This is a point where withdrawal symptoms are held in check. For example, one person s level could be a few cigarettes a day, another s could be four or five packs a day. Those of us who are addicted to nicotine may have an opportunity to recover our freedom and health through our abstinence from nicotine, but we are never cured of the addiction. If we use , we lose . Almost always, just one will lead to two, then three and thousands more.
Addiction is also the one disease that requires self-diagnosis.
The user is the one who needs to identify the symptoms and to admit there is a problem. It is up to each nicotine user to determine and admit, I am a nicotine addict. We have found that nagging, criticism, and unsolicited advice often incite only an addict s defensiveness and anger. Not only can it be difficult for a nicotine user to accept that they are addicts, it can also be difficult for those close to the addict to accept this fact. Nicotine was only officially recognized as addictive in the 1990s.