Vaping and depression? Veteran vapers.

[alopezg1]

In addition to the chemical changes from quitting, it's worth considering that as smokers we learned to use cigs as our method of coping -- especially those of us that started smoking as teens, before we really learned healthy coping skills. Any time that we felt stressed, tired, down, over-excited, or just about anything, we lit up and that was that. I think that's a big reason that we can get 'cravings' for so long after quitting; even if the chemicals in cigs caused brain changes directly, a large part of that was because of our behavior and the ways that we changed our brain ourselves to accommodate and extend them. It's really important to learn new, healthier coping skills, and preferably to dis-associate these feelings with a chemical fix.


If you feel like you are missing something that you needed from smoking, I'd urge you to talk to your doctor. If you've already been medicating with probably the most risky thing you could, and were able to live with some of the worst side-effects you could get, then you'd definitely have what it takes to do it the right way You still need to learn the behavioral stuff to make it work, but they have spent huge amounts of their adult life seeing what does and doesn't work (for what people and in what circumstances) Consider, though, that there have been a lot of people (with no intention of quitting smoking) that took Welbutrin and suddenly felt like they didn't want to smoke; obviously they found (even accidentally) that some of the meds completely satisfied the desire for the chemicals in tobacco, and in a way that gave them better control of their life.

It's also worth eating some extra fruit and veg when quitting. Smoking may have caused some deficiency or another, and you'll need all the nutrients you can get to help healing regardless.

I'm not a psychiatrist, but this stuff is covered in the smoking cessation material, and it was pretty evident in my experience. Now that this stuff is settling out, though, I'm feeling better and more even-keeled than I ever did when smoking.

I agree with this also.... this is the nature dependency , sub consciously most drug addicts are entirely terrified of living without whatever substance it is they are dependent , that fear can far outlast the half life of the drug .... smoking is particularly pernicous as nicotine needs to be administered so often ... Imagine if you smoke 20 cigarettes a day for 20 years , that's 146 000 cigarettes .... there aren't many things in life that you do that many times .... Imagine you take one dump a day and you are 35 that's 12775 dumps in your lifetime a small fraction of the amount of cigarettes you have smoked

 

[alopezg1]

I was getting better for about a week and now I am back to square one , panick attacks suicidal depression can't leave my house ! it's been over a ....ing year and still no progress .... it's looking now like I have 2 options : suicide or start smoking again. Paradoxically i really really don't want to smoke again . Maybe one a day just to stop the madness and spend the rest of the day with snus in my mouth

 

[AndriaD]

If I didn't keep that open pack in a ziplock in my freezer, I'd have a panic attack for sure -- and then I'd get mad and go get some cigarettes and smoke them!

Trying to negotiate with an addicted brain is like playing hopscotch with one leg. I guess I'm just fortunate that I really had gotten tired of the entire smoking thing years before I even heard of e-cigs -- I was ripe for something new to get me away from those awful cancer sticks.

Andria

 

[Katmar]

I was getting better for about a week and now I am back to square one , panick attacks suicidal depression can't leave my house ! it's been over a ....ing year and still no progress .... it's looking now like I have 2 options : suicide or start smoking again. Paradoxically i really really don't want to smoke again . Maybe one a day just to stop the madness and spend the rest of the day with snus in my mouth

Don't give up. Keep trying until something works. Maybe it's time for some meds?

 

[BigEgo]

I was getting better for about a week and now I am back to square one , panick attacks suicidal depression can't leave my house ! it's been over a ....ing year and still no progress .... it's looking now like I have 2 options : suicide or start smoking again. Paradoxically i really really don't want to smoke again . Maybe one a day just to stop the madness and spend the rest of the day with snus in my mouth

You should go see a doctor ASAP if you really are feeling this bad. Like others said, medications might be needed if you're not on them already. I also suffer from extreme anxiety (or do when I am not on meds), so I know exactly how you feel. It's no fun.

See a doctor and keep us updated. Good luck to you.

