Smoking Adds Suicide Risk to BP

I’m 44 years old and started smoking at the age of 12. My first suicide attempt was when I was 14 but there were no more attempts until I turned 40 and it was twice, close together. I think I have always thought of suicide just on different levels at different times. I also have to say that I was first diagnosed with only depression at the age of 32 and then manic/BP at 39. My more serious problems did not begin until the death of my husband in 98. From that time on this continues to get worse.

Though I lean much further on the depressive scale of BP, I’ve never had an attempt. I’ve been smoking for 40 years and would love to quit but the flip side of that is I become dangerously depressed as soon as I do. People think it’s just a way for me to avoid quitting but it’s a very real, very severe and very fast effect, no matter what I’ve tried. As far as smokers being more likely to be suicidal….hmmm, I wonder if our houses being messy is an indicator too…uh-oh!

I am 36 years old and a Schizoaffective Bipolar person. I want to quit smoking. I’m divorced with 4 children. I’m from Newfoundland, but born in the United States. I am in a mental facility right now and my status is blue. I’m a recovering alcoholic with 11 months of sobriety. My children range in age from 3-17. I’m not alone any more. Thank you for this website and please teach me more about Schizoaffective disorder especially about depression when I can’t really take antidepressants. Thank you, Juanita

This gives me something to think about, I never thought about smoking and suicidal tendencies, but it makes sense. I’m actively quitting smoking, in one month I’ve smoked 1 cigarette, but when I did it was a self destructive act. I felt more depressed because I smoked. The dx of Bipolar Disorder makes me very unhappy. I don’t like the weight gain and I don’t exercise much because I’m disappointed with myself as a result of the dx. But, with small steps, I hope I can feel better and it’s good to read about things like smoking and suicide. Thanks for the article.

I have been aware of my bipolar diagnoses for twenty years. I’ve usaually have more problems with mania than depression. This information in this article in really enlightening to me. I am very impulsive at times. And I smoke. I smoke with absolutley no intentions at all whatsoever of quittting. I have had two sucide attempts within the last several years. Also, I idealize about suicide very often and have for years.

Dear Marcia,
I’ve found the exact opposite of this recent study to be true! Everytime I’ve quit smoking (and the longest I ever made it was 8 months), I’ve gotten deeply depressed & suicidal. I stopped drinking 19 years ago but I can’t seem to live in any kind of peace when I stop smoking. If I ever have a breathing problem, I’ll have to switch to nicotine lozenges!

This doesn’t really surprise me in a way. But I have had ideation and a plan mamy times while depressed. Because of my parents, friends,support providers and spiritual beliefs I have never attempted suicide.

I am a smoker and wish I wasn’t. I have tried all traditional methods more than once. Nothing has worked. Trying to cut down makes me smoke compusively. When I can afford it and arrange transportation I am going to try accupuncture.

I came across this study when I was searching about the effect of nicotine on bd. I used to smoke but now I use smokeless tobacco and I dont like it. Sometimes I will sleep with it which makes me very guilty the next day. For the last several years this is happening to me. I used to to abuse narcotics but when I found that it can make the disease worse, I stopped it on my own. I have never attempted suicide although occasionally thoughts come to me. If the study is true then does it mean that it can make your bd worse and meds less effective? If I am convinced that it makes the disease worse then I will definetly quit as I want to get better.

I am 34, and never smoked on a regular basis until last year. I have rapid-cycled all this year, and pick up the habit every time I get suicidal or in a mixed/manic mood.
For the most part, when I am stable, I don’t even think about cigarettes. But when I get into a nasty mixed state, I engage in impulsive behavior like smoking and start contemplating suicide. I have promised myself and my family that I won’t actually kill myself, but have made several attempts over the years. Now when I’m unstable, I’ll fixate on slow ways to destroy myself, such as with smoking or trying to get infected with HIV. It’s just a big F.U. to myself – that’s how I feel during an episode. I am now on a mood stabilizer and working with a therapist to gain control over my moods. Sorry this is so long, but I hope others identify with some of these extreme feelings.

Has it been considered that people who are more suicidal are more likely to smoke than others? I don’t see that mentioned, and it seems an important point to me.

I’ve smoked since I was 17; never been suicidal. Given tobacco is a form of self-medication, it seems to me that those who would feel suicidal would be more inclined to self-medicate than those who don’t. I’d have to see information on how many people are suicidal who smoke, as opposed to those who don’t, for this to be valid.

To pick up a pack of cigarettes in the first place is a life-threatening thing, which seems suicidal to me. It’s not like going to the grocery store for food–You have to make a conscious effort to smoke, to assault your body with poison every time each day. So many people in my family and my circle of friends have discovered the devastating and life-depriving effects of smoking the hard way. I hope all of you who truly want to quit are able to do so.

I started smoking experimentally when I was about 12. I had asthma as a kid so it didnt work too well with me. But I just found other ways to self-medicate (drugs and alcohol) I had many hospitalizations, and continuous contemplated suicide. I picked up smoking again when I was 32. By then I had gone for years with the wrong diagnoses, so I figured I would just take up any bad habits I could, and that would be a form of “slow suicide”. I never even liked smoking. I still do it, but I still self medicate despite getting a diagnosis of bp1/mixed. It doesn’t really matter what it is, if it alters the way I feel I do it.

I have BiPolar II and I smoke. I’m 46 and have been smoking cigarettes since I was about 21. Although I can see how people could correlate the smoking habit w/ Bipolar, but I’m not sure if it applies to me. I also smoke pot for medicinal purposes, and not a lot of it. I buy a bag and it usually lasts me about 2 months. I smoke to relax me and my muscles. I also have a neurological disorder, where medical marijuana works wonders on…

Private smoking was my way. I know the reward of inhaling tobacco smoke when feeling indignant or furious. But the main smoking I did was behind closed doors where I could tear off my nails and scratch and pinch my face while I soothed myself with reading books, all the while rolling up and smoking cigarettes to try to bring some order to the situation. One day some years ago, I told my pdoc how it was that I really never read in public because in order to be calm and concentrate, I need to busy with my hands doing various self destuctive activities. He listened and made no judgement. Eventually I quit smoking because the combination of my habits running like a train wreck every night in my bedroom took me to the limit. Smoking weed occasionally helped, relaxing my nervous energy somewhat. If I gear that nervous energy into the creative, that’s a smart thing to do. (Painting, drawing, sculpture, sewing, writing, dance, what moves you to express yourself).
Maybe the cigarettes saved me sometimes, I don’t know. I felt terribly guilty that during several of my depressions when I smoked cigarettes, the only thing I could get myself to do some days was to get up and walk few blocks for cigs at the gas station. Then I would get home and sit on the stoop and chainsmoke. That had a very icky feeling that laid itself over me after awhile. And I would just bring it on. Once I did actually get sick chainsmoking and drinking water on an empty stomach.
Many times in depressions I would find myself in the kitchen holding a kitchen knife. It was as if I was going to do something, or had just done something. I was really in a state of paralyzing indecision. I was thinking about the apples or carrots in the refri and how cutting one would mean fewer left. But as many times as I was standing around uselessly with a knife, I wasn’t thinking of suicide. (That would have been subconscious. Just too sad a thought. Ane one I was very afraid of).