We mentals and them smokes

Went to see my counselor today about my smoking cessation...

An interesting topic came up concerning the plausible benefits of nicotine in my system and the possibility that the decrease level of nicotine in my system could be one of the contributing factors for my recent trip into the hit-by-a-truck grade of depression...

Interesting idea that I have never entertained before....

So I did some simple Google search and came across a report with the following as the introduction paragraph paired with a figure showing the prevalence of Tobacco use in individuals with psychiatric disorder...

"While the prevalence of smoking in the total U.S. population is about 25 to 30 percent, the prevalence among people with schizophrenia is approximately three times as high - or almost 90%, and approximately 60% to 70% for people who have bipolar disorder."

http://www.schizophrenia.com/smokereport.htm


Granted, the sample size might be a bit on the small end and there might be a need for future research to include more subjects in the studies.

Yet, for me, since I am 100% sure that I can be classified as part of the schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depression groups, and, I might also have panic attacks, shall the theses of the related research be valid.... No wonder I am such a smoking gun...

Blame me not for my lack of stamina to just say no....

Blame me on them mental conditions of mine to make me more predisposed, genetic or not, to the use of tobacco as a means of, so they say, self-medication.... (some good excuse, I would say.... 8-O lol 8-X )

At some point in the report, it was mentioned that...

"the average person who has schizophrenia smokes approximately 24 cigarettes per day"....

So I thought.... finally I find evidence that I have actually been part of the norm, whatever the norm is.... and God... give me the strength to be the abnormal of the abnormal... 8-O lol

In another article, based on literature review, the authors stated that...

"In patients with a history of major depression, smoking cessation may lead to re-emergence of major depressive symptoms (Covey et al., 1997; Glassman et al., 1990), although a recent study has questioned this phenomenon (Tsoh et al., 2000)."

Regardless whether whether the evidence is conclusive or not, interestingly, I did go into depression and I am still trying to climb my way out of it... although other factors such as them minor inconviniences in life might also have their share of contributions....

At the same time, this reminds me of how my attempt to quit cold turkey back in late 1997 and early 1998 shuffled me right into major depression and got me stuck with this tension headache that would not go away.... Gotta be something sort of true about this line of research, I guess....

In addition, some authors have also attempted to link the presence of nicotine with negative symptoms...

"nicotine has been shown to increase the release of dopamine in the nucleus acumbens and the prefrontal cortex (5,6,7). Glassman (8) suggested that the apathy and lack of motivation characteristic of negative symptoms is what one would expect with diminishing activity of the brain's reward system."

Interesting way of explaining my amotivated state of being...

What it be like if the lower level of nicotine in my system is actually the culprit which resulted in the decreased drive for me to maintain 4 smokes a day schedule? 8-O

In another article, the authors found that...

"nicotine levels of smokers with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder were 1.3 times higher than control smokers despite smoking a similar number of cigarettes per day."

In other words, people like me really get our money's worth since the we actually could retain more nicotine out of the same number of smokes we go through when comparing to them normal people. 8-O 8-$

And, of course, if one ever wonder why I went off the wagon on them cigarettes when trying to finish the class I was taking this past few weeks while trying to pull myself out of da depressed state of being... Other than smoking is a means of calming myself down, it also help me think better.... sort of like what they said...

"Nicotine helps schizophrenics with attention and memory."

Essentially, a means to counteract the side effects of the antipsychotic medication we are on.... because as the antipsychotic medications stalls our thinking, nicotine sort of helps us think....

A good example would be, my head was sort of going through the withdrawl and I was staring at the previous sentence not knowing what else to say.... Then, I put this piece of nicotine lozenge into my mouth.... Immediately, I felt the thoughts flowing and, in no time, this last paragraph formed.... regardless whether there is any substance in it or not... 8-O lol

And, the scariest thing that could happen is for me to experience what they have said in the literature as well....

"some smokers with schizophrenia experiencean acute increase in symptoms during attempts to quit smoking."

8-X

For those of you who would like to learn more about the relationship between smoking and mental health disorders, please visit the following site for more information...

http://www.schizophrenia.com/smoke/schizophrenia.smoking.res.htm

Or, use google scholar to look for some more academic grade kinda articles...

(By the way, of course, I won't really suggest the non-mentals to be calling us mentals mentals... because, coming out of your normal mouth, it is called discrimination; coming out of my mouth, it is but a term of endearment... 8-O lol)