Putting Down the Cigarettes
Has the cost of cigarettes or the new laws having you ask whether you should put down the smokes for good? If so, there are some things to know that will help you on your way.
The first thing to know is that nicotine is a very addictive substance that one doesn’t realize the affects of until they decide to remove it from their life. If you have heard that it is more addictive than cocaine or heroin, you heard right
Since 1988, nicotine dependence and withdrawal have been recognized as disorders by the American Psychiatric Association, legitimizing the experience of the millions who have tried, successfully and otherwise, to put smoking behind them while kibitzers told them to use more willpower.
It's not just a habit, the medical and scientific communities now fully agree, but an addiction, comparable in strength to hard drugs and alcohol.
The news, however, isn't all bad. For the last 20 years, the proportion of Americans who smoke has dropped continuously, for the first time in our history. In America today, there are nearly 45 million ex-smokers, about as many as are still puffing away.
These quitters, perhaps surprisingly, are for the most part the same folk who tried and failed before. The average person who successfully gives up smoking does so after five or six futile attempts, says Fiore. "It appears that many smokers need to go through a process of quitting and relapsing a number of times before he or she can learn enough skills or maintain enough control to overcome this addiction."
Never underestimate the power of your enemy. Although nicotine may not give the taste of Nirvana that more notorious drugs do, its effects on the nervous system are profound and hard to resist. It increases levels of acetylcholine and norepinephrine, brain chemicals that regulate mood, attention, and memory. It also appears to stimulate the release of dopamine in the reward center of the brain, as opiates, cocaine, and alcohol does.
Addiction research has clearly established that drugs with a rapid onset -- that hit the brain quickly -- have the most potent psychological impact and are the most addictive. "With cigarettes, the smoker gets virtually immediate onset," says Jack Henningfield, Ph.D., chief of clinical pharmacology research for the National Institute on Drug Abuse. "The cigarette is the crack cocaine of nicotine delivery."
Physiologically, smoking a drug, be it cocaine or nicotine, is the next best thing to injecting it. In fact, it's pretty much the same thing. The blood extracts nicotine from inhaled air just as efficiently as oxygen, and delivers it, within seconds, to the brain.
For many, nicotine not only gives pleasure, it eases pain. Evidence has mounted that a substantial number of smokers use cigarettes to regulate emotional states, particularly to reduce negative affect like anxiety, sadness, or boredom.
Acute withdrawal is over within four to six weeks for virtually all smokers. But the addiction is by no means all over. Like those who have been addicted to other drugs, ex-smokers apparently remain susceptible to "cues.” Just as seeing a pile of sugar can arouse craving in the former cocaine user, being at a party or a club, particularly around smokers can rekindle the lure of nicotine intensely.
The same process may include "internal cues” as well. If you smoked in the past when under stress or depressed, the act of being depressed can serve as a cue to trigger the urge to smoke.
What works? About 90 percent of people who give up smoking do so on their own. But the odds for success can be improved. Programs that involve counseling typically get better rates, and nicotine replacement can be a potent ally in whatever method you use.
More than 4 million Americans have tried the patch, which replaces the nicotine on which the smoker has become dependent, to ease such withdrawal symptoms as irritability, insomnia, inability to concentrate, and physical cravings that drive many back to tobacco.
However nicotine replacement is not a magic bullet. It will take the edge off the tobacco-withdrawal syndrome, but it won't automatically transform any smoker into a nonsmoker.
Other requisite needs vary from person to person. A standard approach teaches behavioral "coping skills," simple things like eating, chewing gum, or knitting to keep mouth or hands occupied, or leaving tempting situations. Ways people cope cognitively are as important as what they do.
So if you are ready to quit, there are nutritional supplements and alternative ways to assist you on you way, don’t give up hope and try and try again if needed.
About the Author: R. Fredriksen is the Vice President of Nutrition Dome, a leading provider of Met-Rx, Pioneer Nutritional Formulas, Lipodrene and other quality supplements. For more information, please visit www.nutritiondome.com.
