My take (please read my ending!):
If I have the DESIRE and SELF-DISCIPLINE to quit smoking then I should be able to... simply quit smoking and never smoke again.
Occasional smoking, for me, was always a combination of Chinese Water Torture and listening to the Sirens Songs. In retrospect, with a year of vaping without a single cig behind me, yes, I like vaping much better. I get even better "clouds", it doesn't stink up the house, my car, and my clothes. My lungs feel better and I "Roll My Own" in the form of DIY so I get endless variety of flavor impossible to get from cigs. And even better, it's like going back through a time machine when you could smoke in a bar, for example, although those days are probably numbered. But I'm enjoying that aspect while I can.
But when I was trying to quit, there was something in the cigs I could not get from vaping, and vaping was a hollow replacement. I was using CE4's, then EVODS, with an eGo battery. It might be a little different now with all the emphasis on better gear, apparently even for newbies walking in a vape shop. But at the time I thought the "huge mod" the vape shop owner had hung around her neck on a lanyard just looked plain weird. Plus, she was rather emmm well endowed and in beach attire so I was more interested in what was behind that mod, but I digress
Anyway, for me, every cig I smoked just sucked me back in. When I first walked into a vape shop in very early June 2014 I was on an extended out of town trip, away from my also 2 PAD smoking wife and our smokey house. Within a couple days of getting my eGo setup, I actually stopped smoking for about 4 days before I returned home. And, of course, I snuck some cigs from my wife. By mid July, 4 weeks later, I was back to a full PAD I think, and that was when I decided that FOR ME, I simply either had to quit the cigs totally and absolutely, or I would be back at 2 PAD and vaping on the side.
I never knew about WTA until I was well quit, months after my last smoke. I bought a 30ml bottle of 24mg WTA but it sits unopened in my freezer, for experiments in the interests of science if my wife decides to try vaping again (she tried a little last fall but never seriously). I'd love to try it, just to see how it vapes but I'm scared to stir up any sleeping demons inside me. But knowing what I know now, and what I went through, I would not hesitate to try WTA and always recommend it when the subject of getting over the hump comes up.
I went into all this not to argue with you- there is no argument here. I'm just trying to point out how my brain works a bit differently than yours. I know a lot of people are successful weaning down more or less slowly, but I was not built that way. Without vaping, it was impossible for me ever to cut down to even 1 PAD. And I tried, often. Especially after my doc first railed about my COPD at the same time I was finding it more difficult to do even moderate exertion in some outdoor activities I enjoy.
So I think people reading this should listen carefully to what you said, and to what I said, and decide where they fall in this spectrum. There are different opinions here, and only one is more of an Ultimate Truth for any individual.
As far as being a "non-smoker", unfortunately the politics are such that I don't think I really am, at least not in a social context. I am still a pariah in the eyes of many. This is something I really struggle with now because I enjoy vaping, I have no concerns with the health issues. But I vacillate between enjoying being an iconoclast and wanting to end my pariah status. You likely meant that in a different context of course. I do remember that I used to think of giving up smoking like losing an important appendage of my body, especially that male one
, or a loved relative. The idea of not smoking was simply frightening. I guess the idea that I'm not really a nonsmoker (in the context I described it here) might have helped mitigate that fear.
