The word "addiction" has been used to describe smoking and other behaviors such as the use of heroin and cocaine. On the other hand, addiction is also used on obsessive behaviors such as drinking coffee, sex, eating chocolate, shopping, watching television soap operas and fanatic idolizing! There are even reports of addiction to water, cardiac defibrillators, carrots, hormone replacement therapy and other unusual behaviors.



The word addiction simply means that someone has develop relationships or dependence, whether destructive or non-destructive, with substances, objects, events and people.

Still, it has yet to be proven that nicotine, the "so-called addictive substance" in cigarettes, can exert more control over the user than other so called addictions, such as coffee drinking or sex. In fact, in his study on nicotine as an addictive substance, Dale M. Atrens wrote that the effects of nicotine on the brain are only similar to those of sugar, salt, exercise, and other harmless substances and events! Nicotine does not have the properties of reference drugs of abuse.

Another study by Pritchard and Robinson notes that smoking is almost always done along with something else. And because smoking still enables the user to act on choice suggests that the user's behavior is not controlled by the substance. In fact, a research group found that sugar causes far more powerful and influential effects over behavior in both laboratory animals and humans than nicotine does!

So what exactly is your addiction to smoking? Well, you know you are hooked on cigarettes. But what you may not know is that your addiction is a subconscious connection or association to the things you do when you smoke. To illustrate, ask yourself these questions,

What suddenly comes to mind when you are having a sip of coffee?

What suddenly comes to mind when you're drinking a cold beer?

What suddenly comes to mind when you have just finished a sumptuous meal?

What suddenly comes to mind when you're taking a break?

Exactly! Smoking. Indeed, your daily actions triggers you to smoke without you realizing.

Worst still, when you repeat these actions frequently like several times a day, or a for years, your associations to smoking become stronger each time. Think about these questions.

Have you ever woke in the middle of your sleep just to smoke?

Have you ever broke in cold sweat while attending a 4-hour lecture?

Have you ever got so engrossed in a movie or a book that you forgot to smoke for hours and ended up in seizures?

We bet not! Simply as long as your mind is kept off smoking, or you don't activate these associations, you won't be triggered to smoke.

Another researcher observes that certain religions don't allow smoking in some areas, and even the heaviest smokers report no difficulty in observing this rule. But amazingly, the moment they get back to their routine, they start smoking once again. Is this spiritual, or is it simply the ability to control the habit?

So how are you addicted to smoking then? In the end, your addiction is what you make it out to be. Because in the end, the ability for you to quit smoking has always been there, within the power of your mind. The question is, do you want to discover it?

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