Is It Possible for Someone to Be Addicted to Cigarettes in the Same Way That People Can Be Addicted to Drugs?

Question by Bethenia: Is it possible for someone to be addicted to cigarettes in the same way that people can be addicted to drugs?
I know that nicotine is addictive. I am asking about it being the same way as a drug addict. Like a crack head crawling on the floor looking for crumbs, feigning, and literally going crazy.
I’ve done the ashtray digging, not the trash though. But I have gone so far as to go into a public ashtray. Gross, I know.

Guess that’s why I am lighting one cigarette as I’m finishing another.

Best answer:

Answer by renegadesail
Yes it is. I am addicted to nicotine, I’ve been smoking for 52 years out of 68. When I’ve run out of smokes before, I’ve looked in ashtrays for unfinished butts. I’ve even gone in the trash to find them. My ash trays and trash, no one else’s. They say it is harder for a nicotine addict to break the habit than for a cocaine addict to stop.

Answer by Christin K
Addiction can hit a person in that way even if the substance you are addicted to is legal–so the short answer to your question is yes, it can be that bad.

Nicotine is actually a very strong addictive substance. Not only does it increase the receptor sites in the brain, it wears off much faster than most drugs and can trigger withdrawal symptoms within 15 minutes of finishing a cigarette–the GOOD news is that withdrawal symptoms are physically not very strong! Even though they may feel differently during the day when they are awake, when a smoker goes to sleep at night, they begin to withdraw almost immediately–but for most people–over 99% of them in fact–the withdrawal symptoms are mild enough that they do not wake up in the middle of the night with the discomfort. Yet, these same people will go to any lengths during the day to make sure they have their cigarettes and will usually swear that they don’t quit because they can’t stand the withdrawal symptoms!

For most people, it is not the physical withdrawal that is the problem with cigarette addiction–it’s the MENTAL withdrawal. That is much much stronger in cigarette addiction than in drug addiction, because unlike drugs, (1) cigarettes are legal and (2) readily available and (3) mostly acceptable as a vice. Cigarettes are much more a part of a “lifestyle” and “habit”, and can become so ingrained in a person’s everyday life that it creates actual fear to think about quitting–because of the change it would entail. It is much harder to feel bad about smoking cigarettes than about taking hard drugs. Quitting cigarettes becomes much harder because of this. Which is worse for an addicted person–a mental addiction or a physical one? Most psychologists and mental health professionals will tell you it’s the MENTAL addiction that is the more difficult one to break. Almost anyone can get through the physical addiction and withdrawal. Even on hard drugs, the withdrawal symptoms do not last forever. But with drugs, the mental addiction is much less “attractive”. No one wants to be known as a drug addict, but smokers don’t have a problem being known as nicotine addicts!

So yes, it can be that bad for people who are addicted to nicotine, just as bad as it is for people addicted to anything else. And BTW, nicotine is also a drug.

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