On Smoking Pleasure and Kicking the Habit

Filed in archive Cases , Studies on May 21, 2007

Blog Fabulous blogger Tracee Sioux shares with her readers her experience with being on Chantixâ„¢, the FDA-approved prescription drug for smoking cessation.

Smoking is an addiction. However much a smoker denies that fact it is indeed an addiction (to nicotine!) even though smokers get "attached" to smoking for various reasons: relaxation, image, pleasure, etc. But as Tracee put it, everytime she tried to quit in the past and didn't succeed because she misses "my best friend (cigarettes) who had seen me through every up and down" - and I guess that hit home to most smokers.

Speaking of pleasure from smoking, as suggested by study findings of University of Pittsburgh researchers, nicotine also enhances the pleasure smokers get from their surroundings when they smoke, thereby creating a psychological link between that amplified satisfaction and cigarettes.

According to principal investigators Anthony R. Caggiula, professor and chair of the psychology department and Alan F. Sved, professor and chair of the neuroscience department, all in Pitt's School of Arts and Sciences:

The findings present new ideas about the way nicotine works and the reason people become addicted to cigarettes.

Nicotine's pleasure-intensifying properties help explain why smoking remains among the hardest habits to overcome despite the well-publicized perils of cigarettes and ample cessation therapies that administer nicotine.

Probably that's why nicotine patches and gums mostly do not work? If you've tried everything and wasn't successful in quitting but terribly want to quit...you might want to try Chantixâ„¢. Talk to your doctor about it.

Find more details from the full report.