Non-Smoker: Smoking injurious to health
Smoker: Sure.
Non-Smoker: So why do it?
Smoker: You have to do it to understand it....
True, but we can still always torture ourselves with more reasons! A few months back I was asked why nicotine is so additive. Obviously my first instinct was to google it and so I did.
I may be wrong but I realized that the smoke and tar does more damage to our bodies than nicotine itself. It is the addiction to nicotine that makes it more dangerous. When you get your fix of it, the smoke and tar come as partners. So nowadays we have chewing gums and other ways to supplement for it - minus the Choke!
So as nicotine affects the mind the rest of the components of a cigarette may affect your body. Obviously we won't be discussing how the tobacco giants are nowadays adding more artificial crap in it to make it even more additive. One chemical is enough for me to write about in a single post.
Nicotine addiction is reinforced by its consumption and here is how it happens:
First is the dopamine. Nicotine colonizes the brain cells that actually process this 'feel good' chemical. What Nicotine does is that it makes these brain cells more and more sensitive to the effects of dopamine. This means that the feeling of euphoria is much stronger and thus you crave it more and more. In fact it can even make the whole act of smoking seem pleasurable since you are about to get this 'high'. The thing to note is that the greater is your intake of nicotine, the more your dopamine processing brain cells get colonized and the addiction becomes stronger.
The second is the acetylcholine. Although acetylcholine's most important role lies in the muscular control actions but it has other effects too. It has been shown to also act at various other sites within the central nervous system. In the CNS, acetylcholine modulates between various neurons in areas of the brain that control motivation, arousal, and attention. Nicotine colonizes the brain cells that process this chemical. From there emerges the feeling that you can learn more and it increases your attention and focus. There is no point in explaining why such 'feelings' can be additive.
It is important to note that nicotine addiction increases over time and the temporary feel good factors and increased focus is detrimental in the long run.
PS: All I did was a casual internet search. If I got any facts wrong, please feel free to share more about it in the comments.