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Comment by caymanjim | Hacker News Reader

I've been a long-time smoker, and at least for me, nicotine alone does absolutely nothing to alleviate cravings. Gum, patches, lozenges, vaping, etc. do zero to alleviate my craving for a cigarette. I'm not discounting that nicotine is addictive (I'm in no position to say), but there's got to be something else in tobacco that is part of the addiction.

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Nicotine only makes me sick. I've tried gums, vapes, and nicotine salt pouches. I smoke a tobacco pipe when I want to relax.

There are MAOIs in tobacco smoke. I'm not sure that's what makes me feel calm though.

It could be the interaction between the MAOIs and the nicotine. Or more accurately, the MAOIs altering how your body handles nicotine.

There are sibling comments discussing MAOIs, and I've heard about them before in relation to smoking. It makes me wonder if MAOIs alone would be better for smoking cessation. I don't think I'm all that addicted to the nicotine itself. There are plenty of other supposedly-addictive stimulants that I can take or leave at will and with no feelings of withdrawal, and nicotine does nothing to alleviate cigarette withdrawal for me, so I'm not sure it's even a necessary component. There are some NIH studies about MAOIs and smoking, but I'm not going to link them because I find them incomprehensibly dense.

I don’t remember what family of antidepressant Bupropion (Wellbutrin/Zyban) is, but it helped me immensely the first time I quit. I literally just woke up one day (a few days before my target quit date) and had no craving at all.

It also made me a little bit manic, and weaning off it sucked, but it worked well in general.

Addiction has two components: chemical(i.e. nicotine) and psychological (i.e. the habit of the ritual).

My mom recently switched to e-cigarettes, and she said that she still occasionally gets the urge to smoke a real cigarette. But she said the urge is a lot weaker than when she used to go prolonged periods without smoking cigarettes, such as after a long plane ride.

Have you tried vaping using those e-cigs that look realistic, have a light up tip, and deliver a reasonable throat hit?

For me the addiction was partly psychological around the form factor. Using "light sabre" style vapes didn't work. However I was able to wean myself off smokes using realistic e-cigs (which I also eventually quit).

They do nothing for me. They're also cheaply made and don't work well or consistently (and I've tried many brands).

The only thing that got me to quit smoking is the Juul. I tried everything else, but with the Juul, I just quit without having to consciously discipline myself 20 times a day. The gum was close though, but it took too long to kill the craving, so I'd end up chewing it constantly for it to work.

I've been smoking for a little over 20 years (since a teenager). Good luck.

Have you ever tried Swedish Snus? It's supposedly healthier than smoking, and no need to spit like chewing tobacco.

If you try it. make sure you get fresh stuff before you pass judgment, because it ferments inside the package if left out for too long.

That’s how you get mouth cancer.

It's still considered the safest form of tobacco out there, and the increased risk of mouth cancer is quite small to non existent.

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/30/business/studying-snus-a-...

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