What is Nicotine Addiction?
What is Nicotine Addiction?
😌Nicotine is a stimulant that leads to pleasure and alertness while reducing stress and anxiety for a very short time. Because of this, it’s one of the most addictive drug legally available, and third most addictive overall (behind heroin and cocaine)👀
🚬Nicotine causes 3x more dopamine than normal to be released in the brain’s reward center. As this “happy chemical” enters the reward pathway, it causes pleasurable feelings and alertness while increasing heart rate and blood pressure🫀
⏳Because the reward signal from Dopamine hits almost immediately after inhaling Nicotine, your brain creates a strong association between the drug and the good feelings. Thus, your brain will crave Nicotine whenever it wants to feel an immediate reward signal. Inhaling Nicotine via smoking or vaping causes faster absorption into the bloodstream compared to chewing, making inhalation the most addictive method of nicotine consumption🌬
🧠With increasing Nicotine exposure, the brain develops tolerance - it requires a greater amount of Nicotine to activate the same pleasurable feelings. In consistent nicotine users, cravings no longer occur to achieve a pleasure state, but just to maintain their normal state. Without nicotine, withdrawal symptoms can become overwhelming. Nicotine withdrawal symptoms include anxiety, irritability, a depressed mood, insomnia, and difficulty concentrating😓
💪Although these uncomfortable symptoms further reinforce users to turn back to Nicotine in order to avoid the withdrawals, with consistent abstinence the symptoms will subside after 3-7 days🕺
🤷So, why are some individuals more susceptible to Nicotine addiction than others? Studies of identical twins have shown that Nicotine addiction is highly genetic. It’s important to know if any of your family members have been addicted because you may be at a higher risk📈
☢️Importantly, Nicotine itself is a carcinogen, which causes chronic health conditions like heart and lung disease, cancer, and increased susceptibility to infections. This is why Nicotine use is the *leading cause of preventable deaths* in the United States☠️
