[elliemay]

Is it now considered a mental health issue?

[Direction]

I think it may be considered an addiction or not so good coping mechanism?

[Direction]

By the way welcome to PC!

[sunrise]

It is a mental health issue. Nicotine affects neurotransmitter release, for example in the reward (dopamine) pathway. Nicotine binds to the acetylcholine receptors on neurons, a signal is sent, dopamine is released into the synapse, then binds to the receiving neuron, which now continues the signal. Voila, the dopamine pathway. Pleasure! (I believe there also may be nicotine effects in the serotonin system.) Sometimes people with certain neurotransmitter imbalances may attempt to self medicate by smoking.

you mean you didn't know that smoking was a sign of insanity :-O

;-)

does it ask about looking for hair on the palms of your hands??

;-)

For some it is an anti-anxiety behavior. It's why so many return to smoking after quitting. For me it was always a crisis of some kind, big or small, that would make me go back to it.

And I suppose it is a statement about how we think of our health/bodies that we would do that to ourselves. It's like a (somewhat) socially acceptable form of self-injury.

nicotene helps prevent alzheimers and parkinsons
i heard that they were trialling nicotene patches for people were high risk in england
'nicotene replacement therapy' is available in australia OTC at gas stations and so on and so forth and there is no age restriction on sales
they are all but marketing it as the new caffine
lol
does the sanity score ask about caffine too?

i'm sorry but i don't see how a 'sanity score' helps people take mental illness seriously

and i don't see how encouraging consumers to label themselves etc etc is meant to be helpful, either

but whatever whatever, to each their own ;-)

.. sometimes i think this site only exists to elicit data for various research

call me paranoid but I get that impression sometimes

[Zorah]

((((((((((ECHOES))))))))))

You could be right on the money with that opinion

> .. sometimes i think this site only exists to elicit data for various research

hey. i really... don't think so. 'sanity' and 'insanity' aren't established psychological constructs and i can't imagine that they will become so at any point in the near future.

my guess is that... it is more likely that doc john obtained some kind of funding from somewhere or other to offer an informal tool for people to use who were worried about their psychological health.

What about people who drive like maniacs and eat lots of junk food, wouldn't that be a mental health issue, too?

And they can ask, Do you own more than 2 cats or dogs? 'Cause you know people with a lot of pets are crazy, too!

[Zorah]

We own 6 cats, we breed them & show them, but even some of the cat judges say "never admit to owning more than 2 cats"



maybe they'll decide we're all witches

[Rebound]

</font><blockquote><div id="quote"><font class="small">Quote:</font>
Anonymous said:
.. sometimes i think this site only exists to elicit data for various research

call me paranoid but I get that impression sometimes

</div></font></blockquote><font class="post">
Your feelings are understandable but if the posted policies can be relied upon, and I have every confidence that they can, Doc John has committed to never use anything posted by members for research purposes. From the community guidelines:

Forums are Research-Free

These forums strictly prohibit any research being conducted on them for any purpose whatsoever. Any user of this forum is prohibited from conducting research on the forums in any form, whether it be as a group or on an individual poster.

I don't believe it feels very good or very safe if you feel like anything you might want to share or write about might one day end up in some random professional journal, archived for all of time. I prohibit any and all research to be conducted on posts herein.

Anyway, about smoking, I don't know if this is in any way accounted for in the Sanity Score but it has been shown that people with certain disorders, particularly bipolar and schizophrenia are something like 5 times more likely to be chronic, irredeemable smokers than the general population. In one survey the smoking rate was 8 in 10 among schizophrenics.

but what you want to know isn't 'is it more likely that people with mental illness smoke than not'. what you want to know is 'is it more likely that people who smoke have mental illness or not'. otherwise... you get what is known as the 'base rate fallacy'.

nicotene addiction, tolerance, and withdrawal are in the DSM as mental disorders (rightly or wrongly). so smoking constitutes a mental disorder according to the DSM.

my guess would be that pets would lower your score because pets would contribute towards social support (which is negatively correlated with mental illness). i think... though... i could be wrong.