The reason it is important to understand that cigarette smoking is a psychological addiction rather than a physical one, is to facilitate effective protocols to remove cigarettes from a IGET Hot Flavours life. In this article, we are going to discuss examples that demonstrate that nicotine is not physically addictive but that cigarette smoking is psychologically addictive.
Talk about a substance that has gotten a bad reputation. Nicotine is presented as the ultimate evil and the culprit that makes quitting cigarettes difficult or for some, impossible. However, just what is nicotine? According to medical researcher Dr. David G. Williams, nicotine is a chemical substance found in cigarette smoke that stimulates the production of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, which is needed to facilitate the transmission of nerve impulses.
There’s one thing though, there is another chemical called nicotinic acid that is a close cousin of nicotine that also stimulates the production of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. What is this almost identical substance? It is called Vitamin B3! Could smokers be getting Vitamin B3 from their cigarettes? If so, it’s not a healthy way to do it but look at the symptoms of Vitamin B3 deficiency:
These are many of the reasons that people give for smoking! It improves their memory, lifts their spirits, calms them down, etc. Since many people don’t have good nutrition, perhaps one of the things that fuels the Psychological Smoking Mechanism is a B3 deficiency. After all, these are water soluble vitamins or chemicals, if you will. They are not stored in the body and must be replaced constantly.
The bottom line here is that people don’t get addicted to vitamins! This is just another indicator that the thing that keeps people smoking is not an addiction to nicotine. Let’s look at some of the other things associated with smoking that do not follow the physical addiction mechanism.
In the previous article in this series, we discussed a case of accidental addiction to pain medicine. As you recall, when the patient discovered they weren’t getting the same results from the standard dose of medicine, they increased the dose which did, for a time give them relief. It wasn’t long before they had to increase the dose again, and again.
This is what happens with chemical addiction, the body views the chemical as throwing it out of balance (homeostasis) and it creates a counter force. It matches each increase with an increase in counter force. If nicotine was a truly addictive chemical, the smoker would have to keep increasing intake to achieve the same effects that are claimed for cigarettes just as in our drug example. The consumption of cigarettes would increase over time. However, this doesn’t happen.
Let me give you a real life example. My grandfather was a cigarette smoker. He smoked his entire life starting in his early childhood years. He smoked less than a pack of cigarettes per day. The amount smoked never varied. He had a set amount that he unconsciously metered and for over 70 years maintained this level. The fact that he smoked less than a pack per day was to his benefit and delayed the health issues associated with cigarette smoke. But you can’t avoid it forever and he did eventually develop health problems that years of cigarette smoking produced.
A clear indicator that cigarettes are psychologically addictive and not physically addictive is that the smoker settles into a pattern and stays there for years. You have your half a pack a day person, your pack a day person, your 1.5 pack a day person, your 2 pack a day person and in extreme cases, the three pack a day person. This volume is established pretty early and stays that way. There may be daily fluctuations but they all average out. There is a mental meter that regulates the amount of cigarettes smoked! That’s the Psychological Smoking Mechanism.
