Cigarette smoking and Bi Polar Disorder

[Ele'ill]

Nevermind the nevermind-

I recently quit smoking and am having problems with mood swings. I've never been formally diagnosed with bi polar disorder but I don't think it's one of those things you necessarily need to have formally diagnosed. I remember several doctors explaining to a relative when I was younger that I had problems akin to it but I don't think they were specific. So I've tried to quit several times before and this has happened just not as bad as it is right now and btw I'm not talking about nicotine cravings that are causing irritability. I broke the dashboard of my car (badly) and had to take an extended lunch until my hand stopped bleeding. I'm worried that this is going to cause issues at work. I've always lived with this but I've been smoking since I was 13. Is it possible the nicotine stops the worst of it? That can't be possible. I don't have money or insurance for doctors and meds and I'm not sure I'd want to go on medication anyways.

[Rusty Shackleford]

how recently?

[Ele'ill]

I quit on the 4th or 5th of this month- I know it's a week. This happened last time an got worse until I started smoking again.

[Rusty Shackleford]

how long was your last time. apparently it takes about 2 weeks to a month to get it out of your system.

[Decolonize The Left]

Nevermind the nevermind-

I recently quit smoking and am having problems with mood swings. I've never been formally diagnosed with bi polar disorder but I don't think it's one of those things you necessarily need to have formally diagnosed. I remember several doctors explaining to a relative when I was younger that I had problems akin to it but I don't think they were specific. So I've tried to quit several times before and this has happened just not as bad as it is right now and btw I'm not talking about nicotine cravings that are causing irritability. I broke the dashboard of my car (badly) and had to take an extended lunch until my hand stopped bleeding. I'm worried that this is going to cause issues at work. I've always lived with this but I've been smoking since I was 13. Is it possible the nicotine stops the worst of it? That can't be possible. I don't have money or insurance for doctors and meds and I'm not sure I'd want to go on medication anyways.

It is biologically true that nicotine relieves stress and anxiety in the moment it is consumed. It does help you relax while you're smoking and for a bit afterwards, but the effects rapidly decrease in effectiveness as time goes on.

Now when you quit smoking (I haven't smoked in 6 months) you are going to go through chemical withdrawal for approximately a week (give or take a couple days depending upon your body's physiology). After this week, everything is psychological in terms of withdrawal. It is a matter of habit and the psychological to engage in the act of smoking, not to consume the nicotine itself.

In regards to the effects of quiting smoking on a possible bi polar disorder, I have no idea. I can only suggest that you pick up a regiment of physical exercise ASAP and stick to it. Physical exercise will not only help the addiction to cigarettes, it will also help the mood swings and your body as a whole.

- August

[Die Rote Fahne]

It is biologically true that nicotine relieves stress and anxiety in the moment it is consumed. It does help you relax while you're smoking and for a bit afterwards, but the effects rapidly decrease in effectiveness as time goes on.

Now when you quit smoking (I haven't smoked in 6 months) you are going to go through chemical withdrawal for approximately a week (give or take a couple days depending upon your body's physiology). After this week, everything is psychological in terms of withdrawal. It is a matter of habit and the psychological to engage in the act of smoking, not to consume the nicotine itself.

In regards to the effects of quiting smoking on a possible bi polar disorder, I have no idea. I can only suggest that you pick up a regiment of physical exercise ASAP and stick to it. Physical exercise will not only help the addiction to cigarettes, it will also help the mood swings and your body as a whole.

- August

There is no scientific evidence that nicotine relieves stress. Only those who smoke may feel a decrease in stress as their nicotine craving is dealt with before it can peak.

Basically, stress relief, relaxation, etc. associated with smoking is a result of the appeasing the addiction.

Now, if you are upset and take a smoke and go outside for 5 minutes, doesn't that mean anything?

No. The time, relocation, and thinking is what calms you down, not the cigarette.

[Decolonize The Left]

There is no scientific evidence that nicotine relieves stress. Only those who smoke may feel a decrease in stress as their nicotine craving is dealt with before it can peak.

Basically, stress relief, relaxation, etc. associated with smoking is a result of the appeasing the addiction.

Now, if you are upset and take a smoke and go outside for 5 minutes, doesn't that mean anything?

No. The time, relocation, and thinking is what calms you down, not the cigarette.

This could be very true. Having not smoked for a while now I definitely don't feel any more stressed. I guess it's just that when you are a smoker it really feels like it relieves stress.

- August

[Fawkes]

I'm bipolar and in spite of psychiatrists' emphasis on chemicals and neurology, environmental factors do have a major impact on mood swings, at least for me. Quitting smoking is a psychologically stressful thing to do and I could easily see it causing major mood swings. I don't believe there's anything in cigarettes that actually helps in mood stabilization physiologically speaking, so I think that with time the mood swings will probably subside as you become accustomed to not smoking anymore. Like August said, the process will be greatly expedited if you pick up some activity, particularly a physical one, to replace the calming and stabilizing role smoking once played.

