Tobacco Addiction

Tobacco used to make cigarettes, snuff, chew and dip contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive drug that acts on your brain and affects your mood, alertness and concentration.

Addiction to the nicotine in tobacco is not immediate. It may take weeks or months to develop. Social pressure plays a role. Smoking feels good; a cigarette between your fingers and in your mouth feels nice. Smoking puts some people at ease when they’re under a lot of stress. The bad health effects aren’t obvious in the beginning.

Most smokers use nicotine compulsively. People who start smoking when they’re teens tend to depend on it more than those who start smoking after age 20. Very few people can smoke occasionally. Seventy per cent to 90% of regular users are addicted. Compared with other addictive substances, that rate is very high. For example, about 79% of Albertans drink alcohol, but only about 3% drink at levels that suggest they may have an addiction to alcohol.

Many smokers keep smoking to avoid withdrawal. If you smoke at least 15 cigarettes a day or smoke your first cigarette of the day within 30 minutes of getting up, you may be addicted and are likely to go through nicotine withdrawal when quitting.

Nicotine withdrawal feels like this: feeling down, restless or anxious; having trouble sleeping and concentrating; being in a bad mood; feeling hungry; gaining weight and craving nicotine.

Nicotine withdrawal can last from three days to four weeks, but the craving for a cigarette can last for months.

Quitting tobacco is hard, but with help you can do it. There are now more smokers who have quit in Alberta and Canada than there are current smokers. And quitting is worth it. Who wants to be addicted? Who wants to let something like a cigarette control their lives?

Quick facts

• 33% to 50% of people who try cigarettes become regular smokers.
• 70% to 90% of people who are regular smokers are addicted to nicotine.
• Relapse is the rule for quitters, not the exception. The important thing is to keep trying to quit.
• Withdrawal from tobacco can last from three days to four weeks, although the craving for a cigarette can last for months.
• Quitting is possible. There are now more former smokers than current smokers in Alberta.