Quitting vs. Recovery

From the book:      Freedom from Nicotine – The Journey Home 

Quitting “You” 

The real “you” never, ever needed nicotine. You were fine on your own. The real “you” never experienced the artificial highs brought on by elevated nicotine levels or the devastating lows that often accompany withdrawal.  We typically functioned more towards the center without such violent or disturbing neuro-chemical mood swings.  

So what if you never, ever needed to smoke, dip, chew or suck nicotine again?  What if your mind was once again itself, filled with a constant sense of calmness and getting its dopamine releases the natural way, from great food, big hugs, cool water, a sense of accomplishment, friendship, nurturing, love and intimacy?  What if days, weeks or even months passed comfortably, without once thinking about wanting to use nicotine?  Would that be a good thing or bad? 

Quitting vs. Recovery 

Quitting is a word that tugs at emotion.  By definition it associates itself with departing, 

leaving, forsaking and abandonment.   But the real abandonment took place on the day 

nicotine assumed control of our mind, when new salient memories made us forget that we 

functioned well without it, when we abandoned “us.”  This book isn’t about quitting.  It’s 

about recovering a person long forgotten, the real neuro-chemical “you.” 

The word “quitting” tends to paint or dress nicotine cessation in gray and black, in the 

doom and gloom of bad and horrible.  It breeds anticipatory fears, inner demons, needless 

anxieties, external enemies and visions of suffering.   It fosters a natural sense of self- 

deprivation, of leaving something valuable behind. 

Now contrast quitting with recovery.  Recovery doesn’t run or hide from our addiction but 

instead boldly embraces every aspect of this temporary journey of re-adjustment.  It sees 

each symptom and challenge as a sign of the depth to which nicotine had infected our 

mind.  When knowledge based, it recognizes the symptoms and celebrates each new 

challenge as an opportunity to reclaim yet another aspect of a life once drenched in 

nicotine. 

Nicotine dependency recovery presents an opportunity to experience what may be our 

richest period of self-discovery ever.  It’s a time when tissues heal, senses awaken and the 

brain’s neuro-chemicals again flow in response to life not nicotine.   It’s a period where 

each challenge overcome awards the recovering addict another piece of a puzzle, a puzzle that once complete reflects a life reclaimed.  

It is not necessary that we delete the word “quit” from our thinking, vocabulary or this 

book.  But  it might be helpful to reflect upon when the real “quitting” took place, when 

freedom ended and that next fix became life’s primary focus.   Although nearly impossible 

to believe right now, you won’t be leaving anything of value behind - nothing.  Everything you did while using nicotine can be done as well, or better as “you.”  All of the neuro-chemicals once controlled by nicotine were present before we started using and will gradually return to pre-nicotine levels. Every brain chemical that nicotine caused to flow is still present.  They were always there and always yours. 

Buried Alive by Nicotine “Aaah”s 

Try to remember.  What was it like being you?  What was it like to function every morning 

without nicotine, to finish a meal, travel, talk on the phone, have a disagreement, start a 

project or take a break without putting nicotine into your body?  What was it like before 

nicotine took control?  What was it like residing inside a mind that did not want for 

nicotine?  

One of the most fascinating aspects of drug addiction is just how quickly nearly all 

remaining memory of life without the external chemical gets buried by high definition 

dopamine “aaah” memories generated by using it.  It’s a common thread among all drug 

addicts.  We’ll discuss this in more detail later but I pose this to you now.  How can we 

claim to like or love something when we have almost no remaining memory of what life 

without it was like?  What basis exists for honest comparison? 

Why be afraid of returning to a calm and quiet place where you no longer crave a chemical 

that today, every day, you cannot seem to get off your mind, a chemical that is a mandatory 

part of every day’s plan?  Why fear arriving here on Easy Street with nearly a billion 

comfortably recovered nicotine addicts?  Is freedom of thought and action a good thing or 

bad?   If good, then why fear life without it?   

How wonderful would it be to again reside inside an undisturbed mind where addiction 

chatter gradually becomes infrequent, then rare?  Again, I ask you, “What was it like being 

you?”   Why fear coming home? 

