Snus Vs. Cigarettes & Anger Management

[Xobeloot]

When I smoked cigarettes, if something pissed me off, I'd go have a smoke (or 5) and would be good to go.

What I am finding since switching to snus is that when I get pissed off, I already have my nicotine in my system, so I just get straight angry. I can't just pop more snus because I already have a fat pris in (any more would probably leave me hanging over the toilet).

It's interesting. With cigs, I would smoke to calm down. With snus, I find myself having to spit out my pris so that the nicotine doesn't keep me in that amped state of mind.

This leads me to believe that I really need to work on my anger management.

I should have never left the warehouse. This desk-jockey job is going to be the death of me.

[RobsanX]

It's not the smoke, it's the deep breathing that calms you...

[TBD]

I find that snuff actually helps me. I am pretty sure it's the deep breaths and not the snuff, but anything to allow you to breathe and do something not related to the anger is the key. With cigs you had to dig one out, find a lighter, tap the tobacco, light it, inhale a few times. Snuff kind of fills those voids for me.

[Ainkor]

Re: Snus Vs. Cigarettes & Anger Management

When I smoked cigarettes, if something pissed me off, I'd go have a smoke (or 5) and would be good to go.

What I am finding since switching to snus is that when I get pissed off, I already have my nicotine in my system, so I just get straight angry. I can't just pop more snus because I already have a fat pris in (any more would probably leave me hanging over the toilet).

It's interesting. With cigs, I would smoke to calm down. With snus, I find myself having to spit out my pris so that the nicotine doesn't keep me in that amped state of mind.

This leads me to believe that I really need to work on my anger management.

I should have never left the warehouse. This desk-jockey job is going to be the death of me.

Ahh, you hit my main problem right on the head.

I oversee about 200 people and I mainly used smoking as a therapeutic break from the grind of dealing with obnoxious people!

It took me a month to level out my flaring anger, but I have gotten much better, finally!

Remember this Xobe, you should be the only person that chooses your mood. If you let others control your emotions, then they are controlling you.

Of course, if you choose to be angry, do with a righteous fire!

-Ainkor

[snusbear1]

This is so true, at least for me. So much of my cigarette addiction is just pure HABIT. I like the ritual of using loose snus, and also using snuff, just become then I have something to do with my hands!!

[deebocools]

when I used loose american dip, increased stress and anger level would definitely result in packing a bigger lip, so it can still be used similarly.

Instead of throwing a snus in as a matter of course, I suggest either not doing it yet or using a low-nicotine portion, and then when you feel the "vapors" to speak, toss in a real strong portion. breath deep, I don't see why it would be much different.

Excepting smoke. many people find smoke therapeutic, I'm ashmatic so I've learned to hate it, but perhaps being by smokers or incense could help

[yigs]

Maybe the reason it calms you (and me) to smoke is the self inflicting pain of a cigarette even minutely?

[Azrsuperstar]

I'm always pissed off. Snus doesn't help with my nerves the same way cigarettes use to when I was a smoker. Lately, I chew gum when I'm angry. :evil:

[bakerbarber]

Cigarettes gave me an excuse to get away from whoever or whatever pissed me off. With snus I don't really have an excuse to go outside and cool off.

I hear what you're saying about spitting out the snus to let everything ramp down. I'm usually so hyped up on nic it doesn't take too much of an idiot to push me over the edge.

I'm a recent convert to a desk job myself. I've had more stress in the last 12 months than I had the in the previous 9 years I've worked with this company.

Stress and anger management is a little more complex than snus vs. cigs, but I do acknowledge the difference.

[snusbear1]

Instead of throwing a snus in as a matter of course, I suggest either not doing it yet or using a low-nicotine portion, and then when you feel the "vapors" to speak, toss in a real strong portion. breath deep, I don't see why it would be much different.

