Polytobacco Abuser Asking For Advice

[horus]

Eh to make a long story short I started smoking cigarettes again due to extreme stress, and my doctor actually told me that I SHOULDN'T quit right now. I took this as a license to consume absurd quantities of tobacco. I have a cigarette. Then I sniff some Bureaux right after (yummy!) Then maybe some Dholakia White to wake me up. Then I throw in like a quarter of a tin of copenhagen snuff. Spit that out after 20 minutes, time for another cigarette! And then it's time for some F&T's High Dry Toast (divine!) And on and on it goes. I tried to just quit the cigarettes and cut back on the Copenhagen but I started experiencing severe panic attacks, and all I'd done was gone down on the cigarettes from 20+ a day to 10.

I worry it will be very difficult to switch to just one or two forms. What I really want to get rid of are the damn cigarettes.

Nasal snuff just isn't strong enough for me to make it my primary source of nicotine. I COULD do it but I feel I'd end up having to blow lines of it or something.

Copenhagen snuff is definitely strong enough, I think tomorrow I'm going to try to have a day with no cigarettes and only Copenhagen as needed and nasal snuff ad libitum and see how it goes.

The only reason I want to stop smoking cigarettes is that smoking so damn much has given me a bad smoker's cough, dry and raspy, and a sore throat. Reduced lung capacity too. I know all this will clear if I just don't smoke cigarettes for a couple of weeks.

I think if I can hold off on cigarettes with Cope without freaking out, I'll try ordering some snus for the first time in a while. I'm gonna be hillbillying big pinches though because that's what I do with Cope, and I'll probably be lower lipping it because having a bulge up under the top lip looks weird while having a bulge in the bottom is normal (yay for the south!). Some roda lacket and grovsnus would serve me just fine.

I dunno I'm a bit of a hypochondriac and I'm probably overthinking. Has anyone else found themselves in the place of having a rather out of control addiction to nicotine, and how did you get through it?

[GoVegan]

Hey.... You aren't that snus guy on 60 Minutes a while back, are you?

[Premium Parrots]

Welcome back Horus. Get some Extreme snus. There are several flavors [with more on the way]. If 22mg of nic in a fine quality tobacco doesn't help you quit send me your address and I'll send you a razor blade to help you end your troubles. Get it in los or portions. Good luck mate.

[horus]

Hey.... You aren't that snus guy on 60 Minutes a while back, are you?

HAHA no, that's not me, though I'm about as eccentric as he seemed.

I'm gonna really try no cigarettes tomorrow and see how it goes, plus with dip if you don't leave one in all the time (when you're this hooked, I just got out of a psych ward where tobacco was banned), if you don't leave one in all the time you get this cycle of building-up tension and then a great sense of relief.

I have a crazy heart fixation and ironically I think nicotine withdrawal causes more palpitations and a sensation of a fast-moving heart than the nicotine itself does!

[GoVegan]

I like PP's suggestion about getting some Extreme. It has a ton of nicotine in it but it is also manageable and releases slowly.

[horus]

Yeah I do think I will, that's one extra sterk I have not tried.

It's nuts, my brain is just very sensitive to substances right now, I can't even drink beer anymore. So tiny fluctuations in nicotine plasma concentration seem able to really throw me out of whack. It's definitely partly psychological/oral fixation stuff too. But I'll use any form of snuff, including American moist snuff, over cigarettes, they are the worst. The congestion they cause is triggering anxiety attacks all on its own.

I like how I can a pinch of snuff/snus into my lip and it's this relaxing, more sedating feeling that takes a while to kick in all the way but leaves you feeling very satisfied when it does. Cigarettes are the mainlining of the tobacco world, they leave me feeling gross and sick.

In the meantime while I wait for my order, I really do love Copenhagen FC, tobacco-specific nitrosamides notwithstanding, and the bodega always has very fresh tins (I could hardly find it at all, let alone find it fresh, when I lived north of the Mason-Dixon line, except at truck stops). I have heard somewhere or other that it was Swedish immigrants who taught Americans the practice of adding so much water to snuffs that intrabuccal use is the only real way to take them. Though I do remember a Myth-Busters episode where one of the guys sniffs a big pinch of Copenhagen, it was pretty funny.

