Comment by whycome

4 months ago

Nicotine. But not the smokeable kind. And low dosage. But not if you’re likely to get addicted. The absurdity is that your country definitely makes it legal for historical reasons rather than useful less addicting stimulants.

Nicotine is amazing... for a week. Then you will be chasing the dragon forever. Tolerance builds up crazy fast and doesn't meaningfully lower even when you cease smoking for years.

Plus pretty bad for your health and crazy addictive. Absolutely not a good recommendation.

  • > Tolerance builds up crazy fast and doesn't meaningfully lower even when you cease smoking for years.

    I specified not smoking it though?

    > Plus pretty bad for your health and crazy addictive. Absolutely not a good recommendation

    You’re saying that it’s “bad for health” as something separate from its addiction potential?

    How is it bad for your health exactly?

    Also, ‘Crazy addictive’ is related to delivery method.

    Also, there may be critical differences to people who have never smoked before.

It wasn't till I quit nicotine that I began to struggle with undiagnosed adhd. I wish there was a way to make nicotine safe and non-addictive. I think it was far more effective to spike my nicotine level and tackle a task than adderall twice a day has been. Vaping was huge for controlled nicotine consumption.

You are being down-voted by people making big claims ("pretty bad for your health and crazy addictive", "nicotine is ridiculously addictive") without any proofs. In fact, I challenge anyone making such claims to reference a scientific study proving either of major addictive potential or significant health concerns of _nicotine patches_ since OP specifically mentioned "not the smokeable kind" of nicotine.

  • I mean, tobacco smoke is terrible for anyone's health but even nicotine on its own is not exactly good for you. It's definitely a stimulant and can give you the kinds of side effects you might expect from any stimulant, including a raised BP and heart rate.

    • Wait, you’re just repeating general empty statements. Why isn’t nicotine on its own good for you? A raised heart rate and BP for a period isn’t a bad thing. It’s an expected response from any stimulant.

      I mean, sex and exercise also cause the same responses.

    • > It's definitely a stimulant and can give you the kinds of side effects you might expect from any stimulant, including a raised BP and heart rate.

      Sure, but people wouldn't downvote a comment suggesting having couple of cups of coffee per day to improve ADHD symptoms as hard, for example. And for me caffeine withdrawals symptoms have always been more difficult to overcome compared to nicotine.

      For average tech worker HN user living a sedentary life-style, having stressful job in polluted city periodic usage of nicotine patches won't make it to their top list of health concerns IMO.

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