 

[Maiar]

I was getting better for about a week and now I am back to square one , panick attacks suicidal depression can't leave my house ! it's been over a ....ing year and still no progress .... it's looking now like I have 2 options : suicide or start smoking again. Paradoxically i really really don't want to smoke again . Maybe one a day just to stop the madness and spend the rest of the day with snus in my mouth

I'd go to the doctor as soon as possible buddy. Or consult a suicide hotline. They have all kinds of handy information. I wish my friend would have called one.

 

[Katmar]

You should go see a doctor ASAP if you really are feeling this bad. Like others said, medications might be needed if you're not on them already. I also suffer from extreme anxiety (or do when I am not on meds), so I know exactly how you feel. It's no fun.

See a doctor and keep us updated. Good luck to you.

What do you take for anxiety? I take lorazepam and remeron. They haven't done much and now I face a long slow weaning process for both of them.

 

[alopezg1]

I have been to a doctor yes.... I am on an ssri currently which does nothing for me... I asked to be put on wellbutrin or zyban as it is called over here
it is not prescibed as an anti-depressant over here , but my Doctor said she would ask if it was possible to do so off label for me , still waiting for them to get back to me
She also suggested a change either to another SSRI (fluoxotine/prozac) or a switch to Mirtazapine... I asked what kind of anti depressant this was as I was concerned with going back on an ssrni like effexor.... she couldn't tell me! Prescribing drugs to people that you don't understand the mechanism of sounds about right . I had to google it myself , sounds like pretty heavy stuff , i'm not willing to try it. I will try fluoxotine although i don't see how this will make any difference to my situation ; something like wellbutrin might .... I do not want to smoke ! I can't live like that anymore , but i can't seem to live without it , apparently , so it is an impossible situation for me

 

[BigEgo]

What do you take for anxiety? I take lorazepam and remeron. They haven't done much and now I face a long slow weaning process for both of them.

Zoloft. I have klonazepam for backup or emergencies, but haven't had to use it for about a year.

I got off my Zoloft at one point and got back on it after a couple of month hiatus. It was utter hell because the doctor didn't taper me up in the dose, so I started out at the max 200mg dosage and felt crazy for a couple weeks. I had to go to the ER because I thought I was dying. It is humiliating going to the hospital and have the doctors examine you, find nothing wrong and then look at you like you're nuts. The same thing happened years ago when I first started Zoloft. Something about that drug screws with my brain during the "titration" period. However, it really helps once my system becomes stabilized.

 

[AndriaD]

I have been to a doctor yes.... I am on an ssri currently which does nothing for me... I asked to be put on wellbutrin or zyban as it is called over here
it is not prescibed as an anti-depressant over here , but my Doctor said she would ask if it was possible to do so off label for me , still waiting for them to get back to me
She also suggested a change either to another SSRI (fluoxotine/prozac) or a switch to Mirtazapine... I asked what kind of anti depressant this was as I was concerned with going back on an ssrni like effexor.... she couldn't tell me! Prescribing drugs to people that you don't understand the mechanism of sounds about right . I had to google it myself , sounds like pretty heavy stuff , i'm not willing to try it. I will try fluoxotine although i don't see how this will make any difference to my situation ; something like wellbutrin might .... I do not want to smoke ! I can't live like that anymore , but i can't seem to live without it , apparently , so it is an impossible situation for me

The Wellbutrin might actually help. They tried me on it at one point, for depression, and though it really didn't help much with that, what I did find was that after eating, instead of having to jump up and run outdoors to smoke, I could actually wait for a while, half an hour or more, before that after-meal smoke -- considering that I wasn't even thinking of quitting smoking then, I thought that was pretty neat. It might take what feels like an unstoppable compulsion and change it into something more like a passing thought.

I quite understand your reluctance with Effexor, because getting off that stuff can take 2 yrs or more, and even with that slow a weaning process, I still got some of those "ZZZT!" brain-fry feelings, like my whole body had just encountered somethng more than household current; I also had the sporadic dizziness, felt like vertigo, where everything just spins, and the occasional "jumping leg" kind of tremors. But, if you're really in need of serious meds for anxiety and/or depression, Effexor really is effective. Prozac worked well for me for post-partum depression, but for my peri-menopause hormonal meltdown + PTSD depression, it really didn't do much.

