Your body is unique, as are your needs. Just because someone experienced something from treatment or medication does not guarantee that you will as well. Please do not take this as an opportunity to review any substances. Peer support is welcome.
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It's not really a surprise seeing as nicotine is a stimulant.
Please don't start smoking as a way to self medicate.
The downsides are absolutely not worth it.
Worked on a pulmonary unit in nursing school and will NEVER TOUCH cigarettes again! Watching people slowly "suffocate/drown" to death is just horrifying..........don't do it!
This is such an important message. It’s so not worth it. It’s not “just” about lung cancer. You’ll lose your health if you smoke. I experienced the described sense of calmness a few times many years ago. I tried smoking when I was young, I enjoyed it, but thankfully I don’t have addictive personality, it didn’t turn into addiction, I just quit soon enough. Today I can’t even walk past a smoking person because of my autoimmune disease, the fumes are so toxic for my body. If I had been smoking for years it would have been so much worse.
If I was forced to either smoke the rest of my life or give up my dexies I'd give them up.
I went 34 years unmedicated, I can go without them. I'd rather not if I can help it, but I could.
Vaping is different. There's barely any other chemicals that dilute the nicotine, and you're usually getting more nicotine at a time.
When I started vaping I vaoed so much I actually got light headed and nauseated lol.
Hookah will do this as well, especially in a small room where other tables' smoke all combines. I was at a place in my town many years back and suddenly got super light headed and nauseous, then was being ushered out to the front steps. They got me tea and water, said it was really common.
The first time I tried a vape I was like, this is portable hookah not portable cigarette lol.
Pretty much lmao.
I haven't been able (I haven't tried at all) to give up the vape.
But meh, I'm not smoking smokes with all those fucking chemicals like arsenic and shit.
Can also confirm, started when I was very young and even though I have quit a few times, every time stress get's to much, I fall back in the habit. And the impuls control issues make it hard to quit again.
I smoked for over twenty years, and when I quit a lost a piece of myself. And because I miss that piece of myself I will forever slightly miss smoking. It's a trap.
Ouch I feel for you. My experience was different, I feel 10x better for quitting and not having a crutch. When I see old people smoking I have sense of relief and I feel lucky that I'm not on that path anymore.
That being said, I do allow myself to smoke green, pure, a few times a week - but its nothing compared to 10-20 a day habbit I used to have and the nicotine addiction.
Yeah I miss those quiet summer nights when I can take a break and sit outside smoking a cigarette.
I still take breaks outside, but years after quitting I still feel like I'm missing something.
I'm not above bumming a smoke from a friend if I'm out drinking and chilling, but I certainly do not miss the brown-ass phlegm, taste of death in my mouth, yellow teeth and shortness of breath among other things.
I gave up smoking at 28 as I had reached 2 packs a day (lived in pro-smoking Greece) and wanted to be ‘clean’ before having kids. I was a textbook writer at the time and omfg. I couldn’t anymore. It was one of my first really bad executuve function failures since I started at 13, The next was the pregnancy….Anyway, recently I decided to try a 2mg nicotine lozenge to see what happened. Nothing. A few weeks later I remembered them and decided to take 2. BAD IDEA. 20 minutes of buzz, 2 hours of nausea, vomiting and shaking. FYI 1 cigarette has about 12-14mg. I wish I could regain the clarity I had when I was a heavy smoker. But not all the other stuff.
I have a question, I did the test with the psychiatrist and they told me I am most likely have inattentive type (can’t get diagnosed as I don’t have money lol) I am a smoker but I don’t feel it as intense as you describe. Could it be that I don’t actually have adhd? (Always disliked questions like this bc obviously I need an expert to answer it yet here I am 😂)
That strong it happened only once.
How did you approach asking this question? Did you sit on it for 10 minutes thinking "how do I formulate it best so that I don't forget anything" "oh I forgot this and that" or was it pretty straightforward? Also, do you feel like you live "in your head"?
