Young Girls
Once you become physically addicted to the nicotine in tobacco, you only feel comfortable when it is in your body.
Adolescent Girls, Women and Professionals
Nicotine acts on certain receptors in the brain, releasing hormones and neurotransmitters, including dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin, vasopressin, and beta-endorphine. Dopamine may be the “master moleculei of addiction.
The smoker feels pleasure, reduced tension, appetite suppression, and enhanced performance.
The smoker’s brain gets accustomed to a certain level of nicotine and tolerance develops. Eventually, the brain becomes dependent on nicotine to produce even normal levels of dopamine.
Higher levels of nicotine become necessary to produce the same effects that lower doses used to produce, causing the smoker to smoke even more.
Overnight, nicotine dissipates in the body, the smoker’s craving returns, and the cycle starts over.
While people begin using tobacco and other substances to feel high, they end up using them so they won't feel low.
American Academy of Pediatrics 1997. |