Andria

 

[Frenchfry1942]

A good read, thank-you all.

I have my issues as well and finding...chemicals of one sort or another has been a long process. I smoked for a long time, too, and probably did it for some of the reasons mentioned. Anyway, I think I have things "manageable". Out of my own anxiety of my situation, I was fairly aggressive with my doctors, attitude, and energy. I didn't wait to call them back up and say, "this ain't working".

During the readings, one of the re-occurring thoughts that I had was that there is no one fix. It takes different things for different people and it seems to take awhile to find the fix. I hope all chase it down quickly, and successfully.

 

[alopezg1]

No way i am ever going near anything like effexor ever agin , i'd rather die, literally . I have a chronic distrust of Doctors when it comes psych meds , i have a chronic distrust of psych meds ; i think they work for some people , that's great. I don't think they should be handing them out like sweeties and creating a lifetime of dependence to something which usually becomes less effective over time; they can make life considerably worse for some people ,when simple lifestyle changes and therapy would have been more than adequate . I was put on them in my early twenties , i didn't really know anything about them , i didn't know i would be stuck jumping between different types for nearly ten years, if counselling ha d been suggested a good course of exercise and healthy eating i think i would have done a lot better ; but that is not in the interests of the medical establishment , their interests are to push drugs for pharmaceutical companies and create dependents

 

[alopezg1]

but yeah I'll give wellbutrin a try , no other option left really

 

[alopezg1]

if they can prescribe it to me

 

[AndriaD]

No way i am ever going near anything like effexor ever agin , i'd rather die, literally . I have a chronic distrust of Doctors when it comes psych meds , i have a chronic distrust of psych meds ; i think they work for some people , that's great. I don't think they should be handing them out like sweeties and creating a lifetime of dependence to something which usually becomes less effective over time; they can make life considerably worse for some people ,when simple lifestyle changes and therapy would have been more than adequate . I was put on them in my early twenties , i didn't really know anything about them , i didn't know i would be stuck jumping between different types for nearly ten years, if counselling ha d been suggested a good course of exercise and healthy eating i think i would have done a lot better ; but that is not in the interests of the medical establishment , their interests are to push drugs for pharmaceutical companies and create dependents

I agree 100%, and if I hadn't been so depressed that suicide *really did* seem like a reasonable option, and therapy just wasn't helping that much, I wouldn't have gone near the psych meds. But, the Effexor got me better enough that therapy began to actually help. It's probably a good thing that we lost our insurance, so I had to set about withdrawing from the stuff -- which took about 2 yrs, as I said; if it hadn't been for my mom having a HUGE prescription of high-mg Effexor, which didn't work for her at all, I'm not sure I could have managed it -- she gave me all her high-mg Effexor capsules, we bought some gelatin capsules and dumped all the gelatin and set about dividing up the high-mg Effexors using a gram scale, to 1/4 dose, then 1/8, then 1/16, then 1/32, then 1/64th... and I finally managed to get off the stupid things.

But, in the years since then, I've found other ways to deal with my depression; exercise, gardening, finding something else to think about rather than how much my life sucked, and sometimes just biting the bullet and suffering thru it. I won't take those again unless I've got the razor blade at my wrist, that is FOR SURE. Hopefully, learning better coping skills (thanks to therapy!!!) will keep me from ever getting that bad again, but I do seem to need the WTA ejuice; I'm really hoping I can wean down slowly from that, till I'm just vaping regular ejuice, but till then, I'm really grateful for the WTA.

Andria

 

[Katmar]

Yes, ADs are certainly a double edged sword. Killers to get off of, yet helpful when you need them. Wellbutrin worked for me and also slowed my cig cravings. It was a very easy drug to get off of. Wishing you well, apol!!