# Anyone use nicotine to battle anxiety?



## Himi Jendrix (Mar 24, 2010)

I have personally hated the taste of cigs my whole life and when I found out about SNUS I figured I had to try it. 

I use snus on a daily basis now mainly to treat anxiety. When I loose the nicotine buzz effect, I quit for a few days. Those few days are really starting to suck as my body gets physically addicted to it. 

Anyhows the feeling of nicotine intoxication is awesome and I have been using it in school as of late and it really helps my anxiety there.


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## kev (Jan 28, 2005)

Hmm, I guess everyone responds to drugs differently. My response to snus is far from awesome, yet I still get the addiction consequences of it (bummer for me).

Snus might be a little less harmful thank smoking cigarettes (??) but it still has major risks, such as pancreatic cancer, mouth cancer, and gum problems. 

It's an attempt at a quick fix to a chronic problem, which I understand (as an addict myself) but cannot endorse.


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## crayzyMed (Nov 2, 2006)

If i'm correct nicotine itself (not smoking) increases risk on several cancer but reduces risk on parkinson and a few other braindisorders (need to look that up again).


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## hensley258 (Apr 24, 2010)

I smoke two packs of cigs a day and have never noticed any ant-anxiety effect. I also tried the large chewing Tobbaco pouches which are loaded with Nicotine.

Strange you would get any anti-anxiety effect from this.


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## Endorphin (Dec 4, 2011)

I know this from a year ago but maybe someone can benefit from my post. I use snus to get that motivational energy back and the anti anxiety effects are more mental than physical. It can cause me physical anxiety if I get too much nicotine in at once but I learned to feel when the right time take the pouch out is. Now mentally the effects are more energy to do tasks that i normally would procrastinate on. It definately makes me more social and outgoing though. Its almost like it erases my anxieties for the time being. The best thing is I dont have to spit like with chewing tobacco or start smoking a cig. I get marlboro snus but I realize that nothing from them is safe so Im going to get swedish snus for my next one. Im also exercising now that I started so i can be healthier and outweigh the negatives if there is many to worry about.


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## forbidden (Oct 25, 2011)

I use smoking in general to battle anxiety...it gives me an excuse to duck out of social situations...lol


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## nork123 (Oct 22, 2009)

^yeah apart from using smoking as an excuse to duck out of social situations it doesn't have much anti anxiety effects for me, if anything can even make my anxiety worse for those 5 minutes that the nicotine buzz lasts for anyway especially if I haven't smoked in a while, and I don't smoke any more anyway


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## Porterdog (Sep 17, 2010)

Nicotine gum used to wipe anxiety completely for me when i first started it.
It pooped out a couple months later, So i quit it.

Now i started smoking because im depressed as and i want an addiction and it doesn't do much :/


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## baranok (Nov 17, 2011)

Nicotine helped me getting my brigade-work lol, was extremely helpful for some first few days, it was like vertigo + antianxiety effect and pretty short duration

4 years later i am disgusted by its taste and it does absolutely nothing,
starting taking wellbutrin lessen my ~18cig intake to 2 a day
then started klonopin daily and started smoking more again (2-5)

dont feel much different though

How does benzo correlate to this? Is it because of rebound effect?


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## DeysonGrey (Dec 12, 2011)

I love my cigarettes...bad for me I know, but I velieve nicotine actually can serve as an antidepressant. Plus its the tick I think, just holding something, flicking it...all kinds of fun.


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## swim (Apr 4, 2011)

crayzyMed said:


> If i'm correct nicotine itself (not smoking) increases risk on several cancer but reduces risk on parkinson and a few other braindisorders (need to look that up again).


yes it seems that chain smokers are less likely to develop alzhaimer in their life


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## Keith (Aug 30, 2008)

I found cigarettes made my anxiety worse, i smoked for many years and whenever i got those bad cravings for a cigarette, my anxiety was much worse than normal until i "fixed" it with a cigarette. Everyone's different though, it was a nice excuse to have sometimes, and it passed the time.


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## UltraShy (Nov 8, 2003)

swim said:


> yes it seems that chain smokers are less likely to develop alzhaimer in their life


Chain smokers are less likely to develop any ailments typical of old age, as they're dead due to smoking.


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## UltraShy (Nov 8, 2003)

crayzyMed said:


> If i'm correct *nicotine itself (not smoking) increases risk on several cancer* but reduces risk on parkinson and a few other braindisorders (need to look that up again).


I never heard that, but then it's an issue that doesn't typically come up. It's not as if non-smokers slap on nicotine patches or chew nicotine gun for the fun of it.

I suppose you'd have to dose rats with nicotine & see if they got cancers, though you'd still have no human population to verify the same thing happens in humans since smoking is really the only way people get long-term significant exposure to nicotine. Well, chewing tobacco too, though that probably throws in a lot more substances than just nicotine.


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## PickleNose (Jul 11, 2009)

Take it from someone who smoked 2-3 packs a day for 20 years. This is a *really bad* idea.

Nicotine only relaxes you until it wears off. When you need another fix, you will start to become more anxious than you ever would have been without nicotine. And this will gradually build until you feel like you're going to lose your mind if you don't get the nicotine.

My advice is to quit while you can. If you really want to do it, whatever but you will almost certainly regret it when you can't break the habit and every minute you spend without the nicotine flowing into you gnaws at you like starvation.


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## swim (Apr 4, 2011)

UltraShy said:


> Chain smokers are less likely to develop any ailments typical of old age, as they're dead due to smoking.


it depends on one's genetics of course. my paternal grandpa is still alive while my maternal grandpa died at 72 of lung cancer but he developed cardiovascular disease before of that.


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## swim (Apr 4, 2011)

as for me, I never got into the habit of smoking because cigarettes seem to affect my mood so that after smoking one I instantly crash unless I'm on a full stomach or sitting down and having an alcoholic drink. I can't really smoke while standing.


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## epi4fun (Mar 20, 2012)

I completely agree with the first post.. Nicotine although bad,help me curb my anxiety 100% . I am a paramedic, so this a wonderfull temp fix, until my doc can figure it out


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## mca90guitar (Sep 12, 2012)

I know this is an old thread but, Using my e cig really helps my anxiety. Helps me relax a ton where Xanax just is a fail for me.


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