Changed name, still worried

[Frosted]

Yeah - even smoking 5 cigarettes a day, depending how long you've been smoking - you're addicted.
If you have standard strength snus it'll blow your nuts off and you'll just feel monged out.

You need mini snus.

[Bigblue1]

Normally i would wake up, and within 7 hours at most i would have 2 cigarettes. 2 portions of 8mg pouches arent enough to curb that? its not even the curbing...with nic gum or something it takes the edge off but i still feel like a functioning person, with snus ive just felt stoned and quiet.

That's because you are, your body is not use to that much nicotine, so you get a buzz whereas us who smoked 1-3 packs a day have a major tolerance. You should just quit it all or keep smoking or get some reg strength minis that should work.....

[LincolnSnuff]

I agree that you are probably getting too much nicotine. Your level of addiction (and brain chemistry) is more geared toward getting a quick intake of a small amount of nicotine through smoking an ultra-light cigarette. Snus works the opposite way of cigarettes, a large amount of nicotine released over a long period of time. Being a light smoker, you aren't ready for this.

I would suggest you try nasal snuff. It delivers nicotine in a very rapid way, like cigs, but you can control it much better. Start with 1 pinch, need more, take more snuff. Toque has a good 10 can sampler pack at www.toquesnuff.com

[Bigblue1]

I agree that you are probably getting too much nicotine. Your level of addiction (and brain chemistry) is more geared toward getting a quick intake of a small amount of nicotine through smoking an ultra-light cigarette. Snus works the opposite way of cigarettes, a large amount of nicotine released over a long period of time. Being a light smoker, you aren't ready for this.

I would suggest you try nasal snuff. It delivers nicotine in a very rapid way, like cigs, but you can control it much better. Start with 1 pinch, need more, take more snuff. Toque has a good 10 can sampler pack at www.toquesnuff.com

Didn't even think about that, but snuff would be an excellent alternative to his particular nicotine addiction profile.....

[lxskllr]

I second the snuff idea. Minis are also good, but still too much nicotine imo.

[sgreger1]

Yeah, I'm with Blue on this one. You're getting too much nicotine from snus.

If you're only smoking 5 a day, then just stop.

The concentration problems are most likely all in your head, because at only 5 cigs a day, I'd say you aren't even addicted.

Oh wow, I thought he was a heavy smoker or something which is why he was having such crazy withdrawls, so recommended taking some thunder frosted.

OP: DO NOT take thunder frosted if you were only smoking like 4 cigs a day. It's all in your head, and you'r just not used to snus. When I first used snus it gave me that buzed/dizzy/drunk feeling but that goes away with time. Stick with a low nicotene one and only keep it in for a few minutes untill your not craving anymore.

Also, like MyUserID said, if your smoking that few a day you should be able to just quit without much difficulty, this is all in your head.

[Spear7]

I know theres benefits to tobacco- cigarettes included. Am i smoking to little to actually recieve them? The reason im asking is cause without them, (besides being literally depressed) my focus, concentration, etc. which is required to be on high alert, goes to shit. Cant even remember a phone number, what i was thinking 5 minutes ago, its terrible. Can that-will that-when will it go back to normal...

Thanks to everyone for giving me their time agian

[f. bandersnatch]

the nicotine from cigarettes only stays in the system for like 20 minutes, so if you are experiencing withdrawal from cutting down that is different from going several hours without a smoke it is probably a machination of an exacerbated and over-worked cranial tumor, also know as your brain. Get rid of that, and kicking the nic will be a breeze.

I am trying to say that you are thinking about the whole situation too much. Get out of your head a little bit and just do what feels right. If snus doesn't help, don't snus.

[justintempler]

Spear7,

In my opinion, you were a light smoker 5 cigs a day, if you are having problems with depression and concentration then the source of your problems has nothing to do with the ammount of snus (or cigarettes). You've got something else going on in your life that you aren't dealing with and you're using tobacco as your scapegoat.

[Frosted]

If you're giving up totally, even from just 5 cigarettes a day you'll still get withdrawal which will last from 3-5 days (everybody's different) and you'll feel totally messed up. If you manage to get through those days, one day you'll wake up and feel just fine.

If you're simply increasing or decreasing your nicotine there's really not too much of an issue and it wouldn't cause these problems so in that case there's other issues apart from nicotine.

The only time where it would cause a problem is if you've gone for a couple of days with no nicotine so you're actually in the middle of full blown withdrawal - if you go back to nicotine again it'll still take you a day or two to feel right.

Snusdog is right - don't think about life too much or that'll mess you up more than nicotine withdrawal. I try and ignore it.

[jagmanss]

I second the snuff idea. Minis are also good, but still too much nicotine imo.

I third the snuff Idea and was going to suggest it in my next post, But had to run and eat dinner... Then all this talk about smoking made me want to smoke.. So I snuffed instead and felt better..

