Motivation and the Brain - Quitting Smoking
Motivation and the Brain
Psy/355
February 25, 2013
Gavin Coriell, M.S.Ed
Motivation and the Brain - Quitting Smoking
After many attempts or consoled to stop smoking how does one attempt to quit completely? The process of trying to quit is harder than one can ever imagine. This particular addiction is harder to quit than most other addictions as it causes one’s moods to be erratic, nervousness, nausea, headaches and additional symptoms that vary from person to person. How does one become a smoker? Is smoking related to genetics, or is it a learned behavior?
As different individuals smoke for various reasons that are known only to themselves. The most impacted reasons that individuals smoke cigarettes are as follows; a stress reliever, weight control, social rewards, peer pressure, self-medicating, media influence and parental influence. As we look into the different factors of the reasons why an individual smokes such as to relieve stress nicotine is an alkaloid which extracted from a tobacco plant found in the Nightshade family of plants and is highly addictive. The toxic chemical – nicotine is a stimulant and produces a chemical change in the body to make one feel euphoric and a sense of well being, of course with the satisfying drug one cigarette leads to another and another to achieve the same feeling calming the individual for the moment or the stressful situation they are feeling at the moment. Nicotine also is a suppressant for appetite it makes one not feel hungry and alters the taste of all foods giving the smoker of not wanting to eat or not really having the satisfaction of really tasting food as it possibly could taste.
Social rewards for smoking gives an individual the satisfaction of feeling they are a part of something or social group they want to associate with along with peer pressure of the need to fit in and sparking a conversation with a group to have a social connection with...