The Psychological Component
Depression and anxiety are common accompaniments of nicotine addiction. Some believe that nicotine is used to self-medicate preexisting mental disorders, but it is also clear that depression and anxiety also result from the addiction. This is especially true during times of withdrawal.
It has been clearly demonstrated that nicotine addiction is two to four times more prevalent in individuals with mental disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), bipolar disorder, major depression, and so on, than in the general population.
In fact, people with schizophrenia reportedly have a nicotine addiction rate of 90 percent. This is not to imply that nicotine causes mental illness, but rather that a person may use nicotine to cope with the uncomfortable symptoms of mental illness.
Essential
Even newborns whose mothers smoked during pregnancy may experience signs of stress and withdrawal symptoms. Children born to nicotine-addicted mothers are also more likely to develop learning and behavioral problems. If these children begin to smoke themselves later on, they are twice as likely as children from non-addicted mothers to develop a nicotine addiction.
A major psychological component of nicotine addiction is the associations between the substance and the environment. Places, people, and circumstances may become closely tied with the pleasurable feelings of nicotine in one's mind. A person might mentally go through every step of the process of “lighting up” — placing the cigarette between the fingers, lighting the match, inhaling the first puff, and so forth.
The addiction is intensified by the habits that are developed in conjunction with use. A person may associate smoking with the day's first cup of coffee, with reading the newspaper, with visiting a certain friend, with driving to work, etc. The memories of these events combined with the “rush” sensation of nicotine are very powerfully reinforcing.
