I was just wondering if anyone who was suffering from an anxiety disorder also smoked? I know that anxiety can trigger paranoia and vice versa..which would make most anxiety sufferers too afraid to smoke on account of every little pain being possibly cancer. I have those kinds of fears, but they haven't been strong enough to make me quit for good yet. I just think it would interesting to find out how many of us smoked.

I'm a smoker.
I know some people say that smoking made their anxiety worse but it never did that to me...in fact it had just the opposite effect, it seemed to calm me down.

i have smoked for 12years since i got diagnosed with anxiety & depression. i quit for 3mths earlier this yera. in that time i can honestly say i felt more relaxed ,calm & more at peace with self. i started aain coz i got upset over my ex who contacted me outta blue & messed with head. it was a mistake 7 now like before my smoking is more a nervous reaction than enjoyment i will try aain to quit within a few months when i feel ive got enough will power again. goldberg

Hi.... I smokes about a pack a day for 10 years, and quit about 4 months ago. It was ironically my worst bout with symptoms at the time, but for some reason, I picked that time to try. I used to think that it calmed me to smoke, and that I would have really bad withdrawl symptoms when I quit, but it was just the opposite. I quit cold turkey, and I feel alot better. I swear, I won't preach, but give it a try. You really won't miss all of the pros it had. I never thought that I wanted to quit, but I did, and believe me, I am so stubborn! :wave:

Hello. i am a smoker also, i have smoked for about 6 years or so. EWver since i hve had sinus and anxiety problems i have seriously cut down on the smoking. I used to smoke about a packa day, now a pack lasts me almost 2 weeks!
I was having a lot of chest pressure and pains, and when i smoke it just makes me think they are coming back, so i have tried to quit alltogether, i agree it makes you feel better all around!

I am also a smoker, but recently I have tried decreasig my smoking to one cigarette a day. I find that the less I smoke the better my anxiety is somedays. Smoking gives my anxiety most of the time, so I really trying to quit.

As a smoker, I have suffered anxiety when I needed a nicotine fix. And now it's getting harder and harder to find a place to have one. They are even banning smoking on the beaches.

I quit 10 years ago and have never regretted it. At least that's one thing that I'm not a slave to anymore.

Must be nice to be able to quit and not pick them back up again. I had quit when the majority of my symptoms showed their ugly faces..that was for a few weeks..then for some reason, I picked up the habit again. I thought maybe it'd help me handle my disorder better. I don't know if it helps or not... but I'm also afraid of gaining weight when quitting. I don't need the weight gain to add to my lack of self esteem.

I believe it can cause anxiety, although some people "relax" when they smoke....relaxing effect can mean anxiety rebound.

It's also extremely unhealthy as we all know...my uncle had heart disease, lung problems that plagued him all his life because of cigarettes.

Near the end, he had to take predinsone(steriod) to keep his lungs from inflammation but that stuff had terrible side effects, one was weakening the immune system. He also got diabetes from it. So, after his last angioplasty success, he was all set to go home, heart and lungs healthy, when he caught a staph infection in the hospital... which ended up killing him because the predinsone screwed up his immune system. He was 64 years old; smoked since he was 15.

Anxiety is the least reason to quit, yet it is very valid a reason since most anxiety patients will end up on medications that also adversely effect health of the body.