The Law of Addiction
"Administration of a drug to an addict will cause
re-establishment of chemical dependence
upon the addictive substance."
According to the World Health Organization, “In the 20th century, the tobacco epidemic killed 100 million people worldwide. During the 21st century, it could kill one billion.”[1] Year after year, at least 70% of surveyed smokers say they want to stop,[2] and 40% make an attempt of at least one day.[3]
There is no lack of desire or effort. Sadly, what most do not know is “how.” Key to breaking free and staying free is an understanding of the "Law of Addiction." Whether users know it by name or simply understand the basic premise, failure to self-discover or to be taught this law is a horrible reason to die. The “Law of Addiction” is not man-made law. It is as fundamental as the law of gravity and refusal to abide by it is likely to result in serious injury or death.
The Law is rather simple. It states, “Administration of a drug to an addict will cause re-establishment of chemical dependence upon the addictive substance."
Mastering it requires acceptance of three fundamental principles: (1) that dependency upon using nicotine is true chemical addiction, captivating the same brain dopamine reward pathways as alcoholism, cocaine or heroin addiction; (2) that once established we cannot cure or kill an addiction but only arrest it; and (3) that once arrested, regardless of how long we have remained nicotine free, that just one hit of nicotine will create a high degree of probability of a full relapse.
Why?
We need not guess as to what happens inside a human brain that’s subjected to nicotine during recovery. The evidence seen on brain PET scans is undeniable. Just one puff of nicotine and within ten seconds up to 50% of the brain’s nicotinic-type acetylcholine receptors will become occupied by nicotine.[4]
While the smoker’s conscious mind may find itself struggling with tobacco toxin tissue burning sensations and carbon monoxide induced dizziness, well-engineered dopamine pay-attention pathways will do their job and make the experience difficult to forget. We may actually walk away from the relapse experience thinking we have gotten away with using. But it won’t be long before our brain is wanting and begging for more.
Recovery isn’t about battling an entire pack, pouch, tin or box of our particular nicotine delivery vehicle. It’s about that first bolus of nicotine striking the brain, a hit that will end our journey, cost us liberty, and land us back behind bars.
Unfortunately, conventional “quitting” wisdom invites relapse with statements such as “Don’t let a little slip put you back to smoking.” As Joel says, it’s like telling the alcoholic, “Don’t let a sip put you back to drinking” or the heroin addict, “Don’t let shooting-up put you back to using.”
Experts are fond of stating that "on average, it takes between 3-5 serious quit attempts before breaking free of tobacco dependence,” and that “every time you make an effort you're smarter and you can use that information to increase the likelihood that your subsequent quit attempt is successful."
What these so called experts fail to reveal is the precise lesson eventually learned. Why? Why can’t it be taught and mastered prior to a user’s first attempt ever? They don’t teach it because most don’t understand it themselves. Instead they excuse failure before it even occurs, as if trying to protect the particular quitting product they are pushing from being blamed for defeat.
The lesson eventually gleaned from the school of hard-recovery-knocks is that “if I take so much as one puff, dip or chew I will relapse.” Just one, just once and defeat is all but assured.
“The idea that you can't quit the first time is absolutely wrong,” says Joel.[5] “The only reason it takes most people multiple attempts to quit is that they don't understand their addiction to nicotine. How could they, no one really teaches it. People have to learn by screwing up one attempt after another until it finally dawns on them that each time they lost it, it happened by taking a puff. If you understand this concept from the get-go, you don't have to go through chronic quitting and smoking.”
