why is nicotine a stimulant?

i know why it is a stimulant physically, but what does it act as a depressant? I never hear of people smoking meth to chill out and unwind, so why is nicotine a stimulant but acts as a depressant?

 

I don't think it is a stimulant.

 

it is.

erowid classifies it as a stimulant as well as other sites and textbooks.

 

Depends how healthy you are.

 

?

I'm sorry but i don't understand your post.

 

Its a stimulant because it stimulates. It temporarily heightens senses, awareness, mental function etc, therefore its a stimulant. People wind down with a cigarette because they are addicted to it, and the rush of nicotine relaxes their nerves.

 

but if your bodies being, for lack of a better word right now, "stimulated', how can you relax?

sorry if I'm sounding stupid, its just confusing me.

 

ya don't sound at all stupid.

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_223a.html

 

so its not so much as relaxing you, but relieving the stress from wanting a cigarette?

 

I think you hit the proverbial nail on the head.

 

lol, thanks. maybe if i had put more thought into this, i could of figured it out myself!

 

Yeah when someone is addicted, the drug they seek will chill them out, no matter what it is. Though it varies with some drugs.

 

drug delivery for one.... smoking a cigerette isnt alot of nicotine... if your smoking crack or meth...nicotine its high would probable be simular if the weight of the drug were the same... but for another reason why cigerettes are not a starting point for the drug is cause there are more chemicals released in the smoke.... for instance.. Ethylene oxide
Formaldehyde
Furan
Heterocyclic amines
Hydrazine
Isoprene bination
2-Naphthylamine

look up some of that shit and tell me if that dont get you high.. Right? once you get so high on something you start to chill out... This chemical combination of these compounds are more of a gas than anything else... and all your really addicted to is Huffing Hydrocarbons..... The nicotine thing is justa isolated compound of tobacco and it cant be addictive with the levels of it peresent in smoke... The behavior of the chimp
puffing away is different in us all.... And I smoke tobacco btw..

 

I really think there is more to it than that. For example, Ritalin and other stimulants are used to chill the hyperactive kids out. Also, I remember the first time I smoked a cigarette, (before addiction) I got all dizzy and wanted to lay down. I felt pretty relaxed then.

 

I you go for a ten mile run, or a hike in the hills, then smoke a cigarette, it is far from stimulating. When someone ignorant fucking asshole at work smokes one of those shit things near me, I feel my energy levels draining, my eyes water, my chest tightens, and I start to feel lethargic. The stimulating effects of nicotene depend upon many other factors.

 

Might as well burn a lump of coal on your desk... youll get the same effect.....Tobacco smoke is death...... thats all... Forget being dizzy..... Sniff the tail pipe on a car if you want to get dizzy... Isnt it posionous enough we have to breathe auto exaust...And second hand smoke.....

 

Don't get me wrong I enjoy the occasional shisha water pipe, that is how tobacco should be smoked. These packs and rolling tobacco are SO FUCKING BAD FOR YOU, and what is worse they are even more harmful to your health when smoked passively. This is why I get REALLY FUCKING ANGRY about smoking being allowed in the work place and on the street. They ban it in pubs, the one place it SHOULD be allowed. I am persecuted for smoking my hash pipe, people look down their noses at me like I am a junkie, I can go to prison for it, but at the same time i have suffer other peoples tobacco smoke.

 

^true..... I to have partaked in tobacco smoking...... But I want to I inhale it on my own.. Like oversprayed perfume... anything else more noxious in the workplace and in public..... would be raw sewage...

 

I don't know that cigarettes actually relax you at all. I think it's more of a placebo than anything. There is a slight buzz, and slightly heavier one with unfiltered cigs and cigars, but that's about it. Personally, I don't get anything great out of nicotine. It's legal cause it sucks..just like alcohol.

One exception is clove cigs..I really like these, but they're awful for my health (can cause lungs to bleed!) so I don't smoke them anymore. Even when I did, I never smoked them habitually tho. I've never understood how anyone could become addicted to nicotine. Smoking that shit everyday would just make me feel like crap.

 

check this:

http://www.jellinek.nl/brain/index.html