Why is tobacco so addictive?
Nicotine addiction is very complex and highly individual. Many smokers continue to use tobacco even though they wish they could stop. Most people who smoke want to quit and have tried to quit. Nicotine is so addictive that many people continue to smoke even when their lives are in immediate danger.
Physical Addiction
Nicotine is considered addictive because it alters brain functioning and because most people smoke compulsively. Very few people can smoke occasionally.
Nicotine is a ‘reinforcing’ drug – smokers want it regardless of its damaging effects. It is considered a reinforcer because it causes many smokers to continue to smoke in order to avoid the pain of withdrawal symptoms.
Addiction to tobacco (nicotine) is not immediate. It may take weeks or months to develop. People who begin smoking when they are in their teens tend to be more dependent than those who start smoking after age 20.
Unlike cocaine, heroin or alcohol abuse, the more dangerous effects of tobacco use are not obvious in the beginning. As well, the pleasurable effects of tobacco may outweigh the abstract possibility of health consequences in the minds of many smokers.
Psychosocial addiction
Smoking gives pleasure: from the simple tactile and oral pleasure of handling and drawing on a cigarette to the comfort of a quick fix in times of anxiety, anger and other stress.
Many people don’t find their first experience with tobacco pleasant. Initially, social pressure may cause addiction to develop. Once addicted, there are fewer external pressures to quit than there are with other addictions. Smokers are not in immediate danger of losing their jobs or families due to their addiction. More dangerous health effects are not obvious in the beginning.