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I don't understand why young people continue to take up the habit considering the cost, the obvious health problems, etc. BUT, being an ex-smoker, I totally get why people don't stop. I started smoking in my early twenties. I worked full time, went to college full time and was working the graveyard shift ( 11pm - 7am). Co-workers told me cigarettes would help me to stay awake so I tried it, never imaginging I would get addicted. I smoked off and on for 10 years, always trying to quit, going several months at a time and then going back to it. Why? The protracted withdrawl. I would stop smoking for 3, 4, even 6 months, then suddenly wake up feeling like I had just had my last cigarette before I went to sleep and be able to think of NOTHING else but a cigarette. I would become so irritable I wanted to kill people. I once read that the intense craving only lasts for a few minutes and then subsides. That is complete bulls#@T. I was lucky enough to have hypnosis work for me. It took several sessions but eventually worked for me. I haven't had the slightest postive thought about a cigarette in over 20 years but, had that not worked, I don't know if I would have ever succeeded. And I don't have an addictive personality - everything else I have always done in moderation. But nicotine is extremely addictive. I've watched others die of emphysema, still smoking until the day they day, while alternating between oxygen and a cigarette. I get it. Just grateful that I was able to find a way to stop.
I don't understand why young people continue to take up the habit considering the cost, the obvious health problems, etc. BUT, being an ex-smoker, I totally get why people don't stop. I started smoking in my early twenties. I worked full time, went to college full time and was working the graveyard shift ( 11pm - 7am). Co-workers told me cigarettes would help me to stay awake so I tried it, never imaginging I would get addicted. I smoked off and on for 10 years, always trying to quit, going several months at a time and then going back to it. Why? The protracted withdrawl. I would stop smoking for 3, 4, even 6 months, then suddenly wake up feeling like I had just had my last cigarette before I went to sleep and be able to think of NOTHING else but a cigarette. I would become so irritable I wanted to kill people. I once read that the intense craving only lasts for a few minutes and then subsides. That is complete bulls#@T. I was lucky enough to have hypnosis work for me. It took several sessions but eventually worked for me. I haven't had the slightest postive thought about a cigarette in over 20 years but, had that not worked, I don't know if I would have ever succeeded. And I don't have an addictive personality - everything else I have always done in moderation. But nicotine is extremely addictive. I've watched others die of emphysema, still smoking until the day they day, while alternating between oxygen and a cigarette. I get it. Just grateful that I was able to find a way to stop.
Because stronger than that is the need to belong. If the people who accept you in their circle are the smokers, you will smoke to be a part of them. I mentioned this earlier in the thread, but The Tipping Point really covers this in detail, because so many people wonder the same thing you did.
Just wanted to re-enforce the message that nicotine is an addictive substance that stimulates the pleasure centers of the brain.
Remove that substance and your brain will no longer signal/accept pleasure in any form. Serotonin and/or other crucial neurotransmitters are not produced. This affects people differently. For some it is merely unpleasant and they can work through it until their brains and bodies adapt and heal.
For others -- the brain will actually send "death" signals to the body, which include but are not limited to, physical pain, nausea, exhaustion, insomnia and/or malaise so deep as to be unendurable.
This is why so many people take antidepressants to get off of nicotine. Wellbutrin was the only thing that worked for my mother-in-law.
I can't help but think part of the addiction to smoking has a social connection as smoking is a social outlet of sorts. I recall hearing coworkers talk about how quitting cigarettes also made them lose friends because they were no longer one of the smoking gang that would sit outside at work, smoke & talk. The smokers oddly enough were the most popular people at work and the social network they had going seemed to help them advance on the job to higher positions.
Just wanted to re-enforce the message that nicotine is an addictive substance that stimulates the pleasure centers of the brain.
Remove that substance and your brain will no longer signal/accept pleasure in any form. Serotonin and/or other crucial neurotransmitters are not produced. This affects people differently. For some it is merely unpleasant and they can work through it until their brains and bodies adapt and heal.
For others -- the brain will actually send "death" signals to the body, which include but are not limited to, physical pain, nausea, exhaustion, insomnia and/or malaise so deep as to be unendurable.
This is why so many people take antidepressants to get off of nicotine. Wellbutrin was the only thing that worked for my mother-in-law.
Interesting. I haven't had all those things, but I've definitely noticed physical pain--joint pain, stiffness and aches in the legs--since I quit smoking. I took it to be that they were there but the nicotine masked them. Since I quit smoking it's harder to get in and out of bed or in and out of a car, for example, because it hurts my legs and requires more of an effort. It's not crippling pain or anything, but it's there and it wasn't there before.
The depression from quitting smoking (it's been six months) has eased somewhat, but it's still there. However, I think I've just become more accustomed to it and it's now my "normal".
I took Wellbutrin for two years and still smoked. Had no effect whatsoever.
Quit after 35 years, just passed the six-month mark. Sometimes I think I'd like JUST one, but I know there would never be just one.
Keep it up! Once you pass the one year mark, it becomes much easier and you will think about smoking less and less. I think it takes months for the nicotine and other substances to be eliminated from your body, including from your brain. It's amazing how much your skin clears up, your breathing becomes deeper and how much more energy you have. (Having said all that, I still miss the smell of it and find myself envying people, for example in restaurants, who are smoking. Pathetic, I know.)
Quote:
Originally Posted by nurider2002
I don't understand why young people continue to take up the habit considering the cost, the obvious health problems, etc.
I think they believe they will never become addicted. (Certainly my own belief at that age.) Reading the recent studies on the brain, it's clear that one's brain doesn't completely develop until his/her mid-twenties or so. Lots of risk taking, it-will-never-happen-to-me behavior then.
Just wanted to re-enforce the message that nicotine is an addictive substance that stimulates the pleasure centers of the brain.
Remove that substance and your brain will no longer signal/accept pleasure in any form. Serotonin and/or other crucial neurotransmitters are not produced. This affects people differently. For some it is merely unpleasant and they can work through it until their brains and bodies adapt and heal.
For others -- the brain will actually send "death" signals to the body, which include but are not limited to, physical pain, nausea, exhaustion, insomnia and/or malaise so deep as to be unendurable.
This is why so many people take antidepressants to get off of nicotine. Wellbutrin was the only thing that worked for my mother-in-law.
This is not true. The science of whether or not your brain produces serotonine is not controled by whether or not you stop smoking.
Addiction does affect serotonine, but just because an addiction is stopped, you can not conclude that seritonine will no longer be produced.
Not sure where you go your information, but your post is not consistant with what I have read on addiction.
"Death signals" ? sounds like withdrawel to me.
But, I am no expert in addiction or smoking. I just watch many close people around me smoke, and wonder why...
Only after a converstion with my mom (a 40 year smoker) did I start lookin up addiction.
Interesting stuff, but at the end of the day, The smoker has to want to quit from within, any other attempt will most likely fail.
and most smokers simply are not "ready" to quit.
I have uncles who are alcoholics/drug addicts. One of the four has finally gotten clean but the damage to his brain is already done. As they all tried to get clean, they were diagnosed with mental problems. Did they have these problems before or after their addictions? We don't know for sure but we believe they had these problems and the drugs and alcohol
Hit the problems. My sister and I also have mental problems but neither of us ever smoked nor used illegal drugs. We both drank for a few years but easily gave it up. How is it that my sister and I never got addicted but our close relatives easily got addicted to drugs and alcohol?
Read somewhere that soon there is going to be a vaccine that will neutralize the "pleasure" effect that smoking/drugs have on the brain.
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