Nicotine for pain?

[Ricki M]

When I woke up this morning my sinuses were giving me all kinds of pain.  So my first thought I needed some nicotine.  That ought to fix it right?  Just how crazy my mind works like that will help it.  Kind of like putting gas on the fire to put it out. 

[JackiMac]

When we were smokers we believed that Nicotine helped so many different things, pain, stress, thinking, weight loss, the list could go on, but the real truth of the matter is nicotine is so bad for us, it will irritate the nasal passages, at the moment your addiction is trying to push different buttons but your doing great proving you are stronger than the crave and beginning to realise that smoking will only make you feel worse xx

[BAT]

Head Games

[cpk]

Smoking did help me with all those things listed, and more...at a price. If smoking didn't

have any positive affects for the smoker, the smoker would not have become an addict.

I know people with asthma who smoke because it brings short term relief...at a price.

Smoking never helped me very much with physical pain or allergies. Everyone is different, with

their own hurdles to jump...

[Tyme2B]

I blamed every ache, pain, you name it on withdrawal when I first quit....and I truly believed not smoking was causing all this terrible discomfort. I still believe some of the symptoms were certainly linked to nicotine withdrawal. But now that I can sleep again & have less aches & pains I feel good. If it was the nicotine withdrawal....I got through it. If not...I got through that "virus" too. Nicotine is not generally a prescribed treatment for anything!

[cpk]

I blamed every ache, pain, you name it on withdrawal when I first quit....and I truly believed not smoking was causing all this terrible discomfort. I still believe some of the symptoms were certainly linked to nicotine withdrawal. But now that I can sleep again & have less aches & pains I feel good. If it was the nicotine withdrawal....I got through it. If not...I got through that "virus" too. Nicotine is not generally a prescribed treatment for anything!

Haha, right, not prescribed. I'm too new at this to have anything figured out. I think I need to drink a lot more water, that's all I know now.

[Ricki M]

That's so funny how the brain works just to get what you want and DONT need....thanks everyone

[MarylandQuitter]

Smoking did help me with all those things listed, and more...at a price. If smoking didn't

have any positive affects for the smoker, the smoker would not have become an addict.

I know people with asthma who smoke because it brings short term relief...at a price.

Smoking never helped me very much with physical pain or allergies. Everyone is different, with

their own hurdles to jump...

 

A little off topic, but I wanted to address this. 

 

It was an illusion that smoking ever helped us with anything.  There is not one positive thing that it ever did for us.  It can't relieve stress or relax us because nicotine raises our blood pressure, increases our heart rate and sends adrenaline coursing through our veins.  Stress relief?  Hardly.  We thought it relieved stress because once the nicotine wore off (~every 20-30 minutes) we went into mild physical withdrawal which is by nature "stressful".  So, we smoked to alleviate the stress of nicotine withdrawal and just assumed that it relieved all the other stresses in our lives, which it never did.  If there were one, just one positive thing that smoking provided it would be all over the packs.  You don't think that big tobacco wanted to prove that smoking relieved stress?  You bet they did but they couldn't and never will be able to.  Weight control?  There are tons of overweight smokers.  They were all rationalizations willingly accepted so we could feel better about smoking and the damage we knew it was causing.

 

We didn't become nicotine addicts the first time we puffed on a cigarette.  We had to work at it.  There was nothing enjoyable about inhaling smoke into our young, pink lungs.  We coughed.  Out throats burned.  Some even got nauseous.  The list of bad side effects could go on and on but yet we puffed away until we got hooked and then rationalized smoking for years, decades even.  I still maintain that we never enjoyed smoking in the first place.  Sure, there was the occasional cigarette that we enjoyed but most of them, we hated and only smoked to get rid of the withdrawal symptoms.

