For a long time it was struggled to recognize it, but today the science is agreed: the Nicotine addiction it is real and complex, so much so that it is included in the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM-5-TR) as Nicotine use disorder. It is not just a “vice”, but a mechanism that involves two deeply interconnected spheres: the physical and the psychological one. Understanding how they both work is the first step to deal with the path with greater awareness and find the best way to quit smoking.
Physical dependence: what happens to the body
There physical dependence From nicotine he manifests himself when our brain gets used to his constant presence. Being a psychotropic substance, nicotine modifies the chemical balance of the nervous system. Over time, the body requires increasing quantities to obtain the same effect: this phenomenon is known as tolerance and constitutes the foundations of physical dependence.
When you decide to quit smoking suddenly, the body reacts to the lack of the substance. This reaction is the abstinence syndromewhich can start a few hours after the last cigarette. Many wonder how long the abstinence from nicotine lasts: The peak of nicotine abstinence It usually manifests itself after 48 hours without smokingwith the most critical days concentrated between the second and fourth day. After about 4 days, the most intense physical symptoms begin to decrease, even if the path can last up to 3 weeks or more.
Recognize i Symptoms of nicotine abstinence It is the first step to gesture them without frightening. You are not alone to try them; They are part of the normal body healing process. The most common include:
- Anxiety and restlessness: A feeling of nervousness and the inability to stand still.
- Irritability and mood changes: feel more susceptible or frustrated than usual.
- Insomnia or sleep disorders: Difficulty falling asleep or night awakenings.
- Concentration difficulty: A feeling of ‘drowned mind’ that makes it difficult to focus on.
In addition to these symptoms, a separate chapter deserves the Civing for the cigarette. It is not a simple ‘vice’, but an intense and almost unstoppable desire to smoke. This desiring thought can manifest itself suddenly and persist much longer than physical symptoms, representing one of the biggest challenges in the path. Knowing precisely After what the desire to smoke passes It is difficult, because it is a subjective experience, but learning to manage these peaks is crucial.
Psychological dependence: the power of habit
There psychological dependence It is perhaps the most tenacious obstacle. It was born from the association that we create between the cigarette and specific moments of the day. The morning coffee, a phone call, the break from work, the end of a meal: smoking becomes a partner contextuala gesture that marks our routine. Real bind to this behavioral rituals: the gesture of opening the package, the noise of the lighter, even the smell of tobacco. These rituals become anchor that strengthen the habit to a deep level.
In this sense, smoking becomes part of a daily routine, of a loop of habit That for many it becomes the way of managing stress and improving one’s skills, helping to consolidate these reinforced behaviors.
The loop of habits
If we try to bring our attention back to the occasions in which we smoke, we can observe that previously to the ignition of the cigarette there had been external or internal events, which we can generally define positive or negative. We could define these triggering events such as triggeror stimuli capable of “push the trigger“And that trigger the desire for gratification obtained chemically.
Have you ever been sad and to go to eat tasty chocolate or ice cream? After a stressful working day to give you a beer or a glass of red wine? Have you ever had working deadlines or preparing university exams, working intensely for hours and anxiously doing only breaks to smoke a cigarette? Well! This behavioral mode supports the slogan “If you have a problem, drink on“;”Are you sad? Eat a tiramisu!“(Coincidentally they chose this name …!);”Coffee break and cigarette so we recharge!“.
This mechanism also works as regards emotions or positive events. For example, when you eat a tasty dish or you are in the company to chat at the table, your brain makes you feel the desire to go out to smoke a cigarette in order to feed and continue that pleasant feeling. The moment you associate that feeling of the cigarette, yours brain records this association. It happens that the next time you eat a tasty dish or see those friends with whom you shared the evening, you will get the desire to smoke a cigarette. The more you remain in this circle (eat-cving-fummer), the more this pattern will consolidate.
