Do not take Valerian root the purity is NEVER guaranteed and it can cause severe liver problems and others over time. Honestly, since you are self medicating with nicotine I wanted to mention that. MOST medications for anxiety (prescription and non) can be rather unsafe..
I really sympathize, I do. I'd say your best bet if you are strictly in it for the effect is to buy as much nic as you can afford and vape it until vaping comes back more (it will, some day, I am fairly certain.)
You are actually NOT better off "in your youth" (and as a relatively young and anxious type, I do understand) getting on habit forming and tolerance forming (although arguably nic can do this as well) medications until you can ABSOLUTELY avoid it, once your nic supply has run out. If you have hardware, you can get PG and VG.
You are thinking too far ahead, and your anxiety is making you do that. I get it. Think about the NOW, think about the next year, think about the next FIVE, and get as far as you can in your planning and DO that.
Who knows what medical advances will have come in 5. 10. 15 years? I don't. I also think snus (which is considered sort of considerably low rent and is barely taxed in my state, not to mention that Sweden is pretty good at doing what it wants, including shipping to you) is always an option and will remain one SO MUCH longer than vaping, because it's less of a threat to the tobacco industry, etc. It works well and the alkaloids help with the hand to mouth. I can go 12 hours at work without a single vape if I need to with snus.
You have options now, you will have options in the future, and those options will change, and they may change for the better sometime, not for the worse.
I would never advise anyone stable on nic to deliberately switch to say, Klonopin NOW, when they are young. Anxiety medications (apart from SSRIs and a few others which also carry some annoyances) are some of the worst out there, you don't want to do that.
I will say some judicious lifestyle habits, mainly involving things like exercise, eating, routines and adding some therapeutic things like CBT and Mindfulness may help you.
For example, you are predicting the future (you can't actually) and imagining a worst case (oh trust me, I used to be the queen of the catastrophizers, but the OLDER I get, the less I do that. It's the best. I used to write down my catastrophic thoughts to challenge them and while it was life so crud happened I NEVER had a SINGLE one of my "catastrophes" occur. I have had panic attacks so bad a HOMELESS dude in Baltimore stopped to see if I was okay on the way to my Master's degree as I SANK to the ground.
This was all while I was smoking (or not! My panic/anxiety doesn't really respond to meds that much) it responded to lifestyle changes, and it responded to CBT and mindfulness. Anxiety cause LEARNED habitual, negative thoughts that keep the cycle going.
I'm not saying you don't need nic, I am saying I can see where your anxiety is taking you with this. I don't believe it is causing you to think clearly at all.
Tell yourself you are a resourceful person. You are. The patch is the WORST, but other NRT is NOT so bad. It's not as good as vaping, but it is better than the patch.
I once imported a year's supply of nicotine gum from Russia because it was a long term strategy for me at the time. I made it six months but there was no way I was going to pay pharmaceutical prices. I wouldn't advise that NOW but there are other, equally creative things you can do NOW.
Do them.
Don't worry about an uncertain future past a certain point. Do now, then later, then later, for as LONG as you can, and THEN worry about the "later" when it becomes the now.
Also, the world can figure itself out. It's not your problem or responsibility and yeah it is sad but you did not CAUSE it so worrying about it is unproductive. So, do YOU.
Mindfulness is about leaning to use your senses and train your mind to be in the now. It's not meditation which I personally find horrific. Tons of websites with ideas but the general idea is anxiety takes you into the past or worrying about the future while MOST (I exempt labor from this but I do not know, I didn't practice back then) NOW moments, however unpleasant, are survivable and can be improved. Etc.
Good luck,
Anna
I really sympathize, I do. I'd say your best bet if you are strictly in it for the effect is to buy as much nic as you can afford and vape it until vaping comes back more (it will, some day, I am fairly certain.)
You are actually NOT better off "in your youth" (and as a relatively young and anxious type, I do understand) getting on habit forming and tolerance forming (although arguably nic can do this as well) medications until you can ABSOLUTELY avoid it, once your nic supply has run out. If you have hardware, you can get PG and VG.
You are thinking too far ahead, and your anxiety is making you do that. I get it. Think about the NOW, think about the next year, think about the next FIVE, and get as far as you can in your planning and DO that.
Who knows what medical advances will have come in 5. 10. 15 years? I don't. I also think snus (which is considered sort of considerably low rent and is barely taxed in my state, not to mention that Sweden is pretty good at doing what it wants, including shipping to you) is always an option and will remain one SO MUCH longer than vaping, because it's less of a threat to the tobacco industry, etc. It works well and the alkaloids help with the hand to mouth. I can go 12 hours at work without a single vape if I need to with snus.
You have options now, you will have options in the future, and those options will change, and they may change for the better sometime, not for the worse.
I would never advise anyone stable on nic to deliberately switch to say, Klonopin NOW, when they are young. Anxiety medications (apart from SSRIs and a few others which also carry some annoyances) are some of the worst out there, you don't want to do that.
I will say some judicious lifestyle habits, mainly involving things like exercise, eating, routines and adding some therapeutic things like CBT and Mindfulness may help you.
For example, you are predicting the future (you can't actually) and imagining a worst case (oh trust me, I used to be the queen of the catastrophizers, but the OLDER I get, the less I do that. It's the best. I used to write down my catastrophic thoughts to challenge them and while it was life so crud happened I NEVER had a SINGLE one of my "catastrophes" occur. I have had panic attacks so bad a HOMELESS dude in Baltimore stopped to see if I was okay on the way to my Master's degree as I SANK to the ground.
This was all while I was smoking (or not! My panic/anxiety doesn't really respond to meds that much) it responded to lifestyle changes, and it responded to CBT and mindfulness. Anxiety cause LEARNED habitual, negative thoughts that keep the cycle going.
I'm not saying you don't need nic, I am saying I can see where your anxiety is taking you with this. I don't believe it is causing you to think clearly at all.
Tell yourself you are a resourceful person. You are. The patch is the WORST, but other NRT is NOT so bad. It's not as good as vaping, but it is better than the patch.
I once imported a year's supply of nicotine gum from Russia because it was a long term strategy for me at the time. I made it six months but there was no way I was going to pay pharmaceutical prices. I wouldn't advise that NOW but there are other, equally creative things you can do NOW.
Do them.
Don't worry about an uncertain future past a certain point. Do now, then later, then later, for as LONG as you can, and THEN worry about the "later" when it becomes the now.
Also, the world can figure itself out. It's not your problem or responsibility and yeah it is sad but you did not CAUSE it so worrying about it is unproductive. So, do YOU.
Mindfulness is about leaning to use your senses and train your mind to be in the now. It's not meditation which I personally find horrific. Tons of websites with ideas but the general idea is anxiety takes you into the past or worrying about the future while MOST (I exempt labor from this but I do not know, I didn't practice back then) NOW moments, however unpleasant, are survivable and can be improved. Etc.
Good luck,
Anna
