Quitting it all!

[Letooke]

Hi guys,

Started vaping at the end of August. Smoked my last analog on September 1st. Decreased my nic level from 18 to 0 gradually over the last month and a half and have been nic free now for 5 days.

Switching to 0 nic has proven to be the most difficult step in all this, even more difficult than giving up the cancer sticks. I found the switch from smoking to vaping so incredibly easy it was almost scary.

I only now feel like I have quit smoking. Getting cravings though only uncomfortable not unbearable.

Now I'm preparing for the final step in all of this: giving up vaping totally. And the strange thing is that since I'm on 0 nic and vaping for nicotine cravings is utterly pointless, I'm still having the urge to vape all the time. I really have to remind myself all day that vaping 0 nic isn't really going to do anything for me.

Yesterday I only vaped a little bit in the morning and right before going to bed.

I want to be a free man by November 1st. Free of smoking, nicotine and vaping. That's my goal.

I'm trying to keep busy and active, take walks, drink lots of water, eat healthy and breathe deep every time a craving hits.

Are there any more quitters still on this forum with some helpful tips? Success stories would be nice to read right now.

 

[Harlen]

Quitting too fast ?
My goal is to quit every thing but I know it takes time for the body to adjust to different nicotine levels .
It's ben over a year for me now down to 3mg/ml maybe for new years I will quit vaping too.
Best wishes
H

 

[Letooke]

Good luck to you too Harlen.

I'm treating quitting more and more like ripping off a band-aid: the short pain.

I don't really believe in dragging on vaping forever when your goal is to quit eventually. It seems a bit like putting off the inevitable and sounds a bit like junkie-thinking to me (and by that I mean the nicotine doing the talking and reasoning). It really doesn't take the body so long to adjust to a lower nicotine level. The problem is between our ears first and foremost I believe.

I treat vaping as a quit smoking aid (nicotine replacement therapy as well as a means to deprogram our learned smoking behaviour) And I don't think I should be vaping for a year or even years when I'm only using it to quit smoking and kick my nicotine addiction.

Off course everyone needs to do whatever they feel works for them personally. This is just my personal opinion. I don't believe in completey comfortable and painless quitting. Either the switch from smoking to vaping is gonna hurt (which wasn't the case for me); either the switch to 0 nicotine or the quitting vaping totally. The more time you give yourself, the more time vaping has to become as entwined with your life as smoking and the harder it will be to quit.

If you want to vape for the sake of vaping, enjoy it!
If you want to vape to quit smoking and nic dependency, bite the bullet and quit as soon as possible. Don't give vaping a chance to become too much second nature.

 

[daleron]

Good luck to you Letooke

I would probably keep vaping even if it was zero nic cause I just like the flavors, but to each their own right?

 

[PaulieD]

Good luck !

I used e cigs to ultimately quit also. I vaped for 2 years and then quit everything for a year..started jogging etc.
I was feeling great...then STRESS happened and I picked up an analog and BAM smoked for 3 months. I went right back to a pack a day.
I am now vaping again to WEAN myself back off again.

Take your time if your are still craving. You may want to wean yourself more slowly.
If you do decide to go ahead and quit completely, don't pressure yourself. Keep your vaping gear as a fallback.
Don't worry...be happy
YMMV.

Best of luck!

 

[Letooke]

Thanks PaulieD and well done for kicking the smoking habit again after the relapse. A couple of years ago I quit smoking for over two years cold turkey before picking it up again totally unexpected on a slightly drunken night out with friends. Within a couple of days I was a pack-a-day smoker again.

At least that experience tought me that I can never have a single puff ever again.

 

[Letooke]

Quit vaping two days ago. Haven't had a smoke in two months and haven't had nicotine in over two weeks and haven't had a vape in two days. So far so good.

In a couple of days I'm leaving for my Borneo vacation for three weeks and I decided not to take my vaping gear with me.

 

[Letooke]

Had a fantastic smoke and vape free holiday! Even though my vacation partner was a smoker I was never seriously tempted to smoke. Been vape free for over three weeks now so I'm a happy camper.