The same mechanism also applies to negative emotions. Just as we want to maintain positive emotions, the same we want negative emotions to disappear as soon as possible. This process also deposits in our memory: “If you feel stressed, go out to smoke a cigarette and you will feel better“. The more you remain in this circle (stress-cvelving), the more this association will consolidate and become a habit. The worst thing of these dynamics is that the more frequently these behaviors are implemented, the more they become automatic. Over time it is as if not more by choosing these behaviors with awareness, you are in mode autopilot And you are not the pilot either!
The Habit Loop they develop, strengthen and implement automatically even in times when we do not have an intense craving. A process of change aimed at abstention is possible if we look inside our loops that we have built over time, turning on the awareness To emotions, physical sensations, thoughts and contextual events that govern our behavior.
The fear of the impact: what happens if it falls back?
The repercussions After quitting smoking They are a common experience, almost a planned stop of the route. Still, they are often experienced as a total failure. If you happened to think “I started smoking“, You may have tried the so -called”Oath’s breaking effect“: that feeling of having betrayed a pact with yourself, which can lead to a vortex of negative emotions such as:
- feelings of guilt,
- personal failure,
- inadequacy,
- shame.
This condition leads more easily to a second break of the oath and the abandonment of the process of change. They are family thoughts phrases such as:
“Here, I’m always the usual, I will never make it“;”You didn’t make it, you’re weak“;”I have been wrong by now, we might as well continue“.
The key, however, lies in changing perspective. Who can stop stopping is not those who never fall, but those who are capable of learn from your mistakes. Instead of seeing it as an end, you can start considering the relapse as a process in transitionprecious information on what did not work. If managed with awareness, it can become a springboard for a lasting success.
Think about when you learn to ride a bicycle: fall one or twice is part of the game, right? It doesn’t mean you will never learn. Likewise, smoking a cigarette after stopping does not cancel all the progress made. The impact is an opportunity for learning, not the proof of a failure!
The impact process: it is never a bolt from the blue
A impact is rarely a sudden event. Even if the feeling is to have given up without a reason (“Everything went so well!“), The reality is that it is often the last ring of a chain. It is a process that comes from afar, built on a series of apparently insignificant acts Which, one after the other, can bring closer to the cigarette. Recognizing these small steps is essential to stop the sequence before it is too late.
Try rethinking a time when you risked giving up or gave up. With honesty, what thoughts did they look out in your mind? Often there are phrases that play family members, small self-justifications that open the door to the impact:
- “I just take a shot, which will never be!“
- “I smoked a cigarette after stopping, but it’s just one, from tomorrow enough.“
- “Smoking only for tonight, to manage this difficult situation.“
- “I go out with my smoking friends, but I don’t smoke, it’s not a problem for me.“
These thoughts are some mental traps in which we are captured and eaten, in a more or less slow way, by our dependent mind. If you managed to observe them, very well! The secret is to recognize these traps To regain awareness from the automatic pilot! If you have not succeeded, that’s okay! Next time, try to stop for a moment before taking that cigarette and allow yourself to observe the thoughts that your mind produces!
The relapse is much more than the simple to turn on a new cigarette. The relapse process comes from distantit is similar to the first start of a small wheel of an interlocking gear. When the first small wheel begins to rotate, you easily convince yourself that you cannot do any damage, for example stopping to smell the smoke of others on the street, go for a drink with friends who smoke, buy cigarette for a friend who asks us. Without realizing it, the reaction is triggered and, before or after, that huge, powerful and damned mechanism of the wheel will be started.
In this perspective, it is important to armize with new tools and skills to learn to:
- do not trigger the first wheel of the mechanism;
- Recognize the chain reaction to stop it quickly before the latest events become so large and heavy that they are unmanageable.
It does not start smoking again because of the last problem in the sequence of this process, but because the entire sequence of problems went out of control! What is your gear that continues to fit into the loop? As Lao-Tzu writes in the book Tao te ching:
“What distinguishes moderate man is freedom in his ideas.
Tolerant like the sky, pervasive as the sun, stable as a mountain,
flexible like a tree in the wind, does not have a destination in expected
And it makes use of everything that life offers him. Nothing is impossible for him. Because he went after you”
