I went back to the snus...

[Snoozers]

I quit snus with vaping about 6 months ago, smoking since 4 months. Everything has been a breeze, and I absolutely loved vaping, and felt a lot of positive changes. Sleeping a bit better and feeling a bit more calm being some of the things I noticed.

The reason I quit snus was because I thought it made me anxious. I have tried doing similar things with caffeine but with no success. I thought that by cutting down the nicotine, it wouldn't have such an impact on my anxiety.

After gradually cutting down to 3mg, where I have been for a month or two now on my RDA, I noticed no decrease in anxiety, and felt I got slightly depressed (not a real depression, but a more fed-up depressed feeling from being anxious all the time and constantly feeling hindered by it). It was probably because all of the MAOI's were cleaned out of my system. I felt way better when I started vaping than now, 6 months later. I didn't have the energy to do anything.

This sucks of course, but it taught me a very important lesson. My anxiety is not caused by nicotine or caffeine. Overdoing both can amplify it, for sure, but moderate use is not the cause. This is fantastic for me to know. The MAOI's also seem to help for a tobacco addict like me.

I will be traveling soon for a long time, and stand by the ultimatum to continue vaping and dealing with the hassle of getting juice, dealing with faulty hardware, charging batteries etc in a foreign contry (a country that don't have an established vaping scene), paying loads of money for shipping as it's really difficult to get stuff down there, quit completely or go back to snus. Quitting would probably be the wise thing to do since I already was at a very low nicotine level, but I felt that I can't deal with more anxiety/depressed feelings right now. I have to work to remove my anxiety from the core until I feel I have the strength to quit completely.

Long story short... I felt that snus was the best choice and I went to the store yesterday and bought a can. The depressed feelings lifted instantly, and I feel back to my old self; more confident (my confidence lessened from the anxiety), more energetic and happy self. I also felt a decrease in anxiety which is positive.

I have guilt feelings for going back though... A half year without any tobacco, and I, who has so motivated to quit before threw it away. I've read similar reports of people feeling the same after 4-6 months. So in that sense, I don't feel so alone.

Do any more of you have similar experiences? Am I beating myself up too hard?

I will NEVER smoke a cigarette again though, so that's fantastic. I've read up a lot on snus and know that it is a perfectly safe alternative (at least in comparison with cigarettes). Probably in the same range as vaping... so I dont worry too much about that.

Any insight in this would be of immense help.

Thank you!

 

[4evermetalhead]

Hi mate,

Why would you ever use snus? Have you seen what does it do to your gums?
I bet vaping is much safer than that as well. Either way it doesn't feel as comfortable as vape, i mean its between your upper lip and your gums and is not paper thin like.
I yet dont vape but im pretty sure its safer. (yep still smocking cigarettes)

Fyi pressing your self to hard will cause anxiety to build up. To much anxiety build up creates stress, stress then creates a reaction to the fed up feeling. Nicotine has nothing to do with this.
BUT, since you quit smoking your body starts to react to a loss of something. Mind will react to the muscle memory of cigarette smoking as well.
Which helps build up of the above. Once your body stops searching for these it all will be perfect.

Stopped smoking 4 years ago for 8 months and i know what you are going through. One piece of advise, find something that will relief you from stress, but dont use anger related hobbys like shouting loudly when you are stressed to relief from stress, that will only trigger your mind to be more angry.

All the best and good luck.
the metalhead

 

[Snoozers]

Hi mate,

Why would you ever use snus? Have you seen what does it do to your gums?
I bet vaping is much safer than that as well. Either way it doesn't feel as comfortable as vape, i mean its between your upper lip and your gums and is not paper thin like.
I yet dont vape but im pretty sure its safer. (yep still smocking cigarettes)

Fyi pressing your self to hard will cause anxiety to build up. To much anxiety build up creates stress, stress then creates a reaction to the fed up feeling. Nicotine has nothing to do with this.
BUT, since you quit smoking your body starts to react to a loss of something. Mind will react to the muscle memory of cigarette smoking as well.
Which helps build up of the above. Once your body stops searching for these it all will be perfect.

Stopped smoking 4 years ago for 8 months and i know what you are going through. One piece of advise, find something that will relief you from stress, but dont use anger related hobbys like shouting loudly when you are stressed to relief from stress, that will only trigger your mind to be more angry.

All the best and good luck.
the metalhead

Hey dude!

I used snus it to quit smoking a couple of years ago. It worked like a charm, but I ended up smoking on vacations and parties a while later, until I started smoking daily. Why? I felt I had no real intention to quit, so I smoked away. I then realized it was a very stupid idea.

