
Smoking Addiction & Recovery Support Group
The CDC claims that nicotine is a "very addictive drug" that can be "as addictive as heroin or cocaine." Nicotine is typically eliminated from the body within 2 to 3 days, however, physical and psychological withdrawal symptoms may last for much longer depending on the individual. If you are trying to kick the habit, this community is dedicated to giving smokers the...
Nicotine is the most addictive drug known. The actual neurochemical processes of nicotine addiction are almost identical to cocaine addiction.
When you had your first cigarette, the nicotine stimulated an increase of the neurotransmitter dopamine in your brains pleasure/reward centers. This gave an ahhh feeling to the brain that may have been imperceptible to your consciousness. The pleasure/reward centers are in the most primitive parts of your brain; the places that instinct, reflex, and the fight-or-flight response reside. They are not the most intelligent parts. When the nicotine level in your blood dropped after finishing that first cigarette, the pleasure/reward centers lost their stimulation and the brain began wanting that ahhh again. Every time you fed nicotine to your P/R centers, your brain was happy. When it went into nicotine deprivation, it was unhappy. So you kept lighting up, increasing the frequency over time.
Eventually, your brain was over stimulated by nicotine and began shutting down parts of the P/R centers in an attempt to regain a normal level of pleasure/reward response. Well, this just made you smoke even more and the brain shut down more areas, and this process continued until a balance was achieved. This is typically around 20 40 mg of nicotine a day, about 1 2 packs a day. At this point you went into maintenance smoking, smoking to maintain the dopamine level in your brain to stave off the nicotine fit. True pleasure from smoking ceased.
Then you quit, the nicotine level in your blood dropped to zero in about three days. OMG!!! Without the nicotine stimulation, your dopamine levels dropped to lower than they had been in a long time. You literally went into a neurochemical depression and that is where you are now. You are now operating at dopamine levels below what never-smokers operate at. Things that used to make you happy may not anymore, at least not as much. They still trigger the P/R centers to release dopamine, but there arent enough receptors operating anymore (the brain shut them down, remember?) to reach the point you feel pleasure. So you are operating at a reward deficit.
The good news is, this will heal over time. The bad news is, it will take time. Theres a rule of thumb that you must be quit for a year before you can say you are truly quit. Some believe you must experience the memory triggers of all four seasons and I agree with that. But I also believe it takes about a year for the brain to reactivate the P/R centers that were shut down. So the best thing you can do is reward yourself often. Rewards do not have to be expensive or even cost anything at all. Window shopping, a walk in the park, taking time to watch a movie on TV, or taking the scenic route home can all be rewards. All a reward has to do is make you feel special and happy.
Just as physical exercise restores and rejuvenates atrophied muscle tissue, so will rewards help the brain rebuild its pleasure/reward centers. Just think of rewards as free weights for the brain.
Paul