“Every time I quit smoking, I can't do the math for a while”
Only 7.5% of people trying to quit smoking will succeed, according to a study by the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Why is it so hard to quit smoking? I can see three main reasons.
1. You feel stupid and unhappy
The human brain has a reward system that promotes taking action crucial for surviving. If a person does something useful for survival like eating or having sex, the reward system releases dopamine that makes us feel good. Dopamine also influences our ability to concentrate, process, and remember new information because these skills help us survive.
Cigarettes have chemicals that stimulate dopamine production and convince our brain that smoking is great for survival. Thanks to dopamine, in the beginning, smoking feels good, but eventually, our brain decreases the natural production of dopamine because it has a way to get them via cigarettes.
Smoking doesn't make us smarter or happier. We have to keep smoking to feel averagely good.
If you withdraw from smoking, you'll face a low dopamine level. Whatever you do, it won't feel good, and you'll be depressed. It will be hard to focus, process and remember new information. You'll feel stupid.
"And every time I quit smoking (I've already been quitting for the 5th time), I can't do the math for a while. I open it, and there's just a wall in front of me, I can't do anything. I can do other things and learn a language or something, but I don't have anything in my head for about a year as far as math is concerned. And at this time, I can't produce anything non-trivial. I can listen, repeat, teach, but not generate."
— Misha Gromov, a Russian-French mathematician, the Abel Prize Laureate, interview to Rīgas Laiks magazine
2. You ruin your daily life
Smoking is deeply built-in your everyday life. If you hear an exciting news, you need to smoke to feel good. If you're upset, you automatically light up a cigarette. If you need to think, you go for a smoke. You're making a call? It's better with a cigarette. You're tired? A cigarette will give you a break. You're nervous, excited, angry? Whatever it is, tobacco is here to help you.
Coffee, beer, meetings with friends don't feel nearly as good as with smoking. Even after sex, your hand automatically reaches for a cigarette. You rely on nicotine for almost everything in your life.
When you stop smoking, your problems don't end with cravings. You can't do almost anything the way you're used to. You can't relax or deal with stress, and your daily rituals are broken.
3. You have to break dozens of habits
Every habit is a neurological loop that consists of 3 elements: trigger, routine, and reward. Your smoking routine might always be the same, but many different things trigger it: coffee, meetings, drinking, eating, positive emotions, negative emotions, etc.
And more importantly, smoking is motivated by a variety of different rewards. When you smoke after eating, it feels good. If you're stressed, a cigarette will give you a break. During work, smoking makes you focused.
What you think is one habit is a whole bunch of different habits. Each of them meets its own need you likely have no idea about.
When you stop smoking, you're trying to break dozens of habits at once. What happens when you don't get an expected reward? There is a famous monkey study.
"The animals were trained to do a task and get rewarded with spinach. After a few days, they were rewarded with squirts of juice instead of spinach. This was a bigger reward than they expected and the monkeys' dopamine soared. But as the experimenters continued rewarding with juice, the monkeys' dopamine declined to nothing in a few days. Their brains stopped reacting to the sweet, juicy reward. In human terms, they took it for granted.
…
The experimenters switched back to spinach, and the monkeys reacted with fits of rage. They screamed and threw the spinach back at the researchers. The monkeys had learned to expect juice. It no longer made them happy, but losing it made them mad,"
— Loretta Graziano Breuning, Ph.D., Habits of a Happy Brain
That's how you feel when you stop smoking. Dozens of times a day, depending on how many cigarettes you smoke. Dozens of expected rewards that you failed to receive. Dozens of needs that are not met. And you can't even smoke to feel better.
Conclusions
If you try to quit smoking, 92.5% of the probability that you will give up. And here is why:
Whatever you do, you feel stupid and unhappy.
You can't focus, relax, deal with stress.
You're trying to break dozens of habits at once.
But. If you smoke, you're lucky! In the next post, I'll explain why. Meanwhile subscribe to my twitter.