82 replies to this topic

[Dragonmum]

Hope I'm not raining on your parade but have always felt that comparing Seasonal Affective Disorder with Clinical Anxiety/Depression is a bit like comparing chicken pox and small-pox. Our climate certainly doesn't help, but it runs a lot deeper than that.

[Kryczka88]

I'm vaping on 36 mg that help my anxiety
good luck all people

[Kryczka88]

http://umrscblogs.or...about-smoking/. that interesting

[Dragonmum]

A friend brought me a bunch of daffodils today I've got them in a deep blue glass vase - they cost her not a lot but to me more relevant than all the gold in the world; Spring is coming and the skies will brighten to blue again, our bums will not be frozen forever!! Take care all of you, I keep everything crossed for you and, yes, it is like droppin in on friends. Cheers.

[lightother]

Struggling a wee bit today, feel pretty down and had to force myself to go to work, home now and going to go for a kip, see if I feel better later, but its a definate plus not having minus temps for a change

[Arkle]

What a great thread. As someone else said, its so good to know that other peoople have these problems too. I've recently started on amitriptilene as SSRIs send me pretty psychotic and suicidal, and until I saw this thread I didn't make any connection with the fact that, yes, I am going through more juice than ususal. Best wishes to everyone, thanks for sharing your experiences.

[vaping2long]

What an amazing thread. Thought I was only 1 on here with problems. I suffer from Bipolar, disabled leg due to damaged spine and neck.
Am shocked how many on here have same or similar problems & in my opinion vaping helps me more than smoking.
UKV takes my mind off things after a bad day, only problem I have is the Bipolar makes me want to spend money all time on mods etc.
On here I feel on an even level with everybody, when out with my disability I feel disabled.

Its not so much about a vaping help forum. For me its more the social aspect and my hobby (mixing and mods)

Thank UKvapers

[Dragonmum]

vaping2long, on 09 April 2012 - 08:58 AM, said:

What an amazing thread. Thought I was only 1 on here with problems. I suffer from Bipolar, disabled leg due to damaged spine and neck.
Am shocked how many on here have same or similar problems & in my opinion vaping helps me more than smoking.
UKV takes my mind off things after a bad day, only problem I have is the Bipolar makes me want to spend money all time on mods etc.
On here I feel on an even level with everybody, when out with my disability I feel disabled.

Its not so much about a vaping help forum. For me its more the social aspect and my hobby (mixing and mods)

Thank UKvapers

On here we can "unburden", far more so than with friends or family because they are just too close and implicated with our problems; it's that great feeling of not being the only one with problems that makes this forum so very much like belonging to another family.
As long as we can share, without anyone being judgemental, it seems to lighten the load. I've posted things that I would think twice about saying to anyone.
UKV is, without doubt, the most friendly and supportive forum I've ever encountered and, as you say, it's not just about vaping. So let's all just keep on keeping on . Cheers and a Happy Easter to all.

[todd]

Crundy, on 31 January 2012 - 09:45 AM, said:

The medication I was on was Cipralex (Escitalopram) which is an SSRI. So basically my body was getting both types and then suddenly just the 1

Hmmmm

Still on this myself, was off work for 3yrs there (been back for 7months) and tried many meds but Cipralex was the one that got me on an even keel.

I would never have attempted to stop smoking the stinkys when I was trying to get back to work, they provided a huge crutch for me and removing anything like that would have added to my issues but now that I'm a bit stronger, stinkys are gone

I could go on for hours about the different support services that are in place for helping folk out with depression but the first thing to get through your head, you are NOT alone and there are so many people out there that will help you, understand you and have been though or are still going through what you are.

After many years of tackling this, feel free to ask my anything but bear one thing, what works for one person may not work for you, everyones different, there are many different types of depression and your GP is not an expert in depression, no matter how many tablets he wants to give you.

Find a doctor that specilises in depression, most surgerys have at least one.

Cheers

[Pinkerton]

It's worth noting that tobacco also contains MAOI's - http://en.wikipedia....idase_inhibitor

[sickntired]

I really feel for all you lovely peeps. I don't suffer from depression but had a daughter who did. I know I said had but she sadly died in a fire andeven more sadly was not due to her depression.
It was an extremely difficult time for the whole family, many a night for me and her spent in hospital.
I can't say I completely understand everything about the condition but you all have my deepest support and love and I really hope that you can pull thru it and see all the good things about yourselves and the world xxxx

[vapingvplate]

+1 for this thread.

Been taking meds for at least 10 year now for Depression/anxiety, wont go into the detalis, but have 2 points to share:

No1- Has anybody tried mindful therapy, started it about a month ago on an online course and can trully say I have benefited from it. Its a kind of a meditation thing, but with out being too full on, I find it helps for me so might be worth considering for others, especially helpfull for racing thoughts and the likes.

No2- The benefit I have seen from vaping is after meetings and such I dont have to rush out with the rest of the smokers, (when Im already feeling anxious) , to have a fag and feel my chest tightening further, instead Il go for a stealth vape in the bog and feel alot more relaxed.

Best wishes to you all

[tyefighter]

i took a few classes on mindfulness and found it pretty helpful... do you have a link for the online course you are doing vapingvplate ?

[vapingvplate]

Yep this one http://www.bemindfulonline.com/, it £40 but I think its been more useful to me that any councelling session Ive had for around the same price

[tyefighter]

cheers buddy will check it out

[FlamingKaty]

Digicig's your man for "mindfulness" - drop him a PM if he doesn't see this, I'm sure he'll have some useful info.

