Smoking tolerance
Tolerance ever so gradually pulls us deeper and deeper into dependency’s forest. We find ourselves sucking a wee bit harder, holding the smoke longer, or smoking more nicotine in order to achieve the desired effect. Two a day, three, four, four smoked hard, our brains gradually grow additional nicotinic-type acetylcholine receptors.
Over time, most of us require more nicotine in order to match last month’s or last year’s “aaah” reward sensation. My “aaah”s were no more powerful smoking five cigarettes a day at age fifteen than when smoking 60 per day at age forty. I needed that much more in order to achieve the same remembered effect. I know, you’re probably thinking, you’ve been at the same nicotine intake level for some time now and it’s likely vastly less than the three packs-a-day I was smoking. While we don’t yet fully understand wide variations in levels of nicotine use, we know that genetics probably explains most differences.
There is also the fact that some of our mothers, like mine, smoked during pregnancy. I was born with my brain wired for nicotine. I came into this world as nicotine’s slave and likely spent the first few days in withdrawal. As Duke University’s Professor Slotkin puts it, “nicotine alters the developmental trajectory of acetylcholine systems in the immature brain, with vulnerability extending from fetal stages through adolescence.”
Over time, most of us require more nicotine in order to match last month’s or last year’s “aaah” reward sensation. My “aaah”s were no more powerful smoking five cigarettes a day at age fifteen than when smoking 60 per day at age forty. I needed that much more in order to achieve the same remembered effect. I know, you’re probably thinking, you’ve been at the same nicotine intake level for some time now and it’s likely vastly less than the three packs-a-day I was smoking. While we don’t yet fully understand wide variations in levels of nicotine use, we know that genetics probably explains most differences.
There is also the fact that some of our mothers, like mine, smoked during pregnancy. I was born with my brain wired for nicotine. I came into this world as nicotine’s slave and likely spent the first few days in withdrawal. As Duke University’s Professor Slotkin puts it, “nicotine alters the developmental trajectory of acetylcholine systems in the immature brain, with vulnerability extending from fetal stages through adolescence.”
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14:57:01
