PWS Visser 2018-2019

smoking addiction Page 03
1.1 WHAT IS ADDICTION?
Exercising also produces dopamine in
the body. Which happens with a smoking
addiction as well. Dopamine keeps you
motivated to keep going, gives a sense
of reward and makes you happy. Not
only does the brain produce dopamine
when you sport but it also produces
endorphin and serotonin; all
neurotransmitters. A neurotransmitter or
transfer agent is a signal substance that
transmits nerve impulses in synapses
between nerve cells ('neurons') in the
nervous system or transmits impulses
from motor nerve cells to muscle cells or
nerve receptors on sensory nerve cells.4
Endorphin gives you a euphoric feeling
and reduces pain. That is why it is
called the 'feel good' drug. Serotonin,
also called the happiness hormone,
gives you a blissful feeling and
regulates your appetite, mood and
sleep.
Besides the fact that you can get
addicted to cigarettes, there are a lot
of other processes that will occur in the
brain, which will have a negative effect
on the smoker.
The brain will not process important
information anymore, which can be very
harmful. This was one of the results of a
research done by American Harvard.
They observed 31 chain-smokers (more
than 15 cigarettes a day) and 31
nonsmokers by letting them gamble with
100 dollars, while they were lying in a
brain scan. This showed that smokers
ignore important information. The
smokers seem to be focusing on the
actual profit and loss, but not on what
their profit or loss would be if they
made another decision. From their point
of view that is not important. On the
contrary, the nonsmokers were focusing
on the profit or loss they would get if
they made another decision. The
nonsmokers left with more money than
the smokers.
Lung cancer, a heart attack and
impotence; smokers know the
consequences of smoking, but why do
they keep smoking? This is the same
problem as with the 100dollar
experiment; they ignore the important
information. This is really confusing for
the smoker, because they process the
information, they know the
consequences and know O the
importance of those. But before they
light their next cigarette, their
subconscious state loses the information
somewhere in the brain. So, before they
even think about it, they smoke another
cigarette. They feel like this cigarette is
even better than the previous one,
which of course is not true, because the
brain does not produce more dopamine.