It's interesting, Copenhagen is about as coarse as Gawith's Kendal Brown, just a little moister and probably more basic (Copenhagen and snuses taste salty because of added sodium carbonate, whereas someone here reasonably suggested that most of the burn from nasal snuff is due to grind, not pH). I'm tempted to dip my Kendal Brown as an experiment but I don't want to waste it it's pretty good in the nose.

[Mr. Snuffleupagus]

I got really bad panic attacks when I quit smoking too. I initially switched from cigs to ecigs and it worked pretty well even though I wasn't really trying and didn't think I had a chance in hell. It worked for a few months and bam massive panic attacks. I got into snus and researched a lot about anxiety and panic attacks. I still get them driving sometimes over bridges or next to cliffs with no railings. I just snus all the time and use stronger snus at night. I feel better than I ever did smoking and have gotten into great shape and better nutrition. I don't think the nicotine is good for my anxiety but without it I WOULD FREAK OUT PROBABLY! So good luck and get off the smoking if you can. It wasn't really hard for me to narrow down to one or two forms of nicotine intake. I got into cigars, pipes, nasal snuff, etc., but the snus is my favorite. Smoking makes my throat and mouth hurt and nasal snuff is great but I can't seem to find a lot of times I need it because I'm always dosed on snus.

[GoVegan]

I have never tried it but I am thinking that makla ifrikia might also be right for you. The nice thing about los is that you can always taper down when you are ready.

[wa3zrm]

Good Lord! If I used a quarter of the stuff you are taking I'd be dead before the day was over!

[horus]

Man mental health issues suck. This is why schizophrenics end up smoking so much (I'm not schizophrenic but I did experience a psychosis). You get put on meds that make it feel like your skeleton is gonna jump out of your skin ("akathisia" they call it). This akathisia is poorly understood and the only drug that really cures it is beta blockers and benzodiazepines, neither of which I'm interested in taking. You start smoking again to deal with that. The next thing you know you're locked in a vicious cycle of rising nicotine tolerance and rising consumption of cigarettes, which, if you're someone who somewhat cares about his health like me, leads to anxiety simply because of the chest congestion.

Cigarettes have MAOIs, a quick hit of MAOIs. I think I can cut back but not quit entirely. It makes me feel very weak to be THIS addicted to something I used to have fairly under control. But if it was under control in the past, it will be under control again. The cigarette made me feel a little tired. A little gross too. But I think if I didn't go out and have that cigarette the anxiety just would have gotten out of control!

The nasal snuff is more like aromatherapy than a real source of nicotine. Something french and musky really hits the spot when you're freaking out for some reason that you can't figure out.

[Ansel]

MY advice is to get some Skruf Stark... there's something about the PH of it or something that works. Try it. Because i was a polytobacco user like you. Good luck.

[Mdisch]

I'm thankfully not nearly as addicted as you it would seem - but if I don't have snus for 24 hours I do get some pretty bad withdrawal. I don't get complete panic attacks, but my heart-rate skyrockets and I get really infuriated.
Or that's at least how it used to be, but since I started cutting down a bit it's become a lot better. And I'd take it over my old cigarette consumption any day(even though I still end up having one, once in a while).

[horus]

Yeah I think I was having an anxiety attack last night for a number of reasons, lack of cigarettes was part of it. I feel much more chill now that I got a decent night's rest.

[whalen]

Do you know a guy that goes by the name of "Precious"?

[horus]

I do not, no. I've spent a lot of time in Buffalo and a lot in Charlottesville VA. Currently in the latter haha.

Gah! I would love some Roda Lacket or Ettan. I'm not even super into the super strong snuses, I prefer to just use large amounts of ordinary snus. But I cannot order these days because I only just recently graduated from college and my age isn't easily verified. I'm 20 dammit!

I'll order it from snuson.com if there's anyway I could verify my age.

Ah I see they don't even sell to Americans here. Is snusdirect safe? Something about it sketches me out and makes me not want to hand over my credit card info.