Addiction and the Pleasure Factor
< p>If you are a non-smoker you might have still tried to inhale a cigarette at least once in your life. This experience might only add to your desire to remain smoke-free because it brought on a serious bout of gagging, choking and general illness. Why, many ask themselves, would anyone want to do that again? Well, those who fought through the choking and coughing were soon addicted to the nicotine in the cigarettes that they smoked.
It helps to understand that among the world’s greatest poisons are nicotine, arsenic and strychnine, and these three compounds are also among the most addictive too. They hit specific areas of the brain and create a sense of euphoria. They trigger the “fight or flee” instinct in the human chemical processes, and this brings with it a noticeable “rush”. Over time, however, the body becomes resistant to the ten or twenty puffs of the average cigarette and demands more than that to get the same original results. This is the reason that so many smokers escalate to a pack or more every day.
When someone is experiencing a “nic fit” between smoking breaks or opportunities to inhale a cigarette it is actually the earliest stages of nicotine withdrawal. This is the reason people get edgy and moody when they can’t have their usual number of cigarettes.
So, cigarettes bring pleasure? Nope! They only create satisfaction at having fulfilled the need of the addiction, but they don’t actually make the smoker happy. In fact, many studies done around the world have determined that smokers report an overall lower sense of satisfaction or pleasure in their lives.
Why? Well, smoking impairs many vital senses including taste, smell, and even hearing. It makes food less enjoyable, it can cause sexual dysfunction or a serious decline in libido in both genders, and it creates an overall condition of ill health.
Consider that smokers tend to have higher blood pressure and cholesterol, less active lifestyles, less available spending money, and a never-ending obsession with finding a way to get their next “fix” of nicotine. This all adds up to the reasoning behind the general lack of overall happiness in the lives of many smokers. If you add to that the social climate towards smoking you can see even more reasoning behind the dissatisfaction of the smoking population. For example, a Canadian study found that 56% of singles would reject a potential partner based only on the fact that they smoked.
