Cigarettes Cause Me to Have Panic Attacks (2717 hits)
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Submitted by Insanethemind (View user info) at 2005-09-07 23:25:24 EDT
I must admit, my title is a bit exaggerated. I was looking to get a few more people to read this.
The truth of the matter is, nicotine in cigarette form does indeed increase my anxiety level and I must say, it is rather pronounced.
I have been an on again, off again smoker for about 4 years. During said 4 years I have attempted to quit several times, with the peroids of abstinence ranging from 1 day to 4 months or more. I have had most success with nicotine transdermal patches and little going 'cold- turkey.'
Once again, I have chosen to go with the patch. I admit this with a small level of personal embarassment, becayse hey, ideally, once would have been best. Still,, I do not look forward to dying of cancer and despite what some might think, smoking is not an easy habit for many people to give up (I find that I need to remind myself this, too).
One thing though, is certain: the act of cessation by gradual, downward titration is the way to go, in my case. It is almost effortless if you step down slowly (the patch takes about 8 weeks)
I have noticed over these years, and especially in the last 6 months that (warning: epiphany of earth shattering porportions to follow) smoking truly makes me feel like shit. It effects my anxiety level, my breathing, my heart rate and so many other things I do not need to mention- it even seems to make my back hurt.
So, without further adieu, let me get to my point.
Has anyone noticed this increase in anxiety, or other 'bad' feelings with nicotine or other, legal stimulants? I have noticed changes in mood with other things, most commonly sugar and caffeine, both things I try to avoid, but nicotine is the most apparent.
User Reviews
Submitted by experima (user info) at 2007-08-17 13:57:15 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by psychabillyjean (user info) at 2005-09-10 03:19:55 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
I smoked for about seven years and I quit cold turkey about 8 months ago. I had previously tried to quit by cutting down to 1-3 cigs a day (something I relate to the patch or nic gum).
What worked: Every time I couldn't take it any more and I NEEDED a cigarette I drank an espresso. Even if it was 2:00 am (and I did not add sugar or milk because it tastes earthier like cigarettes that way). It was really painful and I had a hard time concentrating. My mind was in a fog for a week or two. Everything sounded distant and I was depressed. I didn't tell anyone I was quitting because you have to do it for yourself, not for approval.
If you want to quit, acknowledge that it is going to hurt, but that it is worth it to you. "Feel the burn" of that craving kind of like doing reps or something. Feeling sorry for yourself will only lead to falling off the wagon. Just my advice.
Good Luck!
Submitted by shandythedog (user info) at 2005-09-10 02:46:44 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
i avoid ciggarettes before any activity that might be prone to make me a bit jittery
oddly enough, after such an activity a ciggie can seem soothing
Submitted by coley (user info) at 2005-09-08 19:26:31 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
ah,never mind me.
Submitted by coley (user info) at 2005-09-08 19:26:07 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Did you even read what I wrote?
Submitted by Insanethemind (user info) at 2005-09-08 16:40:33 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
thorpe: yeah I never started smoking cigs until after I was age 19, but started using all manner of illegal drugs at 15 and 16. Simply put, I detested cigarettes. Then I started smoking, and at the time I told others (and myself) it was because I was quitting smoking marijuana.
Eventually I was smoking both. Now the grass is given up (and yes I did notice a psychological dependancy on it, whoever mentioned that- it goes away after about 3 months) and cigarettes are the only thing that has stuck around.
Hopefully this time is the last time.
Submitted by sideshow (user info) at 2005-09-08 14:46:09 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Cigarettes fucking blow. Weed is way better. But with dope, you get a very strong mental addiction. I tried quitting once, and I couldn't sleep very well or very much. So I started smoking a bit, and I can sleep fine.
Submitted by thorpe (user info) at 2005-09-08 09:35:50 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
I have puffed a cigarette three times in total.
Nothing good, nothing bad really. I was expecting it to taste more like a specific flavour - in the end it was just like breathing in fire.
Submitted by Insanethemind (user info) at 2005-09-08 09:24:57 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by Feijuada (user info) at 2005-09-08 02:03:12 (#)
Ranking: 1
Shouldn't have started smoking in the first place, don't you think?
--------------------
You don't say?!
Berty: Good description. And no I have no kids and do not plan on having any, at least not in the next 10 years.
Coley: Hey girl, good on you for quitting!
Submitted by thorpe (user info) at 2005-09-08 08:20:56 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Submitted by Captain_Lurk (user info) at 2005-09-08 06:23:15 (#)
Ranking: 2
That's it...I'm quiting smoking, turning homo, and moving out of Florida. Any recommendations for a place to live for an anxious, irritable, flaming ghey man?
