Smoking and Schizophrenia

Good Day,

I am new to this community. I wanted to connect to the community of those who live and deal with this illness. My name is Katrina. I am an artist. I have lived with bipolar II for twelve years, and within the last three I developed schizoeffective symptoms (hearing voices, experiencing symptoms of schizophrenia in conjunction with mood/bipolar disorder). I was institutionalized once for being medicated on Adderall for a previous diagnosis of ADHD, levelled out exclusively on lithium and zyprexa at that time, and rediagnosed as "Bipolar-Other".

I am successfully employed as a data ops supervisor for a mid-sized company. I am no longer prescriptionally medicated. Nothing helped with eliminating the voices, and I found that lithium/zyprexa does not lend itself to responsive functionality. Smoking has been part of my daily pattern for the past two years, as I was introduced to it during the smoke breaks in the institution. I find it reduces the mania, the nervous tics, the voices, the insomnia, the emotional/perceptual disconnect from one's environment and loved ones.

Does anyone have a success story about quitting smoking? I am catching the flu and kind of want this to be the catalyst for realization that I cannot use cigarettes as a crutch to self-medicate. What tools/resources were helpful for you?

Katrina

My art gallery: http:\\catalyst-design.deviantart.com