Potential Setback after stopping nicotine?

[[Ba...]]

Hey y'all, this is my second post here. I posted here quite some time ago and I was doing quite poorly then. I am happy to say that I was recovering very, very well and I believe I was nearly healed at the 20 month mark, with very mild residual tinnitus and head pressure. However, that did not appear to be the case. 
 

Bit of backstory, I stupidly relapsed on nicotine products (vaporized nicotine and pouches only, virtually no tobacco save for infrequent social gatherings) at my one year off mark. Since then, I’d like to assume that I’ve been using maybe 3-6 mg of nicotine per day up until the last month where it ramped up to 6-15 mg of nicotine a day in the form of Zyns. Three weeks into using the nicotine pouches, I noticed that they were beginning to exacerbate my anxiety, and appeared to have thrown me into a mild wave of symptoms. Tried to push through, but the anxiety was getting worse by the day and made an impulse decision to quit all nicotine products. 
 

As you all can imagine, quitting nicotine while in the midst of a mild wave was pretty bad. I’m now a month off of nicotine products with a pretty extreme aversion to them (no cravings since the first 5 days). It’s certainly gotten better by a noticeable margin, but it’s clear to me that I’ve still got a bit of a ways to go. I’ve certainly not felt this way since the first 4 months off, and this has gone on longer than any of my waves except for the initial acute withdrawal period at about 2 months.

 

I wanted to see if anyone has had something similar happen to them, and see what their healing timeline looked like. I’ll gladly take any support, as it is much needed right now. 

[[Br...]]

Hello @[Ba...] - I don't have personal experience with this but I have no doubt that quitting nicotine can cause a significant uptick in symptoms.  Stress of all kinds can do this by destabilizing the already sensitized CNS.    The good news is that an uptick in symptoms is temporary.  I hope another member who has gone through something similar will respond.  Your timeline may be different of course, but again, your symptoms will ease up over time.

[[Ty...]]

I'm struggling so bad at my taper, im down to 3-4mg of Valium put I do THE ON nicotine pouches I wonder if that makes things worse for me. I do them like there going out of style, probably ten per day. 

[[Ma...]]

I’ve smoked basically my entire life and presently I am breaking the ultra thins one’s in 1/2. Instead of my much preferred Marlboro’s. They’re like a shot of adrenaline and are awful yet…I crave them and they do settle my rolling anxiety/panic. A viscious circle.

I know for a fact I would feel so much better if I quit but even my doctor said not to as the withdrawals would add fuel to the fire. Ashton said the same.

 I applaud you for being off a month. Please don’t go back-you’ve just made it too far!! Just keep going and very soon you’ll be feeling much, much better!! Congratulations, BTW! A huge accomplishment!!!

[[le...]]

I don't know what to tell you, my case is somewhat rare because it involved a poisoning, but I couldn't stop smoking either through the meds or through the withdrawal. In fact, now I smoke more, I used to smoke 10 cigarettes a day, now I'm on a pack a day.

[[ba...]]

I think after the ordeal to our brains and bodies of coming off psych meds, we are much more sensitive, or can be, to stopping any addictive substance. Especially if in a wave, your still healing. Listen to your body  to decide how to proceed. That's your best guide on how to cope with this.