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> One of the absolute best techniques I've found for breaking it is a trick I learned from DBT called "Improve the moment" where you simply think about what ple

> One of the absolute best techniques I've found for breaking it is a trick I learned from DBT called "Improve the moment" where you simply think about what pleasant sensory experience could you introduce right now to make you feel better and then you do that quickly. That'd probably be smoking a cigarette. But that's no good, either.

centimeter 6y ago
Nicotine is one of the safest and best known nootropics.
- oooooooooooow 6y ago
  But cigarettes are so bad for your lungs. Likely the worst way of intaking nicotine.
- analyte123 6y ago
  Nicotine is still extremely addictive by itself. So much so that if it weren’t “best known” you’d have to buy it in the same places you buy peptides with cryptocurrency. No other nootropic generates the level of irrational desire to consume it. If you read stuff like this comment and just dive right in, best case scenario is that you end up at 105% of baseline and higher blood pressure, as long as you’re constantly using nicotine, but 70% of baseline when you don’t use it, and weeks of brain fog when you try to quit. Harm reduction is to use only patches or nicotine replacement gum (not commercial nicotine patches), and to set strict windows and use cases.
  - TeMPOraL 6y ago
    > Harm reduction is to use only patches or nicotine replacement gum I'd assume when GP wrote "nicotine", they meant nicotine and not tobacco. So gums, not cigarettes. Based on Gwern's rather extensive summary, I believe nicotine alone is not dangerously addictive.
    - analyte123 6y ago
      No, I mean nicotine. Almost all the sources in Gwern’s summary come from before the commercialization of vapes and other nicotine products. All of these use nicotine salt which is absorbed much faster than freebase nicotine from old-style vape juice or nicotine polacrilex from gum, making it more familiar for former smokers but also more addictive. If you’re convinced it’s impossible, it’s really easy to test it out by just buying a Juul. I don’t recommend it.
nullsense 6y ago
That sort of thing is usually how people self medicate. I know I did for years. This technique is about using your senses in ways other than your default go-to self medication.

centimeter 6y ago

Nicotine is one of the safest and best known nootropics.

oooooooooooow 6y ago
But cigarettes are so bad for your lungs. Likely the worst way of intaking nicotine.
analyte123 6y ago
Nicotine is still extremely addictive by itself. So much so that if it weren’t “best known” you’d have to buy it in the same places you buy peptides with cryptocurrency. No other nootropic generates the level of irrational desire to consume it. If you read stuff like this comment and just dive right in, best case scenario is that you end up at 105% of baseline and higher blood pressure, as long as you’re constantly using nicotine, but 70% of baseline when you don’t use it, and weeks of brain fog when you try to quit. Harm reduction is to use only patches or nicotine replacement gum (not commercial nicotine patches), and to set strict windows and use cases.
- TeMPOraL 6y ago
  > Harm reduction is to use only patches or nicotine replacement gum I'd assume when GP wrote "nicotine", they meant nicotine and not tobacco. So gums, not cigarettes. Based on Gwern's rather extensive summary, I believe nicotine alone is not dangerously addictive.
  - analyte123 6y ago
    No, I mean nicotine. Almost all the sources in Gwern’s summary come from before the commercialization of vapes and other nicotine products. All of these use nicotine salt which is absorbed much faster than freebase nicotine from old-style vape juice or nicotine polacrilex from gum, making it more familiar for former smokers but also more addictive. If you’re convinced it’s impossible, it’s really easy to test it out by just buying a Juul. I don’t recommend it.

nullsense 6y ago

That sort of thing is usually how people self medicate. I know I did for years. This technique is about using your senses in ways other than your default go-to self medication.