Posted by moomin68 on April 4, 2011, at 10:17:22
In reply to Re: Vitamin D, Smoking and Dopamine..., posted by desolationrower on April 4, 2011, at 3:32:51
> i do like bupropion, or nri for nicotine w/d, and even nicotine replacement, because addiction is a lot less bad if it doesn't give you cancer.
>
> but not smoking is great too. and so is d3. (get enought k2)
>
> -d/rI quit smoking successfully using Wellbutrin 5 years ago. Once I started coming off it though, I started to "slip". Since I took a long time to come off the Wellbutrin, it was 18 months before I was fully smoking again.
In my opinion (and I'm not a medical professional, this is just from experience only) -- the only way to truly quit nicotine addiction is cold turkey. This is the only way the brain can learn to be truly free of nicotine addiction, and the dopamine pathways can completely heal.
Of course if you don't address the underlying addictive tendencies, you'll probably just move onto another addiction -- sugar in my case! The only cure for addiction in the long-run, is "emotional sobriety" and this doesn't happen by replacing addictions with other addictions.
In my laypersons understanding -- Wellbutrin inhibits the desire for nictotine because it affects Dopamine in the brain, in a similar way nicotine does.
Nicotine Replacement therapy is no different, because the underlying addiction is never addressed, only replaced in this case, or diverted as with Wellbutrin.
Wellbutrin is an addiction in my opinion, just like NRT. Quitting smoking is incredibly difficult, that's why so many methods of making it easier are marketed to us.
I see what you are saying -- that addiction is a lot less bad if it doesn't give you cancer. But if the addiction isn't truly healed, the chances of cancer are probably still greater.
poster:moomin68
thread:951619
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/neuro/20100607/msgs/981941.html