Vaping for anxiety
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I think at this point it is working so well I'm worried I'll develop a tolerance and it won't work anymore over time. Like I mentioned right now I'm only doing 6mg. I don't want to have to move up over time. Do you think I should be able to stay where I'm at and still feel the same benefits? By benefits I mean the relaxation, energy, motivation, and positive outlook. I've also lost ten pounds but that's just an added bonus.and the watermelon flavor I got tastes delicious!
Yeah, smokers generally find the level of smoking that feels right to them; they might smoke more in times of stress, but on the whole, it's usually a fairly consistent level per day, and vapers seem to do exactly the same thing -- everyone seems to have a very different tolerance to nicotine, but whatever level works for each person, they generally tend to stay at that level. to me this just means that once you find that level of nicotine that benefits you, why change it? It will most likely always work about the same at the same level, it's just individual tolerance that differs.
People talk about a nicotine "buzz" but what nicotine really does is just make you more of who you really are -- it organizes the brain chemicals very effectively, so there's no particular feeling, except NOT feeling so stressed and anxious. Feeling normal. In fact that used to be one of my phrases for going out for a smoke, I was going outside to get normal.
Andria
Your sharing this is already a milestone in your journey forward!
Good on you!
Keep doing what makes little moments of change visible to yourself.
Each little difference in your disposition is a huge milestone in effort covered!
Slowly, the choices become visible and you are empowered to choose!
So glad you are leaping ahead!
Yeah, smokers generally find the level of smoking that feels right to them; they might smoke more in times of stress, but on the whole, it's usually a fairly consistent level per day, and vapers seem to do exactly the same thing -- everyone seems to have a very different tolerance to nicotine, but whatever level works for each person, they generally tend to stay at that level. to me this just means that once you find that level of nicotine that benefits you, why change it? It will most likely always work about the same at the same level, it's just individual tolerance that differs.
People talk about a nicotine "buzz" but what nicotine really does is just make you more of who you really are -- it organizes the brain chemicals very effectively, so there's no particular feeling, except NOT feeling so stressed and anxious. Feeling normal. In fact that used to be one of my phrases for going out for a smoke, I was going outside to get normal.
Andria
That's what I'm talking about. I'm almost giddy not from a euphoria but because I have the ABILITY to be happy. I was always so serious before it was like I felt all of life's responsibility on my shoulders at once. Like a thick forest I had to chop my way through daily and by the end of the day I was exhausted with no room for joy. Life was about being responsible and doing what I had to do. I sometimes would go weeks at a time without a good belly laugh because I had to be serious and responsible and things to do. After experiencing severe emotional trauma as a child and then being a single mom with no help at all my brain had been conditioned to focus on being good and doing the right thing and taking care of my daughter, providing.
Now life isn't a chore or a check list. I take a few delicious vapes and I have the energy to take care of life but also enjoy it too. And I can laugh and really experience life. It sets something right in my brain that has been off for so long. I feel like it's ok to smile and laugh. I no longer miss out on an opportunity to enjoy a light hearted moment because I too am now light hearted. I feel like my brain has been rewired and in a good way. In a way that anti depressants and everything else has failed before.
Well, I personally didn't know that nicotine helped with depression and anxiety etc.
Maybe I started smoking because it helped but I couldn't see it. I do hope to switch to vaping instead of smoking in which case, as it shouldn't make a difference in that area.
Thanks for posting this thread, Kieferz, you've taught me something
Maybe I started smoking because it helped but I couldn't see it. I do hope to switch to vaping instead of smoking in which case, as it shouldn't make a difference in that area.
Thanks for posting this thread, Kieferz, you've taught me something
Hey Kieferz,
I found myself in a similar situation. Not an analog cig smoker, but had some medical events, got diagnosed with PTSD of all things (anxiety, flashbacks, no sleep etc. etc. fun fun) and was looking for something other than the heavy meds they were trying to prescribe for me. Read an article on ecigs and nicotine, started digging into nicotine since I use caffeine (coffee coffee coffee!) as a pain reliever with good ole non-steroidal aspirin in high dose (use it till your ears start ringin' or your stomach starts achin' as my GP says).
