Are Smokers Addicted to Dopamine?

Dopamine is the body’s natural reward system. Think of it as what you feel after you’ve just completed a painting or won any type of game. These neurotransmitters help you form habits, and it’s also one of the reasons why it’s easy to get addicted to anything, even exercise.

Unfortunately, nicotine, while relatively harmless, causes dopamine release in your system. It’s the primary reason why smokers keep on consuming cigarettes even after recognising its dangers to the body.

In today’s post, we’ll learn about the interaction between smoking and dopamine, and how to help motivated smokers deal with dopamine during withdrawals to help them stop smoking for good.

What is Dopamine?

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First, let’s learn more about dopamine.

Dopamine is a type of neurotransmitter, a chemical messenger in the brain that transmits signals between nerve cells, or neurons. It plays a crucial role in various physiological processes, including movement, motivation, reward, and pleasure.

As part of the brain’s reward system, dopamine heavily reinforces certain behaviours and gives an incentive to repeat them. 

When released, dopamine creates feelings of pleasure and satisfaction, such as whenever you learn something new, win a prize or raffle, or puff a cigarette.

Recent studies have shown that nicotine in the bloodstream is greatly associated with dopamine release.

How Smoking Releases Dopamine

Cigarettes make a stressful day at work feel light for most smokers or when they’re anxious. The reason for that is, you guessed it, nicotine.

Every cigarette hit lets the bloodstream absorb nicotine in an instant and reach the brain quickly. Once it binds to a specific receptor in the brain, it triggers the release of dopamine. Continuous smoking results in associating each nicotine hit with pleasure and reward.

Every time you consume cigarettes while smoking, drinking or celebrating with friends and family, you reinforce this habit due to consistent dopamine release. At this point, cigarette smoking will have completely hijacked the brain’s reward system and causes the brain to crave nicotine when associated with certain activities or events.

For smokers, the sight of a cigarette, being in a specific location, or doing a certain activity can be enough to trigger the release of dopamine before they even light a cigarette.

Young teenagers and children exposed early to smoking or other forms of nicotine delivery devices like illegal nicotine vaping products (NVPs) can cause long-term problems in their dopaminergic circuitry.

Can You Get Addicted to Dopamine?

While it’s one of the primary factors that cause addiction, dopamine isn’t addictive by itself. 

When someone engages in smoking or consumes other addictive substances, such as drugs, the activity or substance stimulates the release of dopamine in the brain’s reward pathway.

As mentioned, with repeated exposure to smoking or drug abuse, the brain associates them with dopamine production. And over time, the brain adapts and produces less dopamine with every hit, increasing a smoker’s nicotine consumption.

How Weaning Away from Nicotine Improves Dopamine Levels

Once you quit smoking and overcome the initial hurdles to stop smoking, you’ll quickly restore your dopamine levels to normal.

Quitting cold turkey, which has worked for some motivated smokers, made them feel as if they’ve made their way out of a fog and see things clearer after a long time inside of it.

The body’s reward system will start recalibrating itself the moment you stop any form of nicotine consumption.

Its sensitivity levels will start to improve and balance back to how it was before you even started smoking cigarettes.

Cold turkey, while effective for some quitters, might not be the answer for some people.

Nicotine might be the culprit, but lower doses of nicotine to wean off cigarette cravings through nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) during your quit-smoking journey can help you adjust easier to being smokefree.

As long as you keep pushing through, pleasurable activities like running, walking, spending time with friends or doing creative things feel more rewarding.

These are signs that your brain is recalibrating and your dopamine levels are going back to normal — enough to make you forget about cigarettes.

Other Things That Could Cause Addiction

Aside from smoking, there are other activities that could hijack your body’s reward system and cause substantial dopamine release at first, then dwindle down later. 

If you’re going through a smoking cessation programme, it pays to be mindful of the addictive effects of the following activities and avoid exchanging one addiction for another.