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New Orleans.
Submitted by cat_head (user info) at 2005-09-08 08:14:47 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Good luck man.
It sounds like you're most of the way there, in that you've finally come to terms with the fact that cigs are fucking bad for you. Smoking is wonderful, but it really does make you less of a person. You want to be out there doing your shit as the best you can be, and smoking reduces your wellbeing.
Try to focus on the positive aspects of giving up, and become "hooked" on those. Worked for me. In fact, once I decided that I *really* wanted to give up it was a piece of piss. Cold turkey.
Do loads of exercise too. You will get a massive boost when you realise that your fitness is skyrocketing thanks to absence of the tabs.
Submitted by TheSpook (user info) at 2005-09-08 08:06:04 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Try smoking for 9 years and then quitting. It made me edgy and angry for many years.
Weed was/is my saving grace.
Submitted by Method (user info) at 2005-09-08 06:55:45 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by Leroy_Brown (user info) at 2005-09-08 00:32:14 (#)
Ranking: 0
"How did our discussion about the disadvantages of smoking turn into a discussion about ass-pounding ghey sex?"
method showed up, broadcasting his homo rays over the thread.
-----
haha 'homo rays'
Submitted by TuTs (user info) at 2005-09-08 06:49:42 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
I take mersyndol for miagraines it contains codiene, doxylamine succinate and other assorted things. More of a downer though. Anyway, they seem to make me rather irritable.
Submitted by Berty (user info) at 2005-09-08 06:42:56 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
When I take a drag from a ciggarette I notice a brief bluffing of vision. In that time it is as if my perception is dilated and I am alive in between my heartbeats. After the initial blurring my vision clears and the world rushes back in on and me. Just before my heartrate increases there is an instant of total clarity followed by intense elation as my life blood thunders through my veins. I have timed this sensation by the crow that lives next to the company smoking area and all this takes place in about half a wingbeat.
Smoking is fucking awesome.
Good luck to you though, I mean if you've got kids or are about to make kids or something then smoking (indeed many vices) are bad and must be discarded.
Submitted by Captain_Lurk (user info) at 2005-09-08 06:23:15 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
That's it...I'm quiting smoking, turning homo, and moving out of Florida. Any recommendations for a place to live for an anxious, irritable, flaming ghey man?
Submitted by coley (user info) at 2005-09-08 04:40:24 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
hello old friend.
Minus a two-puff/cough/extinguish relapse last week, I have been completely smoke-free for ten months or so now. I smoked a pack a day or so for the better part of 12 yrs....and I'm only 24.
I had to go cold turkey; nothing else was going to work.
Let me tell you, that was the hardest fucking thing I have ever had to do (thank god I'm young).
I then participated in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life event at the end of July and found that, had I not already quit, that would have been a very good opportunity to tough it out for the first 24 hours in a second attempt. Something about being around all those people who have fought/been fighting for their lives from cancer when you are doing something that can cause you to have it..
there's something very shameful, I find, about young people like us, especially growing up when we did, knowing better; wasting our health. We know better.
It's really fucking hard, but you can do it.
I find that having a friend who is dying of cancer gives that extra little push.
He died today.
Submitted by a_reader (user info) at 2005-09-08 02:53:05 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
So you're quitting smoking?
Pussy.
Submitted by Feijuada (user info) at 2005-09-08 02:03:12 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Shouldn't have started smoking in the first place, don't you think?
Submitted by fluff (user info) at 2005-09-08 01:54:27 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
I absolutely know how you are feeling.
Submitted by electrictoothsyndrome (user info) at 2005-09-08 01:16:18 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Yes. I suffer from panic attacks too, and I do think that smoking is a contributing factor in that. So, I have noticed, is sugar-laden coffee. Oh but how I love the swiftly-beating and tremulous heart that these things bring... When I quit, it'll be cold turkey. Much easier if it's a direct challenge to your own will.
Submitted by Beer_bong (user info) at 2005-09-08 00:46:09 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
I have panic attacks too. When I don't have any, I panic.
Submitted by Insanethemind (user info) at 2005-09-08 00:36:19 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Captain_Lurk: No, there was nothing wrong with him thinking that homosexuality is inferior or embarassing, but remember that it is a working enviornment and add in that I just met him yesterday and it is to say the least very unprofessional of him and tells me all I need to know about his charactor. People get fired and sued all the time for saying crap like that.
I am not his redneck 'buddy'. I kind of wish I was gay, (hyperbole) just so I could have been mad.
Teuton: yes, there is smart guy (wink) I was wondering when someone would remind me of that.
However on the label it does go into detail about how hard it is to quit, at least not enough detail for most.
