Is Nicotine Addictive For You?

[CES]

Physiological addiction is usually associated with increased tolerance for the substance. Yet, that is one thing we rarely see with vaping. It's pretty common with smoking. Anyone not move from a couple of smokes to 1 or more PAD?

When i started, i went through ~ 3ml/day of 24 mg/ml (~ 72 mg/day). Five years later i use ~7ml of 1-2mg/ml (10-12mg/day). So am i more or less "addicted" now? Some of that is because delivery is more efficient in current equipment, but not all.

Nicotine dependence may be tied with the age that you started smoking. That is testable. But nicotine use doesn't necessarily change the total number of receptors. Animal models indicate that it increases the expression of one subtype and decreases the expression of another subtype of receptors. The shift isn't limited to the young, and there may be other changes associated with youth.

I'm don't know whether or not nicotine is "addictive" or causes only "dependence" (and it's likely that varies from person to person)...but i do think that it is not the only chemical that causes the physiological and behavioral need and the tolerance that led many of us to smoke more and more, and made it hard to quit smoking without something like e-cigs that allowed us to mimic the behavior that goes with smoking. .

 

[Woofer]

I really believe that Nicotine dependence is tied to the age at which you started smoking/using nicotine. I read a study that nicotine when introduced to a developing brain dramatically increases the amount of receptors in the person's brain. I believe it honestly. My first hit of nicotine was at age 15, experimenting with it through highschool. Then I picked up smoking in college, going straight to a PAD habit! I really think the age I started is why I am so dependent on nicotine (ripe ol' age of 19. lol). This would also explain why Alzheimer patients who never smoked don't have to deal with the withdrawal symptoms associated with nicotine. They just don't have nearly as many receptors as I do. Hell, I can get a head rush dripping 1.5mg!

Everyone tests positive for nic.
Don't remember my first smoke but was smoking regularly by grade 7.
Smoked for decades.
I get no head rush vaping 15 mg.

 

[jseah]

When i started, i went through ~ 3ml/day of 24 mg/ml (~ 72 mg/day). Five years later i use ~7ml of 1-2mg/ml (10-12mg/day). So am i more or less "addicted" now? Some of that is because delivery is more efficient in current equipment, but not all.

When I quit on January 2 of this year on blu Plus, I was going through 2 tanks a day at 24 mg (I think 1 tank held about 1 ml?). When I started using the Halo Triton on February 18, I was going through 3 ml a day of 24 mg (72 mg). Now that I am using Atlantis and Subtank Mini with a smattering usage of a Nautilus, I am going through about 4-5 ml a day of 6 mg.

 

[thatrandy]

been vaping 6-8mg, never once felt any effects.... only relaxed

 

[Hitmetwice]

I smoked one cigarette one day when I was only 8 years old and it led to 40 years of smoking.
Was it the nicotine in that first cigarette that hooked me.
Or was it something else?

I'm confident it's the "something else".

Looking and longing for peace, acceptance, satisfaction.
These are the REAL motivators. imo. Cheers.

 

[Liskrig]

I started vaping at 0mg, I came from premium pipes and cigars, so I wasn't really addicted to the nicotine... After a while I began to miss the feeling I got from smoking pipes and cigars (because the Nicotine is absorbed through the mouth as opposed to the lungs) I started with 3mg and I'm happy with that. I get the same calming feeling I used to get with my pipes, except I can vape the NET juices in my home, and car without having an odor. I really don't know if I'm addicted, because I still regularly drip 0mg on my MutationX v3 to show off

 

[HecticEnergy]

I usually dont do this, but I'm posting a response without reading all of the other posts. Sorry if this has already been covered.
Check out the MSA - Master Settlement Agreement - heres a good video on how it effects vaping.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxNM1pUoOn4

Also, as far as the addictive properties of nicotine, I thought this was a good read:
Nicotine, the Wonder Drug? | DiscoverMagazine.com
Basically, cigarettes make the nicotine much more adictive with the alcoloids. Also, there are other compounds in cigarettes that make them addictive (beyond nicotine).

 

[somdcomputerguy]

I love my nicotine like I love my coffee!

Oh I must agree wholeheartedly with that! I can do without either for as long as I need to, but I don't like to!!

 

[KGB7]

I started vaping 0mg juice the the day i quit smoking. Almost 5 month later i pretty much quit vaping. Then i tried vaping 3mg Nic juice, and 3 month later, im vaping only juice with Nic on daily basis. I can go a whole day (12Hours) with out vaping, but when i get home i have the need to vape Nic based juice.
When i was vaping 0mg juice, i had no need to vape for 2-3 days.

In my personal experience, Nic might be addictive. But i dont know 100% if im addicted to Nic it self, or the juice with Nic. Because imho, juice with Nic tastes better (between 3-6mg). If im addicted to better flavor, then in some ways im also addicted to Nic or i simply have dependency on Nic which gives me better juice flavor.

