Nicotine Addiction Facts - Part 1
Consider these facts about nicotine addiction:
You might wake up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom - but you aren't awakened in the
middle of the night by cigarette cravings - so you're not addicted to nicotine. Nicotine has a short 2
hour half life in the body - if you were truly addicted to nicotine you would be woken up several
times in the night, every single night, by the nicotine cravings (much like a hard drug addict might
experience). You aren't awakened in the middle of the night by cigarette cravings - because you're not
addicted to nicotine.
Inhaling nicotine is not an addiction !
When the indoor smoking ban was introduced in 2008 it is estimated that some 400,000 smokers
stopped smoking.1 So 400,000 'addicted; smokers
suddenly found that they could quit smoking - just because they were banned from smoking in public
places. Hmmm - it sounds like those smokers weren't addicted to nicotine.
Smoking nicotine is not an addiction !
When the prices of cigarettes are raised cigarette consumption declines. Well over 100 studies from high-income
countries have confirmed the inverse relationship between cigarette prices and cigarette smoking. The consensus
among researchers working in this area is that a 10% increase in the price of cigarettes in developed countries
will result in a 3 to 5% reduction in overall cigarette consumption.2 If people were addicted to nicotine smokers would be robbing banks and
mugging old ladies to get the money to pay for the increased price of their next fix. This doesn't happen. They
just cut down on the number of cigarettes consumed. That's because the cigarette smokers aren't addicted
to nicotine.
'Vaping' nicotine is not an addiction !
According to the 2008 Pregnancy Risk Assessment and Monitoring System (PRAMS), of women who smoked 3 months before
pregnancy, 45% quit during pregnancy. Amongst women who quit smoking during pregnancy, 50% went back to smoking
nicotine within 6 months after delivery.4 What does this
tell us? It tells us that nicotine smoking is a choice. It is not an addiction. If it was an addiction you wouldn't
get 45% of women suddenly deciding to quit nicotine smoking, in an instant - just because they discovered they
were pregnant. And the babies of those women who do smoke through pregnancy aren’t given nicotine injections or
patches (as they do with the babies of hard drug addicts), to help the babies cope with withdrawal symptoms.
Nicotine smokers are not addicted to nicotine.
Nicotine smoking is not an addiction !
You might believe that you are so addicted to smoking that you simply have to have a cigarette
after every meal. Ever wondered why it is that you never feel compelled by your 'addiction' to stop in the
middle of eating your meal to smoke a cigarette and then, after your nicotine fix, continue eating your
meal ? If you have ever wondered that - it's because you aren't really addicted to nicotine.
Nicotine 'vaping' is not an addiction !
And how are you on a long haul flight, or when you go to the theatre where you aren't allowed to smoke ? Are
you edgey and irritable all through your flight for a full 8 hours ? Or maybe it's really the case that you
just settle down in your seat, and relax, and then maybe have a cigarette when you land in 8 hours or so
? Hmmm - it sounds like you aren't really addicted to nicotine.
Nicotine inhaling is not an addiction !
Wouldn't a commercial money making addiction/rehab clinic that assists with withdrawal symptoms from
all kinds of addictive substances include nicotine as one of the substances that it can help with - if nicotine
were truly addictive ? Your own life experience will tell you that a commercial money-making clinic definitely
would offer help for nicotine withdrawal symptoms if smoking nicotine was an addiction. Well, there's a commercial
money making addiction clinic in California that does offer help with the withdrawal from some 25 or so addictive
substances. Yet it doesn't include nicotine, or cigarettes, or smoking amongst those substances. Hmmm
- it seems like smoking nicotine isn't an addiction.
Nicotine smoking and/or 'vaping' is not an addiction !
If you ever actually talk to ex-smokers you'll realise that most people who have successfully quit smoking have
done it cold turkey - they took the decision one day that 'enough is enough', and stopped smoking on that
day.
The decision usually follows one of three events:
1. People who woke up one day and were suddenly sick and tired of smoking. They threw their fags
away that day and never looked back.
2. People who get sick. Not smoking sick, meaning some kind of catastrophic smoking induced illness. Just people
who get a cold or a flu and feel miserable. They feel too sick to smoke, they may feel too sick to eat. They are
down with the infection for two or three days, start to get better and then realize that they have a few days down
without smoking and decide to try to keep it going. Again, they never look back and stuck with their new
commitment.
