BIPOLAR PEOPLE LIKE TO BE SMOKERS

BIPOLAR PEOPLE LIKELY TO BE SMOKERS
I'm a smoker. In 1999 I quit and it lasted for 3 years or so – and I never got over wanting to smoke. Finally I decided to heck with it and started again, and I'm set for life. I like to smoke. As Robin Williams said in one of my favorite movies, Dead Again, “Someone is either a smoker or a nonsmoker. There's no in-between. The trick is to find out which one you are, and be that.” Well, I'm a smoker and happy about it.
But does my smoking have to do with bipolar disorder? A newly published study suggests that it might. Tobacco smoking behaviors in bipolar disorder found that people with BP are 7.3 times as likely to be current smokers as the general population, and 4 times as likely to have smoked in their lifetimes. A whopping 66% of bipolar people in the study were currently smokers.
What about you? Take the poll on smoking and/or leave a comment while I have a cigarette.
Poll: Are You a Smoker?
Absolutely! I love it! I'll never quit!
Yes, but I wish I could quit.
Yes, but I've quit many times before deciding to stay a smoker.
Yes, but I'm in the process of quitting.
Used to be, but I quit and I'm miserable now.
Used to be, but I quit and I'm happy now.
Never smoked – good for me!
View Results
Comments
thordara says:
oh man I LOVED smoking. Every second of it (except for the paying part). I quit almost 5 years ago, and I can still taste it. I don't dare have a drag – I'll start up again.
makeorldgoaway says:
I adore it finally a place I can say so LOL!
Sometimes it's the only thing I have to look forward to, sad to say.
I read somewhere long ago that nicotine actually helps the mentally ill think better, or something like that? Maybe they're retracted that by now but it surprised me to read anything somewhat positive about smoking.
Stefanie says:
I, too, quit for three years, but then when I had some really difficult marital problems and my husband, who'd NEVER been a smoker started smoking nasty little cigars around me...Well, that was that, I was smoking again. I was more of a wreck for the three years that I didn't smoke and replaced it with drinking wine. Now, I smoke, take my medication, work out and eat right, and am beginning to even out once again. I would like to quit again. Physically, I feel better until I started drinking wine all the time, but mentally I just wasn't able to deal with things. Oh well...Guess you have to choose the lesser of the evils!
chiron says:
the link to the study is broken...can you check on this? I would like to read the study mentioned in your article. Thank you.
Mindorbitor says:
I think the need to smoke is actually not just about smoking is general, but the need for nicotine. Smoking is not something I wanted to make a habit out of, but I felt I 'needed” nicotine. So I started chewing tobacco. Being a female it is an odd thing to pick. But I loved it! I have smoked on occasion but I don't like the after taste or smell. I finally quit all forms of nicotine and am glad of it. But sure, sometimes I do miss chewing that tobacco. (I did it in private. How embarrassing).
Heidi says:
Nicotine is definitely a strong drug. I used to do it and other street drugs. The side-effects are deadly. It was the most addictive drug I've ever done—it felt like the cigarettes wanted me to smoke them, not the other way around. I'd rather stick to my prescribed meds. I want something that'll work in the long term, and my insurance won't cover it. You can't smoke when you're on oxygen, anyway.
Antonio says:
I'm a smoker, have been for about twenty years (I'm 38), and quite frankly with the bipolar couldn't quite if I tried. I gave up for a whole ten days (yes – 10 days!) about six years ago, but went right back onto it after the death of my (bipolar) father (by his own hand). I shan't quit again I don't think , living with bipolar is bad enough, but living with it without the cigs would be just darn daft! Am going through ECT at the moment (second batch), and it's not working as well as the first lot. Can't imagine life without a cig...
Lea says:
I am totally addicted to smoking and I love it except for the cost. In addition to being diagnosed with type I bi-polar disorder, I have been tested and have been found to be off the charts with AD/HD. Smoking helps me focus and concentrate and so does caffeine. I am addicted to coffee, too, as it also helps my focus and concentration.
I self-medicated with alcohol for 27 years, but I am NOT an alcoholic. I stopped doing that 5 years ago when my bi-polar and AD/HD meds started working and find I can drink socially and not get drunk with no problem whatsoever.
I also believe that people whose mothers smoke while they are pregnant, like my mother did, are predisposed to amoking because after all they are addicted to nicotine in the womb and go cold turkey off of it when they are born.
I would be curious to know the percentage of how many “fussy” babies are born to women who smoke versus women who don't.
Bill says:
When I was 25 (I'm 68, now), I was smoking (NOT) just letting them burn in the ashtray) FOUR AND A HALF PACKS of cigarettes PER DAY. I started smoking when I entered college at age 18. Strangely, perhaps because of the generation in which I was raised. I have never in my life used any street drugs, nor have I ever abused prescription drugs or alcohol (alcoholism, however, runs in my family). I finally quit smoking following quadruple-bypass surgery. I have been formally evaluated by three psychiatrists and subsequently diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder Type I (hyper-rapid cycling type: as much as thrree cycles DAILY). Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, and Adult-Onset Attention Deficit Disorder. When I finally quit smoking 12 years ago, my withdrawal symptoms were so scary that my wife considered having me involuntary committed to a psychiatric hospital; I laid, naked, mute, unresponsive and curled in a fetal position, refusing to take in any food or liquid of any kind. Would I take smoking back up, given that I LOVED to smoke? I would depend on many things happening, none of what I know will happen---no health consequences of any kind for me, no persons “passsively” smoking, no one sincerely having any objections whatsoever to my smoking, no “No Smoking” areas anywhere, no obsessively checking ashtrays at bedtime to ensure that all cigarettes are out. Need I go on?