Snus is bad on the gums for sure, but not as bad as chew or dipping tobacco. I have no idea which one is safer of snus and vaping, as we don't know the long term effects of vaping yet (my conclusion is that vaping is perfectly safe though). Snus is as safe as tobacco consumption can be, miles away from the American stuff, which is a relief. The downside is the gum issues and the addiction.

Wise words about the anxiety/stress! My case is a bit more complicated though... my long anxiety disorder period has messed up my insulin levels, making me sensitive to what I eat and drink (adrenaline causes glucose to shoot out in the blood to prepare for fight or flight, and in my case it has been almost constantly). As of now, the slightest changes in diet, nicotine consumption, caffeine, you name it, can cause pretty major effects. It really sucks, I am not ill in any way luckily. It's just that the body is responding as it should while in an anxiety response. I have just gotten stuck in the loop and need to get out of it in order to be non-anxious again, like I was before.

You started smoking again? Maaan! Haha! Pick up the vape.

Cheers and thanks for the answer!

 

[4evermetalhead]

Hi mate,

Yes my sister has a similar situation with you with her insulin being highly unstable. I hope you are not randomly out of the blue falling asleep as my sister does. Or else i wouldn't keep a burning cigarette in 10 feet away. Thank god she doesnt smoke or else with this situation she would be leterally be SMOCKING......with flames..

Yeap stupid me my friend, and all this started because of a bottle of JD and good friends. Hard to separate bad habits with a nice sip of JD.

Anyway, i am still trying to find the ideal choise to vape. Then analogs will remain in the trash.
Love the box looks but need vv/vw and all that with anything higher than 60w. I want to have all options in hand so i can adjust things according to that current need. Just puffing a small massively thin mist is not good enough. And last all day long with medium throat hit and good quality.
Any ideas?

Sorry for mild hijacking on your post.

the metalhead

 

[Stubby]

Hi mate,

Why would you ever use snus? Have you seen what does it do to your gums?
I bet vaping is much safer than that as well. Either way it doesn't feel as comfortable as vape, i mean its between your upper lip and your gums and is not paper thin like.
I yet dont vape but im pretty sure its safer. (yep still smocking cigarettes)

Fyi pressing your self to hard will cause anxiety to build up. To much anxiety build up creates stress, stress then creates a reaction to the fed up feeling. Nicotine has nothing to do with this.
BUT, since you quit smoking your body starts to react to a loss of something. Mind will react to the muscle memory of cigarette smoking as well.
Which helps build up of the above. Once your body stops searching for these it all will be perfect.

Stopped smoking 4 years ago for 8 months and i know what you are going through. One piece of advise, find something that will relief you from stress, but dont use anger related hobbys like shouting loudly when you are stressed to relief from stress, that will only trigger your mind to be more angry.

All the best and good luck.
the metalhead

Snus is not known to have a significant negative effects on gums. At worst, a heavy user of loose might have some slight gum recession, with pouches much less so.

Vaping is not significantly less harmful then smokeless tobacco, in fact it anything it may be slightly less harmful as nothing is inhaled. That is not just an opinion, but based on lots of reading and research over the last 6 plus years. You should probably read the works of Brad Rodu to get educated on ST before you try and get into any discussions, and certainly before giving advise to other people.

http://rodutobaccotruth.blogspot.com

Decades of research tell us that snus (and western style ST) is about 99% less harmful then smoking.

As for the OP, come on down to the smokeless tobacco section of ECF (there really is one, though it is pretty well off the beaten track. Many people there found themselves in the same situation you are and found relief with snus.

https://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/forums/smokeless-tobacco.11/

 

[SeaBandit]

you know what, I really miss snus, I have to say I probably prefer it to vaping just a little bit, but the import taxes in my country make it completely unviable to keep using.
I would say enjoy it as much as you can, I'm a little jelous

 

[4evermetalhead]

Snus is not known to have a significant negative effects on gums. At worst, a heavy user of loose might have some slight gum recession, with pouches much less so.

Vaping is not significantly less harmful then smokeless tobacco, in fact it anything it may be slightly less harmful as nothing is inhaled. That is not just an opinion, but based on lots of reading and research over the last 6 plus years. You should probably read the works of Brad Rodu to get educated on ST before you try and get into any discussions, and certainly before giving advise to other people.

http://rodutobaccotruth.blogspot.com

Decades of research tell us that snus (and western style ST) is about 99% less harmful then smoking.

As for the OP, come on down to the smokeless tobacco section of ECF (there really is one, though it is pretty well off the beaten track. Many people there found themselves in the same situation you are and found relief with snus.

https://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/forums/smokeless-tobacco.11/

Thanks for the useful info mate. I have been on stinkies for lot of years. Never tried anything else so yes i am not an expert but i can get an idea.
I thought that pouches had same effect as loose snus at least to gums. Thanks for educating me. I ll try learn more on this.
The metalhead.

