Does Nicotine Cause Depression?

[Angeleek]

Hey Quit Train Gang! This is not meant to be medical advice but just my opinion based on my experience. 

 

I think long-term, regular use of nicotine causes depression! I say this because I became a regular smoker at the age of 14, and I came down with a low-level depression around the age of 21. Not bad enough to stop me from living, but just enough so that I was less happy-go-lucky than usual. I also noted that my best friend in school, who became a regular smoker with me, came down with a much more pronounced depression only a couple years into our smoking careers. Neither of us had any bad events in our lives other than having started smoking as young girls.

 

Fast forward all these years later, and having learned to live with the "background" depression so well that I forgot about it, I can now report that the depression is fully gone now after 3 years of being smoke and nicotine free! I remember going through a really intense period of the blues during months 5 through 9 of quitting smoking -- the "no man's land" phase I guess, where I felt really down and thought, "Gosh, this no nicotine thing is truly depressing!" But that was a short-term phase that can happen when people quit smoking, I've read. The other, nearly life-long, low-level depression that miraculously,  recently lifted now that I have been off nicotine for a few years -- I am convinced I acquired it through smoking! Anybody else think smoking / nicotine made them depressed? 

Edited March 19, 2023 by Angeleek

[DenaliBlues]

Hi, @Angeleek. Thanks for raising this topic. It is something I think about a lot. Like you, I'm not a medical expert, just a recovering nicotine addict who is trying to make sense of my own personal experience. It's especially helpful to hear you talk about your experience of no-man's land.

 

With something as complex as depression, I'm not sure what I think about causal factors. But I can say with certainty that smoking damaged my mental health. I'm still puzzling on this, but some things I am beginning to understand: 

• I believe that smoking diminished my ability to experience pleasure. My brain became trained on one thing: getting a nicotine fix. Other experiences faded into grey, and my ability to feel joy receded... as if my nicotine receptors had cannibalized everything else. There is some science to support this theory, though researchers are still trying to understand exactly how long-term nicotine exposure disrupts production/uptake of dopamine and other neurotransmitters associated with pleasure and contentment. 
• Smoking undermined my sense of self-efficacy. Being in thrall to nicotine (or any other addiction) is degrading and dehumanizing. That affected me more profoundly than I realized. 
• I used nicotine to try and suppress negative emotions, like sadness and anger and grief. Such feelings (and their underlying issues) weren't cured by smoking, of course. Smoking just blunted them. Rather than addressing the root causes of my distress, I was pretending to "soothe" myself while feeding myself poison and ducking my own feelings. Naturally, this kind of self-betrayal was another negative force on my mental health. 

For me, stopping smoking did not automatically resolve these issues. I did not experience the quitting euphoria that some other people describe. And there's still a lot to untangle about why I smoked in the first place and what my baseline mental health is. Like you, Angeleek, I started smoking really young. I was hooked by age 13, so I don't really know what I'm like without nicotine. For people who got hooked when our brains were still developing, are the effects different? I don't know. 

 

But I certainly DO know that the psychological damage that smoking caused was real, and that quitting is the only way to heal the parts of me that were injured by it. Whatever else is present on my internal obstacle course, quitting will simplify it. And since I quit, repair is happening. My progress is slow and herky-jerky, but I am starting to cope better with my feelings, beginning to see glimmers of light and joy breaking through. Quitting will make every other good thing possible.   

 

Edited March 19, 2023 by DenaliBlues

[overcome]

12 hours ago, Angeleek said:

I remember going through a really intense period of the blues during months 5 through 9 of quitting smoking -- the "no man's land" phase I guess, where I felt really down

This is me currently, but seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. 

 

1 hour ago, DenaliBlues said:

But I certainly DO know that the psychological damage that smoking caused was real, and that quitting is the only way to heal the parts of me that were injured by it.  

 

This is the only thing I know for sure and it motivates me to keep moving forward with my quit.  

 

 

Thanks for sharing both of you! 

[Doreensfree]

Great posts...certainly gives food for thought...

I too was a smoker from 11 years old .

Interesting what my non smoker brain would be like ..

 

[Angeleek]

3 hours ago, DenaliBlues said:

Hi, @Angeleek. Thanks for raising this topic. It is something I think about a lot. Like you, I'm not a medical expert, just a recovering nicotine addict who is trying to make sense of my own personal experience. It's especially helpful to hear you talk about your experience of no-man's land.

 

With something as complex as depression, I'm not sure what I think about causal factors. But I can say with certainty that smoking damaged my mental health. I'm still puzzling on this, but some things I am beginning to understand: 

• I believe that smoking diminished my ability to experience pleasure. My brain became trained on one thing: getting a nicotine fix. Other experiences faded into grey, and my ability to feel joy receded... as if my nicotine receptors had cannibalized everything else. There is some science to support this theory, though researchers are still trying to understand exactly how long-term nicotine exposure disrupts production/uptake of dopamine and other neurotransmitters associated with pleasure and contentment. 
• Smoking undermined my sense of self-efficacy. Being in thrall to nicotine (or any other addiction) is degrading and dehumanizing. That affected me more profoundly than I realized. 
• I used nicotine to try and suppress negative emotions, like sadness and anger and grief. Such feelings (and their underlying issues) weren't cured by smoking, of course. Smoking just blunted them. Rather than addressing the root causes of my distress, I was pretending to "soothe" myself while feeding myself poison and ducking my own feelings. Naturally, this kind of self-betrayal was another negative force on my mental health. 