Submitted by Leroy_Brown (user info) at 2005-09-08 00:32:14 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
"How did our discussion about the disadvantages of smoking turn into a discussion about ass-pounding ghey sex?"
method showed up, broadcasting his homo rays over the thread.
Submitted by Unabonger (user info) at 2005-09-08 00:27:15 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
when i came off my delicious smack habit, i was kinda irritable.
()___))_______))~~
smoke up.
Submitted by Captain_Lurk (user info) at 2005-09-08 00:25:46 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
How did our discussion about the disadvantages of smoking turn into a discussion about ass-pounding ghey sex?
Submitted by Leroy_Brown (user info) at 2005-09-08 00:22:39 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
methods ass has a sign too:
"you must be this big to ride".
Submitted by Teuton (user info) at 2005-09-08 00:22:11 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
There is a warning on the box.
Submitted by Captain_Lurk (user info) at 2005-09-08 00:17:38 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Not that that there's anything wrong with that..."Man, you ain't like thaaaat, are you?"
To each there own. There's a sign on my asshole that says DO NOT ENTER.
Submitted by Insanethemind (user info) at 2005-09-08 00:02:39 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Captain_Lurk: He means homosexual radar.
On that note, at work today this woman insinuated that I was gay to a colleague of mine and the cook she said it to replied, "Man, you ain't like thaaaat, are you?"
I said, "No, I am not."
What I WANTED to say was, "Dude, who I sleep with is none of your business," but then everyone in the restaurant would have been talking about me, saying I was gay...
and there are some very pretty girls working there.
Homophobia is so rampant here in the south US. I must admit that I too was a homophobe for quite some time. It is ingrained in our culture.
Submitted by Captain_Lurk (user info) at 2005-09-07 23:54:49 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Yes lover, need to be politically correct although I ain't ghey...
What's a fagdar? I want to be able to say sometime 'my fagdar just exploded'...that would be fun.
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Submitted by Leroy_Brown (user info) at 2005-09-07 23:41:13 (#)
Ranking: 0
did someone just say 'lover'? my fagdar just exploded.
Submitted by Insanethemind (user info) at 2005-09-07 23:52:54 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
definitely, badass. I am interested to hear how it goes... remind me in a few weeks or so
Submitted by Insanethemind (user info) at 2005-09-07 23:52:04 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
The thing about nicotine is that the urge always seems to be with you, especially after you haven't had it in a while, at least for me. That is the difference between nic. withdrawals and withdrawals from something that isn't physically addictive (only psychologically) like Valium.
With Valium, if you put it out of your mind, it's gone - except when going through the worst of the withdrawals, but even then it's more mind over matter than nicotine.
Submitted by badassmofo (user info) at 2005-09-07 23:50:30 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
thanks and to you too.
its 97% mental man...the chemical adjustment is easy.
its the habit...
Submitted by Insanethemind (user info) at 2005-09-07 23:45:18 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
badassmofo: Dude, my best attempt at quitting cold turkey once I had truly gotten into the habit was only two weeks. I have to hand it to you, that shit is not easy.
Lots of luck
Submitted by badassmofo (user info) at 2005-09-07 23:42:48 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Luckily I never started on coffee, the taste to me is foul.
I get the same anxiety deal from nicotine. I've been smoking along time and have quit for periods of 4.5 and 1.5 years, only to take it up again.
My most successful attempt was cold turkey.
I quit 3 weeks ago this time...fucking struggle everyday.
It's wearing me thin I'll tell you.
Submitted by Leroy_Brown (user info) at 2005-09-07 23:41:13 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
did someone just say 'lover'? my fagdar just exploded.
Submitted by Insanethemind (user info) at 2005-09-07 23:35:40 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Hey shandy the lost soul: if you read this- my title was inspired by a tee shirt idea you had quite a while back.
Any chance you remember the one?
Submitted by Insanethemind (user info) at 2005-09-07 23:33:50 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Method, I hear you man, I gave up drinking coffee about 2 years ago for the same reason. I do drink decaf too occasionaly, though.
Haven't tried the lozenges.
Submitted by Captain_Lurk (user info) at 2005-09-07 23:31:57 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Yes, Insane, you can get panic attacks, chest pain, and a freakin heart attack. Find something else to put your lips on. A good lover (non smoker) does wonders. I am able to avoid smoking by simply kissing her beautiful lips. And the lozenges work well too. Kinda expensive, but they work well.
Submitted by Method (user info) at 2005-09-07 23:28:03 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
yup. i just switched to decaf and i feel alot better. Im not a nervous wreck all the time anymore.
Im planning on quitting smoking soon, it really does a fucking number on you, but its gradual so you dont really blame it on the cigarettes.