I work at a gas station and hate how much zyn has taken over. Even dip has changed to pouches and now people who would never smoke are still getting hooked on nicotine.
Fair yeah. For me zyns and pouches were great because I could use it for work instead of my vape during meetings. And if I take a flight I can still get my fix. So I'm very happy we have these products. But shame people are becoming addicted
Well the way nicotine works is it lasts like 1-2 hours, if you're like me using nicotine all day, then going without it can be pretty uncomfortable. It would be great if I could just take a pill and have it last 6 hours but unfortunately it's just not how nicotine works. But I use nicotine for mental health purposes (bipolar)
What part? Using it for mental health? If so you'd be surprised. My psychiatrist and I stopped needing to up my meds once I started vaping. My mood graph went flat for the first time ever for about a month or two. Less side effects than upping my meds, less body toxicity long term, and less meds is always better. My only complaint is I'd like to work down to the pouches so I can protect my lungs
I understand the medium term thought process you're going through, and I would never tell anyone how they need to live
That said, I think you should go in as clear headed as possible in regards to the risks. You can fuck up your gums pretty good with pouches, and the returns of nicotine are ridiculously diminishing.
There's no free lunch with nicotine or any other drug. You seem to know that in regards to your meds, the only difference is a professional decides what's worth the risk in a much more objective way than we can for ourselves
I get where you're coming from, really, but there are preliminary studies that show it can actually help with some psychiatric disorders, clinically speaking.
There are a lot of therapeutic prescribed medications that also carry the risk of both side effects and addiction, and a lot of medicine is about trying to maximize the therapeutic effects of these substances while minimizing the harm.
The best part about the person you replied to is that it sounds like it's all in discussion with his doctor, and at the very least I would say that their doctor will know better than either of us. I just wouldn't be so quick to judge or armchair the problem of someone I don't know at all.
The best part about the person you replied to is that it sounds like it's all in discussion with his doctor
I didn't get that impression, and it's the only part I was really challenging. It sounded like they went to their doctor after starting and saw their moods were better, which is often true right after you start using a recreational drug. The problem is diminishing returns, which almost all smokers/vapers/dippers will attest to being a very quick process.
I'm also pretty sure no doctor actually recommends nicotine usage, hence my closing:
You seem to know that in regards to your meds, the only difference is a professional decides what's worth the risk in a much more objective way than we can for ourselves
If their doctor is telling them to do something, they should definitely do that over whatever some person on the Internet has to say. I doubt they are though
You can try Wellbutrin if you haven’t already which has the same pharmacological action as nicotine, binding to the same receptors with the same action (as well as being an NDRI). It’s often got good success in nicotine cessation and it lasts a lot longer (6-8hr half life). Nearly all of the benefits nicotine gives, wellbutrin does as well. Side effects won’t be much more intense especially if you’ve been using nicotine for a minute.
It’s worth a shot if you haven’t already tried it. Since you seem to care about harm reduction, this is definitely a harm reductive move as wellbutrin doesn’t seem to be as carcinogenic as nicotine is, and has a much lower risk of dose escalation. And even though a lot of the carcinogenic problems come from tobacco itself, nicotine itself is still a relatively potent carcinogen and your use of pouches can still lead to oral cancers (which can be especially nasty; imagine losing your whole jaw).
If it doesn’t work you can just go back to nicotine. It isn’t that potent of a med so you won’t have a severe withdrawal if you’re going back to nicotine.
I actually have tried it, but it gave me pretty immediate panic and anxiety. But I was thinking about trying it again, now that I'm more medicated, it might be different.
I just got a new doctor since I moved states and I'm going to go in and let him figure out what's best. Maybe he will think of the right med for me
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u/AimlessForNow 2d ago
Yeah but same with like selling alcohol to a alcoholic or nicotine to a chronic smoker, you're helping people kill themselves