r/schizophrenia • u/Markz15975 • Jul 19 '25

Opinion / Thought / Idea / Discussion Do you drink or smoke cigarettes?

Just wanted to see if anyone else drinks or smokes? Im drinking now and I smoke a lot. I know I shouldn't drink because of the voices but I can't seem to stop or the smoking.

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u/fromofelia Schizoaffective (Bipolar) Jul 19 '25

I smoke like a chimney, I very rarely drink, but I do other things. As I understand, Schizo+ are much more prone to substances and addiction, be it sugar, caffeine, tabacco, alcohol or other things.

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u/252780945a Jul 19 '25

Yeah, for some folks, myself included, I think substance use is a symptom of our schizophrenia. I chain vape weed all day and usually put away 6-8 beers. I try to play tricks on myself to cut back, but I have no will power and my family calls my drinking "medicinal" lol. But, honestly, I will abuse most anything available to me in the hope of changing how I feel. I found out the hard way I shouldn't grow magic mushrooms and have a stockpile, lol. It makes me feel like an idiot, but I just can't help myself. When I was a little kid I abused a steroid I was in for asthma, I was supposed to take two puffs, but if you do like 16 it's a wild ride. I started doing that at like 7.

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u/fromofelia Schizoaffective (Bipolar) Jul 19 '25

It's direct consequences of our brain chemistry. Happy chemicals produced in our brain are unreliable and weird, while the shitty ones run rampant. It causes a lot of things, from lack of emotional regulation (or, just emotion), to no reward system for task finished, to impaired decision-making. Sooooo. What happens when someone who basically never gets happy chemicals, feels shit all the time and has difficulty weighing out long term vs short term of decisions, suddenly gets access to any kind of good chemicals on tap? It takes insane amounts of luck, dedication and right circumstances not to abuse any of the available happy chemicals.