Things You Should Know About Smoking Addiction. The addiction to smoking, which implies addiction to
the substance nicotine has several components. The better one is aware of these
components and understand them, the better is the chance for succeeding in
stopping the smoking habit.
Here is a survey of the components that addiction
to smoke consist of.
The
Social Component
To some extend the habit of smoking is a product of
socialization. Socialization is simply the tendency to repeat patterns of
behaviour one sees other persons in the society exhibit. Socialisation is one
major way children and young people learn social skills. Children and teenagers
learn skills necessary to live and work in the society by a socialisation
process. Unfortunately also bad habits and bad ways of thinking are learned the
same way.
If one lives or works together with other smoking
individuals, one will more or less automatic adopt these individuals’ smoking
habits. If one then tries to break out of the social structure, one will feel
anxiety for not being accepted any more by the social group one is a part of.
If the other individuals also make moves to threaten or
freeze out an individual trying to brake this bad social standard, the
difficulty of breaking out of the habit will be even greater. The threatening
actions may not even be very serious to frighten a person from braking out of
such a socially standardized habit, and may not even be meant as a threat.
The
Need For Sucking and Chewing
Every person have a need for sucking and chewing. This
need is necessary in early infanthood, but it also persists into adult life to
some degree. Some persons use cigarettes or other smoking devices and the smoke
as a means to satisfy this need. There is a hypothesis that this need is
greater by some adults then by others because this need, or some other similar
basic need, has not been fully satisfied in early infanthood.
If you want to stop smoking, you can try to satisfy
this need by other means, for example by always keeping something in your
pocket that you can put in your mouth to chew at when the need for smoke
appears.
Automatic
Repeating
When a person have done something many times and
frequently enough, there will be created a pattern of automatic repetition of
that particular behaviour. This is especially true if the particular action is
done in a distinct recognizable situation.
The pattern of automatic repetition also have the
effect of making a person feel safer in the daily life and routines.
Such a pattern of automatic repetition is always a
component in the smoking habit. It you want to quit smoking, you should make an
investigation to find out in which situations and which environments you
usually take a cigarette.
Then try to avoid these situations or environments
where you use to smoke, or to deliberately alter these situations.
Nicotine
Used as Self Medication
Nicotine has a tranquilizing effect upon nervous
feelings. At the same time it has some anti-depressive effect, at least in the
short run, and it makes a person feel more awake. A person suffering from
nervousness or from depressive symptoms may feel that the smoking helps him
against his mental symptoms.
However, gradually there will be a need for steadily higher
doses of nicotine to give these good effects, and if there is a lack of
nicotine in the body, the nervous or depressive feelings will be greater than
before.
This gratification, but with the need for steadily
higher doses to get the good effects is a major incentive for the smoking
habit. You should consider if this anti-depressive or tranquilizing effect is a
reason for your smoking. Then you should try to find other ways to achieve the
same effect. Engaging in some sport or outdoor life will often make you feel
less depressed. If the depressive feelings are more serious, some appropriate
treatment can be necessary.
The
Pleasure Component
There is to some degree a plain and direct pleasure
connected with smoking. This pleasure is in itself a good effect. This good
effect is probably in most cases too small compared to the painful effects of
smoking, but will gives a temptation for an individual to continue the habit.
However, also this pleasure effect will gradually be difficult to obtain
without increasing the doses.
If the plain pleasure of smoking is a main reason for
your habit, then you should try to find other sources of pleasure instead, for
example some good food, some good music or some erotic action.
The
Genetic Component
Not all people get equally easy dependent of nicotine.
There are factors yet not fully understood that make some people more easily
addicted than others. Perhaps some persons have receptors on their nerve cells
that more easily get trigged by nicotine than others, or perhaps some people
have more receptors with the ability to get trigged by nicotine, and this is
inherited in the genetic code.
The
Nervous Mecanism Working by Addiction
The normal brain has signal substances with a
tranquilizing effect, and substances with a stimulating effect upon nerve
cells. Like most narcotic substances, nicotine act like a signal substance by
fitting into receptors on some brain cells.
Nicotine attaches itself to some receptors and thus
give the nerve cell having these receptors a signal. The cells getting such a
signal from nicotine, will react by secreting another signal substance,
dopamine that influence still other cells. Dopamine will tranquilize some brain
cells and stimulate others, and the total effect of this is the pleasurable effects
of smoking.
However, when nicotine steadily induces dopamine
release, the brain will gradually decrease the production of dopamine when
nicotine is not present, and the brain will feel a steadily greater need for
nicotine to work normally and feel well.
