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A dear friend of mine quit smoking, cold-turkey, and she went completely berserk for 3 months, with dangerous mood swings and outbursts of violence. She had pre

A dear friend of mine quit smoking, cold-turkey, and she went completely berserk for 3 months, with dangerous mood swings and outbursts of violence. She had previously suffered a mild depression, which now emerged as some kind of dark nightmare of rage and guilt and hatred and also self-hatred. This is what struck me: of all the SSRIs she'd had ever tried, none had ever worked as well as tobacco. Tobacco moderated her depression and mood swings more effectively than any modern drug that her doctors had prescribed for her. So I when I read this passage, what strikes me is how much truth there is still in this, even in the year 2016: "its virtues rarely get a hearing, and yet the latter are many and great. To quiet nervous rest; to soothe a ruffled temper; to favour calm and partial thought; to steady and clear (not to cloud) a confused, overworked brain; "

caub 10y ago
he could have got over it by moving a bit his ass, sport help fighting depression with hormones, but not easy once you have 50% lung capacity
dragonwriter 10y ago
> A dear friend of mine quit smoking, cold-turkey, and she went completely berserk for 3 months, with dangerous mood swings and outbursts of violence. She had previously suffered a mild depression, which now emerged as some kind of dark nightmare of rage and guilt and hatred and also self-hatred. > This is what struck me: of all the SSRIs she'd had ever tried, none had ever worked as well as tobacco. Tobacco moderated her depression and mood swings more effectively than any modern drug that her doctors had prescribed for her. I'm not sure there is justification for the conclusion that the previous depression, and relatively severe symptoms on smoking cessation that, from your description, seem to be of a type that is known to be associated with nicotine withdrawal (though atypically severe) are indications that smoking was "treating" an underlying depression that morphed into something else when tobacco use stopped, rather than that the person involved had a past occurrence of depression and later had relatively severe nicotine withdrawal when they stopped smoking tobacco.
cwkoss 10y ago
Tobacco contains MAOIs. This is why many smokers don't find vaping to give the same buzz. Also MAOIs are prescribed as anti-depressants.
- susan_hall 10y ago
  Thank you for explaining why tobacco has such a powerful effect.

caub 10y ago

he could have got over it by moving a bit his ass, sport help fighting depression with hormones, but not easy once you have 50% lung capacity

dragonwriter 10y ago

> A dear friend of mine quit smoking, cold-turkey, and she went completely berserk for 3 months, with dangerous mood swings and outbursts of violence. She had previously suffered a mild depression, which now emerged as some kind of dark nightmare of rage and guilt and hatred and also self-hatred. > This is what struck me: of all the SSRIs she'd had ever tried, none had ever worked as well as tobacco. Tobacco moderated her depression and mood swings more effectively than any modern drug that her doctors had prescribed for her. I'm not sure there is justification for the conclusion that the previous depression, and relatively severe symptoms on smoking cessation that, from your description, seem to be of a type that is known to be associated with nicotine withdrawal (though atypically severe) are indications that smoking was "treating" an underlying depression that morphed into something else when tobacco use stopped, rather than that the person involved had a past occurrence of depression and later had relatively severe nicotine withdrawal when they stopped smoking tobacco.

cwkoss 10y ago

Tobacco contains MAOIs. This is why many smokers don't find vaping to give the same buzz. Also MAOIs are prescribed as anti-depressants.

susan_hall 10y ago
Thank you for explaining why tobacco has such a powerful effect.