Anybody feel like they are "Missing a friend"?

[Travis798]

I've been vaping for about 2 1/2 weeks now, and smoked a few cigarettes a day for the first few days, partly because I had a craving for one and partly because I didn't actually want to quit smoking. I'm not sure exactly what day it was, but at some point I just simply didn't smoke any more. I love vaping, and I now can't stand the taste or smell of a cigarette, but I still "miss" smoking.

For the last 15 years of my life, cigarettes have always been there for me. Anytime I was angry, sad, happy, tired, whatever, my cigarettes were always right there to see me through. Now I sit here and look at a half empty pack that has been on the table for over a week, and I feel like I should say goodbye, but I can't. I kind of feel like I'm ditching a faithful friend who, even though he had his faults, was always there when I needed him, for someone I just met on a street corner. Surely I'm not alone?

I'm sure at least most of us here love vaping probably as much as we ever loved smoking, but do you ever miss it? I know some people must think I'm weird for considering these tar infested cancer sticks a friend in a sense, but surely others know exactly what I mean.

I just tried one again about an hour ago, just to say hello, but couldn't make it to a second drag. The taste and smell repulsed me too much to continue. I suppose this is a testament to how addictive these things are, and how much they get in your head. I know they are bad for me and would kill me if given the chance, but they are still that guy, who's faults I knew when I befriended him, who was always there, and I just kicked him to the curb.

I just feel like there is a part of me that left with that last smoke, that I will never get back.

 

[umop apisdn]

It's one of those "it's not you, it's me" kind of things. I used to love smoking, tried a few analogs today. Even though I finished them, they made me want to vape more. The taste was terrible on the full flavor, and the light just tasted like air.

It's kind of like a high school friend that was there all the time, but you just end up growing apart. If it really bothers you, show the analogs a little love here and there. When you realize you can't keep it up, you can have comfort in the fact you tried, but just couldn't keep the friendship going.

E-cigs are just better in pretty much every field imaginable. It's not cigarette's fault for being so old tech, dirty, dangerous, and addictive. Well... maybe it is, but whatever. You just found a better life partner for you, one that's cleaner, safer, cheaper, and tastes better. =P

But I still get the urge for an analog here and there, but the longer I go, the less the urges come.

 

[eric]

I know the feeling, my friend.

BUT I find comfort in the fact that this feeling we "miss," this feeling that we're forcing ourselves to ignore is simply the feeling of the Carbon Monoxide created by the combustion of tobacco destroying my precious brain cells and of noxious chemicals depleting the integrity of my body. It just isn't worth pursuing.

Now, whether that statement is fact or not means little to me, but I've convinced myself it's the truth and it's gotten me this far. I'll never smoke another tobacco cigarette for as long as I live. All I really need to feed my addiction is nicotine. The other stuff is completely unnecessary and only pesters me once every couple months after a large dinner or some good lovin'.

 

[Thyestean]

I haven't really had any urges at all for a smoke since my last one a couple weeks ago. And even those last 2 I only had because I was away from home with a dead battery.

Unlike a lot of others though the taste and smell of cigs doesn't bother me even after vaping. One thing I especially still like is that wonderful smell of someone else first lighting and taking a drag of a cig. I always liked that smell when I smoked but back then it would make me immediately want to light one myself, which of course doesn't give you that same satisfying scent, but no longer does.

If it makes it easier for you to end your guilt about walking out on this "relationship", rather than think of it as leaving an old friend behind, think of it as running like hell to get away from a crazy ex-girlfriend who occasionally liked to chase you around with a knife trying to stab you.

 

[umop apisdn]

Yeah, exactly, you're leaving your abusive crazy ex for something that you can truly love.

 

[bigozone]

i'm afraid i'll always have a weakness for the smell of that first draw off of a freshly lit analog...

atleast until i taste it... thank goodness

 

[eric]

i'm afraid i'll always have a weakness for the smell of that first draw off of a freshly lit analog...

atleast until i taste it... thank goodness

Amen, bigozone. Amen.

 

[JustJulie]

I've often described my relationship with cigarettes in much the same terms you have. However, for me, I had reached the point of having a love-hate relationship with my "best friend." Yes, there for me when I needed something, but it was slowly but surely robbing me of my health and, eventually, no doubt my life.

Eventually, I came to see my cigarettes as my TOXIC best friend. We've all had one of those--the friend who SEEMS to be a friend, but is just not good for you at all, the friend who brings out the worst in you, who is kind to your face but stabs you in the back.

So the way I look at it now is I have replaced my toxic best friend with a new best friend, one that is most certainly better for me.