I think that's VERY insightful. The guy in one of the Northerner videos says, "snus works just like cigarettes, only without the smoke" - well, yes and no!. When you come to snus from cigarette smoking, your pattern of nicotine usage is one of dosing with a rapid-acting form of the drug at periodic, self-determined intervals, whereas with snus you've got a slow ramp-up phase, then steady-state, then slow ramp-down. While it's true that "nicotine is nicotine," the fact is that the dosing schedule of a drug, as well as the rapidity with which it acts, is as much a factor in addiction as the time-averaged blood levels of the drug.

It comes down to a decision: do you 1) use snus to facilitate the eventual end of your addiction to nicotine altogether, OR 2) have every intention (like many of us here!) of continuing to enjoy nicotine, but in a form that's far less harmful, and more socially acceptable, than smoking cigarettes?

If the former, then I would suggest using low- to moderate-nicotine-level snus more or less constantly, decreasing the nicotine strength over time, and using every support mechanism and behavior-modification technique at your disposal to be able eventually to say "good-bye" to nicotine.

If the latter, however, then you might want to use snus in a way that more closely mimics the cigarette experience, as "deebocools" suggests: laying off the snus when you can, then popping in a strong-as-shit snus the minute that a powerful urge surfaces, and then discarding it as soon as the need is satisfied. This technique will help train your mind to transition from a cigarette addiction to a snus addiction. I can hear an objection that using snus freely as the need arises is more expensive than just leaving one in for hours, but it's probably no more expensive than smoking, and certainly better for your health than continuing to turn your lungs into a tar pit!

For those who chain-smoke, thereby keeping a fairly high constant blood level of nicotine while simultaneously enjoying the self-dosing and drug-spiking benefits of cigarettes, a good solution might be to keep a moderate- to high-level-nicotine snus in constantly and "supplement" with a quick hit (or three!) of nasal snuff when a particularly strong urge arises.

Snus (particularly the stronger variety) has a miraculous way of quashing any desire for a cigarette, but the one thing you DON'T want to do is to use it at such a strong level that you're always feeling sick from it - this "aversive therapy" approach may work in the short run, but the last thing you want to do is to begin to attach negative associations to the ONE thing that might be able to get you off the "cancer sticks" forever! Find a way of using your snus so that you get the maximum possible pleasure and enjoyment from it. If you've got a strong portion in and you start feeling queasy three minutes later, then SPIT IT OUT. In other words, USE your snus, don't let your snus use YOU!!

I hope these ramblings have been helpful to at least a few people.

[deebocools]

having never been a smoker, I too demanded "smoke breaks" at work where I would simply stand outside for 10 minutes with the smokers. The employer could give me no reason why I shouldn't get a break too. I'd drink some coffee or soda instead.

of course that's up to the grace of your employer, but if you feel it would help you regulate your mood I think that's enough reason to get short breaks.

[jamesstew]

Don't make Xobe angry, you wouldn't like him when he's angry.

[Xobeloot]

LOL!

Great responses everyone. It has been over a year now since I've switched to snus. It has just been recently (since I got promoted to a desk) that I find myself escaping for a cig again.

Since I posted this, I have been utilizing the short break and deep breath thing (without the cigarette) and it seems to be working.

I just need to keep doing something to get my mind off whatever got me heated in the first place.

I smoked cigs from the time I was 10 until I was 29. With that much time, I never had to think of any other means to dissipate my anger/frustration. I basically grew from a child into a man dealing with anger via smoking.

Some of those mechanical habits are the hardest to break.

Thanks again for all the great advice!

-Xobe

[RobME]

It's not the smoke, it's the deep breathing that calms you...

Pranayama anyone?

[truthwolf1]

In my smoking days when things would get too out of hand I would just say @#$% it! I am going out for a smoke. It was my personal escape to re-group and think. This over many years led to a very passive and mellow personality.

Since then my friends and co-wokers have noticed a little bit of a change in me. From my understanding it is a little bit of being more outspoken of what is on my mind. Ideas or thoughts I wished I would of said while I was a smoker seemed to get muffled. Now everything is getting straight out to the people. Might be good thing in my case.

thanks Snus