, only then will you know that death was just a door to immortality. But that will be at the end; during the process you are simply dying.

Everything that you cherished so much is being taken away from you – your personality, your ideas, all that you thought was beautiful. All is leaving you. You are being denuded. All the roles and robes are being taken away. In the process fear will be there, but this fear is basic, necessary and inevitable – one has to pass through it. You should understand it but don’t try to avoid it, don’t try to escape from it because every escape will bring you back again. You will move back into the personality.

Those who go into deep silence and solitude, they always ask me, “There will be fear, so what to do?” I tell them not to do anything, just to live the fear.

If trembling comes, tremble. Why prevent it? If an inner fear is there and you are shaking with it, shake with it. Don’t do anything. Allow it to happen. It will go by itself. If you avoid it ...and you can avoid it. You can start chanting Ram, Ram, Ram; you can cling to a mantra so that your mind is diverted. You will be pacified and the fear will not be there; you have pushed it into the unconscious. It was coming out – which was good, you were going to be free from it – it was leaving you and when it leaves you, you will tremble.

That is natural because from every cell of the body and of the mind, some energy that has always been there pushed down is leaving. There will be a shaking and a trembling; it will be just like an earthquake. The whole soul will be disturbed by it. But let it be. Don’t do anything. That is my advice. Don’t even chant. Don’t try to do anything with it because all that you can do will again be suppression. Just by allowing it to be, by letting it be, it will leave you – and when it has left, you will be altogether a different man.

Osho, The Book of Secrets, Talk #70