Changed name, still worried

[Spear7]

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

I havent digested it all-but wanted to say thanks for taking the time

[Frosted]

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.

Now that's weird.
The only thing I can relate that to is when I first started snus. It took a week to get used to snus - initially I found the standard 8mg very very strong, so it would make me feel a bit dizzy and sometimes a bit sick, so I'd just take it out and feel as right as rain in about 5 minutes. A few weeks later I was on the extra sterks to keep the cravings at bay.
Apart from that I haven't got a clue.

[Mr. Snuffleupagus]

Tons of great advise has been given so far. Great job everyone! Here's my take for reinforcement I guess.

The nicotine delivery from snus is totally different than from ciggs. You've seen the graphs. You need more experience with snus before your brain will trust that it works. Keep smoking as much as you want but keep using different strength snus until you get more of a feel for the effects. You can use mini's only if you want, but even then your brand spanking new tolerance to snus will change. Experiment more with snus overtime and you'll have a better idea of what works for you.

No worries for you because you can still smoke all you want. Just keep snusing and your brain and body will get more comfortable and you won't be so stressed out about it. Don't put any time line on switching and take it easy.

You are in great hands here on this forum so just enjoy yourself and it will work out I promise.

[sgreger1]

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..

Well i think its about due time for a full thread derailment. I read in the news like 3 days ago that scientists did tests on ozzy osbournes dna and came to the conclusion that he had a mutation that allowed him to do crazy amount of drugs and not get harmed in the way regular people would?


He once tripped on acid every day for 2 years, while doing blow, drinking, and smoking. How that does not kill a man i will never know.

[sgreger1]

Now that's weird.
The only thing I can relate that to is when I first started snus. It took a week to get used to snus - initially I found the standard 8mg very very strong, so it would make me feel a bit dizzy and sometimes a bit sick, so I'd just take it out and feel as right as rain in about 5 minutes. A few weeks later I was on the extra sterks to keep the cravings at bay.
Apart from that I haven't got a clue.

Yah same here. At first general orriginal had me spinning. Within days i was on to sterks, never turned back. Not sure whats going on here.

[jagmanss]

Well i think its about due time for a full thread derailment. I read in the news like 3 days ago that scientists did tests on ozzy osbournes dna and came to the conclusion that he had a mutation that allowed him to do crazy amount of drugs and not get harmed in the way regular people would?


He once tripped on acid every day for 2 years, while doing blow, drinking, and smoking. How that does not kill a man i will never know.

Well!! He didn't walk away untouched.. Have you heard the man talk lately, I mean How many words can you understand out of what he says in an interview never mind a sentence.. IDK, I'm like what the hell did he just say... But that could just be from my one time trying acid back in the 70's but would have thought that would help me understand him..lol

[rasputin]

Maybe you can use a electronic cig instead of smoking, then you will feel much better.

[precious007]

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..

No shit.

He's been doing all drugs...

I mean look at him ... looks like a walking mummy and he's shaking so hard ... probably he's the only one that knows how many pills he's taking daily ...

[piks101]

Hey all- i had to change my username for privacy reasons (please dont post the old one, as it would result in another problem, i would post it too but that would defeat the purpose!)

Im pretty concerned:

I have been using snus almost everyday (aside from weekends) for about two weekends. I still have 1-2 cigs a day. This is very concerning:

I dont feel like myself until ive smoked a cig, no matter how many times ive snus'd (been using an original white)

I use high level math at work, and my memory/ concentration is even worse after snusing that it would be had I just smoked half of a cig. or no cigs at all!

I dont feel withdrawl symptoms like anger, anxiety, sweat, but i dont feel good after putting in a snus. I dont feel like i can work. I feel tired, sleepy, no memory/concentration, and very introverted (relative to normal, which is not introverted)

im sure theres something going on here, i dont know what it is, but i am very discouraged!!

Just so everyone is familiar with my situation, i started smoking in college, just graduated a few months ago, (so its been roughly 4 years) and on average used 4 cigs a day. (Not a big deal, but i would like to cut it out and just concentrate on work)

Oh, and i think i may be slightly add (never noticed when smoking though....................???)

Some of the minis hit even harder than 8mg. I would stay from those and go with a standard mini. I would also recommend considering learning to meditate, as well as start exercising and getting plenty of sleep each night as you seem to have a heavy stress load.

[allenp]

I recently quit smoking with the help of snus. Like everyone else said, don't stress it. If you need a smoke, have one. But remember, even with the nicotine crossover from cigs to snus, it is the habit of putting something up to their mouth back and forth (like a cig) that tends to stick with them. It will take some time, but eventually, when you want nicotine, the habit of putting a cig will slowly turn into a habit of grabbing a snus to put in your mouth. Personally, my biggest problem was not the nicotine crossover, but more that I wanted that cancer stick in my mouth. Luckily, because it's getting cold out, my body is thanking me for not going outside in freezing temperatures for a cig. just weigh all the negatives of smoking (not even healthwise, but more lifestyle wise), and soon you'll realize how much easier it is to pop a snus and feel the same way as a ciggy, your body will also get used to the constant nicotine levels instead of the up and down feeling of nicotine you get with cigs. good luck and take your time!