18/07/2026
Is ni****ne an addiction? Yes — but probably not for the reason you think.
Under DSM-5-TR and ICD-11, To***co Use Disorder meets the same diagnostic criteria as opioid or alcohol dependence: craving, tolerance, withdrawal, continued use despite harm. Clinically, it’s real.
But here’s what the research also shows: most of smoking’s harm comes from combustion: tar, carbon monoxide, nitrosamines — not ni****ne itself. And ni****ne withdrawal is mild-to-moderate: uncomfortable, but nowhere near as dangerous as opioid or severe alcohol withdrawal.
Lifetime transition-to-dependence rates for ni****ne run 32–67% (Anthony et al., 1994; Lopez-Quintero et al., 2011) — high, but ni****ne has also been legal and socially normalized for a century, which inflates that number relative to restricted substances.
The conclusion I keep coming back to: ni****ne dependence is pharmacologically real, but it’s sustained by learned associations and identity, the “smoker” or “vaper” self-image, as much as by chemistry. That’s exactly the terrain hypnotherapy works in.
Full references in the new book, co-authored with Freddy H Jacquin.
The book is available on Amazon.
****neDependence ***coUseDisorder