Why Your Husband Can't Quit smoking..... and why YOU need to understand how to help him.
Are you wondering why repeated pestering, nagging or emotional blackmail is not successful in making your Husband/friend quit smoking?
Nicotine Addiction is rampant in our country. Tobacco is the most commonly abused substance in India. It is important to understand "why people smoke?" before you ask "why can't they quit?".
The literature states that addiction to tobacco is easily treatable, as compared to other substances. So most of us presume that failure to quit is only because of lack of will power. This is not entirely true...
Let us have a small overview of tobacco addiction :
Tobacco's main stimulant is Nicotine. It acts on the brain, on the reward pathway of the brain, similar to a lot of other addicting substances. It causes the excitation of certain receptors and leads to the secretion of dopamine. Dopamine then acts to cause the "high" percieved by anyone who smokes.
Nicotine also acts to relax you, through it's effect on muscarinic receptors etc etc, but for now let us look at it's effect on the reward pathway, because this is what makes it addictive.
Remember the "Happy feeling" when you were praised by the teacher for topping your class in school? That was because, your reward pathway in the brain was stimulated.
It is a god given gift, that makes success very essential for happiness. You CANNOT feel happy when you fail... It just doesn't work that way.
The Reward pathway is responsible for motivating us to earn that "happy feeling". So, you try to work hard to get good grades and feel that way again.
Now imagine that you could feel the same "happy" without having to study hard by just popping in a tablet or taking a shot..... Easy happiness. Isn't it? Nicotine works exactly in this way.
This is what happens to a college student who is introduced to smoking by his friends for the first time.
So, now comes the question "why does he have to increase his number of cigarettes?"
Let us assume that a normal person has 5 receptors which are stimulated by nicotine, which in turn stimulate the release of dopamine. When a person smokes, initially, there are more than five nicotine molecules available, let us say 7 molecules are available.
Eventually, the body realises this and increases the number of nicotine receptors, a phenomenon called as "Up-regulation" of receptors. so, the number of receptors increases to say 10. Now, the same guy who was "high" and relaxed on one cigarette, needs more than one cigarette... or one cigarette more often.
So, the guy increases his consumption to 2 cigarettes... This leads to further up-regulation of receptors, so on and so forth. Usually the receptors increase in number to up to hundreds of times.
So, "Why can't he quit?"
These new receptors (which are in great numbers) , keep pestering the mind to suggest a fresh supply of nicotine periodically, which translates into the smoker's craving for a cigarette. Some smokers who work in "smoke-free" environments like public offices, etc are compelled by the constant push from these receptors , to go out of those places, and smoke.
People do misinterpret these as "lack of will power", and hence he cannot stay away from smoking. What people do not realise is that this person is being driven to smoking by a physiological process which is not under his control. Just like a diabetic, whose sugars are not under his control.
If he cannot have a cigarette at that point of time, then he starts having various withdrawal symptoms such as irritability, hypersomnia (increased sleep), tremors etc.
These receptor don't vanish overnight. Down-regulation of these receptors takes a lot more time. Hence, quitting too can't be done in a day.
The environment matters. Difference between quitting other drugs/alcohol Vs Smoking.
In India, (like many other parts of the world) a lot of environmental conditions are not really conducive for people who wish to quit smoking.
I mean, a heroin addict needs at least a thousand rupees to buy heroin. He also needs a supplier and needs to stay away from the Police.
An alcohol addict needs at least a hundred rupees and has to go to the liqour store in the area. But for a person who want's to quit smoking, One ALWAYS has five rupees in his pocket, and there is a cigarette outlet/shop every fifty feet or so.
The Government has NO REGULATIONS on the sale of cigarettes, at least none that are properly in effect.
"How to help him quit?"
Statistics show that 90% of all smokers wish to quit every year. But only 15% actually try to quit. Only 3% successfully quit smoking.
It is important to realise that your friend, or your husband, or You need help to quit. Quitting has a higher success rate if a smoker has help.
And you have to bear in mind that quitting smoking is like building Rome. It cannot be done in a day. Quitting cigarettes is a long process.
You must've seen people quit successfully for a few days and then got back to smoking again. You should accept this as a fact that THIS PERSON can quit. He just needs more help.
