How Easy Was Switching to a Tobacco Alternative??

[ricks]

I was a 30 year Marlboro smoker. Then I researched ecigs for a few months before finally placing an order. When I received my first ecig kit, I had recently bought 6 cartons of Marlboro reds. As I charged the batteries on my new kit, I thought that this might not work. On the first vape of my new ecigs, I was blown away. The taste and vapor production was perfect. I used both for about a week before realizing that I did not like the Marlboros anymore. I decided to stop my marlboro habit and use only the ecigs. Its been over a year and I feel great. I still had 5 full cartons of Marlboro's left and just sold them for a profit. I love the taste of Vapor...

[Vapor Granny]

My husband & I started using Njoy ecigs in early 2009. Quitting seemed relatively easy for us. When supplies for our ecigs were disrupted due to FDA seizures we tried to piece together our parts from other suppliers. We did get frustrated and quit using them for awhile and went back to analogs.

I kept haunting the ECF, lurking and learning. On January 9, 2011, I started vaping once again using much improved devices and a better understanding about how to use them. There were times that I thought of having an analog, but those were just thoughts that occurred during the first few months.

In May 2010, my husband had his second heart attack. He decided to quit analogs and try vaping again. I gave him one of my batteries and cartomizer. He still has an analog once in a while, but very few.

I smoked analogs for over 40 years of my life, my husband smoked them for over 45 years of his. We tried so many times to quit using so many different methods without success. So I voted it took a little effort, but I did switch.

Thank you to everyone here on ECF for giving their time and knowledge!

[SABOTEUR]

Pretty easy actually, but I think I was already predisposed to switching anyway. Was already fed up with the seeming double standards imposed upon me as a smoker. You know...you've got no problem SELLING me cigarettes, but you're gonna make it hard as hell for me to smoke anywhere. Then I go to the gas station to purchase my daily pack and discover the price had shot up a dollar overnight.

THAT, my friends, was the straw the broke the camel's back. I resolved then to find a cheaper source 'cause I wasn't gonna pay $6.00 a pack for cigarettes. Just my luck that someone in a forum responded to my question concerning buying cigarettes online. He suggested I try something called an "electronic cigarettes". Sounded interesting, so within a week I had my first NJoy e-cig kit. Loved it IMMEDIATELY.

Now, there was a brief period where I got fed up with unreliable performance of e-cigs, so I reverted back to smoking. Then one day I discovered NJoy was being sold in my local 7-Eleven, so I picked up e-cigs again. Enperienced the same frustration which initially turned me away from vaping; but by this time pv technology had improved. Stumbled upon an ad for the Joye eGo, so I gave that a try. HUGE improvement.

Then I switched to a box mod and found my comfort zone. This month marks my 3rd year of vaping.

[kia2]

I quit several years ago with the patch, but always craved cigarettes, even dreamed about them. When a particularly stressful time came around, I used it as an excuse to start smoking again.

A few of years ago, I used an e-cigarette to help wean myself down on cigarettes, but the e-cigs at that time were a new novelty and weren't very good, didn't hold a charge long and the carts were messy and not very tasty. But, I got down to only a couple of cigarettes a day, down from a pack a day. Then, an even messier, more stressful period came (tornado, forced job move, and high personality conflicts), and screw it, I was back on the tobacco cigarettes even harder than before.

My mother had breast cancer. She initially survived, but she was never able to quit smoking, and less than 10 years later, she died, young at 58, after cancer came again in the form of lung cancer which spread throughout her body quickly. With numerous brain tumors, the doctors told her to get her affairs in order, and told the rest of the family not to dwell on her smoking, and to let her have whatever she wanted, because in 6 weeks it would be over. It was 8 weeks.

Well, the 10th anniversary of my mother's death from cancer came along, and I began to seriously consider quitting smoking again, but even though I've kept my promise to her of getting screened every year, I still hadn't put down the tobacco cigarettes. Then came the 20th anniversary of her breast cancer surgery, and that nagging in the back of my mind became a little more constant.

Then I realized this year that I'd entered the "cancer zone," the age time frame when when my mother first was diagnosed with breast cancer, and I knew I had to stop smoking. Just had to. I knew the gum wouldn't work, and the patches just were not enough. I didn't want more prescriptions entering my cabinets, especially if they could make a person half crazy or react badly with any of my other medicines. So, I went online and researched the current e-cigarette situation. There had been many improvements and a whole lot more choices since the last time I used one. I decided to try a brand which seemed to get the most positive reviews, and ordered the best kit they had. Then, I smoked my last cigarette, refusing to buy a new pack of cigarettes, on what would have been my grandmother's 95th birthday on February 12, 2012 (she died just a month before her 92nd birthday, and she too, had breast cancer).

