Hello: I´m a ex smoker, I quitted cigarettes three months ago thanks to e cig. I use high nicotine liquids (18mg). Now, I also use snuff from one week. I´ve managed to develop my technique and learnt to enjoy it as way to cut e cig constant use. I must say unconditionally that snuff is the most pleasant way to enjoy tobacco. But I fear to be developping a new kind of addiction. I feel down and sleepy all day until the moment I take the pinches. My plan was to use snuff ocasionally, keeping it under control, but I find it´s difficult. Any thoughts?
If you’re an ex smoker, I would assume you already have a nicotine addiction. I wouldn’t call snuff a new addiction, since you’re getting the same drug from it. Are you still vaping too?
Yes, I assume I´m a nicotine addicted and I vape daily. But snuff is different in the sense that I find nicotine + something else “X” (suppose the rest of alkaloids). Pure medicinal nicotine doesnt´give this relaxing sensation…
Well, everyone’s different, so it’s possible. I find snuff picks me up more than it makes me sleepy. Maybe try a different snuff and see if that works better? But if it causes you anxiety and you’re fine with vaping, go with that.
Vaping is fine, but snuff deserves the best chance as long as I can keep it under control. It´s only a week on it, it´s still soon.
@Ricardus I too am using e cig and snuff I was on 18 strength but have knocked it down to 11 which is the lowest I can get and started using snuff alot more and find im not reaching for the e cig half as much and really enjoying snuff
@polish Interesting to hear your experience. What I also want is reduce e cig use. What keeps me puffing on is the delicious flavour and keeping constant nicotine levels. But snuff gives more nicotine.
If you are an ex-smoker you already are an addict. It is quite possible you are trading one addiction for another. However, I do genuinely believe you are better off snuffing than smoking. One thing I will tell you is that for me at least snuffing is much more causal than smoking. Typically during the weekends I tend not to use snuff and I am okay. I can definitely go a few days without it or snus for that matter. I suppose that it really is a matter of your own personal experience. My advice to you is do not worry about whether or not you are creating a new addiction or if you are trading off one addiction for another. Just relax and enjoy the hobby. Snuff is relatively inexpensive if you compare it to other forms of tobacco (unless you suffer from TAD) and certainly hell of a lot safer. If you are worried that you are forming/trading addictions, but strict parameters on yourself to ensure that you are not over using and all will be good.
I’m an ex-smoker (4 years) and now a snuffer of 4 years and snuser of 1 year and in no way feel addicted to tobacco. I’ve been moving house over the last few weeks and have been so busy I’ve not used any snuff or snus for days at a time and felt absolutely fine. I know I’m not addicted to tobacco. I don’t think it’s even possible to be addicted to snuff. The ritual, yes, but that’s all. And I’m a heavy snuffer. Some days up to 20g.
give it some time; you will settle into your need for nicotine groove. Sometimes your body needs to adjust. What is addicting is wanting to try ever snuff on the planet.
@peter77, @SnuffySnuff Great. That was the kind of experience I was looking for. Knowing its possible to enjoy snuff and keep it under control. At the moment I still retain the smoking habits and anxiety, but these could change. Only I’ll keep some discipline on its use. @basement_shaman Good advice!
I have no problem being addicted to nicotine. As a snuff user I get nicotine into my system which is of course a stimulant but it has no carcinogens and tar that really harm your health. Nicotine for me is just as “bad” for me as caffeine, I haven’t ever seen a sticker on a starbucks cup of coffee that states “This product can damage your health”.
It’s sad but snuff doesn’t be enough for me, chewing and pipe smoking follow as always
In sum yes. You were likely addicted to the nicotine received through smoking and now snuff is the delivery method. Some hold snuff as safer than other forms of nicotine deliver and I agree. While different it is still nicotine. As for energy and pep after taking a snuff- that is likely the nicotine levels waning and then going back up after taking one. Perfectly normal. In the end it is you who will determine how much/often is right for you. If something you do concerns you, take a moment to reflect on it. If you are worried about it- take a long pause to decide what to do. This is something that only you can truly assess and ultimately address.
I’ve been addicted to nicotine since I was 14. I’m just glad to be addicted to snuff and not cigarettes. And I do think nicotine adds something. It’s a nice thing to be able to take a pinch and get a lift in mood and energy essentially on demand.
