Some girls don’t care to chase the effects of nicotine, and for those girls addiction serves little-to-no purpose, but for many girls- those girls who want to chase the effects nicotine offers them- addiction is one of the most helpful aspects of nicotine. Addiction is how your body helps you stay on track. For boys this is just a little nudge saying “hey- it’s time to smoke,” but girls are lucky. For most girls, addiction is far more than a little nudge, and will always give you the motivation you need to stay on track.
What do I mean by that? Well- when a girl takes the first hit of her cigarette she gets some incredible sensations. A warm rush radiates out from her lungs, her senses seem to focus more sharply, she starts to feel a little light headed. Finally she feels an intense wave of relief wash over her: as though the volume has been turned down on every worry she’s ever had.
Once she finishes her cigarette however, the clock starts ticking. For most girls the cravings will start to set in after 20-40 minutes. Often cravings will start with restlessness and discomfort combined with a strong urge to smoke, but for girls they pretty quickly move into anxiety symptoms, minor shaking, and an abnormal heart rate. If she continues to not smoke she’ll start experiencing extreme irritability and extreme anxiety. This often starts around four hours sense the last dose of nicotine.
In men, the initial head-rush feels pretty similar, but it’s toned down significantly due to the lack of estrogen. That same lack of estrogen however, also makes the head-rush last significantly longer. Once the initial head rush has passed, it usually takes men 1-2 hours before they start to feel cravings. Once they do, their cravings are borderline useless. Sure, technically it serves as a reminder, but even their best cravings are best described as “nagging desire” rather than “need.”
So- what’s the difference here? Why do girls get to have this all-powerful drive within them pushing them to have that next smoke while men are basically left to fend for themselves? Well it all comes down to hormones. You see girls have high levels of estrogen for most of the month; estrogen increases the rate at which nicotine is metabolized meaning girls need to top up their nicotine far more frequently. The same process that allows estrogen to accelerate nicotine’s metabolic rate also transitions the estrogen into a neuro-transmitter that increases dopamine released by nicotine.
Nicotine, in turn, allows for increased estrogen production which leads to something we call the estrogen loop. Not only does this estrogen loop lead to significantly higher highs with significantly more powerful cravings to match, it’s also able to dramatically speed up the process of initiating addiction. On average it takes a man around six months to start experiencing cravings by which time he’s already likely a daily smoker. By contrast it takes the average girl only three weeks for the first cravings to appear; often cravings will begin before she’s ever even a daily smoker.
Nicotine, in turn, allows for increased estrogen production which leads to something we call the estrogen loop. Not only does this estrogen loop lead to significantly higher highs with significantly more powerful cravings to match, it’s also able to dramatically speed up the process of initiating addiction. On average it takes a man around six months to start experiencing cravings by which time he’s already likely a daily smoker. By contrast it takes the average girl only three weeks for the first cravings to appear; often cravings will begin before she’s ever even a daily smoker.
To recap, we started by seeing how much more powerful of cravings girls get. These intense cravings ensure that no matter how cold it is, how tired they are, or how much they’d miss- they’ll always get that next cigarette. On top of this their hormones mean they metabolize the nicotine out of their brain far faster than men causing them to start craving a cigarette not only more, but sooner too. Lastly we discovered the cyclic nature of nicotine and estrogen where nicotine causes estrogen to boost the active effects of nicotine and estrogen causes nicotine levels to cycle more frequently and how this leads to the more frequent, stronger cravings that have access to.
Putting all of this together we can see that girls are able to build their addiction with less active effort given, and in significantly less time. They are able to maintain their addiction without the need to find motivation because their addiction provides them with all the motivation they need, and the high rate of smoking pushed by their addiction leads to accelerated effects from the smoking itself. When it comes to addiction, girls really do have an easy time.