No matter how i look it at, Nic is what im after, and that makes me addicted to Nic one way or another. Imagine taking away all the chemicals in the Soda, you will be left with only Water. Yet people drink Soda like drug addicts, because of the chemicals in the water that make up Soda.

 

[WharfRat1976]

When I quit on January 2 of this year on blu Plus, I was going through 2 tanks a day at 24 mg (I think 1 tank held about 1 ml?). When I started using the Halo Triton on February 18, I was going through 3 ml a day of 24 mg (72 mg). Now that I am using Atlantis and Subtank Mini with a smattering usage of a Nautilus, I am going through about 4-5 ml a day of 6 mg.

Great progression here....That's similar to my path.

 

[WharfRat1976]

I smoked one cigarette one day when I was only 8 years old and it led to 40 years of smoking.
Was it the nicotine in that first cigarette that hooked me.
Or was it something else?

I'm confident it's the "something else".

Looking and longing for peace, acceptance, satisfaction.
These are the REAL motivators. imo. Cheers.

Yep, that's what the nic provides...and more[emoji6]

 

[DC2]

Yep, that's what the nic provides...and more[emoji6]

And/or what the relaxing routine provides as well.

 

[WharfRat1976]

If analogs contained zero nic, do you think you would become addicted to analogs? Or not addicted but just unable to stop for say....65 years until they have killed you.

 

[cobalt327]

Back "in the day", I heard there were additives to make nic more biologically available when smoking cigs. IIRC this was outlawed, either by the fedgov or by consensus of BT. But the point is, BT made NIC more available to our bodies, not specifically any other compounds- although there might well have been other compounds effected by the additives, making them more available. And it's my opinion this was done not just to get the nic buzz quicker, but to keep us smoking.

It is hard for me to understand why anyone would be believe nic wasn't habit-forming/addictive. I know how I feel, urge-wise, when I abstain. BUT, there's still an urge that vaping nic doesn't seem to stem, and it came as a surprise to me that even after vaping what should be a sufficient quantity of nic that I still had an urge to vape/smoke- albeit much reduced from what I felt going cold turkey. So it's my opinion that cigs have more than just nic driving my desire to smoke.

I'm not any sort of expert, this is just my observation: I think we absorb nic differently when vaping as opposed to smoking. The amount of nic I vape compared to the amount of nic said to be absorbed when smoking cigs is nowhere near equal, when vaping I "consume" far more nic than when I smoked.

 

[WharfRat1976]

Back "in the day", I heard there were additives to make nic more biologically available when smoking cigs. IIRC this was outlawed, either by the fedgov or by consensus of BT. But the point is, BT made NIC more available to our bodies, not specifically any other compounds- although there might well have been other compounds effected by the additives, making them more available. And it's my opinion this was done not just to get the nic buzz quicker, but to keep us smoking.

It is hard for me to understand why anyone would be believe nic wasn't habit-forming/addictive. I know how I feel, urge-wise, when I abstain. BUT, there's still an urge that vaping nic doesn't seem to stem, and it came as a surprise to me that even after vaping what should be a sufficient quantity of nic that I still had an urge to vape/smoke- albeit much reduced from what I felt going cold turkey. So it's my opinion that cigs have more than just nic driving my desire to smoke.

I'm not any sort of expert, this is just my observation: I think we absorb nic differently when vaping as opposed to smoking. The amount of nic I vape compared to the amount of nic said to be absorbed when smoking cigs is nowhere near equal, when vaping I "consume" far more nic than when I smoked.

This is a great post. I am always attracted to empirical data rather than barely authenticated he said she said data. In general "they say" we absorb less nic through vaping so even if you are slamming 10mls per diem of 6mg juice you are actually absorbing far less than 60mg of nic into your system. This is opposed to smoking 40 or so analogs and you will receive 60mg plus of nic into your system since the alkaloids in analogs stick it deeply into your blood cells creating the massively addicting nature of analogs.

 

[Tmg666]

Not for me, use about 3mg juice now for the slight stimulation but i don't crave it constantly. Iv gone 2 months without touching my gear before becuase i wasn't in the mood for it and was to lazy to change the coil/wicking. Although if i have a really good flavour i tend to use it more. But that applies to actual food to. If i have a good pie, i will devour it in a day or two.

 

[skoony]