For me, stopping smoking did not automatically resolve these issues. I did not experience the quitting euphoria that some other people describe. And there's still a lot to untangle about why I smoked in the first place and what my baseline mental health is. Like you, Angeleek, I started smoking really young. I was hooked by age 13, so I don't really know what I'm like without nicotine. For people who got hooked when our brains were still developing, are the effects different? I don't know. 

 

But I certainly DO know that the psychological damage that smoking caused was real, and that quitting is the only way to heal the parts of me that were injured by it. Whatever else is present on my internal obstacle course, quitting will simplify it. And since I quit, repair is happening. My progress is slow and herky-jerky, but I am starting to cope better with my feelings, beginning to see glimmers of light and joy breaking through. Quitting will make every other good thing possible.   

 

Hi DenaliBlues! Thanks for a very thoughtful answer. And congratulations on your first year smoke free! Your first 2 bullets really resonated with me. And I agree that there is no light-bulb moment where the depression or what have you is suddenly gone, but rather one day you realize that damage is no longer there, and you feel whole again!

[Angeleek]

1 hour ago, overcome said:

This is me currently, but seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. 

 

This is the only thing I know for sure and it motivates me to keep moving forward with my quit.  

 

 

Thanks for sharing both of you! 

Hi Overcome! You will definitely make it through that phase. Just hold steady and try to distract yourself from it. It will get easier and easier, you will see!

[Angeleek]

8 minutes ago, Doreensfree said:

Great posts...certainly gives food for thought...

I too was a smoker from 11 years old .

Interesting what my non smoker brain would be like ..

 

Yeah...I think it's amazing how little is still known about how nicotine ruins the developing young mind and damages the psyche. Maybe if we had more concrete info on that, more evidence could be presented to young people about how smoking/vaping harms your cognitive and mental health NOW, as a deterrent. That might help some kids to quit or never start.

[intoxicated yoda]

@Angeleeki believe that anything that alters the brain chemistry and thus alters ones perception of reality will ultimately cause either depression or anxiety.  Whether it be from smoking tobacco, weed, eating sugar or even mushrooms, the result of the brain trying to regain its normal chemical balance as those stimulants wear off can cause long term changes in the neurological pathways.  To see a report from someone such as yourself of long term depression being fully gone gives me hope of recovering back to a mental state of never having smoked.  Were you ever clinically diagnosed with depression?  Sorry if I'm being to nosy but this is a topic I find fascinating.

[Angeleek]

On 3/19/2023 at 5:33 PM, intoxicated yoda said:

@Angeleeki believe that anything that alters the brain chemistry and thus alters ones perception of reality will ultimately cause either depression or anxiety.  Whether it be from smoking tobacco, weed, eating sugar or even mushrooms, the result of the brain trying to regain its normal chemical balance as those stimulants wear off can cause long term changes in the neurological pathways.  To see a report from someone such as yourself of long term depression being fully gone gives me hope of recovering back to a mental state of never having smoked.  Were you ever clinically diagnosed with depression?  Sorry if I'm being to nosy but this is a topic I find fascinating.

No no clinical diagnosis as I never sought help because I was fully functional, just a nagging feeling of being less happy than I normally am...or slightly sad at times for no reason. I was that way for so long that I forgot it was even a thing. I am glad that has finally lifted! 

[Brioski]

This is very interesting, as I’ve kind of stopped and asked myself recently, “why can’t I seem to physically get off of the couch, what do I love to do?, why am I crying multiple times a day, am I depressed?”…..I have never asked myself these questions. Whether it’s a true mental illness or just a mental blip I’m going through, I think learning about it will help me get through it.  I found this video today and it helped me SO much (kind of long but it was good):

 

 

[Angeleek]

Oh yes! Sadly not only does smoking cause at least a "low-level" depression (in my opinion), but quitting smoking REALLY throws you down in the dumps!!  I am probably the anomaly who resorted to alcohol to muddle myself through the 5 months of quit-smoking depression that I had to endure to get me to month 9. After that, the "big blues" went away, and the regular, low-level depression, of which I was not even aware, remained.  

 

@Brioski know that what u are going through is temporary and will go away! They call it No-Man's-Land. Mine lasted for 5 months. It's your brain crying for nicotine, like the wicked witch of Oz who is melting away... waaaah!!!!. It will get better, but you have to endure it somehow. Exercise might be a good remedy. I was too down in the dumps to exercise, so I drank instead. Try exercise, as drinking usually leads to relapse! You can do this, stay centered with your eyes on the prize!

[DenaliBlues]

6 hours ago, Angeleek said:

Try exercise, as drinking usually leads to relapse

This is an important point. For me, self medicating with alcohol was a non starter. I am an addict trying to get clean. So, personally, I’m not going to toss another mind/mood altering substance into my poor beleaguered brain at this point, while I’m still trying to find my butt and figure out which way is up. 
 

Exercise helped, but most of all, hard physical labor was my key. Raking, splitting wood, vacuuming, mopping, beating rugs. Nothing complicated… nothing that would trigger frustration or feelings of failure. Just mindless hard work that made me so sore that I had something entirely different to moan about!

[Doreensfree]

I carnt count the number of quits ive seen lost to alcohol .

Swoping one thing for another 

doesnt work ...

This leads to folks feeling more sad they have lost a great quit ..

The only way is fight ..fight for your freedom ..

Our brains have decades of healing to do ...dont over think ..

Be patient and kind to yourself .x