Tabacco and Anxiety

[west12]

Does anyone know if quitting a tabacco habit can bring on anxiety?

[debaser23]

I get nervous when I don't have a cigarette for a while.  It's nicotine withdrawal.  

If you could quit (maybe with the patch), it would probably be better for your anxiety.

[ChrisThomas88]

I'm doing this exact thing right now.

I was too scared to quit smoking for a year because I thought it would aggrovate my anxiety.

I've spent two full weeks on patches with the occasional cigarette and I was incredibly anxiety-free throughout. The initial days were difficult, but the patches seemed to rid me of the anxiety that withdrawl and cravings brought on, not to mention the anxiety I initially had.

Smoking raises dopamine levels in the brain. If you bear in mind anxiety usually involves a dopamine inbalance, smoking essentially fires more dopamine to be inbalanced, making the anxiety somewhat worse.

After running out of patches I recommenced smoking, over the last week, and I've actually felt slightly worse than before.

So, to answer your question, it won't cause anxiety if you undergo nicotine replacement theropy to quit. In my experience (and my anxiety disorder is very bad due to the nature of it and lack of treatment) it actually lessened anxiety.

Try to quite for a month, having the occasional cigarette if you're feeling bold. You'll notice the different after a couple of days.

[Monica70]

When I quit smoking 9 months ago, I entered the world of "diagnosed anxiety." I say "diagnosed" because I self-medicated with cigarettes for 15 years. Then I had to do something else with my anxiousness. Jogging didn't work. Hitting the "ignore" button, like my husband suggested, didn't work either  (Hey, what can I say? I tick differently). But Xanax did work, for a while, until I developed a tolerance for it. Now I'm on Seroquel to prevent anxiety.

[Paxiled]

You just quit a highly addictive drug.  Of course it can cause anxiety.  Be odd if it didn't.
Monica, Seroquel as a primary drug for anxiety?  Sounds odd.