the question, is nicotine addictive?
first one has to identify the terms we use when discussing
addiction.
why do they say nicotine of the most addictive substances on earth?
because 30% of 'smokers' become dependent to smoking.
that's a higher rate of dependency than alcohol (10.2%) with
unmentionable substances falling in between.
rule one: dependency does not equal addiction. dependency
is just dependency. no more. the good news is 70% of 'smokers'
do not develop a dependency to smoking. that's why half of smokers
have quit by their early thirties.
so what is addiction? to be legally and medically termed an
addiction the 'dependency' has to cause quantifiable harm to
one self or others.
certainly of the 30% of those that had become dependent
on smoking are not all addicted. addiction varies according to
consumption. when i quit after 38 years i was smoking 2 +
packs a day.(some times 3) so its safe to say i was acutely addicted
to smoking. but that begs the question is the bloke who smokes
a pack a week addicted? yes,if he absolutely must have that pack
a week.
so what is the quantifiable harm?
midway through the last century when research started to peak
on the harms of cigarette smoking 40% or more of the population
smoked. about 80% had tried smoking even if only once.
with 80% of the population as a potential user base it was real
easy to blame smoking (primarily cigarette smoking) on all sorts
of things. especially when they came up with the hair brained
hypothesize that even after 20-30 of having quit one was still
susceptible to said diseases. add to that the second hand smoke
theory which current science indicates was pretty much a smoke
and mirrors (pun intended) you have what you could call quantifiable
harm. hence the deadly cigarette addiction.
so what has happened in the meantime?
for some time it has been common practice when you go see
the doctor or visit a medical facility for what ever reason you
are asked if you smoked or if you ever smoked. this was not
for any real concern about your health. it was mandated by
law. real observational study over time to track the progression
of smoking related illness in the population to adjust policies
accordingly. what has this tracking shown?
as the population of smokers decrease the rate of smoking
related illness is increasing compared to the percentage of
users in the risk group. as the population of non-smokers
increase the percentage of smoking related illness is increasing
compared to the percentage of non-users in the risk group.
if current trends continue eventually the percentage of smoking
related illness in both groups will equalize. i will leave up to the
reader to determine what this means.
now the question is nicotine addictive? we really don't know.
there has never been a study to determine how addictive
nicotine is or isn't. not one. zero. zilch. goose egg.
nicotine has been assumed to be addictive based on scientific
papers written over 100 years ago.
there are hundreds,if not thousands of studies indicating
smoking is addictive,not one on nicotine.
so where does that leave us today?
there are almost 20 clinical studies have been done testing
nicotine alone for its medicinal qualities in the treatment
of various illnesses. not one of these studies has any lifetime
non tobacco user developed a dependency regardless of dosage
or length of time used. not one. believe me they were looking
for it to cause dependency so has to take that into account
when recommending nicotine for possible treatments in the
future if nicotine was in fact proven helpful in the treatment
of an illness. nicotine is addictive right?
on July 24th,2013 i bought a menthol V2 starter kit and never looked
back. was it the nicotine itself? could be my body recognized it.
was it the hand to mouth thing? hmm,possibly. i know i vaped
a whole lot more than i smoked. was i still craving something?
i don't know. i do know over time my vaping has decreased dramatically
even though my nic content is the same. every ones story is different.
so why is this important?
1% or less of us vapers are lifetime non-tobacco users. of this 1%
99% use 0 nic. this and the fact that possibly nicotine sans tobacco
may not be addictive at all means the enslaving a new generation
to deadly nicotine addiction (remember nicotine is not the deadly part)
gets blown out of the water. i think the ANTZ,BT,BP and the government
perceives this. i believe its one of the main reasons we are seeing all
this near hysterical anti-ecig legislation.

regards
mike

 

[DC2]

If analogs contained zero nic, do you think you would become addicted to analogs? Or not addicted but just unable to stop for say....65 years until they have killed you.

As for me, I would have smoked with or without the nicotine.
I have no doubt about that.

There are a number of possible reasons why different people smoke, so I'll list them out...

1) The habit
2) The relaxing ritual
3) The ability to "get away from it all" for 15 minutes
4) Something to do with your hands
5) Social factors
6) The nicotine

As for whether or not nicotine BY ITSELF is addictive, there is this...
Nicotine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tobacco smoke contains anabasine, anatabine, and nornicotine. It also contains the monoamine oxidase inhibitors harman and norharman.[55] These beta-carboline compounds significantly decrease MAO activity in smokers.[55][56] MAO enzymes break down monoaminergic neurotransmitters such as dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin. It is thought that the powerful interaction between the MAOIs and the nicotine is responsible for most of the addictive properties of tobacco smoking.[57] The addition of five minor tobacco alkaloids increases nicotine-induced hyperactivity, sensitization and intravenous self-administration in rats/[58]

And I have no doubt I would have become "addicted" for the reasons I listed previously.
Regardless of whether or not there was nicotine.

 

[WharfRat1976]

As for me, I would have smoked with or without the nicotine.
I have no doubt about that.

There are a number of possible reasons why different people smoke, so I'll list them out...

1) The habit
2) The relaxing ritual
3) The ability to "get away from it all" for 15 minutes
4) Something to do with your hands
5) Social factors
6) The nicotine

As for whether or not nicotine BY ITSELF is addictive, there is this...
Nicotine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


And I have no doubt I would have become "addicted" for the reasons I listed previously.
Regardless of whether or not there was nicotine.

No doubt? How will you ever know?

 

[DC2]

No doubt? How will you ever know?

Why wouldn't I know?

I doubt I was ever addicted to nicotine.
And I know for certain that I am not now addicted to nicotine.

If that's what you're asking?