There were delays in the shipping of my e-cigarette kit, and 7 days after dropping tobacco cigarettes, I was going into some pretty serious anxiety and withdrawal symptoms. I remembered having read that a drugstore chain carried disposable e-cigarettes, so I drove over to the local store and picked up two disposables. They were not the brand I'd ordered, but I was rather desperate at the time. I opened one and started the vape, and after only two draws I got a bit dizzy and nauseous, and knew that these disposables were a lot stronger than what I was used to. I looked them up online when I got home and found them to contain 24mg of nicotine, which really made me go whoa! I was glad I'd ordered 12mg with my kit. Nonetheless, a couple of draws on those disposables now and then got me through until my ordered kit came. And from there, when my kit finally arrived, I realized I was going to make it ok. The batteries I'd ordered were excellent, I found some great carts, and I've not once touched a tobacco cigarette since that last one in February, and I'm quite happy and content with my vaping, which I've already taken down to 6mg and 0mg with a multitude of different cartridges and eLiquids I like.

So, I chose option 2, it took a little effort, but I was ready, and I made it through. I'm drinking a lot more water (I'd always been on the side of dehydration with tobacco cigarettes, but now I'm watching this carefully). I can breathe so much easier. I am coughing up a bunch of junk from my lungs still, but it has eased up in the last couple of days and I'm really starting to feel good. I had mouth sores for about 3 days, but those have cleared up. I had a small "abscess" in my mouth for a few years after having a tooth pulled that doctors and dentists didn't want to bother with, and it,too, cleared up. It used to clear up a bit if I was on antibiotics for any reason, but always came back. Now, it is gone.

And I'm a vaping fool. I still have 12mg available to me, for those really stressful times, but I'm really handling things a lot better than I was before at work and at home, and I realize now that tobacco cigarettes gave me a crutch, but they didn't help me feel any better about myself, didn't solve any problems, kept me well addicted, and they were very much killing me slowly. Vaping is much different. I feel a whole lot better both physically and mentally. And... I vape 0mg sweet flavors in the evening, so I don't head over to the refrigerator to supplement the loss of a hand to mouth action. I wasn't expecting all that, and I'm very, very happy with these unexpected and refreshing side affects of vaping!

I'm going to be ok, Mom. I promise.

[ByStander1]

Need another option: "Was planning to switch, was EASY"

[cricque]

I had no intention to give up smoking, but wanted to see alternatives ... After 5 days I was disgusted by the taste of a normal cigarette ... Vaping since 3 November 2011, and loving it each minute !

[BenJammin]

Accidentally. I had given up trying to quit. E-cigs were just another cool gadget to have, and a convenient way to get my nicotine fix when traveling so I wouldn't have to make the long hike out to the hotel's designated smoking area. I soon started growing to prefer the e-cig over the Camels. I slipped back for a brief time after some equipment failures and the Big Seize Scare of 2009. When we learned we had a baby on the way, I returned to the e-cig scene to find exponentially better gear available. Discovered the eGo thanks to ECF and have not looked back since. Of all the methods I used to try and quit, e-cigs were practically effortless (once finding the right gear.) And, they accomplished the one thing no other pill, potion, or patch ever could... they made me not want cigarettes any more. Not only do I not smoke, I no longer have a desire to. Vaping is a superior experience, why would I settle for barbaric leaves wrapped in paper, on fire, in my mouth. It's a no-brainer!

[ricks]

Since quiting the nasty Marlboros, I can't stand the smell of it. It amazes me how bad I used to smell. Its also great to be able to breath and not cough up nasty crap. All the bad affects of smoking went away in about a week.

[throatkick]

It was the simplest thing in the world. 1 puff is all it took

[Baldr]

As soon as I bought an eGo, I cut down from over 3 packs a day to about half that. But the other half was hard, and took me a couple of months. I needed a higher nicotine level. I was using 24mg nic juice, and after meals, that just wasn't enough. When I got some juice in a 30mg nic level, I quit smoking right away with very little effort. I still had 6 full packs of cigs, but I just didn't need them anymore.

Now I've been smoke-free for over 5 months, and I've cut my nic level down to 18mg, and just bought a 100ml bottle of 12mg.