Quitting nicotine/smoking with e-cig

[Kate]

It is hard to keep track, I swap flavours all the time too.

I reckon I vape around 2-3ml a day. I'm replacing a smoking habit of about 24mg a day so I vape 6-11mg juice most of the time and have occasional hits of 18mg. That keeps me fairly steady when I manage it but when I don't control my intake and overdo it I get palpitations, headaches and disturbed sleep. Less nic than usual doesn't seem to have much effect strangely and I don't crave smoking any more either.

[CalPilot89]

How about this.. Get 2 sampler packs from Johnson creek. 1 with nicotine, one non nic. Don't label which is which. Smoke all of them not knowing which is which. This way half of the time you will be getting no nicotine and half the time you will be getting nicotine. See if your brain knows the difference. Then you will know if it is more in your head or not.. I don't know.. just off the top of my head. I just know that I smoke JC low nicotine, and when I use a fresh cart of the hard stuff, (pre filled from the manufacturer,) I do not notice a difference in the amount I use. It all seems the same for me..

[Tumbleweed4829]

I think I'll buy some high nic just for those times when I just think about having an analog cig. I used to smoke about 1 1/2 packs a day of light 100 menthol cigs. I started vaping at medium nic and was fine but I always hear people saying they don't even think about having a real cig (I wish I didn't). I really have no idea what I should have started at. I'm guessing high which is 16mg a ml right? All I know is it seemed the lower I went the more I thought about analogs. Now sure, it could be all in my head and I am the dumb .... that picked up that analog. Unfortunately I am an addict.

[ZambucaLu]

How about this.. Get 2 sampler packs from Johnson creek. 1 with nicotine, one non nic. Don't label which is which. Smoke all of them not knowing which is which. This way half of the time you will be getting no nicotine and half the time you will be getting nicotine. See if your brain knows the difference. Then you will know if it is more in your head or not.. I don't know.. just off the top of my head. I just know that I smoke JC low nicotine, and when I use a fresh cart of the hard stuff, (pre filled from the manufacturer,) I do not notice a difference in the amount I use. It all seems the same for me..

I have thought of something like this Cal....getting a 0 nic of each 36mg flavor I have and adding a drop a day of the 0 to the 36. I know how much I crave analogs in a day....I'd be able to tell at what point it started "getting to me". I wouldn't want to use glycerin because I wouldn't want to detract from the taste at all, not at this point anyway. I have also just ordered some Lorann flavors....that might help keep the flavor too when I do decide to try the glycerin. But first things first!

I know this isn't exactly what you said but it is along those same lines. I may very well find I can get along on less than the 36mg. I figure I'm in this for the long haul so I have lots of time to experiment. As someone else mentioned....I didn't start out smoking almost 3 packs a day....I built up to that over 36 years. It's going to take some time to go back.

Lu

[ZambucaLu]

It is hard to keep track, I swap flavours all the time too.

I reckon I vape around 2-3ml a day. I'm replacing a smoking habit of about 24mg a day so I vape 6-11mg juice most of the time and have occasional hits of 18mg. That keeps me fairly steady when I manage it but when I don't control my intake and overdo it I get palpitations, headaches and disturbed sleep. Less nic than usual doesn't seem to have much effect strangely and I don't crave smoking any more either.

A lot of people here seem to have a good grasp of how much they vape. Part of my problem is...I smoke while home, in my car, at work and when I'm out and about. I would literally have to stop and count drops each and every time I topped off and I'm just not that attentive at this point. I think though that once I get all my flavors straight, I'm going to try the new experiment I explained to Cal. Maybe then I can get a better idea.

You (and others) are really lucky you were able to find what's worked for you to stay off the analogs. I hope to get there too someday!

Lu

[TropicalBob]

Tumbleweed, let me stay I know exactly how you feel. You have mirrored my own dilemma.

I quit cigarettes July 17, 2007, and every hour of every day I want a real cigarette. I want one while I have a strong snus in my mouth (almost all the time) and e-smoking 16mg liquid at the same time all day (about 2ml a day). I smoke four real pipes a day and dissolve six Stonewall 4mg tablets. None satisfy like a single tobacco cigarette did.

I have never understood posters who say they tried one and it was nasty. If I tried one, I'd be back on them at 30 a day in a heartbeat. Only willpower - and it's failing - keeps me off real cigarettes.

E-smoking is great. But it is not smoking. What I have learned is that nicotine is NOT the answer. You could do 40mg nic liquid and not be satisfied. Your head might spin, yep, but you'd still want a cigarette. Something critical to cigarette satisfaction is missing with vaping. And I don't think it's nicotine or carbon monoxide. Something else.

Until we find out what it is, and incorporate it into e-smoking, I'll remain exactly like you.

[jarvis]

I'm in the same boat TropicalBob. My hypothesis has to do with the fact "that smoking affects the brain's natural system of chemicals called endogenous opioids, which also help quell painful sensations" This is also the same system that produces "runners high". So I'm thinking that perhaps all of the junk that's in regular cigarettes produces stress on the body, and this release of opioids (same reaction occurs when you take ......) produces the thing that these e-cigs lack. Maybe we should try running on a treadmill while e-smoking, hehe.

[katink]

A lot of people here seem to have a good grasp of how much they vape. Part of my problem is...I smoke while home, in my car, at work and when I'm out and about. I would literally have to stop and count drops each and every time I topped off and I'm just not that attentive at this point.
Lu

There is an easier way Lu. First off, know how much your cartridges hold (if you use those). Then all you have to do is:
Make a note, with the date, of how much liquid you have in the house on a certain day (so add bottles and carts into a total of e-liquid).
Now do the same 2 or 3 weeks later. Subtract the last from the first; then divide the outcome by 14 or 21, or however many days you had inbetween the two counting-times. And there you are: your daily usage of e-liquid

(Of course, if you ordered between those two days, you do need to add what you ordered to your first day, and count it along on the second day).


Tumbleweed, Bob, Jarvis - a question: do you think, for yourself, that at some point you could have stopped the rising line in your nicotine-consumption? Was there a point, looking back, where you feel your body wasn't telling you you nééded to take yet more nicotine (yet you did anyway, for whatever reason)? Or was your body, the craving, telling you 'more, more' all the time during your smoking-history? ( I think this just might be a, or perhaps the, difference between those e-smokers that dó still crave for a real cig and those that don't - I could well be wrong of course, but just asking, hope you don't mind)

[TheEmperorOfIceCream]

My own addiction seems to be split between nicotine and the smoking 'ritual' of hand to mouth, inhalation, blowing smoke rings etc. I'm very thankful for this because I'm able to keep my desire for a real cigarette under control with little effort. I smoked one after three months of vaping and it was great, but it didn't recapture me. There are real cigs in the house but they don't play on my mind as they did in my previous quit attempts.

To address Tum's original point, I don't think I'll ever get to 0 nic.

Emp

[GabbyD]

Question for those of you who haven't been able to give up analogs (and believe me, I consider myself a long way from feeling like I truly have quit) Do you want to quit? Is that an element at all?