The first thing to know is that nicotine is a very addictive substance that one doesn’t realize the affects of until they decide to remove it from their life. If you have heard that it is more addictive than cocaine or heroin, you heard right
Since 1988, nicotine dependence and withdrawal have been recognized as disorders by the American Psychiatric Association, legitimizing the experience of the millions who have tried, successfully and otherwise, to put smoking behind them while kibitzers told them to use more willpower.
It's not just a habit, the medical and scientific communities now fully agree, but an addiction, comparable in strength to hard drugs and alcohol.
The news, however, isn't all bad. For the last 20 years, the proportion of Americans who smoke has dropped continuously, for the first time in our history. In America today, there are nearly 45 million ex-smokers, about as many as are still puffing away.
These quitters, perhaps surprisingly, are for the most part the same folk who tried and failed before. The average person who successfully gives up smoking does so after five or six futile attempts, says Fiore. "It appears that many smokers need to go through a process of quitting and relapsing a number of times before he or she can learn enough skills or maintain enough control to overcome this addiction."
Never underestimate the power of your enemy. Although nicotine may not give the taste of Nirvana that more notorious drugs do, its effects on the nervous system are profound and hard to resist. It increases levels of acetylcholine and norepinephrine, brain chemicals that regulate mood, attention, and memory. It also appears to stimulate the release of dopamine in the reward center of the brain, as opiates, cocaine, and alcohol does.
Addiction research has clearly established that drugs with a rapid onset -- that hit the brain quickly -- have the most potent psychological impact and are the most addictive. "With cigarettes, the smoker gets virtually immediate onset," says Jack Henningfield, Ph.D., chief of clinical pharmacology research for the National Institute on Drug Abuse. "The cigarette is the crack cocaine of nicotine delivery."
Physiologically, smoking a drug, be it cocaine or nicotine, is the next best thing to injecting it. In fact, it's pretty much the same thing. The blood extracts nicotine from inhaled air just as efficiently as oxygen, and delivers it, within seconds, to the brain.
For many, nicotine not only gives pleasure, it eases pain. Evidence has mounted that a substantial number of smokers use cigarettes to regulate emotional states, particularly to reduce negative affect like anxiety, sadness, or boredom.
Acute withdrawal is over within four to six weeks for virtually all smokers. But the addiction is by no means all over. Like those who have been addicted to other drugs, ex-smokers apparently remain susceptible to "cues.” Just as seeing a pile of sugar can arouse craving in the former cocaine user, being at a party or a club, particularly around smokers can rekindle the lure of nicotine intensely.
The same process may include "internal cues” as well. If you smoked in the past when under stress or depressed, the act of being depressed can serve as a cue to trigger the urge to smoke.
What works? About 90 percent of people who give up smoking do so on their own. But the odds for success can be improved. Programs that involve counseling typically get better rates, and nicotine replacement can be a potent ally in whatever method you use.
More than 4 million Americans have tried the patch, which replaces the nicotine on which the smoker has become dependent, to ease such withdrawal symptoms as irritability, insomnia, inability to concentrate, and physical cravings that drive many back to tobacco.
However nicotine replacement is not a magic bullet. It will take the edge off the tobacco-withdrawal syndrome, but it won't automatically transform any smoker into a nonsmoker.
Other requisite needs vary from person to person. A standard approach teaches behavioral "coping skills," simple things like eating, chewing gum, or knitting to keep mouth or hands occupied, or leaving tempting situations. Ways people cope cognitively are as important as what they do.
So if you are ready to quit, there are nutritional supplements and alternative ways to assist you on you way, don’t give up hope and try and try again if needed.
About the Author: R. Fredriksen is the Vice President of Nutrition Dome, a leading provider of Met-Rx, Pioneer Nutritional Formulas, Lipodrene and other quality supplements. For more information, please visit www.nutritiondome.com.
Labels: cigarettes, quit smoking, stop smoking, stop smoking patch
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