- When you smoke, the nicotine in the cigarette enters your body and makes its way to receptors in your brain. When these receptors receive the nicotine, they tell the brain to release a chemical called dopamine. Dopamine is one of the chemicals in the brain that causes you to feel pleasure. This is why smoking a cigarette makes you feel better and calms you. The dopamine released is eventually reabsorbed into the body, causing you to want to smoke another cigarette.
- Most of the products that have been developed to help people quit smoking are known as nicotine replacement products. These include products such as the patch and nicotine gum. In nicotine replacement therapy, the body receives either a low dose of nicotine throughout the day. In the same process that occurs when you smoke a cigarette, the nicotine in nicotine replacement therapies travels to the nicotine receptors in your brain to trigger the release of dopamine. Because the amount of nicotine your brain receives on nicotine replacement is less than that of a cigarette, the body releases less dopamine. The goal is to release enough dopamine to calm your craving for a cigarette.
- Chantix is a pill that does not contain any nicotine. Chantix works by bonding itself to the nicotine receptors in the brain so that nicotine can not. This serves two purposes. Like nicotine replacement therapies, Chantix triggers the release of a small amount of dopamine to help calm nicotine cravings. But if you slip and smoke a cigarette, Chantix blocks the nicotine in the cigarette from being able to attach to the nicotine receptors in your brain. Therefore, no dopamine is released as a result of the smoking so you receive no gratification from the act. Because smoking does not create a pleasurable sensation, it is much easier to get back on track and keep trying to quit after a lapse.