Now that I've been with my new best friend for almost 10 months, I can tell you that she's not let me down. I can breathe better, smell better, and taste better. I no longer pop breath mints every 10 minutes. I am no longer self-conscious about the lingering stench of stale cigarettes on my clothes, my hands, and my hair. I can drive in the car with my husband without climbing the walls after an hour or so.

I could go on, but I think you probably get the idea.

So don't feel guilty about dumping your "best friend." See her for what she is . . . toxic and a "friend" who is taking everything from you. And embrace your new friend, the one who is certainly better for you than your cigarettes.

 

[Kattdaddy]

I've often described my relationship with cigarettes in much the same terms you have. However, for me, I had reached the point of having a love-hate relationship with my "best friend." Yes, there for me when I needed something, but it was slowly but surely robbing me of my health and, eventually, no doubt my life.

Eventually, I came to see my cigarettes as my TOXIC best friend. We've all had one of those--the friend who SEEMS to be a friend, but is just not good for you at all, the friend who brings out the worst in you, who is kind to your face but stabs you in the back.

So the way I look at it now is I have replaced my toxic best friend with a new best friend, one that is most certainly better for me.

Now that I've been with my new best friend for almost 10 months, I can tell you that she's not let me down. I can breathe better, smell better, and taste better. I no longer pop breath mints every 10 minutes. I am no longer self-conscious about the lingering stench of stale cigarettes on my clothes, my hands, and my hair. I can drive in the car with my husband without climbing the walls after an hour or so.

I could go on, but I think you probably get the idea.

So don't feel guilty about dumping your "best friend." See her for what she is . . . toxic and a "friend" who is taking everything from you. And embrace your new friend, the one who is certainly better for you than your cigarettes.

Yeah!!! don't you hate those friends that are only around when they need something and when you have a problem that require help from a freind ( so called freind), they always have an agenda that doesn't include you.
I tell yah.. I got sick of the friend that was robbing my breath, the freind that was beating on my chest every morning to cough up a lung, and wishing my freind would allow me the priviledge of having the sensation of my taste and my smell.. who needs a freind that only takes away the glimmer of life to leave you in a gutter, face down and gasping for your very last breath.

I tell you.. If analogs fit the definition of a friend.. I truly would S$%T my pants if I ever met your enemy.
My $0.02 worth.. take it for what it is worth. Happy Vaping,
Tom

 

[Travis798]

Lol, I really like the crazy psycho ex girlfriend post. We all have one of those, but she sure was great in the sack wasn't she?...

The post was nothing more than a reflection. The only way I'll ever go back to analogs is if e-cigs get banned and I just flat out can't find them, because one way or another, I need and want my nicotine.

Like I said when I referred to analogs as a "friend", it's one that you knew it's bad traits and still said "hop in, I'll give you a ride". I'm very glad I'm on the e-cig bandwagon, it's just that the analogs were so large a part of me for so long, that you almost have to learn how to live all over again.

E-cigs do good at replacing a lot of the habit, but they can't replace the entire ritual. My nicotine cravings don't get as strong as they once did because I vape smaller amounts more often now, but nothing can ever replace that first drag off a cigarette freshly lit with my zippo, when I breath in deep and just let the nicotine become a part of me. The sound of the paper lighting, the smell of the tobacco burning, my friend came through once again...

I guess it doesn't feel quite so much as I'm leaving a "friend", as it feels kind of like a friend has passed on. A friend that was so much a part of you, that part of you has passed on with it. There were times you hated that friend, and hated yourself for being friends with him, yet you look back fondly on those times that made you friends in the first place, and those times that kept you together strong.

I know we don't all have it, but some of us have/had a strong bond with cigarettes, and it's a bond not to be taken lightly. I have no urge or desire to see my friend "resurrected" as I know I'm better off without him.

I guess it's just a sudden life change that I didn't even see coming. It was only a few weeks ago I would say I'll be a smoker until the day it kills me, and I'll smoke in hell if they will let me. Now I don't even want to smoke, and I think that scares me a little bit.

That something that was recently that much a part of me, can be so easily replaced...

 

[pianoguy]

I remember how every so often, my old "friend" would stick to my lips, and then my fingers would slide down so that the cherry was burning between them. Good times.

 

[Travis798]

I remember how every so often, my old "friend" would stick to my lips, and then my fingers would slide down so that the cherry was burning between them. Good times.

LOL. Did it seem to get worse when they switched to the fire ......ant stuff? It did for me.. I always loved the smoke in the eye. Funny how after 15 years of smoking, a little bit right into my eye would still make me jerk and rub it as it was watering.

