Is Your Tobacco Addiction All in Your Head?

Is Your Tobacco Addiction All in Your Head?

If a non-smoker tells you to put your butt out one more time, you're going to extinguish your cig where the sun don't shine. 

Sound familiar? 

No matter how well you understand the payoffs of kicking the habit--this past Saturday marked the 50th anniversary of the Surgeon General's warning that cigarettes can kill you--tobacco addiction is more than a physical need for nicotine.  

Meet Sherry McKee, Ph.D., Director of the Yale Behavioral Pharmacology Laboratory, who studies the psychological side effects of tobacco. 

"Nicotine changes the brain in fundamental ways, increasing the sense of pleasure from tobacco and reducing your ability to limit impulsive and addictive behavior, even in the face of serious consequences," she says. (Like, well, death.) That's why--no matter how much knowledge or willpower you have-- you can still wind up a slave to your Lucky Strikes. 

Cigs also trick your brain into thinking the habit is relaxing--many people incorrectly believe this. When you go too long between cigarettes, you experience symptoms of nicotine withdrawal such as irritability, so you keep lighting up to avoid them. The reality: You're only making the problem worse. Oxford University researchers found that people who quit smoking experienced lower levels of anxiety compared to when they were lighting up.

"Addiction, by nature, is a chronic relapsing condition," says Dr. McKee. And often there's an underlying reason--besides nicotine--that drove you to pick up the habit in the first place or go back to it after years on the wagon, Dr. McKee says. 

Ask yourself these questions: Do you feel depressed? Are you bored in your job? Those are the issues to address. When you understand the reasons you smoke, you can then identify healthy alternatives that address the underlying problem and make it easier to ditch the habit once and for all, Dr. McKee says. 

And know this: Since addiction runs deeper than physical need, on average, smokers make 8 to 11 attempts before giving it up for good. So persist--the more your fight back, the better your chances of kicking butts to the curb for good. And fight those physical cravings by lacing up your sneakers--people who exercise when they feel the need to smoke are more likely to overcome the habit once and for all, a recent study finds.

 

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