 

If anybody thinks that they somehow benefited from smoking, more time is needed to learn about this addiction and all that it entails.  If you still believe in the cigarette, you could feel like you're somehow missing out on something by quitting when that couldn't be farther from the truth.  As long as you believe that smoking benefits you in some way, what's going to happen when a crisis comes your way?  I can tell you that I had believed that smoking relieved stress and when a crisis happened I smoked for a week.  It didn't relieve anything and all it did was ruin a 9 month quit.  There is nothing positive to be had from smoking.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVEyGdqwjmQ

 

I Smoke Because I Like Smoking

Video discusses how people who often say the smoke because they like smoking can come to realize that they really smoke because they don't like not smoking

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCkt_ajgTQE

[buMbLeB]

***TRIGGER WARNING***

If you're new in your quit, and/or you don't feel up to reading a rebuttal of what MQ wrote above, please just skip this post! I promise you're not really missing anything important - NOTHING I'm about to write excuses or justifies smoking. But I am going to question a few premises, and if you know in your heart that your lizard junkie is still looking for oxygen, don't give it any.
 

A little off topic, but I wanted to address this. 
 
It was an illusion that smoking ever helped us with anything.  There is not one positive thing that it ever did for us.

 
When I quit, I found WhyQuit indispensable to understanding my addiction, as did many of you. I was astonished that someone like Joel, who'd never smoked a day in his life, could have such insight. However, this is one of the very few areas where I disagree with him. Of course, taken as a whole I believe smoking is evil and stupid, or I wouldn't be here. And it may be useful psychology to adopt your viewpoint when quitting, at least for some people. But I never did, and I don't think it's true. Here's why:

For one thing, even medical science seems to agree there are some limited things smoking/ nicotine can help with - there's an established inverse correlation between smoking and developing Parkinson's disease (and, I believe, Alzheimer's); it sometimes alleviates the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome better than prescribed medication; schizophrenics smoke at much higher rates than the general population, and there is some evidence they are self-medicating some of their symptoms. And of course many of us recognize its ability to help prevent weight gain, and not just because we eat more when we quit - Joel himself talks about smoking influencing our blood sugar (and, I think, fat storage), and there is some evidence to show that it affects gut bacteria which in turn help regulate metabolism. Yes MQ, there are many fat smokers, but many or most people get fatter when they quit.
 

 

We didn't become nicotine addicts the first time we puffed on a cigarette.  We had to work at it.  There was nothing enjoyable about inhaling smoke into our young, pink lungs.  We coughed.  Out throats burned.  Some even got nauseous.  The list of bad side effects could go on and on but yet we puffed away until we got hooked and then rationalized smoking for years, decades even. 

 

Not me. I remember my very first cigarette, and I liked it. And the first time I properly inhaled, I liked it more. I don't remember coughing or turning blue - I recall my heart revving like a motor, but I liked that too, even though I could tell it wasn't good for me. And yes, looking back I believe I began to be addicted almost immediately - I can remember when I "only" smoked two cigarettes a day, in the evening, after a run, and wanting my run to be over so I could go home and smoke. There are now studies showing that young teenagers who smoke even ONE cigarette are much more likely to become addicted within the next year or so, and that some early brain rewiring happens almost immediately, but it's still a bit speculative. But anyway, it's not the case that I had to train myself to enjoy smoking, and "push through" the awful first smokes - I liked it right from the start.

So why did I write all of this - and how come I'm not still smoking, if I think it's so great?

Well, Joel has this one video that is my most favourite - MQ, you've linked to it several times - talking about "do I want just one cigarette", and he points out that of course you do! It's unreasonable to try to convince yourself that you don't want it, and as long as you continue debating yourself on that premise you'll never succeed. But that's not the right question - the right question is "do I want all the other cigarettes that will come with that one?". And no you don't.

I think this is like that. As long as we insist "cigarettes don't have one single positive aspect to them at all, no matter how small or trivial" then we are in a dangerous place, because all it takes is to find ONE positive thing to start questioning your reasoning and your commitment.

So how come I quit? Because these small positives, true though they may be, are absurdly miniscule next to the massive harm smoking causes, and was causing me. I've actually suffered from IBS, and Parkinsons runs in my immediate family, and I've struggled with my weight for most of my life - but none of those were actually the reason I smoked, and all of them put together were still not good enough reasons to justify the damage I was doing to myself. Hey, maybe it'll turn out that crystal meth enhances fast-twitch muscle fibers - I still won't smoke it.