[ellipsis]

Solidarity.

[Ele'ill]

My job is physical- warehouse/quota based. I may start lifting again if I can find a gym. For now it's calisthenics. Last time I quit it just got really bad over the period of about a year. We'll see and thanks for the replies.

[Robespierre Richard]

Yeah, I smoke to relieve stress, only like one or two in a day and not every day of the week. The main reason I do it though is to get out of the house, or because my commute is boring. If you get really irritated for no reason it could be bipolar, but that's probably not enough to make a diagnosis. To be honest at this point there is nothing you can do, except build up a "case file" of what you're going to tell a doctor you're experiencing. I messed up on that part and have been taking anti-depressants for a few weeks now because "maybe it will work" they said.

Oh and if it's really bipolar, I would recommend thinking about how you feel at any given time and put delusional thinking in perspective. I've lost three jobs now because of these problems. Basically if your emotions are not correspondent to things happening around you, things can go downhill very fast.

I can't really talk about being on mood stabilizer meds yet as I am looking for a doctor who will listen to what I say instead of seriously not caring. As far as I understand it's another year (at least) of the same instability, slowly being taken away.

That or it's just really bad withdrawal stress. Though one of my worse episodes started after I quit drinking, which I started to deal with the previous episode.

[MarxSchmarx]

You should get treated for your bi-polar disorder and if quitting smoking is adversely interacting with that I really think at least speaking to someone who knows a bit more about that would help a lot.

I assume you are in the US - in most communities there are clinics with therapists and MDs that charge a sliding scale based on ability to pay, run by non-profits, at least within a half day's drive. They can also tell you about where to get generic drugs for prescriptions at somewhat affordable prices (< 100 USD) in the area, so it sounds like it would be worth a visit.

[praxis1966]

I assume you are in the US - in most communities there are clinics with therapists and MDs that charge a sliding scale based on ability to pay, run by non-profits, at least within a half day's drive. They can also tell you about where to get generic drugs for prescriptions at somewhat affordable prices (< 100 USD) in the area, so it sounds like it would be worth a visit.

^This one. I could talk to my social worker/family advocate partner and see if she'll take the case. She's in a more clinical/therapeutic work environment now, but at her last agency practically half her job was finding resources for her clients. She's aces at this sort of thing... PM me your city and state if you're interested.

[Fawkes]

Related to what M-L Jihad said, I think it would be good for you to keep a daily, dated journal over the course of a few weeks or months writing exactly what you feel and what your moods have been as they are happening. Our visions tends to get clouded in hindsight, it's best to record these things as they are going on so as to get a more accurate record. Also, for what it's worth and even though it's probably too late for this, something that could be a good idea is while you are in the process of recording these things, don't read too much into different mental disorders, because I've noticed people (both patients and doctors) tend to have a strong inclination toward immediately aligning themselves with some specific established and defined mental disorder based off a few symptoms. It's unsurprising, people like to definitively label things so as to make an understanding of them easier, but misdiagnosis can end up hurting you in the long run through improper treatments and a sort of positive feedback effect (thinking you're going to go into a depression based off of not having done so recently can actually help in making you go into a depression). I remember one psychiatrist my friend goes to explained to him that he views each person as being a unique individual with their own specific mental issues that may or may not be easily categorized, and that drugs shouldn't be thought of specifically as "anti-depressants" or "mood stabilizers", but rather as things that can be used to make your brain operate in a manner that is more desirable, like ingredients to a recipe.

[Ele'ill]

Thanks for the replies everyone. They've all been helpful.

[pastradamus]

I've been off cigs since January the 15th. Before then I was a 20-a-day man, maybe 40-60 if I had alcohol in me. I just got pissed off that I was being caught for breath everytime I boxed or played football and so I decided to quit then and there. It also helped that I was off work for a time as I tended to smoke heavier in work.

Unfortunetly I live with smokers, which didnt help my craving, but I would not begrudge them the right to smoke so seeing them smoke drove me a little crazy. To make matters worse my closest friends and family smoke so there was hardly a place I could go to avoid it, I just had to live with it really. However, im glad to say im over it now at this stage and more importantly my lung capacity has made a dramatic improvement - so much so I recently ran a marathon.

Well done for staying off the cigs for this long. A month is the milestone, when you get that out of the way your cravings seem to vanish. At that point,if your suspected bipolar symptoms act up you should see a doctor.

But just to get two things out of the way:

1) SMOKING A CIGARETTE DOES NOT RELAX YOU.
This is a big myth. Smoking increases your blood pressure and so CANNOT relax you.

2)KEEP YOURSELF OCCUPIED. Keep doing something all the time. That is how you beat cigarettes. Static aint good. Keep excercising, keep working, keep watching movies, keep distracting yourself from it and its easy.