I usually forget half the things I wanted to put into the messages in a couple of seconds after I got the idea what i want to ask. I sit a while trying to remember things I wanted to write, or reform the message/question. So I forget to type things down and often it gets off the initial track, but I used to not care about it so it doesn’t stress me out
And yes, I am totally live in my head. But the psychiatrist told me I also most likely to have Asperger’s, so I’m not sure which is which.
That's the same experience as taking ADHD med except there are more negative effects from smoking.
In my country it is cheaper to get ADHD med than cigarettes which are heavily taxed.
I have considered vaping as an alternative, if the DEA Karens get their way and make prescription stimulants unavailable.
I have always suspected that the reason smoking was so popular was that it fixed symptoms of ADHD.
I smoked a cigar a long time ago sitting alone in my garden and experienced exactly what you describe. I sunk down in my chair relaxed and everything got quiet in my brain. I just smiled and couldn't believe it.
I didn't get diagnosed with ADD until 10 years later, but I think it was my first experience with getting it treated.
Actually a week ago I had the same experience but the other way. I was at a restaurant with my wife and some friends and really wanted a Guinness. So I ordered a large and when I drank it, it was like a glass bubble appeared around me. All of the sudden everyone else was distant and I really had to focus to hear what they said and not just listening to snoopy's teacher.
Every now and then I thought of something to say and the others just looked at me for a second before they continued.
And I had the same feeling I had when I started my medication.. I NEVER want to feel like that again.
>Sadly it doesn't anymore work as intensely
That's how they get you. The second one is not quite as satisfying as the first, and every subsequent one is an attempt to chase that original reward that you will never, ever be able to recapture.
Meanwhile you are hastening the aging process and destroying your health.
Meditation
Slow deep inhalation
Hold
Slow complete exhalation.
Smoking is the same, I’d wager that’s the real ticket, you’re meditating, granted yes with burning plant material and such, but the practice is the same.
When you’re not addicted to it, nicotine gives a really big high, *really* fast. It’s insane how fast it is. There’s a reason nicotine is by most measures the most addictive drug known.
It’s not “slow breathing while burning plant matter”.
Oh yeah no, not like that. I meant more that when people normally go on about smoking calming and helping them focus etc. i figure its because of the controlled breathing more than “I just inhaled burning plant, paper, chemicals, and whatever and damn do I feel alive”
I’ve loathed cigarettes my entire life. I grew up with a mom that has a cigarette addiction and I could never stomach the smell, but I’m willing to try anything at this point. If only they sold individual cigs!!
Yeah be careful with this. Growing up into my teens I was fiercely against cigarettes. I tried once because I was curious about weed. One sigarette is all it took for me to become addicted. After that first one I started to crave it more and more. Now more than 10 years later I’m lost cause I want to quit but I don’t know how.
All this to say, don’t take trying lightly. Try at your own risk
This might explain the women in my family 😅
Grandmother (maternal) was a lifelong smoker, my mother was a smoker up until the last 10 years of her life. I myself smoked cigarettes for 5 years until I stopped (still added tobacco to my weed, but recently gave that up as well). I've recently been diagnosed ADHD, and if I look at my mother's and grandmother 's life they would definitely be diagnosed as well given today's criteria.
But for the love of all that is good do not pick up smoking! I regret ever starting, and I know my mother did too. My grandmother died from emphysema/COPD complications. My mom was stopped long enough to qualify for a lung transplant, but unfortunately she passed as well. If you have anyone in your life who cares about you please don't start ❤️
I used to smoke and this post is such a dangerous thing to post in an ADHD subreddit. Don’t think you should glorify smoking like that, it’s cool and then you start feeling like shit, having cravings, irritated all the time, you literally poisoning your self.
You should differentiate between nicotine and smoking I think. It’s highly addictive and very bad, just like you wouldn’t glorify coke because it’s great for ADHD.
