Nicotine is categorised as a stimulant drug. Those of us with ADHD that are medicated take stimulant medication to help focus and concentration. These two facts have lead to the idea that smoking or vaping, despite the obvious health risks has some benefit when it comes to cognitive functioning and help improve your productivity.
Unfortunately this isn’t the case. It’s true that nicotine is a mild stimulant and there’s plenty of people who will claim anecdotally that it helps them to concentrate or be more productive but this is not the full story.
Does Nicotine Help You Focus?
Research suggests that nicotine can have short-term cognitive effects, leading to improved attention and focus. However, this is extremely short term. Once you start using nicotine, your brain starts to develop a tolerance to it. The receptors that nicotine work on become desensitised as your brain attempts to level itself out. The problem now is that when you smoke, you’re not increasing your focus, you’re getting back to baseline ( the level of focus you were at before you started taking nicotine ).
It’s actually worse than that because the more you smoke, the more tolerance you build and the more you need. Eventually you’re not even getting back to baseline. You’re bringing yourself up from where you were a moment ago but still worse off than if you hadn’t taken nicotine in the first place.
Essentially, nicotine is a biological credit card. You’re borrowing focus from the very near future and you’ll have to pay it back with brain fog and distractibility.
Does Nicotine Help ADHD?
Some studies have explored the potential benefits of nicotine for people who have ADHD. The conclusion being that nicotine may have a calming effect and improve certain cognitive function. Again, this is a close up view of the picture. If you zoom out you’ll see that actually nicotine is doing the exact opposite. This is why people become addicted, your body builds tolerance to the poison and effect, leaving the user needing more to achieve the same effect.
Is Nicotine Making Me Lazy?
While nicotine can initially provide a mild boost of alertness, prolonged use leads to dependency and a cycle of needing nicotine to function effectively. This dependence leads to a decline in productivity and an overall sense of lethargy. If you think “Ok so I’ll just have one every now and then when I really need motivation“, think again. Nicotine is one of the most addictive substances on earth. It will drag you down and you’re very likely to get hooked.
How Bad Is Nicotine Withdrawal?
I honestly think this is all about mindset. If you expect it to be awful it will be. When I quit, I got into the frame of mind where I was excited about the prospect of being free and feeling better. When ever a craving appeared I didn’t think “Ah I wish I could smoke“, I thought “Ah this is the mild feeling of nicotine withdrawal, this is great, I’m free!“.
The physical effect of nicotine withdrawal is actually incredibly mild and lasts no longer than 3 days! Any symptoms after that are purely psychological.
Don’t take my word for it though, If you’re considering quitting smoking or vaping, I highly recommend reading Allen Carr’s Easy Way To Quit Smoking. It’s a very different method to any other, it doesn’t focus on what you shouldn’t smoke but rather on the reasons you do. By the end of the book, you wont even feel like having a cigarette or puff of a vape.
Bottom Line
In the long run nicotine leads to dependence and hinders productivity. Focus is ruined not only because of the effect of nicotine but also by having the constant distraction of needed to stop what you’re doing to get your fix.