Anyway, nothing changes in the end - we were all sad, desparate addicts diminishing and shortening our lives, and THAT is the ultimate reality of smoking for almost everyone who does it. I just wanted to get that off my chest.

 

 

[Ricki M]

Thank you all for your input and your take on things.  For me it was just something I thought would soothe whatever was going on in my life, it could be mental or physical it didn't matter...it was my drug of choice.  I'm enjoying my better breathe and nice smelling clothes for sure.  I think we all come to what works best for us.  since I was a smoker since my teens and have had success on and off over the years I had to have a nicotine replacement.  And I struggle with depression and other addictions as well.  So this works for me.  Just making this the last quit...I don't need to keep going through this anymore.  So glad you are all here, it helps so much to have a support system. 

Hugs, Ricki

[Still winning]

Hey Ricki, Pleased you recognise the thoughts as unhealthy. I too found the support network invaluable, so I totally get that message too. 

 

It's funny how we try and justify it isn't it? I mean it takes a long old while to re set all the triggers really. The fact that you saw it as a trigger, means you're on the ball and watching for the sneakiness of addiction. Really pleased to be walking this journey with you.

 

x

[cpk]

A little off topic, but I wanted to address this. 

 

It was an illusion that smoking ever helped us with anything.  There is not one positive thing that it ever did for us.  It can't relieve stress or relax us because nicotine raises our blood pressure, increases our heart rate and sends adrenaline coursing through our veins.  Stress relief?  Hardly.  We thought it relieved stress because once the nicotine wore off (~every 20-30 minutes) we went into mild physical withdrawal which is by nature "stressful".  So, we smoked to alleviate the stress of nicotine withdrawal and just assumed that it relieved all the other stresses in our lives, which it never did.  If there were one, just one positive thing that smoking provided it would be all over the packs.  You don't think that big tobacco wanted to prove that smoking relieved stress?  You bet they did but they couldn't and never will be able to.  Weight control?  There are tons of overweight smokers.  They were all rationalizations willingly accepted so we could feel better about smoking and the damage we knew it was causing.

 

We didn't become nicotine addicts the first time we puffed on a cigarette.  We had to work at it.  There was nothing enjoyable about inhaling smoke into our young, pink lungs.  We coughed.  Out throats burned.  Some even got nauseous.  The list of bad side effects could go on and on but yet we puffed away until we got hooked and then rationalized smoking for years, decades even.  I still maintain that we never enjoyed smoking in the first place.  Sure, there was the occasional cigarette that we enjoyed but most of them, we hated and only smoked to get rid of the withdrawal symptoms.

 

If anybody thinks that they somehow benefited from smoking, more time is needed to learn about this addiction and all that it entails.  If you still believe in the cigarette, you could feel like you're somehow missing out on something by quitting when that couldn't be farther from the truth.  As long as you believe that smoking benefits you in some way, what's going to happen when a crisis comes your way?  I can tell you that I had believed that smoking relieved stress and when a crisis happened I smoked for a week.  It didn't relieve anything and all it did was ruin a 9 month quit.  There is nothing positive to be had from smoking.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVEyGdqwjmQ

 

I Smoke Because I Like Smoking

Video discusses how people who often say the smoke because they like smoking can come to realize that they really smoke because they don't like not smoking

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCkt_ajgTQE

Then and now. Long time smoking wears you down. (Okay, so does short time smoking.) But there comes a time when relapse isn't an option because it's too painful. I know that some continue to smoke through the pain but I don't know how they do it. Before, during, and now into this quit I'm having issues with breathing, which is influencing my desire to exercise. I'm kind of glad that this quit has been hard, because all I can think of is increasing my lung capacity...and smoking would do the opposite. It still hard but now my lungs reign. How it was in the past for me is moot. I wish I had quit the final quit when I was younger, but what's done is done.

[Ricki M]

I think it's almost helpful in a weird way that having trouble breathing and with me it's mostly allergy/sinus stuff that cigarettes don't give you the satisfaction they once did.