 

[pianoguy]

LOL. Did it seem to get worse when they switched to the fire ......ant stuff? It did for me.. I always loved the smoke in the eye. Funny how after 15 years of smoking, a little bit right into my eye would still make me jerk and rub it as it was watering.

Har! The carpet glue didn't seem to make them stick to my lips any more often, but did make me cough and get a lot more congested. I am pretty sure my next-door neighbor doesn't miss hearing me hacking and wheezing out in the garage at 5:15AM

 

[beckah54]

I'm sure at least most of us here love vaping probably as much as we ever loved smoking, but do you ever miss it? I know some people must think I'm weird for considering these tar infested cancer sticks a friend in a sense, but surely others know exactly what I mean.

I just feel like there is a part of me that left with that last smoke, that I will never get back.

I missed it a lot at first. I was jealous of other smokers that continued to smoke tobacco.

Now, I never think about analogs. I don't miss them or the way they made me feel and smell. This is the first time in my life as a smoker that I can honestly say "I don't even think about analogs anymore".

Thanks for this thread because I hadn't realized it until now.

 

[gooney0]

Travis,

I felt the same way. For the first month I smoked on purpose just to avoid being a "non-smoker."

I'm not against smoking, I'm against having to smoke a pack a day. The cigarettes I enjoyed were worth the price.

The problem was the other 15-20 cigarettes I felt I needed to smoke but didn't really enjoy.

I'm working my way down to 0mg so I don't "have" to do anything.

I have about 1/2 a pack leftover. I smoke one from time to time when I want to. I treat them like champagne not like water. I smoke as much or as little as I enjoy and put it out.

-Gooney0

 

[queevil]

Let me ask you this.

What are you really leaving behind? Yes, I understand how cigarettes have been a comfort food of sorts but I think it's really important to understand what you're giving up on.

You know what I hated more than cigarettes before I quit? Big Tobacco!!!! I think that they are truly evil. Not because they are our countries largest purveyors of death. Not because they market a product with more than 60 known carcinogens. Not because their products have chemicals in them that make nicotine more addictive than it is in it's pure form.

No, they're evil because they were deceitful to the public about it for decades. I'm all for personal resposibility and I admit that Big Tobacco didn't put that first Winston in my mouth when I was 13 but for years even with legislation and lawsuits they have escaped personal and corporate responsibility for their atrocities. They have killed more more people around the world than most acts of genocide and sickened countless more to the point of no return because they were deceitful. But they make our government a lot of money.

The truth of the matter is that I haven't left behind smoking. I have an Arturo Fuente Opus X in my humidor right now that's begging me to smoke it. I can smoke a delicious bowl of pipe tobacco right now. Hell, there's even a new hooka bar in my town.

No, I never left smoking behind. I just kicked that boil on the ... of humanity we all know as Big Tobacco to the curb. I'm not paying for my death anymore.

I congratulate you for doing the same.

 

[novasteve]

I've brought cigarettes and my ecig to a bar at the same time, smoking was banned, as it was Montreal. I tried the ecigarette, and it just wasn't doing anything for me. I actually like the process of smoking. The light the cigarette. I personally can't stand the taste or the smell, but the process is what I enjoy.. So rather than smoke my ecig, i would go outside and freeze my .... off and have homeless people try to bum smokes off me rather than smoke the ecig inside.

it's not a substitution for my purposes.. I could probably smoke tea in a cigarette and would like it just as much. It's not the nicotine, it's the process.

 

[tribalmasters]

I just had to scroll to the end just to say that my penstyles, Janty Stick and Kensington USB battery are all my best friends! They go everywhere with me even on the plane

 

[MHR7331]

For the last 15 years of my life, cigarettes have always been there for me. Anytime I was angry, sad, happy, tired, whatever, my cigarettes were always right there to see me through. Now I sit here and look at a half empty pack that has been on the table for over a week, and I feel like I should say goodbye, but I can't. I kind of feel like I'm ditching a faithful friend who, even though he had his faults, was always there when I needed him, for someone I just met on a street corner. Surely I'm not alone?

I'm sure at least most of us here love vaping probably as much as we ever loved smoking, but do you ever miss it? I know some people must think I'm weird for considering these tar infested cancer sticks a friend in a sense, but surely others know exactly what I mean.

I felt like that when I quit smoking for two years... every single ......n day, until I finally succumbed and started up again. With vaping, I feel like I had Gollum hanging off my neck for 15 years, constantly whispering "pppprrreeecciousssss" while holding a Zippo and a pack of Lights, and I was finally able to grab him by his scrawny neck and chuck him into a brick wall headfirst

 

[kaaayd]

I did on my first attempt at switching to the e-cig. This time around I only get that feeling when I see people smoking, or smell one.