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Quitting Smoking

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    NOS (Not Otherwise Specified) Quitting Smoking

    I am having a seriously hard time quitting smoking and am wondering how others have managed to do it.

    I began smoking (daily) 2.5 years ago just before I started to have noticable symptoms (of depression), and remember thinking that it helped me deal with 'stress' at the time. Previous to that, I smoked for roughly 2 years but only when drinking, so it was a very infrequent habit.

    About 6 months ago I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and have been lucky that has stabilized on medication. I have tried to quit cold turkey 3 times since, but can't seem to make it past 3-4 days when the withdrawal symptoms get intense (no amount of help from others, reminders etc works, I just can't stand the feelings I have). I know it won't last but I feel very emotionally unstable at those times and it reminds of how I felt before I was diagnosed...I especially find the agitated, anxious and restless feelings the worst and worry that I might have episodes again.

    Because I have experience with an anti-depressant making me manic, I don't think I could take some of the medication that helps with quitting. I am going to attempt using the patch and see if that will help in gradually reducing nicotine and hopefully make the withdrawal symptoms less severe so I can stand them. Has this (or other tactics) been useful for others? It is discouraging to see statistics that those who are bipolar smoke at significantly higher rates (~70%) than the regular population - as if it wasn't hard enough to begin with.

    Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

    #2
    Hello Sep. Quitting smoking is a snap for some people and a nightmare for others. I think that the number of people who have bipolar that smoke is down a bit now, but I can remember when meetings were planned around frequent smoke breaks as everybody smoked.

    I've quit a number of times anywhere from 1mth to 2 yrs to hopefully forever this last time. I can't even rmember when I last smoked, but 8 plus years ago I think. I could never cut back and the patches, nicotine gum only drove me crazier than I was. To me all those methods were like slow torture. Cold turkey is the only way that I can quit.

    Whenever I did decide to quite I developed a method. First I set a date. If I was working, I took holidays and when I wasn't workng I cleared my calander for a few weeks. Then I stocked up on a lot of coffee and my favorite munchies. Basically I spent the next 2-3 weeks drinking tons of extra strong coffee and eating(substituting caffeine for nicotine). Probably not the smartest way to quit, but it always worked for me. I usually had some fake plastic cigarettes to suck on as well and a ready supply of hard candies. I found it easier to cut down on coffee after the cravings had subsided.

    In case you do quit, it took me quite a while to figure out that every time I had any sort of heavy episode of mania that I would start smoking again. I've learned to overcome that as well. Good Luck and Take Care. paul m
    "Alone we can do so little;
    Together we can do so much"
    Helen Keller

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      #3
      I've never been a smoker myself but I have been through withdrawal from meds before and it is an awful feeling. I think that in the
      long run, quitting smoking will be better for your bipolar than continuing to smoke--it will at least be better for your overall health.
      Good luck in this.
      astronaut

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        #4
        Cold turkey for me.
        AJ

        Humans punish themselves endlessly
        for not being what they believe they should be.
        -Don Miguel Ruiz-

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          #5
          It probably did help you deal with stress, nicotine as a drug is actually shown to have mood stabilizing properties. You should be aware that when you quit you may need a med adjustment.

          I quit using hypnosis - one on one, not a group thingy (those don't work)

          It was a little bit pricey but I had saved that money back rather quickly and many times that amount of money over the 3 years I haven't smoked.

          Good luck to you
          Rebecca

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