What is dangerous about nicotine is that it causes both psychological and physiological addiction. In that sense, it is even more dangerous than so-called soft drugs. Cannabis and different sorts of hallucinogens do NOT cause psychological addiction as nicotine does.
So, what makes nicotine so addictive? In fact, nicotine is a natural poison that the tobacco plant uses for protection from insects. And nicotine is more lethal than strychnine or arsenic. But, at the same time, nicotine has a pretty interesting chemical structure. It is similar to acetylcholine, the neurotransmitter of human brain. Such a quality of nicotine determines its effect on the human brain that causes the addiction.
The mechanism is pretty simple. Acetylcholine controls a great number of neurochemicals in the brain, including dopamine. So, when a person inhales nicotine, the release of these neurochemicals begins. And release, in fact, unearned release) of serotonin and dopamine causes a nice sensation and change of mood. A person feels nice and relaxed.
But, with the repeated use of nicotine as the defense reaction body lowers the sensitivity to own acetylcholine. So, the number of receptors that receive nicotine is getting bigger and the number of receptors that receive acetylcholine is getting smaller. And, from now, nicotine is a base to build all the neurochemical processes. And, all the attempts to stop taking new doses of nicotine, will cause serious mood shifts and hurtful sensations. That is a physiological addiction.
Such an addiction is formed by the nicotine, so you don't need to smoke tobacco. And different sorts of smokeless tobacco products will cause just the same addiction or in some cases even stronger.
Nicotine also forms a psychological addiction. Nicotine addicts use it compulsively, even though they understand the possible danger.
But, as long as nicotine is a poison, regular use of it can seriously harm your general health. Just look for the nicotine information on the internet and you will find a great number of websites that tell about nicotine's dangerous effects and all the possible consequences it might bring.
All the facts about nicotine make nicotine dependency recovery very hard. As most of the specialists say, the key factor for successful nicotine dependency recovery is to perform everything slow. The easiest way is not to stop using nicotine at once. Just by lowering the dosage of nicotine a body gets every day, it is possible to rebuild the entire system of neurochemicals in the brain. To do that, there are special products that allow you to lower the dose.
But, no matter how slow you will be lowering the dosage, you probably won't be able to avoid nicotine withdrawl symptoms like irritability, anxiety, and depression. They will follow you for about a month. So, it is a very hard process, and, as statistic says, only 10 percent of people who are trying to quit smoking succeed in doing so. So, you need to be very persistent in your decision to quit this habit.