"What happens is when you first get addicted, one cigarette a month or one cigarette a week is enough to keep your addiction satisfied," says Difranza. "But as time goes by, you have to smoke cigarettes more and more frequently. So people may be addicted for more than a year before they feel the need to smoke a cigarette every day."

Recognizing Addiction

The most common reported symptom was a strong desire for a cigarette — a good indicator, according to the study, that the student is likely to become a daily smoker — even if the student was then only smoking monthly. A few even said early they experienced withdrawal. They had trouble concentrating, were more irritable and had trouble sleeping.

Young people can bum cigarettes off friends and not consider themselves addicted. They tell themselves that if they are not buying cigarettes, they aren't hooked. In the meantime, the frequency with which they smoke increases. One day they realize they aren't going to make it without buying a pack of cigarettes.

About three or more years later, a fourth of the students who tried to stop smoking experienced withdrawal symptoms.

Before this study, DiFranza says, most research did not view wanting a cigarette every once in a while as a sign that addiction was starting. This study concludes that people ought to be educated to recognize that this is the beginning of addiction, and the best time to quit.

People who keep smoking — even occasionally, DiFranza says — are fooling themselves if they think they don't have an addiction to nicotine.

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