Turns out there's gaining clinical evidence that yes as you say, nicotine has been shown to help anxiety, depression, even things like decreasing Tourette's symptoms (? that one surprised me). And at the very least there's the possible real and placebo effect (not to be underestimated) of deep regular breathing and ritual associated with vaping in general. It's almost zen depending on how you do it.
I'm using 6mg, mixing my own juices, doing my own coil builds (old engineer here, so it's now a tinkering hobby lol), tried going to 0mg to check out the placebo, deep breathing angle to see if I got the same result. Nada, it's the nicotine, pain reduction, anxiety reduction, calming, clarifying etc. etc. I also stopped for a week or so to see if I got cravings to see how hooked I was on the low level of 6mg, and it was nothing, not having coffee for a week (surgery fun) was MUCH worse ;-)
I've been trying to follow accredited clinical studies on it (promised my wife) to watch for downsides/adverse side-effects etc. of nicotine, so far nothing has shown up, and everything is on the positive benefit side. That means in medical business parlance (I work in the biomed industry) the clinical risk/benefit to using nicotine seems all positive it's a go if it works for you.
So great to hear it's working for you, and that I'm not the only one addicted to coffee!
Here's a link to a great overview article on the clinical evidence...
http://themindunleashed.org/2014/10/nicotine-are-we-wrong.html
I found myself in a similar situation. Not an analog cig smoker, but had some medical events, got diagnosed with PTSD of all things (anxiety, flashbacks, no sleep etc. etc. fun fun) and was looking for something other than the heavy meds they were trying to prescribe for me. Read an article on ecigs and nicotine, started digging into nicotine since I use caffeine (coffee coffee coffee!) as a pain reliever with good ole non-steroidal aspirin in high dose (use it till your ears start ringin' or your stomach starts achin' as my GP says).
Turns out there's gaining clinical evidence that yes as you say, nicotine has been shown to help anxiety, depression, even things like decreasing Tourette's symptoms (? that one surprised me). And at the very least there's the possible real and placebo effect (not to be underestimated) of deep regular breathing and ritual associated with vaping in general. It's almost zen depending on how you do it.
I'm using 6mg, mixing my own juices, doing my own coil builds (old engineer here, so it's now a tinkering hobby lol), tried going to 0mg to check out the placebo, deep breathing angle to see if I got the same result. Nada, it's the nicotine, pain reduction, anxiety reduction, calming, clarifying etc. etc. I also stopped for a week or so to see if I got cravings to see how hooked I was on the low level of 6mg, and it was nothing, not having coffee for a week (surgery fun) was MUCH worse ;-)
I've been trying to follow accredited clinical studies on it (promised my wife) to watch for downsides/adverse side-effects etc. of nicotine, so far nothing has shown up, and everything is on the positive benefit side. That means in medical business parlance (I work in the biomed industry) the clinical risk/benefit to using nicotine seems all positive it's a go if it works for you.
So great to hear it's working for you, and that I'm not the only one addicted to coffee!
Here's a link to a great overview article on the clinical evidence...
http://themindunleashed.org/2014/10/nicotine-are-we-wrong.html
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Hey @Interknet, I think alot of people find relief accidentally, by 'self-medicating'. Alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, it's the way humans work "Hey that helped?! I'm doing more of that" There's actually a study that shows a high correlation of people with depression that smoke, kind of a reverse link that they think indicates nicotine was allowing people to self-medicate to some degree and get relief. In the end Stay calm and Vape on ;-)
I think I more subliminally thought it helped. It all started when I was pinching the odd cig here and there from my parents without them knowing. My mind tends to know what it's doing, but I don't know what it's doing if that makes sense.
Weird.
Yes, I have seen such studies, too. The idea of smoking/vaping/coffee gives a temporary moment to draw the mind to something other than what is currently going on.
Rather than using such tactics, I believe that getting medical help is the priority. Not that vapimg would help give that moment of mental break, it just shouldn't be relied upon.
