Are You a Cigarette Addict?




tobacco addict Some people insist that “tobacco junkie” is just an innocent euphemism which does not really imply degrading syndromes in those who fall into this category. However, tobacco addiction sometimes can be as irresistible and even deadly as other “hard” addictions. In fact, the total amount of people who are being killed annually by tobacco greatly exceeds the total number of deaths inflicted by addictions to other substances.

Until recently, the international medical community had a controversial attitude to nicotine being a physiologically addictive agent. For a substance to fall into the addictive drug category, it should exhibit a number of characteristics, one of which is the presence of noticeable withdrawal symptoms upon cessation. The syndrome of cigarette abstinence is presently well established and documented. Another criterion is the development of drug tolerance, when continuously increasing doses of the drug are required for the user to achieve the desirable “high”. Smokers are usual victims of nicotine tolerance, since over time they tend to desire more nicotine and eventually start smoking a pack or more a day. The third characteristic of the addictive substance is that it becomes an absolute necessity for the user, which often makes him develop certain forms of anti-social behaviour. Again, if the smoker is deprived from cigarettes, he may engage in deviate behaviour in order to satisfy his addition. All these criteria undoubtedly include tobacco into the list of psychologically and physically addictive drugs.

It is a well-documented fact that, during the Second World War, Nazi prisoners in concentration camps were trading away their scarce food in order to obtain tobacco. Even nowadays, people in some undeveloped countries would rather starve their children and barter food for cigarettes than live without tobacco.

When smokers decide to quit and admit themselves into rehabs - “junkie clinics”, they usually go through a very hard period, which sometimes involves grotesque and repulsive acts of searching for cigarette butts in garbage cans…

Tobacco is a heavy drug, and smoking is an act of addition. Not only that, but tobacco is also the biggest killer of the modern world! Everyone who has been smoking for a certain period of time is a nicotine junkie. Actually, even one puff can be capable of inducing or reinforcing a life-long cigarette addiction. Our advice if simple - never start smoking. If you already are a smoker - quit now, and never try another puff again!

Darlene Marlow

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Posted on January 22, 2008 
Filed Under Facts on Smoking

Comments

One Response to “Are You a Cigarette Addict?”

  1. Mario on March 13th, 2009 7:50 am

    Yeah smoking is a hard addiction . I love to smoke cigarettes and could not stop . I need a cigarette and I enjoy every drag unfortunately and cannot help myself . My body must be one lump of nicotine now as I have smoked atleast 40 cigarettes a day for the last 40 years - sometimes alot more . I literally devour them inhaling so deep and can finish a cigarette in seconds when I need it bad which is constant . I cannot last 20 mins during the day between my smokes . Amazing I’m still here .When I fly I cannot smoke and it is torture - I am going crazy by the landing and will chain smoke maybe 10 cigarettes then or more in a half hour . I write this as I am such an extreme smoker to make people understand that for a person like me it is just not possible to stop as my whole body is full of nicotine and every part of me craves it . If I wake in the night I must smoke not one cigarette but a number . I must have the constitution of an ox as I am a muscle guy and train inspite of usually smoking 3 ppd. I see alot of people watch me smoke these days as I usually look like I am gagging for it which I am as I will have been where you cannot smoke which is alot of places . Over 40 years at average 60 cigs a day is millions . I can never give up this pleasure as I love it too much . You have to understand that . I do not want to give it up either but do wish I had never started .

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