Slave to the world of "nicotine normal," we were each provided a new identity.  Captive 

36          Freedom from Nicotine – The Journey Home 

brain dopamine pathways did their designed job and did it well.  They left us convinced 

that our next nicotine fix was central to survival, as important as drinking water or eating 

food.  

I recently read disturbing comments posted by more than a hundred long-term nicotine 

gum addicts.  One, a 36 year-old woman, wrote, “I have to say, I traded one problem for 

another. I chew 4 mg 24/7 and can go through 170 pieces in less than 6 days.  I have been 

chewing Nicorette now for 12 years.  If I run out for a short time my mood becomes 

irrational. It is costing me more money than I have.  I have chosen Nicorette over food 

many times.”68  

Although the word "quitting" is part of the fabric of nicotine cessation, such thinking can 

unconsciously tease and play upon old nicotine use memories, making us feel as though 

we’ve left something of tremendous value behind.   If allowed, it can tease and inflame 

false fears, fears born of nicotine urge and replenishment memories, durable memories 

whose purpose was to convince us that nicotine is vital to survival, memories that should 

never have been present in the first place, memories only made possible because a foreign 

substance entered the brain and was able to disrupt priorities. 

When you think about “quitting” I hope you’ll ponder when the real “quitting” took place. 

The journey home is about recognizing and embracing truth.  But be prepared; learning that 

for years we were fooled and lived a lie can invoke a host of emotions including anger. 

Baby steps, patience, honesty and you too will soon be entirely comfortable again engaging 

all aspects of life without nicotine.  Contrary to deeply held beliefs that were pounded into 

your brain by an endless cycle of urges and rewards, you are leaving absolutely nothing of 

value behind.   To quote a line from one of my favorite movies, “even the love in our heart, 

we get to bring it with us!” 

An Infected Life 

Whether a closet addict who tries to hide their addiction, an addict with a low tolerance 

level of just 1-2 fixes per day, or someone who uses much more than the average user (as I 

did), our dependency infects far more of life than receipt of a command for replenishment, compliance and the alert dopamine “aaah” that follows.   This endless feeding cycle constantly interrupted life.  Aside from the time devoted to use, it requires a degree of planning, re-supplying, clean-up and returning to the activity previously interrupted or to a new activity.  Like a mouse on an exercise wheel, there is no end to this endless cycle unless we get off, unless nicotine’s arrival ends.  

Roughly 1 milligram of nicotine enters the average smoker’s bloodstream with each 

cigarette smoked.   Holding 2.5 grams of moist snuff in the mouth for 30 minutes delivers 

an average of 3.6 milligrams of nicotine into the bloodstream.   Chewing 7.9 grams of 

chewing tobacco over 30 minutes results in 4.5 milligrams entering the bloodstream.

Nicotine is eliminated from the body at a rate of approximately one-half every two hours. 

Elimination is accelerated by encountering stress, drinking alcohol or consuming vitamin 

C.70 Driven by the need to maintain a comfortable level of nicotine in our bloodstream, 

nicotine’s intake increases when its elimination is accelerated. 

Nicotine’s presence altered our body’s natural sensitivities and diminished our ability to 

relax.  It changed priorities and consumed precious time.   Smoking it diminished lung 

function while gradually destroying the ability of our blood vessels to transport and deliver life-giving oxygen.  Whether smoked, chewed or sucked, tobacco diminished the accuracy of smell and taste, while making us home to smoke’s more than 4,000 chemicals or unadulterated oral tobacco’s more than 2,550 chemicals.71  It brought scores of cancer 

causing chemicals into our body, up to 81 potential carcinogens when smoking72 and up to 

28 carcinogens in oral tobacco73.  

Once we permit ourselves to begin looking closely, it becomes hard to find any aspect of 

life that wasn’t, to some degree, affected by our addiction.  

