2 Answers

Yes, smoking cigarettes may cause nerve damage.
- It was found in studies that smoking increase the risk for having Multiple sclerosys, which is caused by damage to the myelin sheath, the protective covering that surrounds nerve cells. When this nerve covering is damaged, nerve signals slow down or stop.
- Hydrogen cyanide, One of many substances found in cigarettes' smoke, may cause nerve damage in cigarette smokers with optic neuropathy.
- Doctors and researches say that high amounts of nicotine, such as those found in cigarettes, cause degeneration in a brain region that affects emotional control, sexual arousal, sleep and seizures.

Do you know the cravings that one has when they need a cigarette.  What do you think it is when one gets addicted?  It is damage to the brain, and it's nervous stimuli.  You "need" that, as your body has developed a dependency on the chemicals in the cigarette, from a nervous system basis.