Nir Eyal argues nicotine's addictiveness is overstated. The real driver is psychological: guilt, rumination, and the relief of smoking. What keeps people smoking is the story they tell themselves, not the drug.
Turns out nicotine is not as addictive as we thought. It's much more about your perception of it being addictive than actually addictive. What smoking does is that it gives you relief from telling yourself not to smoke. So the way you get addicted to cigarettes is you buy a pack of cigarettes, you feel kind of guilty about it. You say, okay, I'll smoke one, and that's it. I won't smoke again. And then you start thinking and ruminating about it. Oh, I wish I could smoke again. Oh, I wonder what it's like. I wish I could do it. You start thinking, thinking, thinking, and it's that urge of, oh, come on, let me smoke already, that I finally get to smoke. And, of course, what do you do when you smoke? When you smoke, you take big breaths, right? And that's actually what people find relaxing. It's that pause of, oh, I don't have to tell myself no anymore. So this is a great example of how this story that nicotine is the reason we get so addicted is a little bit oversimplified. It's much more about the way the mind plays these tricks on us.
Your Beliefs Are Sabotaging You (Here's Why) - Beyond Belief for Athletes with Nir Eyal