Forgotten Relaxation 

Is it normal to spend the balance of life under the influence of an adrenaline releasing 

central nervous system stimulant?  Prior to climbing into bed to sleep is it normal to 

consume a chemical that will make our heart pound up to 17.5 beats per minute faster,74 

that elevates blood pressure, restricts extremity blood flow causing the temperature of our fingers to drop up to seven degrees,75 that accelerates our breathing, dilates our pupils, perks our senses, shuts down digestion, and triggers the release of glucose and fats from our body’s energy stores?  

Two million years of evolution prepared us well to flee or stand and fight the now extinct 

saber tooth tiger.  Our body’s response to sensing danger or sudden stress is activation of 

the “fight or flight” pathways of the sympathetic nervous system.   In addiction to 

stimulating the release of dopamine, nicotine also activates these pathways.  

arrival in the brain causes the release of noradrenaline (norepinephrine), which in turn 

causes more than 100 neuro-chemicals to prepare the body to run for its life or fight.  Yet 

nicotine addicts will tell you that they need nicotine to relax!  Fight or flight is anything but a state of relaxation.  We’ll talk more about this later. 

For now, try to imagine what it is like to go hours or an entire day without having 

adrenaline being pumped into your bloodstream.   What’s it like to stop beating a tired 

horse, to stop responding to non-existent saber tooth tigers, to again know full and 

complete relaxation for extended periods of time? 

Forgotten Calm During Crisis 

Have you ever noticed what you reach for during crisis?  Imagine not adding the onset of 

early nicotine withdrawal to every stressful event life throws our way.   

A never-smoker and a smoker both experience flat tires while driving in a freezing rain. 

They stop, get out and look at the flat.  The never-smoker sighs then immediately reaches 

for a jack to change the tire.  The smoker reaches for a  ....  That’s right, a cigarette.  But 

why? 

Have you ever watched a liquid baking soda solution, a base (alkaloid) being poured over 

an acid covered car battery terminal or seen a child create a volcano by mixing baking soda with lemon juice or vinegar (acids)?  You are watching ionization, the movement of 

hydrogen atoms as an acid and a base neutralize each other. 

Emotional stress, anger, worry, and fear cause some of the body’s fluids to become more 

acidic, including our urine.  This accelerates removal of the alkaloid nicotine from our 

bloodstream.  It forces the stressed nicotine addict to service their addition and engage in 

replenishment before turning their attention to the underlying stressful event. 

The measure of the acidity or base (alkalinity) of a solution is known as its pH.  The pH 

scale ranges from 0 to 14, with 0 being the strongest acid, 14 the strongest base, and 7 

being neutral.  A fluid with a pH of 5 is ten times more acidic than a fluid having a pH of 6. 

Both human blood77 and nicotine78 are weak bases (alkaloids) having a pH of about 7.4.   

On the acid side, cranberry juice has a pH of 2.3 to 2.5, vinegar a pH of 3, orange juice 3.3 

to 4.1,79 table wine 3.3 to 3.7,80 beer 3.7 to 4.1,81 and whisky a pH of about 5.   Pure 

drinking water has a pH of 7 and fresh milk about 6.7.     

The rate of elimination of un-metabolized nicotine from the bloodstream depends in part on the pH of our urine.  Although it sounds totally backwards, the literature suggests that it has to do with how the kidneys function.  Whether caused by sudden emotional turmoil, 

vitamin C or alcohol use, the more acidic our urine, the greater the rate of nicotine 

depletion.

In one study, an increase in urine acidity from a pH of 5.6 to a pH of 4.5 caused a 206% 

increase in the rate nicotine was eliminated from the kidneys and 41% increase in the rate 

of total nicotine clearance from the body. 

While we cannot avoid all stressful situations or prevent them from causing chemical 

interactions within body fluids, there will be no impact upon nicotine reserves if nicotine 

isn’t present in our bloodstream.  This is but one example of how nicotine addicts are at a 

disadvantage.   Early withdrawal is added to every stressful situation encountered.  How 

stressful would a stressful situation be if the onset of early nicotine withdrawal weren’t 

added to it?  How much less stressful can life become? 

As you journey home you may begin noticing an increased sense of calm during crisis. 

What a wonderful problem to have.