For those who want to stop smoking, it might be best to understand the question, why is nicotine addictive? I used to only ask myself "what is the best way stop smoking?" I was always looking for the easy way: stop smoking guides, books, inhalers and the like, but I never asked myself why I was addicted in the first place, did you?

Nicotine is actually one of the fastest acting drugs on the planet. It is a drug, don't kid yourself on this. Is is faster than heroin. You read that right. One cigarette can get you hooked, most people don't get hooked on that first cigarette because it tastes so bad, but they still smoke another one later on.

Because nicotine is so fast acting, levels of nicotine in the bloodstream fall to about half within only 30 minutes of finishing a cigarette and to a quarter within an hour. That's why most people smoke a pack a day, one cigarette roughly every hour.

This means that as soon as a cigarette is extinguished, nicotine rapidly starts to leave the body and a smoker experiences withdrawal pangs and the desire to smoke another. These withdrawal pangs are actually only very subtle and the big trauma we associate with not being able to smoke is mostly mental. (Think about it, we can sleep for eight hours without being woke up by withdrawal pangs, yet 8 hours without a cigarette while we are awake feels like hell) It is an empty, restless feeling, with no physical pain. The reason most of us suffer so much when we quit, is because our brain perceives it as a big trauma and we feel restless, yet the one thing that we used to rely on to feel comfortable in situations of discomfort, was the cigarette, the very thing we are trying to give up!

Therefore, realizing that smoking is more of a mental addiction than physical, will allow many people to give up easily. I cannot emphasize this enough.

Since the nicotine craving is an empty feeling, almost like hunger, when a cigarette is lit up and fresh nicotine is delivered to the body, ended the craving, the smoker feels a feeling of satisfaction and confidence. They think that the cigarette is actually making them feel more confident or relaxed, but they are not, they are simply feeling less uncomfortable. Imagine wearing really tight shoes for a long time, then taking them off. Did you enjoy taking your shoes off or was it just relief at ending the discomfort?

This is where the real addiction starts, because every time we extinguish a cigarette, the subtle craving begins, followed by the relief at ending the craving with a fresh cigarette, creating the belief that we enjoy smoking, and finally resulting in another cigarette being smoked. It is a vicious cycle that will last for life unless we break it by cutting out nicotine completely.

If we cut nicotine out of our bodies completely, within a week, maybe even less, the uncomfortable empty restless feeling will go, that means if we then smoked another cigarette, it would do nothing for us and would taste disgusting (much like the first one we smoked). So if you think you will miss smoking too much if you quit, think again, because you just need to learn that you are not really enjoying it, you are just ending cravings. What's the best way to end a craving?

Break the cycle forever.

Only by cutting out cigarettes completely can anyone have a hope of quitting the addiction. This is why I believe nicotine patches, inhalers, etc do not really work, becaue they are prolonging the body's reliance on nicotine and continuing the cycle.