Quit smoking with antidepressants?
Hello,
I am on medication with 20 mg of escitalopram per day.
I smoke about 20 cigarettes a day and want to try to quit. Should I discuss this with my psychiatrist?
He himself never mentioned that smoking had anything to do with my medication, but I read yesterday that there might be a connection?
Best regards and thanks in advance 🙂
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Hello Lisa,
No problem…
NO , this does not need to be discussed with a psychiatrist if… (see below)
YES, there is a connection.
Your psychiatrist didn't mention it because it probably wasn't an issue.
One of the properties of nicotine is that it has a positive effect on depression .
If you stop taking nicotine, it could mean that you might need to increase your antidepressant dosage. Note the subjunctive. However, you can also quit smoking without giving up nicotine. The harmful thing about smoking isn't the nicotine itself. It's the smoke, with its many toxic substances produced by combustion.
So if you continue consuming nicotine, you don't need to discuss it with your psychiatrist. I would still tell him about quitting.
Voilà… the positive properties of nicotine:
You want to finally quit smoking, away from extremely harmful cigarettes…?
E-cigarettes have existed for this reason for about 20 years.
They were invented as a comparatively harmless option for smokers.
Switching will help you quit smoking, which is extremely harmful. Switching is relatively easy, provided you meet two requirements : 1. You have the willpower, and 2. You use an e-cigarette with nicotine in the liquid. If the nicotine concentration in the liquid is adjusted to the device you choose and the amount of nicotine inhaled is high enough, then, and only then, all withdrawal symptoms will disappear.
With e-cigarettes, you first swap cigarettes for e-cigarettes. It keeps your hands busy, and even though you continue to consume nicotine, the addiction gradually diminishes. This is what makes e-cigarettes so successful. E-cigarettes are also by far the most successful in terms of relapse rates. That's why the pharmaceutical lobby fights them wherever possible.
E-cigarettes are comparatively harmless (harmfulness reduced by at least 95% compared to cigarettes, according to the evaluation of many studies by the UK Ministry of Health ). E-cigarettes are not smoked, but vaped. The harmful thing about smoking is the thousands of substances that are created through combustion and inhaled. With e-cigarettes, there is no combustion. Only one liquid is heated and temporarily vaporized. The liquid contains only three ingredients. Two of these are officially harmless food additives, plus food flavorings and optionally nicotine. That's it… nothing more is included. Even nicotine sprays contain more ingredients.
What happens after switching…? Despite continued use of nicotine, your tobacco dependence, which you developed through smoking, will gradually diminish.
Paradox…? No, because natural nicotine is not addictive.
What is often referred to as nicotine addiction is actually tobacco addiction.
Finally , you should remember that every new cigarette takes you back to the beginning of withdrawal.
After your last cigarette, your general health will gradually improve. Smoker's cough will disappear after 7-10 days. After a few months, your senses of taste and smell will recover. Your stamina and general fitness will also be restored, despite continued nicotine consumption. Nicotine would actually be helpful in this process, as long as it isn't consumed through tobacco.
Don't be afraid of nicotine! Nicotine is actually a harmless substance, with significantly more positive than negative effects. Too much nicotine might give you a headache or make you nauseous, but that's it. Then reduce the amount of nicotine a little, and everything will be fine. There won't be any serious consequences.
Any layperson can judge for themselves how “dangerous” nicotine is; it's available in pharmacies without a prescription and without age restrictions—that is, from age 12. This would be the alternative to e-cigarettes, NET products. They are very expensive and demonstrably not as effective.
If you want to try it, please don't use disposable e-cigarettes. They don't have the required power and are extremely harmful to our environment. Not to mention that they're comparatively very expensive.
All the best to you… and stay healthy.
Greetings, RayAnderson 😉
If you can do it, it's okay.
I, however, couldn't stop in such a situation.
I have a chronic depression that's why I take it. The medication is probably not cancelled, but I'm fine
You don't have to talk to your therapist.
Either you want to stop smoking or not.
If so: just do it!
Smoking makes mentally dependent but has nothing to do with taking antidepressants