The most popular anti-anxiety drug (alcohol) is legal in most places.
If you don’t like alcohol, there’s another legal drug which doesn’t have the same anti-anxiety effects, but in many places comes with a ready made social network. That drug is tobacco, in places where indoor smoking is banned. The ban helps strengthen the feeling of community. Many tobacco users claim this group membership is the main reason they smoke.
The risks of smoking tobacco probably exceed the social benefits. Nicotine itself, vaporized in an e-cigarette, is much safer. Long running propaganda campaigns have made people conflate tobacco with nicotine, so if you’re seen as a nicotine user, and don’t make any negative comments about tobacco smoking, you are likely to be accepted as part of the tobacco smokers group. Most smokers will assume you are an ex-smoker who switched. If you stand upwind smoke exposure will be minimal.
Even if you don’t like nicotine this is a workable strategy. You can use 0 nicotine liquid and it will be indistinguishable to others unless they try it. If you’re worried that somebody might want to try it and it would be awkward to refuse, it’s still possible to minimize nicotine exposure. You can suck the vapor into your mouth rather than into the lungs, where it is absorbed rather slowly. You can blow it out before you’ve absorbed much. It’s very difficult to see the difference between mouth and lung inhalation, so this won’t look odd to tobacco smokers. The fact that you’re wasting so much vapor will only make it look more impressive.
You can use an e-cigarrete with a detachable tip and carry spare tips to avoid risk of spreading disease when sharing. Carrying a lighter will also have social benefits as smokers often misplace them and sharing yours will help strengthen group membership.
The most popular anti-anxiety drug (alcohol) is legal in most places.
Caution—mild scientific evidence for anxiety increasing effects in the long run, moderate scientific evidence that the anxious are more susceptible to dependency for this substance, not to mention that alcohol + neuroticism has an anecdotal reputation as a failure mode.
It feels like the boring / obvious thing to say, but I think it’s worth mentioning.
Failure mode: my mother smoked excessively when I was a child, which contributed to either a built-up sensitivity to nicotine, or a psychosomatic perception of the same. Either way, nicotine is non-viable.
Also, alcohol actually makes me MORE neurotic, not less, because I’m constantly reminding myself that I’m drunk, and therefore likely to do something dumb.
The most popular anti-anxiety drug (alcohol) is legal in most places.
If you don’t like alcohol, there’s another legal drug which doesn’t have the same anti-anxiety effects, but in many places comes with a ready made social network. That drug is tobacco, in places where indoor smoking is banned. The ban helps strengthen the feeling of community. Many tobacco users claim this group membership is the main reason they smoke.
The risks of smoking tobacco probably exceed the social benefits. Nicotine itself, vaporized in an e-cigarette, is much safer. Long running propaganda campaigns have made people conflate tobacco with nicotine, so if you’re seen as a nicotine user, and don’t make any negative comments about tobacco smoking, you are likely to be accepted as part of the tobacco smokers group. Most smokers will assume you are an ex-smoker who switched. If you stand upwind smoke exposure will be minimal.
Even if you don’t like nicotine this is a workable strategy. You can use 0 nicotine liquid and it will be indistinguishable to others unless they try it. If you’re worried that somebody might want to try it and it would be awkward to refuse, it’s still possible to minimize nicotine exposure. You can suck the vapor into your mouth rather than into the lungs, where it is absorbed rather slowly. You can blow it out before you’ve absorbed much. It’s very difficult to see the difference between mouth and lung inhalation, so this won’t look odd to tobacco smokers. The fact that you’re wasting so much vapor will only make it look more impressive.
You can use an e-cigarrete with a detachable tip and carry spare tips to avoid risk of spreading disease when sharing. Carrying a lighter will also have social benefits as smokers often misplace them and sharing yours will help strengthen group membership.
Caution—mild scientific evidence for anxiety increasing effects in the long run, moderate scientific evidence that the anxious are more susceptible to dependency for this substance, not to mention that alcohol + neuroticism has an anecdotal reputation as a failure mode.
It feels like the boring / obvious thing to say, but I think it’s worth mentioning.
Failure mode: my mother smoked excessively when I was a child, which contributed to either a built-up sensitivity to nicotine, or a psychosomatic perception of the same. Either way, nicotine is non-viable.
Also, alcohol actually makes me MORE neurotic, not less, because I’m constantly reminding myself that I’m drunk, and therefore likely to do something dumb.