tried to quit with nic patch and 1 wasn't enough.....WTF??!!!

[aasupplyny]

Wow that sounds bad. Anything more than 1 patch used to give me headaches.
Weird thing is.. when I first start vaping... I would get a headache if I did it too much.
Now I vape all day constantly and I don't feel a thing... Not even a little headrush. Nicotine tolerance obviously going up right? But, if I smoke 1 real cig... I still get a rush.. that feeling you get when you haven't smoked all day. (I'm smoking 11mg liquid)

[Kate]

I think tolerance and dependence varies a lot between individuals, the smoking rush might also be because of the other chemicals or lack of oxygen to the brain.

The habit of smoking is stronger for me than the nicotine need. If I had to choose between nicotine via gum or 'smoking' without nicotine I would choose to 'smoke'. If we were just addicted to nicotine then swapping to NRT would be as good as smoking.

[TropicalBob]

You are so right. There are many ways to get nicotine -- yet virtually none of them have a success rate above about 4 percent. Why? None can duplicate the smoking experience. Smokers want that!

Interesting choice, Kate. I'd make the same decision as you. Fact is, I can dump nicotine from my body in a few days of non-use; I'm "over" the addiction at that time; but I've never been able to replace the pleasure I got from cigarettes by using any nicotine substitute.

It's something else, for sure. Even with e-cigs and massive vapor, something is missing.

[trog100]

I think tolerance and dependence varies a lot between individuals, the smoking rush might also be because of the other chemicals or lack of oxygen to the brain.

The habit of smoking is stronger for me than the nicotine need. If I had to choose between nicotine via gum or 'smoking' without nicotine I would choose to 'smoke'. If we were just addicted to nicotine then swapping to NRT would be as good as smoking.

we have done kate.. we just dont dare call it that..

nrt is designed to get people off nicotine.. official nrt stuff.. patches inhalers whatever have just enough nicotine to help wean someone off the real thng..

okay some get addicted to them but that is not the intention..

its this way because the UK medical profession and the government dont want to legitimize other addictive products..

they are also prohibitively expensive.. or at least they would be if anyone tried to use them to get real doses of nictone..

i think we need to define what a real nicotine addict is.. fifty roll ups a day or five ultra lights.. in a real world where folks havnt been scared half to death with anti smoking propaganda five ultra lights a day would not even be considered a risk and there would be no need to even bother trying to give up..

where do we start from.. the propaganda terrified folk or the folks with a real nicotine addiction and real health risk..

okay both types need help.. but it really is a totally different kind of help..

now i am gonna be really honest... when someone tries to tell me i have been coughing myself to death purely because i have a hand to mouth fetish they really are gonna piss me off big time..

trog

ps.. i think US nrt might be stronger than UK nrt..

[LaceyUnderall]

But one thing is for sure for me, that even when I did use the patch, and after the last two weeks without nicotine, what drew me back to the cigarette was the hand to mouth... the action... the going outside for a smoke... the taking time to enjoy something totally selfish. For me, it is the action. The nicotine helps with my mental alertness and moodiness. I also know this from quitting as many times as I have. What's wrong with a little nicotine to cure the blues vs getting a pharmaceutical grade death pill that knocks you out enough that driving a car is dangerous?

So with the e-cig... I can basically say "Screw it! I quit trying to Quit smoking. I am a smoker". I will say one thing for Marion's video, she did hit it right on when she started talking about the love of the experience for some of us.

I will give a lovey smilie for smoking too

[Kate]

... i think we need to define what a real nicotine addict is.. fifty roll ups a day or five ultra lights ...

You're thinking in terms of quitting smoking, not quitting nicotine. What some of us are trying to say is that for us quitting smoking is harder than quitting nicotine.

Smoking is a way to deliver nicotine but that's not all it is, if nicotine was the only thing addictive then other delivery methods with comparable doses would be perfectly acceptable. Why smoke when you can get clean nicotine another way? Why the inhalation of chemicals if you just need nicotine?

[trog100]

okay just my point of view.. after forty odd years of smoking... i hate the f-cking habit... piled up smelly ash trays.. holes in my bloody new shirts.. fag burns in my furniture...

to be honest there really is nothing good to be said about the habit.. its a dirty messy habit.. now its a status lowering habit.. i have spent forty bloody years doing it for one simple reason.. i am addicted to bloody nicotine..

miss it jeesh.. i hate it...

now if my "habit" was a nice gentile five ultra lights a day i might think differently..

trog

[rejoice]

Those patches give me nightmares! Sleep hard to find too. I still wanted a cigarette and I would rip that patch off and smoke LOL. I found out that I couldn't do it. I used to sit and try to figure out another way to quit and at the time there was NOT any. I would get online and search for new stop smoking stuff. Spend alot of money on things that did not work. Got the herbal pills, etc. That I how I found out about the e-cig. I am still smoking right now ,but slowly cutting down on analogs. I hope real soon to be able to only vap.

[surbitonPete]

I think NRT didn't do anything for me because it isn't the 'amount' of nicotine in my body that I want...........it's the sudden 'shock' of nicotine hitting my brain that gives me the pleasure and inhalation is the only method that can possibly put the nicotine into the blood supply to the brain quickly enough to make it work as a sudden shock...the body rids itself of nicotine quite fast and I think that's how the brain is soon ready to enjoy it's next 'shock'...I have been doing what Kate suggested and vaping almost no nic for an hour or two and then giving myself a 'shock' of high......and it seems to work quite well for me. I can get the 'hit' from it that way.

[Kate]

It's good to hear that you are finding that method more satisfying Pete. It makes a lot more sense to me to have occasional spikes for effect than to build tolerance with a steady dose.