Is Nicotine addictive like crack?

[houseman5]

I was in the hospital for a few years and was able to quit that way. Other than one pack, I'm still sober off cigarettes. My heart feels great!

 

[JackARoe]

I know it does something And I want that something alot but what that something is couldn't tell you.

It is that poison feeling we crave. Nicotine withdrawal actually feels pretty good if you think about it. Relaxed, hungry, craving. The craving part is for the poison. Actually, there are some stimulant properties that we get used to too.

I to am deathly afraid of being addicted to nicotine again. I quit in 1994 after smoking for only five years. But I still have dreams that I smoked a cigarette since. I never have, but I have those dreams where I’m like see I did it. But nicotine is the only drug that I know I could never touch even once.

 

[brokedownpalace10]

It is that poison feeling we crave. Nicotine withdrawal actually feels pretty good if you think about it. Relaxed, hungry, craving. The craving part is for the poison. Actually, there are some stimulant properties that we get used to too.

I to am deathly afraid of being addicted to nicotine again. I quit in 1994 after smoking for only five years. But I still have dreams that I smoked a cigarette since. I never have, but I have those dreams where I’m like see I did it. But nicotine is the only drug that I know I could never touch even once.

I have started and stopped my entire life. Prolly smoked a little less than half of my time. Started when I was 16.
Quit for many years, then smoke for many years. Relapse into addiction after relapse.
Thankfully, it's been only cigars or a pipe since I was in my late 20's. A little less bad.

My "line" is, "Of all the drugs I've ever quit, and there have been a few, there is only one which taps me on the shoulder and reminds me of it's presence regularly."

 

[Branggen]

Just keep thinking about how gross it is and it should work out

 

[Deru]

This is such an interesting question. I smoked cigarettes for over 10 years. My last cigarette was the day I got admitted to hospital before my first open heart surgery. April 1st 2017. I always told myself if I ever got sick I'd quit. And I sure did. I hated cigarettes. I was heavily addicted to IV heroin and crack/cocaine (take your pick since its all the same once you get it ready for IV...cocaine hydrochloride or cocaine citrate, whatever, its a salt). Anyways, after my third open heart surgery and I knew I couldn't IV anymore I started smoking crack. At some point crack had that same calming feeling of smoking a cigarette. I'd be in my car or walking outside smoking my crack pipe like it was a cigarette. It was so hard to stop both of them. Something about the ritual itself is as addicting as the needle. Haven't touch a cigarette since 2017 or a crack pipe since 2020.

 

[xtcgrrrl]

This is such an interesting question. I smoked cigarettes for over 10 years. My last cigarette was the day I got admitted to hospital before my first open heart surgery. April 1st 2017. I always told myself if I ever got sick I'd quit. And I sure did. I hated cigarettes. I was heavily addicted to IV heroin and crack/cocaine (take your pick since its all the same once you get it ready for IV...cocaine hydrochloride or cocaine citrate, whatever, its a salt). Anyways, after my third open heart surgery and I knew I couldn't IV anymore I started smoking crack. At some point crack had that same calming feeling of smoking a cigarette. I'd be in my car or walking outside smoking my crack pipe like it was a cigarette. It was so hard to stop both of them. Something about the ritual itself is as addicting as the needle. Haven't touch a cigarette since 2017 or a crack pipe since 2020.

I do know what you mean about the ritual of it. I know for a fact that my heart cannot sustain another bout of crack addiction; yet I still remember the smell, the taste, the making of the chore, all of it. But nicotine seems so comparatively innocuous, so it’s harder to fend off the temptation to re-start.

I did cease vaping as of a few days ago, btw. I doubt partner and I successfully made a baby this past cycle (the timing wasn’t right, although we did “practice” a whole bunch ) but if we did and I kept vaping, well. That would be bad.

 

[Keif' Richards]

People often compare nicotine to other drugs. I don't truly feel that they are comparable in any real, truly understandable way. Nicotine is like a stupid habit. It has no emotional or spiritual meaning. It's like a nervous tic. Cocaine will occupy every corner of your mind and intellect. It will become your God. Nicotine is addictive, sure, but that is too simple. I don't feel that there is any use in comparing the different drugs in he way that they are commonly compared.

As a Heroin addict, the comment "cigarettes are more addictive than Heroin" never made any sense at all to me.

 

[plumbus-nine]

I think nicotine is a strange drug in that the addiction is far more powerful than the pleasure one feels from consuming it. Usual drugs have an addiction potential according to their positive, pleasurable effects and drugs which don't feel good don't get one addicted to them.

