Smoking cessation.

[FarmgirlRebel]

I have quit and restarted so many times. I would seriously quit for several years, something hard happened and I'd reach for the cigs again...so frustrating. I always went cold turkey.

Last time it happened after being quit for several years, I did reach for a vape. I still vape...w/o nicotine, on occasion...keeps me from the cigs which I haven't touched now since 2003.

 

[ochoseis]

Not a Chinese mystery powder but my actual doctor put me on Zyban/bupropion/wellbutrin to help me quit vaping. And it was great! After 2 weeks I didn't want to vape at all and it was super easy to just put the thing down.

Until I got what I thought was the UTI from absolute hell, of course did my usual telehealth antibiotic order, got the meds, it got worse. Maybe not "worse" but the relief 24hrs into an antibiotic was not happening. So I went in person, got labs, negative cultures, bloodwork fine. Excruciating pain in my bladder.

Turns out it's a "rare" side effect that can cause urinary discomfort (read: pissing knives) or bladder spasms or something. I had to stop taking it and it got much better in a few days.

So I would technically suggest it for the smoking cessation but keep that in mind. I have never tried Chantix because my mom lost her shit on it and I've been too scared to lol

 

[ochoseis]

Also, I went down the rabbithole of smoking cessation and Recigar/Desmoxan/Cytisine seems to be super popular. I probably would have tried it first but bupropion was free vs the $50 Amazon wanted for it and I'm cheap. I have not tried it obviously but may be worth looking into?

 

[lessthanhalf]

Buproprion is only available subsidised in Australia as a smoking cessation aid, but not as an antidepressant, which is pretty good evidence it is a cost effective method for stopping smoking.

There is increasing evidence that GLP's reduce consumption of possibly all addictive drugs, cigarettes included, but I do not think there is really solid evidence on cigarettes yet.

 

[jafo111]

I smoked a pack a day for 25 years, quit with Chantix. It wasn’t even hard. I started taking it and about 2 weeks later I just didn’t care about smoking anymore and quit. It did give me crazy dreams but I think I only took it for about 8-10 weeks total. It’s been 12 years now. It’s eerily similar to the glp experience with eating.