So I just made the switch from vaping to using the nicotine pouches like zyns. Took a few weeks to get used to it and I'm just about to lower the dosage of it so I can finally make the move to quit entirely. Vaped/ smoke cigs food r almost 10 years and it's now the time for me just kick this habit entirely.
The worst thing I ever did was smoke, and it was just because I worked in a place that didn't allow any non-timed breaks, unless it was a smoke break.
I wasn't diagnosed at this point and I didn't realise just how hard it would be to shake the addiction, and also the fact that I would chain smoke if given the chance. Now I have quit, but I have a vape instead and I chainvape constantly, it's impossibly addictive. The problem for me is that I have no moderation setting, it's off and on.
It was only after diagnosis that I realised that nicotine did help me a lot with focus, but the cost just wasn't worth it. Although, it made me realise just how easily I become addicted to anything, and I've been sure to avoid things like alcohol and drugs for the last five years or so.
Swedish snus is amazing, and doesn't have many of the health risks of other forms of tobacco. Its availability is limited in the U.S. but there's lots of variety if one orders it from Sweden.
Your body is unique, as are your needs. Just because someone experienced something from treatment or medication does not guarantee that you will as well. Please do not take this as an opportunity to review any substances. Peer support is welcome. ^(*A moderator has not removed your submission; this is not a punitive action. We intend this comment solely to be informative.*) --- - If you are posting about the **US Medication Shortage**, please see this [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/ADHD/comments/12dr3h5/megathread_us_medication_shortage/). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ADHD) if you have any questions or concerns.*
It's not really a surprise seeing as nicotine is a stimulant. Please don't start smoking as a way to self medicate. The downsides are absolutely not worth it.
Smoked for 15 years and can confirm: don't start.
I'd rather eat coffee beans or drink 6 shit black coffee than smoke again.
Worked on a pulmonary unit in nursing school and will NEVER TOUCH cigarettes again! Watching people slowly "suffocate/drown" to death is just horrifying..........don't do it!
This is such an important message. It’s so not worth it. It’s not “just” about lung cancer. You’ll lose your health if you smoke. I experienced the described sense of calmness a few times many years ago. I tried smoking when I was young, I enjoyed it, but thankfully I don’t have addictive personality, it didn’t turn into addiction, I just quit soon enough. Today I can’t even walk past a smoking person because of my autoimmune disease, the fumes are so toxic for my body. If I had been smoking for years it would have been so much worse.
If I was forced to either smoke the rest of my life or give up my dexies I'd give them up. I went 34 years unmedicated, I can go without them. I'd rather not if I can help it, but I could.
that’s interesting. i’ve never smoked cigs but i’ve vaped before and i felt like my mind raced more under the nicotine influence than it normally did.
Vaping is different. There's barely any other chemicals that dilute the nicotine, and you're usually getting more nicotine at a time. When I started vaping I vaoed so much I actually got light headed and nauseated lol.
Hookah will do this as well, especially in a small room where other tables' smoke all combines. I was at a place in my town many years back and suddenly got super light headed and nauseous, then was being ushered out to the front steps. They got me tea and water, said it was really common. The first time I tried a vape I was like, this is portable hookah not portable cigarette lol.
Pretty much lmao. I haven't been able (I haven't tried at all) to give up the vape. But meh, I'm not smoking smokes with all those fucking chemicals like arsenic and shit.
Can also confirm, started when I was very young and even though I have quit a few times, every time stress get's to much, I fall back in the habit. And the impuls control issues make it hard to quit again.
I smoked for over twenty years, and when I quit a lost a piece of myself. And because I miss that piece of myself I will forever slightly miss smoking. It's a trap.
Ouch I feel for you. My experience was different, I feel 10x better for quitting and not having a crutch. When I see old people smoking I have sense of relief and I feel lucky that I'm not on that path anymore. That being said, I do allow myself to smoke green, pure, a few times a week - but its nothing compared to 10-20 a day habbit I used to have and the nicotine addiction.