 

[Spencer87]

hmm.
Well, speaking from the point of view of someone who lives in a place where they dont really have a vaping scene.... apart from SG, you can pretty much get vaping stuff anywhere, Plus there is always buy a whole lot, or buy a lot of mix, and take it with you.
but... As long as you will be somewhere for longer than a couple weeks, tons of places will ship overseas, usually for around 20$
and then there are FT, which is free shipping worldwide, but takes a while..

 

[Scotticus93]

I quit snus with vaping about 6 months ago, smoking since 4 months. Everything has been a breeze, and I absolutely loved vaping, and felt a lot of positive changes. Sleeping a bit better and feeling a bit more calm being some of the things I noticed.

The reason I quit snus was because I thought it made me anxious. I have tried doing similar things with caffeine but with no success. I thought that by cutting down the nicotine, it wouldn't have such an impact on my anxiety.

After gradually cutting down to 3mg, where I have been for a month or two now on my RDA, I noticed no decrease in anxiety, and felt I got slightly depressed (not a real depression, but a more fed-up depressed feeling from being anxious all the time and constantly feeling hindered by it). It was probably because all of the MAOI's were cleaned out of my system. I felt way better when I started vaping than now, 6 months later. I didn't have the energy to do anything.

This sucks of course, but it taught me a very important lesson. My anxiety is not caused by nicotine or caffeine. Overdoing both can amplify it, for sure, but moderate use is not the cause. This is fantastic for me to know. The MAOI's also seem to help for a tobacco addict like me.

I will be traveling soon for a long time, and stand by the ultimatum to continue vaping and dealing with the hassle of getting juice, dealing with faulty hardware, charging batteries etc in a foreign contry (a country that don't have an established vaping scene), paying loads of money for shipping as it's really difficult to get stuff down there, quit completely or go back to snus. Quitting would probably be the wise thing to do since I already was at a very low nicotine level, but I felt that I can't deal with more anxiety/depressed feelings right now. I have to work to remove my anxiety from the core until I feel I have the strength to quit completely.

Long story short... I felt that snus was the best choice and I went to the store yesterday and bought a can. The depressed feelings lifted instantly, and I feel back to my old self; more confident (my confidence lessened from the anxiety), more energetic and happy self. I also felt a decrease in anxiety which is positive.

I have guilt feelings for going back though... A half year without any tobacco, and I, who has so motivated to quit before threw it away. I've read similar reports of people feeling the same after 4-6 months. So in that sense, I don't feel so alone.

Do any more of you have similar experiences? Am I beating myself up too hard?

I will NEVER smoke a cigarette again though, so that's fantastic. I've read up a lot on snus and know that it is a perfectly safe alternative (at least in comparison with cigarettes). Probably in the same range as vaping... so I dont worry too much about that.

Any insight in this would be of immense help.

Thank you!

I'm about to go to bed. For that I aapologise. I use camel snus off and on myself. I feel guilty about it too but am off cigs. Rock on. Keep vaping. I have none right now but I'll pack 2 or 3 lips a day tops. How about you?

 

[4evermetalhead]

Scotticus93 at least you are honest with your self.

As you said at least you are off cigarettes. Enjoying an addiction is not bad in my point of view. Is the way that addiction is enjoyed and how much that enjoyment is being abused by us that is wrong.

Its like coffee, its great to enloy, is not the best thing to drink, and you should always keep a limit or else you get addicted and abuse the use of it with consequences.

Of course i could be wrong.
the metalhead.

 

[Scotticus93]

Hi mate,

Yes my sister has a similar situation with you with her insulin being highly unstable. I hope you are not randomly out of the blue falling asleep as my sister does. Or else i wouldn't keep a burning cigarette in 10 feet away. Thank god she doesnt smoke or else with this situation she would be leterally be SMOCKING......with flames..

Yeap stupid me my friend, and all this started because of a bottle of JD and good friends. Hard to separate bad habits with a nice sip of JD.

Anyway, i am still trying to find the ideal choise to vape. Then analogs will remain in the trash.
Love the box looks but need vv/vw and all that with anything higher than 60w. I want to have all options in hand so i can adjust things according to that current need. Just puffing a small massively thin mist is not good enough. And last all day long with medium throat hit and good quality.
Any ideas?

Sorry for mild hijacking on your post.

the metalhead

Ipv d2 is a great mod and the one I just upgraded too. I heard it goes great with a uwell crown (I have yet to get one I have subtank mini which is also good) that and some 12mg juice maybe around 50/50. Kicks my throat real hard but you get used to it. Definitely recommend the mod for you tho. It can go up to 75w and is real small

Edit: and my story is the same as you. Started smoking when i was drinking. Woke up hungover and was like I'll have another and it was downhill from there. Until this last time I quit.