Umm seems to me if you quit it many many times you just took a little break and went back to it. Although I could be wrong here. Just a tidbit of info for everyone if you were to inject pure Nicotine into the bloodstream it would kill you or so my health books told me throughout high school.
Methinks Tiki has his humor hat turned off right now. Regarding the earlier discussion of alcohol withdrawal: a neighbor down the street, who’s been an alcoholic for 20 years, just quit cold turkey last week. Two days later he called the cops 4 times because he was seeing gypsies, gorillas, Chinese people, and spiders in his house. He even tried to force his way into my house with a jack iron a day later, with the intention of doing god knows what. I hope he’s getting professional treatment, because I don’t doubt this could lead to death.
Nicotine is physically highly addictive. I gave up smoking by accident. I forgot to buy cigarettes for a week or two, and the next cigarette I smoked was a manky old one that had been in the bottom of my handbag for those two weeks. It was absolutely foul. I haven’t smoked since, or even felt like smoking. I suppose that I wasn’t terribly psychologically addicted to smoking.
If you’re psychologically addicted to something, it doesn’t have to be physically addictive (in terms of being neurochemically active). It’ll still be hard to kick.
Cabbage’s cite is a study of reported difficulty of quitting, so combines the physical and psychological aspects. Are there any other published studies of this type?
Studies like this are very subjective, but they are still valid if the methodology is good.
Heroin does not hook you nearly as fast as nicotine, methamphetamines, and cocaine, but I think it’s easier to get hooked on than some of those drugs, because of it’s effect.
I’ve never correctly done heroin (I swallowed a cap with some tar heroin in it when I was 15, but I didn’t get the full effect, was just very mellowed out for a while) but what I’ve heard from people who have scares me away from it. One of my friends did a $10 cap of white once, and she loved the way it made her feel so much that she couldn’t wait until the next time she did it. She bought a lot, stayed up doing it with a friend, and for the next week she craved it - probably not truly addicted to that point, more akin to someone who has had sex for the first time and can’t stop thinking about how great it was, only stronger. If someone tries heroin, there’s a really strong chance they will do it again, and again.
Other, more addictive drugs have unpleasant side effects to balance out how they make you feel, or you lose the full pleasurable effects after a few uses. The first time I tried crystal meth I thought I had found my new drug of choice, I felt awesome for hours on end. Second time, still good, though not as good. Third time just made me jittery, never did it again, never got a chance to get addicted. When I have an opportunity to do cocaine, I just have to remind myself how miserable I feel when I come down, and how often while I’m still high it’s an unpleasant experience, and I can turn it down. And you know nicotine has to be addictive as hell, you only get a rush the first few times you smoke (if you smoke regularly), after that the only pleasure you get from it is you aren’t craving a cigarette for a few minutes.
Goddamned Chinese people.
–Tim
Actually I had my humor hat on and going. I meant my post to be a bit funny you know like a sarcastic reply kinda thing. Guess I should been clearer.
I don’t know if the “wire” research is currently being conducted on humans, but it was in the '50s. The area of the brain being researched was the nucleus acumbens which is involved in feelings of pleasure and which is affected by a number of addictive substances. The idea at the time was that this type of stimulation (which could be controlled by the patient through pushing a button) might be useful in treating depression. It didn’t really go anywhere.
I couldn’t tell you if such research is currently being done on humans, but it definitely was at one time. I don’t have a reference handy, but it’s often reported in basic neuropsych textbooks if you want to look it up.
I stumbled across more relevant information, which supports Cabbage’s ranking of addictive drugs pretty well. As a couple of posters have pointed out, it seems that the addictive potential of drugs is best measured as a combination of several factors.
And I suppose I should thank everyone who’s responded to this thread so far :). I really had no idea that alcohol and tobacco were so addictive compared to illicit drugs like heroin and cocaine.
–Caliban