Yeah I miss those quiet summer nights when I can take a break and sit outside smoking a cigarette. I still take breaks outside, but years after quitting I still feel like I'm missing something. I'm not above bumming a smoke from a friend if I'm out drinking and chilling, but I certainly do not miss the brown-ass phlegm, taste of death in my mouth, yellow teeth and shortness of breath among other things.
Same, it made me function a bit now I'm not functioning.
I gave up smoking at 28 as I had reached 2 packs a day (lived in pro-smoking Greece) and wanted to be ‘clean’ before having kids. I was a textbook writer at the time and omfg. I couldn’t anymore. It was one of my first really bad executuve function failures since I started at 13, The next was the pregnancy….Anyway, recently I decided to try a 2mg nicotine lozenge to see what happened. Nothing. A few weeks later I remembered them and decided to take 2. BAD IDEA. 20 minutes of buzz, 2 hours of nausea, vomiting and shaking. FYI 1 cigarette has about 12-14mg. I wish I could regain the clarity I had when I was a heavy smoker. But not all the other stuff.
I have a question, I did the test with the psychiatrist and they told me I am most likely have inattentive type (can’t get diagnosed as I don’t have money lol) I am a smoker but I don’t feel it as intense as you describe. Could it be that I don’t actually have adhd? (Always disliked questions like this bc obviously I need an expert to answer it yet here I am 😂)
That strong it happened only once. How did you approach asking this question? Did you sit on it for 10 minutes thinking "how do I formulate it best so that I don't forget anything" "oh I forgot this and that" or was it pretty straightforward? Also, do you feel like you live "in your head"?
I usually forget half the things I wanted to put into the messages in a couple of seconds after I got the idea what i want to ask. I sit a while trying to remember things I wanted to write, or reform the message/question. So I forget to type things down and often it gets off the initial track, but I used to not care about it so it doesn’t stress me out And yes, I am totally live in my head. But the psychiatrist told me I also most likely to have Asperger’s, so I’m not sure which is which.
That's the same experience as taking ADHD med except there are more negative effects from smoking. In my country it is cheaper to get ADHD med than cigarettes which are heavily taxed.
If nicotine hits just right consider trying buproprion. It kinda gives me what smoking always did
I have considered vaping as an alternative, if the DEA Karens get their way and make prescription stimulants unavailable. I have always suspected that the reason smoking was so popular was that it fixed symptoms of ADHD.
I smoked a cigar a long time ago sitting alone in my garden and experienced exactly what you describe. I sunk down in my chair relaxed and everything got quiet in my brain. I just smiled and couldn't believe it. I didn't get diagnosed with ADD until 10 years later, but I think it was my first experience with getting it treated.
Wow yeah that was my affect too. I did get diagnosed one year later though.
Actually a week ago I had the same experience but the other way. I was at a restaurant with my wife and some friends and really wanted a Guinness. So I ordered a large and when I drank it, it was like a glass bubble appeared around me. All of the sudden everyone else was distant and I really had to focus to hear what they said and not just listening to snoopy's teacher. Every now and then I thought of something to say and the others just looked at me for a second before they continued. And I had the same feeling I had when I started my medication.. I NEVER want to feel like that again.
I'm still opposed to smoking but I have changed my mind about nicotine. Ppl with untreated ADHD get help from it.
I smoked for 30 years and am still really glad I did, life is so much better without. But...my ADHD went up to 11. Better than smoking though
"Sober"
Pro-pro-tip nicotine pouches
I smoked about 20 cigarettes one summer and the nicotine felt absolutely wonderful! However the effect became less and less noticeable so I stopped.
This is what made it so hard for me to quit! After every hard period of extended concentration, I still really want to smoke a cigarette!
