Originally posted by Lace Neil Singer
View Post
Personality also has little to nothing to do with nicotine addiction. Nicotine is an alkaloid that elicits specific physiological reactions in the bodies of animals, including humans. The nicotine in tobacco, such as that smoked in a cigarette, comes in a small dose, which acts on the body as an addictive stimulant. The addiction stems from a physiological dependence on the chemical's presence rather than a psychological dependence like some other types of addiction (possibly including alcoholism). The only part of nicotine addiction that is affected by personality is withdrawal. An extremely strong-willed person can quit "cold turkey" and endure the withdrawal symptoms, whereas a normal person would have trouble doing so.
While I believe that you are not addicted to cigarettes, or nicotine in any form, I will say that the vast majority of people who smoke "regularly" as defined by one or more cigarettes a day, are already or will likely become addicted to them if they continue to smoke regularly.
As for being able to find statistics "to say anything you like", try finding some before you negate all statistics' validity. You won't find many studies indicating that cigarettes aren't addictive. It's not because the scientists who may have made the discovery that "nicotine addiction is a sham" covered it up, either. Scientific objectivity aside, a find like that would win them the Nobel prize.
And, to quote Dr. Perry Cox: "statistics mean nothing to the individual". Truer words have seldom been spoken. Some diseases (left untreated) have a 99.99% fatality rate (or worse), and yet people have survived them. To those few people, the statistics are not indicative of the truth. To the many millions who have died of said diseases, well... they are. For example, if you happen to know, say, exactly six people who have smoked "regularly" for over a year and all of them smoke entirely by choice (and none of them is really addicted and in denial), then congratulations, you are one of only about 64E-10% (less than 0.00000001%) of people who can claim to know six people who smoke, of whom none are addicted. Statistically possible? Most definitely yes. Likely? Most definitely not.
Comment