3. People who leave a doctors office given an ultimatum. Quit smoking or drop dead--it's your choice. These are
people who some sort of problem has been identified by their doctors who lays out in no uncertain terms that the
person's life is at risk now if they do not quit smoking.
So, if you ask around your friends, many, many ex-smokers have quit cold turkey. One day they made a decision to
quit smoking and since that day they have successfully never smoked another cigarette. That's because nicotine
smoking isn't an addiction.
'Vaping', or smoking, nicotine is not an addiction !
Over 25% of the UK population are former smokers.3 i.e.
at one time in their life they smoked, then took the decision to stop smoking - and don't smoke any more. So some
15 million people in the UK alone have beaten their 'addiction' and successfully stopped smoking. That's a lot of
people. It's because nicotine smoking isn't an addiction.
Nicotine is not an addiction !
The Truth About Nicotine Addiction
The good news, if you think that you are addicted to nicotine, is that you don't have a nicotine addiction.
And the knowledge that nicotine is not addictive and that you are not addicted to nicotine will help
you and make it easier for you to quit smoking tobacco cigarettes, electronic cigarettes and e-cigarettes.
The bad news (yes, you guessed it, there had to be some bad news...) is that YOU are a Nicotine
Industry marketing man's dream !
You are NOT addicted to nicotine -
you only BELIEVE that you are !
You have allowed yourself to be brainwashed by the marketing of the Nicotine Industry, and by your smoking
friends, and by your surroundings, and by your environment, and by yourself, into
genuinely believing that everyone
who uses nicotine is addicted to nicotine !
It's all part of the nicotine trick. And part of the way that the Nicotine Industry exploits its consumers. For
if the consumer believes that they are addicted to nicotine they will be less likely to try to quit
their 'addiction'. And those who do try to quit their addiction will put less effort into quitting their
addiction - and consequently fail. And this is what happens when people who are convinced that they are
addicted to nicotine try to stop using nicotine - they fail.
If you believe that something is going to be difficult - then it will be difficult - and you'll put less effort
into trying - and you will be more likely to stop trying the moment that you have a little 'wobble', when you
are in a situation where you might usually feel that you need to smoke nicotine.
Essentially the smoker is more easily tempted to start smoking again, so that their
situation feels 'better' in some way, if they believe that they have a nicotine
addiction. That nicotine addiction belief, in the mind of the smoker, makes resisting the
'temptation' a hundred times more difficult for them...
The consumption of nicotine, through either ingestion, inhalation, 'vaping', or smoking, is
not an addiction and you do not need nicotine
replacement therapy or electronic cigarettes or e-cigarettes or e-cigs to help you to kick your
'addiction'.
All forms of nicotine 'replacement' therapy don't replace the nicotine at all, they just substitute one form of
nicotine delivery with another - they merely serve to maintain and extend your nicotine dependency - they work
against what you are trying to do and not
for you.
You don't need to 'work up to', or 'gradually progress to' to that wonderful state of being a non-smoker
and being free of slavery to, and dependency on, your chosen nicotine delivery system, in the form of
tobacco cigarettes or electronic cigarettes.
You become a non-smoker in the instant that you take that decision to stop supporting the
Nicotine Industry, and you stop smoking and then never smoke another nicotine cigarette ever again.
Support the Smokeless Society
Currently there is no regulation of electronic cigarettes in the UK. There are no age restrictions on who can
buy and use electronic cigarettes. Electronic cigarettes can be freely advertised, displayed and promoted.
Electronic cigarettes can be used, legally, indoors and in public places.
Electronic cigarettes have been either banned or controlled in many countries - but there is no such control in
the UK !
The Smokeless Society believes that electronic cigarettes should be subject to the same legislation and controls
as tobacco cigarettes - in order to avoid introducing children to a lifetime as an addicted smoker; to keep
families together; and to reduce the drain on national healthcare budgets.
So, please, support our campaign against the public use of electronic cigarettes.
If you are concerned about this latest development by the Nicotine Industry, just register on this website as a supporter of the Smokeless Society,
sign the government e-Petition, and ask your friends to do the same.
Thank you.
Sources
1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7480856.stm
2. http://www.treatobacco.net/en/page_120.php
3. http://www.nosmokingday.org.uk/downloads/media-fact-sheets/Wales.pdf
4. http://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/tobaccousepregnancy/
5. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100713144920.htm
6.
Craving to smoke does not signify physical addiction
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