I started smoking at the age of 28 after a serious breakup and was soon up to 1 pack a day. I just smoked to quieten the cravings which would come around 1-2h's after the last smoke. A very short lived stimulative effect and some tingling sensation were the only effects besides satisfaction of the cravings. To minimize damage I switched to vaping and snus, out of which the vaping didn't cut it, I think it has to do with other ingredients of tobacco like harmala alkaloids (reversible MAOI - strangely nobody ever got dangerous drug-drug interactions from tobacco). Snus on the other hand was nice and less addictive than smoking, with that I managed to quit pretty easy. T

 

[new2drugs]

I think nicotine is a strange drug in that the addiction is far more powerful than the pleasure one feels from consuming it. Usual drugs have an addiction potential according to their positive, pleasurable effects and drugs which don't feel good don't get one addicted to them.

I started smoking at the age of 28 after a serious breakup and was soon up to 1 pack a day. I just smoked to quieten the cravings which would come around 1-2h's after the last smoke. A very short lived stimulative effect and some tingling sensation were the only effects besides satisfaction of the cravings. To minimize damage I switched to vaping and snus, out of which the vaping didn't cut it, I think it has to do with other ingredients of tobacco like harmala alkaloids (reversible MAOI - strangely nobody ever got dangerous drug-drug interactions from tobacco). Snus on the other hand was nice and less addictive than smoking, with that I managed to quit pretty easy. T

Correct.. nicotine doesn't really do anything other than make you feel how a non smokers feels.
Been compared to wearing tight shoes just to have the pleasure of taking them off.

 

[TheUltimateFixx]

Certainly to some people it seems to be.

I keep saying that drugs don't contain some inherent quality of 'addictiveness' the way an orange contains vitamin C.

I can objectively say an orange contains more vitamin C than an apple. I can't objectively say crack is more addictive than nicotine, because leaving aside the issue of physical dependence which some drugs cause and others don't, addiction isn't due to some measurable component INSIDE of any given drug.

Addiction is mental process driven by multiple factors. It's not a case of consuming a drug and getting a specific dose of addictiveness. That's why some people take heroin without being addicted, while others 'only' take weed but are addicted as all get out.

 

[brokedownpalace10]

Correct.. nicotine doesn't really do anything other than make you feel how a non smokers feels.
Been compared to wearing tight shoes just to have the pleasure of taking them off.

I dunno. There's some truth to what y'all are saying. A lot of the pleasure is the release from cravings. However, when I'm smoking tobacco, if something is happening to stress me, nicotine will calm me. That's not 100% just release from craving. @plumbus-nine , you even said that you started smoking after a serious breakup. You smoked to calm yourself.

The very first dose of nicotine in a day wakes you up. You immediately feel focus and wake up. I don't think all that is exclusively due to release from cravings.

I'm not smoking 'baccy now. When I get up, I have a cup of coffee (another addiction ) and I sit on the couch. I sit there till I feel the caffeine kick in in 20 minutes or so. Then I get up and go about my day. It takes me a while to wake up. When I smoked, I would go out on the back porch, have a smoke, and wake up right away.

Nicotine is psychoactive, even when hooked. It doesn't give you a "high", but it's psychoactive.

@new2drugs , maybe nicotine gives you the ability to feel how a non smoker feels when calm and awake, even while under stress, even early in the morning, and even if it's only temporarily.

 

[MsDiz]

A wee fact that I found interesting when I had read it.

“The movie stereotype of a cigarette accompanying other pleasurable activities is borne out by the work of Joshua A. Karelitz and Kenneth A. Perkins at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, who have studied nicotine’s ability to enhance the pleasure of visual stimuli (videos) and music. They have also found that nicotine reduced the speed with which smokers became bored with a visual reinforcer (known as habituation). In other words, smoking seems to both enhance and prolong the pleasure of other activities. The reinforcement-enhancing effect applies also when obtaining nicotine from e-cigarettes.”

Recent Research Sheds New Light on Why Nicotine is So Addictive | NIDA Archives

Nicotine does not produce the kind of euphoria or impairment that many other drugs like opioids and marijuana do. People do not get high from smoking cigarettes or vaping. Yet nicotine’s powerful ability to reinforce its relatively mild rewards results in 480,000 deaths annually.

nida.nih.gov

 

[moonyham]

Bro the early stages of smoking are the best, that's why people get hooked. Those sneaky few cigarettes right now are so so good.


But it doesn't stay that good. It becomes terrible.

Stop smoking. At this stage you are not addicted really. Just minor in comparison to real users. It's 'easy' now, and if you think it's not then you definitely will struggle once you are buying a few packs a week.

In saying that, it's possible to enjoy tobacco without becoming a daily habitual user - but I think it is extremely difficult(basically impossible) to do with cigarettes.

If you want to enjoy tobacco without the insane addiction, look into pipe tobacco and go down that route. Still get the buzz of tobacco, get to enjoy the flavor and 'smoking' sensation but due to the nature of it, you'll generally find it's harder to be fiendish and is more of an occasion than the casual nature of smoking a cigarette.