Will power too is important, not to quit, but to keep trying to quit.
Are you wondering why repeated pestering, nagging or emotional blackmail is not successful in making your Husband/friend quit smoking?
Nicotine Addiction is rampant in our country. Tobacco is the most commonly abused substance in India. It is important to understand "why people smoke?" before you ask "why can't they quit?".
The literature states that addiction to tobacco is easily treatable, as compared to other substances. So most of us presume that failure to quit is only because of lack of will power. This is not entirely true...
Let us have a small overview of tobacco addiction :
Tobacco's main stimulant is Nicotine. It acts on the brain, on the reward pathway of the brain, similar to a lot of other addicting substances. It causes the excitation of certain receptors and leads to the secretion of dopamine. Dopamine then acts to cause the "high" percieved by anyone who smokes.
Nicotine also acts to relax you, through it's effect on muscarinic receptors etc etc, but for now let us look at it's effect on the reward pathway, because this is what makes it addictive.
Remember the "Happy feeling" when you were praised by the teacher for topping your class in school? That was because, your reward pathway in the brain was stimulated.
It is a god given gift, that makes success very essential for happiness. You CANNOT feel happy when you fail... It just doesn't work that way.
The Reward pathway is responsible for motivating us to earn that "happy feeling". So, you try to work hard to get good grades and feel that way again.
Now imagine that you could feel the same "happy" without having to study hard by just popping in a tablet or taking a shot..... Easy happiness. Isn't it? Nicotine works exactly in this way.
This is what happens to a college student who is introduced to smoking by his friends for the first time.
So, now comes the question "why does he have to increase his number of cigarettes?"
Let us assume that a normal person has 5 receptors which are stimulated by nicotine, which in turn stimulate the release of dopamine. When a person smokes, initially, there are more than five nicotine molecules available, let us say 7 molecules are available.
Eventually, the body realises this and increases the number of nicotine receptors, a phenomenon called as "Up-regulation" of receptors. so, the number of receptors increases to say 10. Now, the same guy who was "high" and relaxed on one cigarette, needs more than one cigarette... or one cigarette more often.
So, the guy increases his consumption to 2 cigarettes... This leads to further up-regulation of receptors, so on and so forth. Usually the receptors increase in number to up to hundreds of times.
So, "Why can't he quit?"
These new receptors (which are in great numbers) , keep pestering the mind to suggest a fresh supply of nicotine periodically, which translates into the smoker's craving for a cigarette. Some smokers who work in "smoke-free" environments like public offices, etc are compelled by the constant push from these receptors , to go out of those places, and smoke.
People do misinterpret these as "lack of will power", and hence he cannot stay away from smoking. What people do not realise is that this person is being driven to smoking by a physiological process which is not under his control. Just like a diabetic, whose sugars are not under his control.
If he cannot have a cigarette at that point of time, then he starts having various withdrawal symptoms such as irritability, hypersomnia (increased sleep), tremors etc.
These receptor don't vanish overnight. Down-regulation of these receptors takes a lot more time. Hence, quitting too can't be done in a day.
The environment matters. Difference between quitting other drugs/alcohol Vs Smoking.
In India, (like many other parts of the world) a lot of environmental conditions are not really conducive for people who wish to quit smoking.
I mean, a heroin addict needs at least a thousand rupees to buy heroin. He also needs a supplier and needs to stay away from the Police.
An alcohol addict needs at least a hundred rupees and has to go to the liqour store in the area. But for a person who want's to quit smoking, One ALWAYS has five rupees in his pocket, and there is a cigarette outlet/shop every fifty feet or so.
The Government has NO REGULATIONS on the sale of cigarettes, at least none that are properly in effect.
"How to help him quit?"
Statistics show that 90% of all smokers wish to quit every year. But only 15% actually try to quit. Only 3% successfully quit smoking.
It is important to realise that your friend, or your husband, or You need help to quit. Quitting has a higher success rate if a smoker has help.
And you have to bear in mind that quitting smoking is like building Rome. It cannot be done in a day. Quitting cigarettes is a long process.
You must've seen people quit successfully for a few days and then got back to smoking again. You should accept this as a fact that THIS PERSON can quit. He just needs more help.
Will power too is important, not to quit, but to keep trying to quit.
