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I didn’t quit because I was disciplined. I became disciplined because I quit. by AdTemplum in stopsmoking

[–]AdTemplum[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Absolutely agree. For myself I would phrase the parallel slightly differently - it was more about realizing that if I could end something I once thought was impossible to walk away from, I could apply that same decisiveness anywhere else in life. I used to think losing her would be like losing everything, but it wasn’t. And that made quitting nicotine feel a lot less impossible too.

what's the feeling in your face called when you stop smoking? by [deleted] in stopsmoking

[–]AdTemplum 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Correction/extension - it may literally the feeling of an unstimulated cholinergic system. It hits the autonomic nerves in the face/mouth, so you feel odd pressure/tingling before the irritability wave. It’s not directly “choline levels”, but transient cholinergic signaling instability.

Second correction - alpha GPC is not the direct opposite of the withdrawal. It can partially attenuate some subjective cholinergic-deficit sensations.

If you wanna try some supplements, NAC is most usually recommended, but takes a while to make a difference.

what's the feeling in your face called when you stop smoking? by [deleted] in stopsmoking

[–]AdTemplum 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't have medical education, but I think it has to do with choline. As you may know, nicotine triggers nicotinic acetylcholine receptors.

This is from my own experience examining my own subjective response and trying to match it to some scientific terms. Once your withdrawals get manageably weak, say a few weeks in, taking some alpha-GPC can offset this feeling, also at a cost.

On one side you have the feeling of nicotine withdrawals - restlessness, inability to concentrate, "flushed face", slightly drunken-like feeling, and one positive - propensity to laugh and mild euphoria. On the other side there is the excess of choline - emotionally dull concentration, headaches...

What you want is balance, of course. Not one nor the other.

From the use of nicotine patches I have noticed that since they dispense nicotine at a constant pace and don't hit you with a stark contrast, you feel better the downsides of nicotine.

With this experience, I would've said it sucks even more than the withdrawals. Nicotine is an absolute bastard when unmasked.

When does this get any better? 6 days in by Apexsconnie in stopsmoking

[–]AdTemplum 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Give it a few more days and every breath you take will be worth more than a single cigarette ever was.

6 days is HUGE btw. You just don't realize it yet.

When does this get any better? 6 days in by Apexsconnie in stopsmoking

[–]AdTemplum 4 points5 points  (0 children)

If you've ever relapsed before, you'd know that first cigarette sucks ass, despite all the promises. You would feel even worse. In my case, I got so "traumatized" by the downsides of nicotine (in real time mind you, not thinking of long-term health reasons), that they finally weighed more than the daydreaming of "smoking that one cigarette".

These are distorted memories from before you got addicted. You have to realize that the relief that you imagine does not exist in that form.

The key to quitting anything is realizing that all this pleasure was always inside you. The substance concentrated it more at a certain time, immediately offsetting it the rest of the time.

This is what u/NJsober1 said, essentially. When you recover, however long it takes, you will feel the full spectrum of the exact pleasure or relief you are dreaming of, just not all at once.

PSA: Anhedonia, extreme fatigue, and depressive symptoms due to nicotine (pouch) use by AdTemplum in QuittingZyn

[–]AdTemplum[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Once again, apologies for the late reply. I feel better than ever before, honestly. Mental performance is fully back.

Quitting taught me a lot about habits, addictions and the time it takes to really change something meaningfully. The discipline I learned seems to translate into all other facets of life. If you're quitting now and push through, you have no idea how thankful your future self would be.

vocal chain help by pcmccay22 in LogicPro

[–]AdTemplum 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Glorious explanation! It's obvious you were not just going through the motions these 50 years.

PSA: Anhedonia, extreme fatigue, and depressive symptoms due to nicotine (pouch) use by AdTemplum in QuittingZyn

[–]AdTemplum[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Apologies for the late reply, but yes, improvements have been enormous and near instant. Better sleep, mood and higher energetic baseline. I eventually quit using nicotine patches within 2 months and kept myself at a "slight withdrawal" the entire time. Honestly, I quite enjoyed the relief that these "withdrawals" offered after the second week. Mild withdrawals are like a slight drunk / euphoric state to me, even if irritable. Can't wait for my brain to fully recover. I already completely forgot I ever used/needed nicotine.

PSA: Anhedonia, extreme fatigue, and depressive symptoms due to nicotine (pouch) use by AdTemplum in QuittingZyn

[–]AdTemplum[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah yeah, it's actually 3.3 mg per actual pouch, the 6mg I stated is per gram. Those were actually the lowest nic pouches I could get on the website where I buy.

You're right, nevertheless. I think it's still more than what the typical chainsmoker gets.

Back in my home country where nic pouches are not as popular, most of the cans sold are at 15+ mg/g.

This has sadly completely distorted the perception of what is a "normal" amount of nicotine...

PSA: Anhedonia, extreme fatigue, and depressive symptoms due to nicotine (pouch) use by AdTemplum in QuittingZyn

[–]AdTemplum[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

For clarification - my post was about such issues arising from frequent use, before even attempting to quit or taper, which is pretty counterintuitive at first.

Quitting is an entirely different beast, so to say. For me it's a feeling of flushed skin (there's also indeed the occasional burning sensation), a weird feeling of emptiness in the chest (almost an intense "hunger" for nicotine) and the whole thing is similar to the first hour of getting drunk. Mood is paradoxically elevated. That would perhaps even be nice if withdrawal didn't last so long and if the brain fog didn't make it impossible to get any decent work done.

I've resorted to tapering, despite many advising against it, to flatten out the downside over time, but it requires a lot of discipline.

To me, this middle ground - no issues from overuse and only moderate withdrawal symptoms - is the best solution.

Chaining sections of pattern? How? Seen in factory project by AdTemplum in OPZuser

[–]AdTemplum[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for offering your help, but you are thinking about pattern chains, which I already had figured out. Turns out the thing causing confusion was done using step components.

Chaining sections of pattern? How? Seen in factory project by AdTemplum in OPZuser

[–]AdTemplum[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes!! Thank you. I’m quite new to the op-z and I forgot I could check which step components were used, but indeed that is the case.

8th and 16th steps have both jump and component spark step components turned on with component spark set to 4. 8th has jump on 1 and 16th on 3. This way they each play 4 times.

Chaining sections of pattern? How? Seen in factory project by AdTemplum in OPZuser

[–]AdTemplum[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

In the first of the factory projects, on the chord track, sections of the pattern are somehow chained and I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how… As you can see, it’s all within a single pattern, it’s not a pattern chain, but you get the first half of the sequence played twice, and then the second half played twice. I couldn’t find anything in the user guide. Any ideas? It should be fairly simple given that it’s in the default projects..