Rather than using such tactics, I believe that getting medical help is the priority. Not that vapimg would help give that moment of mental break, it just shouldn't be relied upon.
I've been vaping for 1 and a half years now and the reason I smoked was because of anxiety. The best medicine for anxiety/depression is excercise. Since quitting smoking i've joined a gym and go 4 or 5 times a week just doing cardio for now and hopefully soon getting into weight training. It works. Give your body physical work to do and the mind will follow. Our bodies are meant to move.Quitting smoking should only give you more motivation to get in shape.
i'm diagnosed with anxiety disorder and depression. on med for them. nic sometimes helps, but not always. sometimes, it actually make me more anxious. used to chain smoke when i get stressed or anxious. it will keep me up, and make me finish the task, but afterwards, i feel worse. i guess it might be different for different people. i fall asleep better after coffee.. but my wife can't drink coffee before bed.
That may be true, but you'll play hell getting a clinically depressed person to do it. When my depression was at its worst, I had to get my husband's help just to take a shower! Just standing upright and doing something constructive was completely beyond my ability -- he put a bath chair in the shower for me, and stayed right there, reminding me of each part of me to attend to next. A person in that condition won't exercise, when it's a task of herculean dimensions just to get out of bed, or out of the chair, even to eat, or bathe, or dress, or anything normal. At that point, medication is usually required, just to be able to COMMUNICATE -- the brain has reached a point of almost-complete shutdown, attending to its autonomic functions only -- it's like being in a coma with your eyes open. Thankfully I'm no longer in that dire condition, because I DID get medication when I needed it, but it steams me past all bearing to hear all this "exercise is the best medicine" because people in that condition DON'T CARE IF THEY CONTINUE LIVING, they're not going to get up and exercise if they can't even manage to get up and get dressed. It's not "weakness," it's not "laziness," it's not "self-indulgence," it's MORTAL ILLNESS, because people can and do die from it -- by their own hand.
For anxiety, yes, exercise can help, but it's mighty hard to exercise when you're having a meltdown in the car from a panic attack. The people who can most benefit from exercise are those who are already taking medication, who are starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel -- NOT adding yet another drug, as the commercial advises -- that would be right up BP's alley, to get us on TWO psychoactive meds, but if one is experiencing some relief from medication, THEN it's the time for exercise. In fact I bellow that at the Abilify commercials, "go out and do some gardening, you'll feel better!"
Andria
This would be a debate for a different part of the internet and not here.
I agree. Exercise is awesome for depression but even though I do exercise 6 days a week and do yoga and have medical advisory I still struggled. It was an effort to force myself through the day and to do things that would help. But they were not everything. They took the edge off but didnt fully make me feel alive. Now I have the motivation to do the self help things like exercise and yoga. Everyone has their vice and I'm thankful I have found something that makes me feel alive again.
My wife suffered from anxiety for years. She stopped depending on Big Pharma, and vapes Cinnamon bun. Guess what ? No more anxiety !
Good luck to you
Good luck to you
I don't need to debate it at all -- been there. done that. Finally got over it -- and it wasn't exercise that got me over it, it was Effexor. Exercise helped a lot, once the medicine brought me out of the tunnel, but exercise alone could not have brought me out of the tunnel, because I wouldn't do it. If a person won't do it, it can't possibly help.
Andria
That's wonderful! Glad to hear!!!My wife suffered from anxiety for years. She stopped depending on Big Pharma, and vapes Cinnamon bun. Guess what ? No more anxiety !
Good luck to you
Just ran across this great post and happy to hear it helps. I feel the same damned way. Glad micro's really worked and that tension helped get ya there. Never mind Andria who posted after ya. She's ...... at somebody she thinks was tellin' her what to do (hope it wasn't me, lol). I just try to show folks the tools. Not what to wind.
Anyway just stopped by to give ya a nudge.
Good luck Moody, gotta go get the line back in the water.
Yea I have noticed i don't stay as physically tense as bad either and my sleep quality has improved greatly.
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