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Nicotine is an anxiolytic. It helps anxiety.

That can seem like a nootropic (some definitions even explicitly include them) especially if you have anxiety.

The con of this is nicotine addiction.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, exercise and meditation all beat nicotine in effectiveness as anxiolytics and in strength of effect.

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I can’t find the study from a cursory search, but my understanding that nicotine addiction per se could not be replicated without combustion - non-smokers using nicotine patches did not exhibit dependence, but smokers did get dependence relief from them.

To that end, non-combustible methods of nicotine might give the benefits without the addiction negatives (but still risks of e.g. pancreatic cancer)

But not in effort to benefit ratio, excluding the downsides of nicotine. Chewing nicotine is cheap and easy, cognitive behavioral therapy, exercise, and meditation, all take significant amounts of time at the very least.

Not arguing for the use of nicotine, but there are reasons people like taking pills (or chewing gum, as the case may be).

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