[McAldo]

I think it's a very subjective thing.

Personally, over the years I progressively started associating smoking with depression, as it was my refuge and comfort against problems which I felt were out of my control (everything seems quite out of control when you feel very down, hence 1 pack + per day, two cigarettes in a row and so on).
So, I started hating my attachment to cigarettes, and vaping has given me serenity to an extent.
Therefore I cling to vaping with a tenderness only matched by the loath I have for the idea of going back smoking.

However, if your mental association with smoking and quitting is negative for some reason, it might trigger the opposite feeling.
In that case, it might be that quitting smoking, rather than vaping, makes you feel not at ease.
As you mentioned, smoke does contain a number of things other than nicotine which our body develop a certain dependence from.
If that's the case, Swedish snus could give you some relief, as somebody suggested, because they contain these substances in a non cancerous form.

Here I am just speculating, as I don't know the details and also these situations are always very personal and subjective, so my understanding would be limited even if I knew much more.
Certainly, adjusting medications is always a bit tricky. My mum has gone though countless tempests because of that. Even if, after quitting a lifetime of smoking because of cancer, she has been able to manage transitions better, I think.

One thing that I notice in myself and so many others is that, while smoking was just an habit, vaping becomes an interest and even something creative to an extent. Something active rather than passive, if you like.
I think this helps a lot stay away from ciggies, and somewhat justifies diverting so much of the money saved by not smoking into getting gadgets, exotic juices and interesting gear

So, perhaps, giving a go to some DIY experiment with liquids, or getting actively involved in promoting vaping as many do, might at some point help making of vaping something more interesting and exciting than just a replacement for cigarettes?
Obviously, there is an element of potential frustration in these things, like in anything else, so not all periods are good fro giving it a go, but I suspect for many people here vaping has added to their life, rather than just replacing something.

In any case, for sure you have a really lively and supportive community, much better than pretty much anything else online. And people taking a genuine interest in other people problems and ideas, without being judgemental, which is very rare indeed.

[spikeychops]

This is going to controversial because..well, because it's controversial!

I'm 'allowed' to say what i'm going to say, due to the fact that reading between the lines, i'm fucking crazier than most of you people would be in your wildest fucking 'poor me wet dreams'!

(tough love, bear with me)

I am..crazy that is.

Clinically anyway. I have clinical OCD and Clinical Depression, and a whole host of shit i won't tell 'them' in case they lock me up.

You want to know the truth? We all have it, we're all 'out of our minds', to one degree or another anyway...yes even those smart, crease resistant types you see scurrying along with seemingly incredible poise and resistance to the slag of the world around them, hurrying to their place of enslavement on the bus, train or tube or in traffic..perhaps you're one of them.

They are just at different points along in the progression of their 'illness' compared to you or i.

They're just as mad, or will be, they're just as surely on the road to being a compulsive overachiever, dropout, weirdo, recluse, manic depressive, plastic happy human...or societal failure as you or i am.

Different lives, different circumstances, different points, at different times along the same journey..the route to the recognition of the real trouble...that's all that separates all of us really. The journey of our lives, the timing of events and the experiencing of those events within it...and the comulatitive fallout from those experiences adding to us, or our Psyche and everyone elses.

You see...you're all mad...and so am i, and so is everyone else..some of us conceal it better than others though, many migrate to positions or careers where they hope to crack the enigma, or at least understand themselves and their madness, their compulsions and weird thoughts a little better...these tend to intensely study Psychology or Psychiatry in the vain attempt, only to realise it's indemic and they are not as different or as weird as they had once thought...then they try to pass this realisation along to us and get us to realise this too.

You're not unique in your dissapointments, in your despondant views of your dashed childhood dreams, in your isolation be it self imposed or otherwise..neither you..nor me.

Far from it.

If 'different' is your goal, i'd recommend aiming for society's blueprint of 'normal', cos if you finally achieve it, you'd be in a very exclusive club indeed.

Crazy has become the new 'normal'...a doctor recently disclosed to me that 70% plus of the UK population is regularly prescribed anti-depressant drugs...70%+ of us...not exactly the minority eh?

All together now after the count of 3, all say 'Brave new world'..1..2..3.......welcome to the 21st century folks. For those that remember, it's not quite the vision we had in the 70's is it.

This is NOT they way life or the world was meant to be..but it's certainly the way it's going and it's one hell of a runaway train.

[Jmc007]

Amen to that.

[Scrumpy]

I have had bouts of depression followed by a short spells of "normalness" i've had since I was like 11 or 12 with a bit of anxiety as well. Which is probably why I started smoking round that time as well. I've never actually been to the doctor as I don't believe in prescription drugs to treat depression and anxiety (plus the list of side effects scares me) so over the past year i've been trying all sorts of herbal and nutrient products on the market.

I've taken St Johns Wort, 5-htp, tryptophan, rhodiola rosea, L-tyrosine, multivitamin tablets and omega 3 fish oils. St Johns wort worked for two weeks but started getting severe headaches so stopped taking it, 5-HTP is damn evil but works for most people, Rhodiola is too stimulating, l-tyrosine only worked once before building up a tolerance to it. Tryptophan for me works well although like most serotogenic chemicals it made me feel a bit emotionally numb. Gives you a great night sleep though!

Recently I've started trying Kava and this stuff is amazing it totally melts away all my stress and anxiety and makes you feel nice and happy and unlike the prescription meds there are no side effects to taking this stuff.

Edited by Scrumpy, 24 April 2012 - 11:27 PM.