[jagmanss]

I know theres benefits to tobacco- cigarettes included. Am i smoking to little to actually recieve them? The reason im asking is cause without them, (besides being literally depressed) my focus, concentration, etc. which is required to be on high alert, goes to shit. Cant even remember a phone number, what i was thinking 5 minutes ago, its terrible. Can that-will that-when will it go back to normal...

Thanks to everyone for giving me their time agian

Here is food for thought... Ozzy Osbourne was addicted to just about every drug and came off of them.. He stated that the hardest drug to come off of were the cigarettes and nicotine.. He battled it longer than any other.. Now this is comming from a long time hard core drug user

Fact: Nicotine is the most Highly addictive drug on the planet...

But fortunately it is also the easiest to come off of as you only have Physical withdrawal's which will last from 3-5 days then the rest is the physiological aspect.. If you have an obsessive nature profile and keep thinking about it and put too much thought into it it becomes more difficult... you can get back to normal with only 4 yrs of smoking, I on the other hand don't know what normal is after 38 yrs of chain smoking and smoking since i was 13.. For me, having nicotine in me.. is normal... But I am also obsessive by nature and have always had an obsessive personality.. So I've been told..

[squeezyjohn]

Spear7, what everyone says about the snus making you feel stoned is true - you are getting much more nicotine than your body is used to and that makes you feel drowsy, sick to the stomach, lacking in concentration. Some of that you are associating with trying not to smoke because some of the side-effects of stopping smoking are similar to nicotine overdose.

What you need to do if you want to stop smoking with snus is to have a crossover period - so don't feel bad about still smoking a bit - let yourself do both without worrying. But please use a low level snus - regular or maybe mini portions only, but do it regularly to keep you topped up - you don't want to take your nicotine habit to a higher level than you need with sterks. Anyway - like me, you will find that over a period of time doing this that the cigarettes no longer satisfy the cravings because they don't have enough nicotine to cause that spike in bloodstream levels. For the first few weeks you'll still light up out of habit, but essentially you're training yourself to not need to and within a short time your body will realise that the cigarettes are doing nothing for you and the cravings will fade in to the background - replaced by the need for snus in it's more steady reliable form. And once you are on snus exclusively you can cut back slowly by going for lower and lower nicotine brands, but keeping the frequency of putting them in stable - or like me you can just carry on snusing which is fun and far less harmful than smoking.

So the order of things is:

1. Snus and smoke - but keep the snus at a fairly low nicotine level by using regular portions / general silver / regular minis (whatever is the lowest you think you can get away with)
2. Try to make your first cigarette of the day later and later until it is at night.
3. Wait until your body realises that the cigarettes are no longer having the effect they used to.
4. Make a decision a few weeks after step 3 to just give up cigarettes (by this time it will seem much easier than it does now) and try hard.
5. Don't stress about social smoking or that one-off drunken smoke (smoking when drunk somehow is much more satisfying than not - don't know the body chemistry of that one!) - if you keep your snusing up - you won't want that first one the next day like before.
6. Ramp down your snus nicotine levels by brand - not by frequency of use. But only if you want to - Or carry on snusing like most of us here who accept the greatly reduced risks involved.

I promise that if you try and stick to the points above - you will have more success than the approach of just trying to replace cigarettes with snus - they are not the same thing!

Cheers

Squeezy

[jagmanss]

Squeezy... Very good advise and well put and so spot on...

[Spear7]

There is a ton of great advice here- im sure a lot will benefit from it.

Im gonna need a few minutes to tread through all of it!

So i read a post that suggested that i have something else going on in my life, etc, here is the thing:


I dont want to rely on tobb. With anything else, i want to ween off it, drop it completely, replace the cigs with something i could do indoors, IF it would increase work efficiency-

I really normally have a pre-work, mid day, and post work, followed by a bedtime one. Thats it. Even when drinking, ive trained myself the past few months, only one during the pre game, and then as long as it isnt a long night-thats it.

So i wanted to replace the pre and mid day one with a couple snus. It was unbearable. I was depressed, feeling shitty, dizzy, and normal math problems that i could breeze through--I mean it felt like niccotine withdrawl, a severe one. I dont know how else to explain it. I snussed (assuming i wasnt geting enough from it) but once i lit up, it took 10 minutes-its like someone cleared the fog from in front of my eyes. Lifted the curtain. Finally woke up from being drunk nd dizzy. I dont think im using it as a scapegoat. Ill be 100% content if i could smoke 4 or possibly 5 a day, and never HAVE to increase my dosage to feel "normal".

Snus originally was meant to eliminate the need to go out during the day. I researched about it for hours and hours. It turned me on to the idea of using it to quit. Ive been trying, but struggling. Cant function without at least 1 cig. Even 1 starts me off in a better motion, but i dont want another crutch!

feeling normal-its what its all about isnt it?