Rhiana says:
I am a smoker and have Bipolar Disorder. I found this post so interesting I wrote a song about it.
The tune is from “If You're Happy and You Know It.” I just changed the lyrics. I hope everyone finds it entertaining. It's all in fun. LOL
IF YOU'RE A SMOKER AND BIPOLAR, LIGHT ONE UP.
IF YOU'RE BIPOLAR AND A SMOKER, TAKE A PUFF.
IF YOU'RE A SMOKER AND BIPOLAR,
MAKE SURE YOU ALWAYS HAVE YOUR LIGHTER,
IF YOU'RE BIPOLAR AND A SMOKER, LIGHT AND PUFF.
mary edwards says:
I, too, was a smoker for 20 years and I just loved it! But for each of those 20 years I tried quitting almost every day. I'd buy a pack, smoke one, then throw the pack away. This went on day after day. I finally was able to kick the habit 10 years ago and don't miss it a bit now. In fact, it gags me to think about it. The secret is to just keep trying – never give up. Eventually, you, too, will be able to quit.
Joyce says:
I am so glad that you are bringing up this issue. I have tried to many times to quit but always have gone back and I've always suspected it had something to do with my manic-depression But I was afraid that I was rationalizing. Now that I know that I didn't make it up in my head – that there is really a connection.
(Joycelyn says:
I have been smoking for 40 years. Have tried many times to quit.. Once for 14 months. If the suggestion is that having bipolar makes one more predispositioned to smoking and harder to quit seem reasonable. It is said that bipolar makes one more predispositioned to becoming an alcoholic and hooked on drugs. Nicotine is also a drug and addictive so that it stands to reason this could be a good possibility. I'd like to think that I will be able to stop smoking but I really don't think that will be a realisitic possibility.
Paddy says.
I started smoking at the age of 28 when I left my first husband. I had craved cigarettes since I wa 18. I mean craved! The divorce was a good excuse to start, so I did. I smoked for 18 years. Tried quitting a couple of times but the longest I made it was just about a year. I quit the last time 2 years ago. I'm glad I don't smoke, and I hate smelling other peoples' smoke. But damn if I don't crave them every now and then. At times I think about starting again because it seems to help with the nerves, but I couldn't afford it now, so I won't. Take care all and do what is necessary for you as an individual.
Suzy says:
I've been diagnosed bipolar since 1987. I started to smoke Marlboro Lights around the year 1983. So all in all, I've been smoking for quite a while, and even though, I do like smoking, I also know the imminent dangers that lurk around each cigarette I light! Sometimes I think some people think smokers are so stupid! Lo!. I guess smokers like me on some level have 2 be stupid 4 starting to smoke in the 1st place, but let me tell you, a day does not go by w/o me realizing just how dangerous smoking is to my health, and to the health of others around me. On the same token I enjoy every single puff I take.
eyedintduit says:
ya know I smoked in my twentys and then stopped in my thirtys when I couldn't breathe now in my fourtys I started back and I love smoking but yes ya guessed it I gotta give it up if I wanna see fifty. This bout of cough attacks has really got me cough cough and cough some more—bad as I hate to I do think its time I quit for good
Dee says:
I have smoked cigars on occasion since I was 14—and am thinking I developed BP around 12 years old. [I can remember just knowing something wasn't quite right, esp the rash of incoming thoughts; and the cigar would help me “focus” better.] Don't think my parents knew as they both smoked and probably couldn't smell it.
Didn't start drinking coffee until age 40; helps me with concentration at work, and I only drink 1-2 cups in the morning. But even now I feel like I COULD drink a lot more – that subtle urge is there...along with more wind and more cigar smoking...
I'm also under a natropath's supplementation program and think that helps me only take a minimum of Lamictal. Before the BP dx, I was getting worse in up/down, maybe rapid cycling, and I was smoking more and also drinking a LOT of wine daily—main to help me stop the tinnitus and thought overload at night. No one had ever even thought to see if I had BP so many years of useless suffering by me and my family...sad.
Everything has calmed down so much for the better since my DX two years ago – ater 5-6 different Drs always to get me on tranquilizers or antidepressants. I would spin out of control on those meds, much to the detriment of my girls. And all they wanted to do is UP the doses! Jeez...
Still, I'll have a glass of wine about every other night, almost always while visiting with a neighbor on the front porch. As is a cigar once s week now.
But, I bet I probably could smoke more; reading your posts here made me realize “yeah, daily smokes WOULD be good!
But we've got to NOT let our BP condition take over so its an excuse; with medicine, we can develop our choices now, and make a decision to at least smoke less, and with purpose. Like really enjoying it and not rushing through a smoke.
Perhaps that thought helps, since you really can't breeze through a $4 cigar – lo!
Good luck to all this forum – Dee
Marcia says:
I quite once for a little over two years. I was manic then. I could get out and walk at that time. Not so today. Need hip replacements and have a lot of hip pain. The worse? I have COPD and the cost.