Similar can be done with cigars but I think cigars are a bit more gross and they also have you consuming a significantly larger amount of tobacco than pipe smoking which I think is an unnecessary health risk for minimal to no gains.

 

[nznity]

I’m quitting the vape as of today. For the third time. Sigh. Nicotine is SO fucking addictive, and it doesn’t even feel that good.

It actually is the perfect complement to everything.
To every drug
To every activity
A cigarette after everything in this life feels good and the taste is good when it's quality tobacco.

 

[nznity]

People often compare nicotine to other drugs. I don't truly feel that they are comparable in any real, truly understandable way. Nicotine is like a stupid habit. It has no emotional or spiritual meaning. It's like a nervous tic. Cocaine will occupy every corner of your mind and intellect. It will become your God. Nicotine is addictive, sure, but that is too simple. I don't feel that there is any use in comparing the different drugs in he way that they are commonly compared.

As a Heroin addict, the comment "cigarettes are more addictive than Heroin" never made any sense at all to me.

I have to disagree with you man, nicotine does have a spiritual meaning. It helps get rid of bad vibes in some cultures. In the Peruvian jungle, when you do ayahuasca they make you smoke mapachos(natural organic unprocessed tobacco rollies) and the shaman also blows it out on you while you're in trance to get rid of the "demons". Anything that becomes a habit and Is done In excess is stupid, but a cigarette here and there, don't think so.
Fun fact: tobacco Is a natural pesticide(one of the best indeed)

 

[brokedownpalace10]

If you want to enjoy tobacco without the insane addiction, look into pipe tobacco and go down that route. Still get the buzz of tobacco, get to enjoy the flavor and 'smoking' sensation but due to the nature of it, you'll generally find it's harder to be fiendish and is more of an occasion than the casual nature of smoking a cigarette.

Similar can be done with cigars but I think cigars are a bit more gross and they also have you consuming a significantly larger amount of tobacco than pipe smoking which I think is an unnecessary health risk for minimal to no gains.

Smoking cigarettes, you absorb nicotine through your lungs nearly instantly. Fades quickly too.
Pipe smoking, you absorb nicotine from the smoke in the mucus membranes of your mouth primarily. Takes longer to hit and lasts longer.
Chewing tobacco, you absorb nicotine directly from the tobacco in the mucus membranes of your mouth. Takes longer to hit and lasts longer and is much more stimulating.
Cigar smoking, you absorb nicotine from the smoke in the mucus membranes of your mouth. You also absorb some nicotine directly from the tobacco in the mucus membranes of your mouth. Takes longer to hit. Lasts longer. Is more stimulating.

Cigarettes are more addicting than a pipe or cigars in the same way that crack cocaine is more addicting than snorted (mucus membrane) cocaine.


Tobacco is a bad habit and quite addicting. A lot of people help themselves to quit by convincing themselves that they hate it, hated it, and that it sucked. Whatever gets you through the night.

I'm in my 60's. I do miss tobacco. However, I know many former coworkers or acquaintances who have died from lung cancer. Many. Not a few.

 

[Deru]

Yeah I have to disagree with the comment about nicotine not being comparable to other drug addictions. There was a really interesting study I was reading a while ago that compared consequential aspects of addiction for various drugs accounting for family, personal, societal etc. and nicotine was ranked in the top three with heroin and either alcohol or cocaine as the other one I forget. I think it’s easy to dismiss it because it’s legal but it’s an exogenous substance that crosses the bbb and creates psychoactive effects just like the rest. You may not need to go out and rob someone to get your next cigarette fix, but that’s really only one aspect of what addiction encompasses.

 

[nznity]

Both smoked together feel awesome xd

 

[nznity]

Yeah I have to disagree with the comment about nicotine not being comparable to other drug addictions. There was a really interesting study I was reading a while ago that compared consequential aspects of addiction for various drugs accounting for family, personal, societal etc. and nicotine was ranked in the top three with heroin and either alcohol or cocaine as the other one I forget. I think it’s easy to dismiss it because it’s legal but it’s an exogenous substance that crosses the bbb and creates psychoactive effects just like the rest. You may not need to go out and rob someone to get your next cigarette fix, but that’s really only one aspect of what addiction encompasses.

Addiction is habit that you know is harmful for u and despite that youre aware of that fact, u cant stop it. That's the definition of an addiction in simple terms I think and if u wanna go deeper it generates societal, familiar, personal, economic, psychological and physical problems upon u.

 

[nznity]

All drugs should be legal anyway with the exception of cocaine fentanyl and meth. Xd those need tighter control or other measures but the rest could and should be freely available.