It seems i'm spreading the 'quit smoking'-virus everywhere now. Now that people witnessed how easily i quit smoking with the e-cig they are purchasing them left and right and are all trying to quit. I have several friends vaping now instead of smoking so that's a really really good thing.

I'm a rolemodel now apparently.

 

[four2109]

Hope it's still going well for you!

 

[Waddle]

Not point out the obvious but there is a lot more to smoking than just nicotine. That oral sensation is probably more addictive for me than the nicotine. And whether or not nicotine is actually addictive is open for debate.

 

[Txnow333]

I applaud your efforts and wish you continued success! As an older adult who is now retired and doing some work at home, vaping has other benefits for me. There are preliminary studies that suggest that nicotine at lower levels can be beneficial to attention span, memory retention and may delay or even help prevent alzheimer's (though there is no history of that in my family).

However, for me it serves as an SRA (snacking replacement aid). Obesity may not be as bad for me as smoking, but it's right up there. With the work I do, I need to focus but also need to take frequent breaks. Vaping helps with that. I won't say blueberry cheesecake will never cross my lips, just not as much.

My only real addictions now - and I'll take them to my grave - are yarn and cooking gadgets, and I'm okay with that. My life, my vice.

 

[JeniferG]

Good luck to you too Harlen.

I'm treating quitting more and more like ripping off a band-aid: the short pain.

I don't really believe in dragging on vaping forever when your goal is to quit eventually. It seems a bit like putting off the inevitable and sounds a bit like junkie-thinking to me (and by that I mean the nicotine doing the talking and reasoning). It really doesn't take the body so long to adjust to a lower nicotine level. The problem is between our ears first and foremost I believe.

I treat vaping as a quit smoking aid (nicotine replacement therapy as well as a means to deprogram our learned smoking behaviour) And I don't think I should be vaping for a year or even years when I'm only using it to quit smoking and kick my nicotine addiction.

Off course everyone needs to do whatever they feel works for them personally. This is just my personal opinion. I don't believe in completey comfortable and painless quitting. Either the switch from smoking to vaping is gonna hurt (which wasn't the case for me); either the switch to 0 nicotine or the quitting vaping totally. The more time you give yourself, the more time vaping has to become as entwined with your life as smoking and the harder it will be to quit.

If you want to vape for the sake of vaping, enjoy it!
If you want to vape to quit smoking and nic dependency, bite the bullet and quit as soon as possible. Don't give vaping a chance to become too much second nature.

Not sure if you're still around but maybe someone else in our situation will read this too.

I too took up vaping with the goal of quitting all nicotine permanently. I quit analogs on March 25th in the morning and bought my vape later on that afternoon. I started at 16mg nicotine and after about a week or 2 took it down to 11 mg and just this past Wednesday I took it down to 0 and yesterday is the first day I didn't touch my vape. I thought about it but never did. I'll keep it around though. I'm sure right now the battery is dead on it anyway. It's just shocking to me at how easy this was but then again, I think I had the right mindset for it.

The funniest thing is I was so dead set against vaping. I was like, why would I want to trade one habit for another!? It doesn't have to be like that. That's why I had to respond to this even though it is an old thread, I love your last sentence in this thread.

"If you want to vape to quit smoking and nic dependency, bite the bullet and quit as soon as possible. Don't give vaping a chance to become too much second nature."

Blessings.

Jen

 

[Waddle]

I've always been an odd smoker. Would smoke for a few months and then nothing for a few months...even as long as two years on occassion. Vacations, coupled with copious amounts of alcohol, would always bring me back to the smokes. I believe to quit smoking and vaping you need a certain mindset and change of life style. Things like that coffee first thing in the morning would always go great with a cigarette. So I started drinking Cocoa in the morning. One last thing I remember was hitting a wall at about 4 months. It was easy up till then, but then all of a sudden the craving for cigarettes came back like a banshee. The nicotine gum helped somewhat. I think what we tend to miss is that oral fixation.