Video Games

Video games are designed to create engaging and rewarding experiences, which releases dopamine and potentially contribute to addictive behaviours. 

Engaging in a captivating virtual world can trigger a sense of excitement, adventure, and stimulation, with its relieving effects leading to excessive gaming and addictive behaviours.

Food

Certain foods, particularly those high in sugar, fat, and salt, can activate the brain’s reward system, leading to the release of dopamine. This activation of the reward system produces feelings of pleasure and reinforces the consumption of these foods. 

Over time, you may develop tolerance as the brain adapts to stimuli, requiring larger quantities of food or highly palatable flavours to achieve the same level of pleasure.

Social Media/Internet

The instant gratification and constant availability of content on social media, can lead to a compulsive desire to seek and consume more information or engage in online interactions. 

Furthermore, tailored content creates an addictive personalised online experience that reinforces engagement and increases the likelihood of addictive behaviour.

Productive Ways to Stabilise Dopamine Levels

Now that we’ve established the relationship between smoking and dopamine, there are various ways to stabilise it safely.

First, regular exercise is a great stimulus for any motivated smoker, releasing endorphins and dopamine that encourage you to keep levelling up in weightlifting, running, and other physical activities.

Next, having enough sleep reduces the concentration of many neurotransmitters in the brain, particularly the high volume of dopamine that encourages addictive behaviour.

Lastly, calming music and sunlight exposure also help regulate your dopamine levels. Bright environments release dopamine naturally in our system, while calming music makes it easy to focus and be productive.

Here are more ways to help you stabilise dopamine levels and quit smoking for good.

How to Quit Smoking and Regulate Your Dopamine

While meditation, self-awareness, and conscious avoidance of all stimuli that greatly release dopamine and encourage addictive behaviour, such as smoking, always helps, it pays to see professionals and use the right tools to help you quit smoking entirely.

See a GP for Help

GPs take all your needs into consideration to help you during the strongest of withdrawals and temptations and create a customised smoking cessation programme designed with your needs in mind. 

They can also prescribe the best tools to increase your chances of quitting successfully.

Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT)

NRT products are gums, lozenges, and patches that introduce a small nicotine dose to wean you off nicotine to fight off strong cravings and cushion the impact of withdrawals to  improve your chances of quitting.

Nicotine Vaping Products (NVPs) from Pharmacies

NRT products are the first-line tools for motivated smokers trying to quit, but it doesn’t work for everyone. GPs can then prescribe NVPs sold in pharmacies through a prescription.

NVP products sold in pharmacies are made under stringent pharmaceutical standards on the manufacturing process and ingredients, are toxicologically assessed for inhalation, are locally insured, and are specifically designed to help you stop smoking.

These may be second-line tools, but the latest Cochrane Review found high-certainty evidence that NVPs are more effective than NRT in helping people stop smoking.

Summary

Smoking and dopamine are related in that the chemical is a huge contributor to many addictive behaviours. However, it isn’t inherently dangerous if it isn’t hijacked by nicotine and other addictive substances. 

Better yet, dopamine is a great habit reinforcer when released after you exercise, meditate, and enjoy time with your friend and family in a smokefree environment.

You’re probably reading this because you feel you’re addicted to nicotine and dopamine release. We hope you found this information useful. If you’re struggling with quitting smoking for good, you’re in the right place to get started. 

Smokefree Clinic gives you access to many medically reviewed and trustworthy resources that can inform and aid you in your path to wellness, so have a look around! 

If you’re ready to get started, Smokefree can connect you to Australian healthcare professionals who excel in helping patients quit smoking for good.

Link Reference

• https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/pharmacology/articles/10.3389/fphar.2023.1279512/full
• https://dana.org/article/how-addiction-hijacks-our-reward-system/
• https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.28.564518v1.full
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6996247/
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2977997/
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3480687/
• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20875835/
• https://www.cochrane.org/news/latest-cochrane-review-finds-high-certainty-evidence-nicotine-e-cigarettes-are-more-effective