I have vaped on and off for about a year but just got serious in the last month and a half. The first 2 weeks I only smoked 4 packs then I got stressed out with family problems and started smoking more analogs. I would love to
vape only but I feel more secure if I have my analogs. I have thought about not buying analogs but I have not reached that point yet. I can't even go out of the house without them. Will I ever be secure enough to leave analogs alone? How do I ever get to the point of just wanting to
vape? I have smoked for 34 years and I vape 24 mg. Would someone please help me!
In my opinion, emphasizing the "quit" side is setting yourself up for failure for many of us. It causes a kind of "panic reaction" or something. The smokes have been a constant companion for over 30 years (like mine were), the idea of just "stopping" makes things more difficult. Freaks you out even. All my doctor had to say, last time I saw him, was a casual, "We should talk about your smoking" and I felt like the air had been sucked outta the room.
So, here's what I did.
I didn't "quit". If I really, really, really wanted a cig, I let myself have one. But I focused on the vaping. The positive side. Finding tasty juices and playing around on ECF meeting new folks and learning new things and even just cracking jokes. The more I enjoyed the vaping, the less I wanted the cigs.
I also gradually moved the cigs to be less and less convenient.
You know how us smokers (especially us "hard core" types) have ashtrays and packs and lighters "stashed" and "pre-positioned" and everything is always ready to go? I swapped it around. The vapor stuff was in the "easy" spots. The cigs were still in the house but up in a cabinet. I could have one any time but I couldn't just mindlessly reach for them anymore. Like here at the computer, I used to always have a pack, lighters, and an ashtray to my left. Always. Didn't even have to look to grab what I needed, light up, smoke.
I just gradually kept changing things out like that. Such as, at the computer, the PV is exactly where the ashtray would normally have sat. Funny thing, since I'm writing about it and paying attention, when I got to the end of the sentence before this one, I reached--without looking--and grabbed the PV, vaped while scanning what I'd written, then put the PV back and started writing this sentence.
It's the
exact same habit I had with cigs. It's just not with cigs anymore. It's with vapor.
I didn't try to "stop dead", I swapped things out. Eventually, I got to where I made a "rule" that I could have all the cigs I wanted but I had to stay in the kitchen. Stand there at the counter. No moving the ashtray. It stayed in one place. Period.
But vape? I could do that anywhere, anytime.
It took me about six weeks to fully replace my smoking habit with vaping. And to this day, I still look at it as I can "smoke any time I want". I just don't have any cigs in the house, I'm not sure I kept an ashtray, I think there are some lighters around but shoved off to one side of a cabinet (I needed room for juice samples!
)... so it'd be a chore. Go the store, get a pack, come back, find a lighter, find an ashtray... blah and blah and... it sounds like a lot of trouble and, oh look, wintergreen vape! Yum!
I figure that since many (if not most, if not all) smokers will smoke more when they are stressed, if you make trying to quit a source of stress, you'll end up wanting to smoke. It's kind of chasing your own tail.
Try not telling yourself, "THIS IS THE END!". Try thinking, "vaping is interesting, I want to play around with it". Notice your personal habits. See if you can "swap out" vaping for smoking. Like me moving the ashtray away from the computer (where I smoked a lot) and replacing it with my PV and a little bottle of refill juice. Try not to tell yourself, "I never, ever, never touch another cig ever, ever, never again". That seems, in some of us, to cause an actual panic reaction and you clutch the cigs even tighter. It's weird. But I know the feeling.
When you said:
...I feel more secure if I have my analogs.
I know
exactly what you mean. I had a routine for leaving the house. Two lighters in pocket (one might go out right?), extra pack (and one stashed in the truck). Like going through a check list. And I would turn around and come back if one of the "elements" was missing. Seriously. I would.
(Man, that sounds rather OCD of me don't it?
)
The more I found juices I liked and put together a "kit" that worked for me, I started liking the vaping more than the smoking. The smoking didn't go away immediately but slowed down and slowed down and then just... fizzled out.
'Course, now I can't leave the house without my vape setup and back ups. So I've transferred the "secure" feeling to the vapor. Which I'm okay with. In fact, that's what I was aiming for. Swapping them out. I'm too addicted to nicotine to quit completely (believe me, I've tried, oh boy have I tried).
And I don't ever declare an "end" to the smoking thing. I haven't had one in months but I could. Any time. Somehow, that's weirdly "reassuring". I
could smoke. I just don't want to right now. And "right now" gets longer by the day.
All us smokers have habits built up over years. And they're very reassuring, routine things. See if you can find ways to switch out vaping for smoking in your personal habits and routines. And realize it could take time to swap things completely. Not all of us quit on the first day. Some do. Which is great. Others, we take longer. Still, every time you vape instead of smoke, it's a "win". Over time, the little victories can add up.