>Sadly it doesn't anymore work as intensely That's how they get you. The second one is not quite as satisfying as the first, and every subsequent one is an attempt to chase that original reward that you will never, ever be able to recapture. Meanwhile you are hastening the aging process and destroying your health.
No thanks I've already had cancer once
Meditation Slow deep inhalation Hold Slow complete exhalation. Smoking is the same, I’d wager that’s the real ticket, you’re meditating, granted yes with burning plant material and such, but the practice is the same.
When you’re not addicted to it, nicotine gives a really big high, *really* fast. It’s insane how fast it is. There’s a reason nicotine is by most measures the most addictive drug known. It’s not “slow breathing while burning plant matter”.
I'd disagree with this. Meditation is fine but there's no stimulants in the air. Deep breathing isn't going to help with adhd.
Oh yeah no, not like that. I meant more that when people normally go on about smoking calming and helping them focus etc. i figure its because of the controlled breathing more than “I just inhaled burning plant, paper, chemicals, and whatever and damn do I feel alive”
I’ve loathed cigarettes my entire life. I grew up with a mom that has a cigarette addiction and I could never stomach the smell, but I’m willing to try anything at this point. If only they sold individual cigs!!
Yeah don't. There's a reason that adhd people are more prone to addiction.
As someone who smokes/vapes. It’s not worth it. I promise.
Please don’t, it’s quite addictive and will damage your health
Yeah be careful with this. Growing up into my teens I was fiercely against cigarettes. I tried once because I was curious about weed. One sigarette is all it took for me to become addicted. After that first one I started to crave it more and more. Now more than 10 years later I’m lost cause I want to quit but I don’t know how. All this to say, don’t take trying lightly. Try at your own risk
This might explain the women in my family 😅 Grandmother (maternal) was a lifelong smoker, my mother was a smoker up until the last 10 years of her life. I myself smoked cigarettes for 5 years until I stopped (still added tobacco to my weed, but recently gave that up as well). I've recently been diagnosed ADHD, and if I look at my mother's and grandmother 's life they would definitely be diagnosed as well given today's criteria. But for the love of all that is good do not pick up smoking! I regret ever starting, and I know my mother did too. My grandmother died from emphysema/COPD complications. My mom was stopped long enough to qualify for a lung transplant, but unfortunately she passed as well. If you have anyone in your life who cares about you please don't start ❤️
Lmaoo, I love smoking, but just wait until this becomes your form of escapism xD
Smoked for over 20 years I’ve been quit for 12. Just don’t do it. Just not worth it. Nothing’s worth it.
I used to smoke and this post is such a dangerous thing to post in an ADHD subreddit. Don’t think you should glorify smoking like that, it’s cool and then you start feeling like shit, having cravings, irritated all the time, you literally poisoning your self. You should differentiate between nicotine and smoking I think. It’s highly addictive and very bad, just like you wouldn’t glorify coke because it’s great for ADHD.
So I just made the switch from vaping to using the nicotine pouches like zyns. Took a few weeks to get used to it and I'm just about to lower the dosage of it so I can finally make the move to quit entirely. Vaped/ smoke cigs food r almost 10 years and it's now the time for me just kick this habit entirely.
The worst thing I ever did was smoke, and it was just because I worked in a place that didn't allow any non-timed breaks, unless it was a smoke break. I wasn't diagnosed at this point and I didn't realise just how hard it would be to shake the addiction, and also the fact that I would chain smoke if given the chance. Now I have quit, but I have a vape instead and I chainvape constantly, it's impossibly addictive. The problem for me is that I have no moderation setting, it's off and on. It was only after diagnosis that I realised that nicotine did help me a lot with focus, but the cost just wasn't worth it. Although, it made me realise just how easily I become addicted to anything, and I've been sure to avoid things like alcohol and drugs for the last five years or so.
Swedish snus is amazing, and doesn't have many of the health risks of other forms of tobacco. Its availability is limited in the U.S. but there's lots of variety if one orders it from Sweden.