I would add that addiction may carry with it a bad connotation. Once could say that you are addicted if you “must” do something to feel better/good or from feeling bad, while I look at snuff as doing something because I enjoy it. While I have not gone without tobacco of one form or another for more than a few days since perhaps 16, and I would admit that I am addicted to nicotine, it is a choice I make. I could try the patch or gun to wane off of tobacco but I simply have no desire to do so. I went from cigarettes and dip to dip. From dip to pouches and cheap cigars. From pouches to snus and better cigars. Now I am on really nice cigars on occasion and snuff every half hour. This for me is not a problem.
You are not BECOMING addicted… You HAVE BEEN addicted ever since your smoking days! You are still taking the same drug (nicotine.) The only change is in how it is introduced into your system.
@howdydave you are totally right. It’s two months since I quitted cigarettes, and I’ve been on pure “medicinal” nicotine products: first weeks on nrt and then, e cigarette. Pure nicotine without any of the rest of tobacco alkaloids, which are also important. Now, with snuff I experiment a new added different pleasure, and that was my concern. But I did a test these last days, allowing me to use as much snuff as I wanted, and I notice I dont use it much more, and also I get saturated to the point I dont need/want more. And I still vape, but far less.
You are not BECOMING addicted… You HAVE BEEN addicted ever since your smoking days! You are still taking the same drug (nicotine.) The only change is in how it is introduced into your system.
Addiction to nicotine is an interesting thing. I tell people a story, and this thread seems a good place to recount it: {Disclaimer: I am making no claims as to nicotine or its addictability, nor am I claiming I know anything about the addictability of one form or another, nor am I claiming to be anything special. These are simply my observations since I come from a family with addictive personalities and worry and also I hate the loss of control that physical addiction can represent (same reason why I like to drink, but hate getting drunk). This is just how I analyze my experiences…} I started chewing tobacco when I was in the Marine Corp. I started with the basics, Red Man and Beech Nut (both flavors), and moved on to the sweet candy ones. Then rapidly moved back to the standard tobacco ones, although I enjoyed Beech Nut Wintergreen as a flavor variant. I chewed the first time for six years. I would go through a box in about two months. About a pouch every couple of days. Then I stopped for a few years. Soon after moving to St. Louis, I started again. This time I continued with a vengeance: Red Man almost exclusively, with Tennessee twist, slightly rehydrated with oranges, as a flavor variant. MAN, is twist strong stuff! I chewed for another six years, this time up to a pouch a day, easily. I stopped for the same reason many stopped and for the reason the antis wanted people to stop: Taxes made the price of boxes so high, I figured I could save at least $80-$100 a month by stopping. I enjoyed chewing but I also figured I was doing it too much… So I quit. Finished my last pouch, and stopped buying new ones. Never a pang of need at all. I had a psychological desire after a good meal, but it wasn’t anything physical. I have the same desire for a Dr. Pepper after a good meal now. I figure if I could become addicted to I would’ve had to have been. I had it flowing through my system constantly for years. But I swear I never did. At least physically. And I don’t have an addictive personality either, so far as I can tell, because I didn’t make any of the types of decisions that come with having such a personality. Will I become addicted to snuff? It’s possible. I don’t know. I’ve only been doing it for a month, and while I feel a strong desire to do it, that more follows my natural obsessiveness with something new, that I follow until I become bored with it. Some things I never become bored with. It’s certainly a different, more direct form of delivery of nicotine to the system than the chew was, and I’ve never smoked cigarettes, except here and there to hang with British stewardesses (a story in its own right). But right now, I am absolutely in love it with it. So I do it and love it. Take it as you will. I don’t think there’s a moral in there except that everybody’s experiences are different.
I just went “cold turkey on snuff” (that does not sound that bad, does it) I vaped i bit way back after packing in smoking, you had to order the Ecigs from china from Ryan Co i think it was, I just stopped, and waited and when i really needed some “joy” took a pinch, or two or three… I think at the outset i took a load more snuff and then as The basement_shaman stated you kind of reach your own equilibrium point. Am i addicted? well yes, hook line and sinker, however can i go a week without if i need to, yes, but only because i am thinking about that massive restorative pinch once the self implemented prohibition ends. (when do i do this?, sometimes when i try to test my nerve, less so now…)