E-Cig addiction or cigarette replacement?

[monkeyuk]

Hi, im a relative newbie here, been using an Evo for nearly two weeks. The prefilled carts that came with them were Regular 12mg (i also had some newer stock sent to me that was labelled regular but was 15mg). Maybe it was because i was new to it but i found myself vaping (sorry hate that term lol) pretty constantly. I liked the ever so slightly sweet taste that accompanied the draw. My cigarette use went down from 20 a day to about 10 a week. Great. I then thought i should order some Ecopure juice and decided to go for the Regular 20mg as i wanted to get a bit more of a hit. When i tried it i found that i wasn't getting the same sweet taste and it did kinda taste like a cigarette. Now comes my point. I now treat it more like a cigarette by only using it when i need some nicotine, instead of constantly vaping. Even though i liked the buzz i was getting by constantly vaping, for me i think this will work better, as having an addictive personality already i don't want to become reliant on the e-cig as a dummy (pacifier for all you Americans).

So i wondered how many people use their e-cig as a pacifier and how many treat it like a normal cig with the thought that they might gradually cut down their nicotine intake. I know it is a fun, exciting new way to get a nicotine buzz but i certainly don't want to be a slave to my e-cig in the same way that i was to ordinary cigarettes. I have seen that some on here spend an absolute fortune on e-cig accessories( Some have enough stock to open shops with!). I realise people have to experiment a bit to find stuff they like. Being poor i would like to save the money i don't spend on cigarettes and not plough it all back into a new addiction!

Any thoughts?

 

[mwahle1]

I have been smoke-free for about 2 months after smoking for 25 years. Right now I am just trying to remain smoke-free and will vape as much as needed to stay smoke-free. I do not know what the future holds, but as long as I do not smoke it is of no concern to me how much I vape.

Financially speaking, I have about a years worth of vaping supplies. Calculating what smoking would have cost me over a year; I will have spent about 20-30% of what I would have spent on cigarettes.


And it should be noted that I do note crave vaping like I craved smoking—not even close. If I go without vaping for a few hours it is not a big deal; however, when I use to smoke, after a few hours I would be “dying” to go have a cigarette.

 

[monkeyuk]

I appreciate that the important fact here is that people are miraculously off cigarettes (myself included: I never in a million years thought i would cut down/give up just like that) and are most concerned with staying off. Maybe i'm being a bit premature in bringing up the whole subject of being addicted to ecigs. It was purely a thought i had, because i realised that i could very easily become addicted to the mid strength juice i was using.

Please don't think i am putting a downer on ecig use, i love them! Just curious if anyone has ever thought about it thats all.

 

[tbl35]

If you want to cut down a bit, you could practice some out of sight=out of mind techniques. Going with the higher nic like you did should work also. Personally I just bought some 0 nic stuff for when I want to chain vape at home & don't worry about it. At work or out & about I use the e-cig like a cigarette pretty much and though it'd be nice to be able to chain vape elsewhere I don't LONG for it or anything. Like mwhahle, I'm so happy I'm not smoking that I'm not going to worry about it right now.

 

[doots]

I think there will be as many opinions as there are people as to how they feel about the ecig.

I myself treat it more like a cig replacement without all the harmful stuff attached and have no concerns as to quitting..

 

[Deschain]

Pacifier...that said, if I put it down and get involved in doing something, I don't have to stop for a "vape" every 10 minutes which I used to have to do when I was a smoker.


.

 

[xdunlapx]

I appreciate that the important fact here is that people are miraculously off cigarettes (myself included: I never in a million years thought i would cut down/give up just like that) and are most concerned with staying off. Maybe i'm being a bit premature in bringing up the whole subject of being addicted to ecigs. It was purely a thought i had, because i realised that i could very easily become addicted to the mid strength juice i was using.

Please don't think i am putting a downer on ecig use, i love them! Just curious if anyone has ever thought about it thats all.

I would rather be addicted to vaping than to cigarettes. Vaping is so much less invasive to your body than smoking. I've smoked for about 8 years and being a heavy smoker I find vaping an excellent replacement.

If you are worried about becoming addicted to the mid strength juice, you can always buy lower nicotine juice. My plan is to quit smoking completely, uise high strength juice for a while, then taper down to low and eventually zero nicotine juice. You might try that, just a thought. Good luck quitting smoking completely, I'm rooting for ya.

 

[JDSupreme]

Pacifier...that said, if I put it down and get involved in doing something, I don't have to stop for a "vape" every 10 minutes which I used to have to do when I was a smoker.


.

Took the words out of my mouth. I tend to "forget" to vape when im busy. Not at all like remembering that analog every 10 min. I think it has to do with the fact that most of us are now addicted to nicotine and nicotine only. Not compared to all the other nasty stuff that we were addicted to when we smoked analogs. When im eventually ready to put down my PV, im sure it willl be 10x easier compared to trying to normally quit cigarettes. And the best part, I used to loooove the smell and taste of analogs. After my first week of vaping, I can't stand the smell anymore.

 

[River]

Mostly as a pacifier, but the strange thing is that when I don't have it I don't really care like I did as a smoker and had this feeling like my face was turning inside out if I didn't smoke for a little while.

I chalk that up to PG being a really poor conductor of nicotine and not having the additives that cigarettes are laced with to increase the nicotine effects and addictive properties.

Even though I use nicotine liquids I really don't know if there is much of a physical addiction left at all, I have been at work for 10 hour stretches of time and not even thought about it.

 

[ALC]

I am pretty new to vaping and I too have asked myself the same question. I started with medium strength and find myself vaping more than an analog. I think I vape more because I can smoke anywhere. I wasn't able to smoke in my house, so I had to go outside and now since I can vape anywhere, boy do I. I intended to to lower my nic level to 11 mg in the next 2 weeks when I have to place another order. It seems maybe I should have tried what you did with the higher nicotine first, but I am one of those people that enjoys the act more than the nic level, even when I used analogs. I think I may have to resolve that even if I decrease the nic I will vape for life and not feel too bad about it. I did have the sore throat at first but then realized I had a few bad attys. I can say it has been so easy for me to quit analogs and I was a 2-pack-day smoker. Because of the fact that I quit, 5 of my friends are now going to try. If I can do it, anyone can.

Good luck and keep vaping.....

 

[mwahle1]

Please don't think i am putting a downer on ecig use, i love them! Just curious if anyone has ever thought about it thats all.

I did not think that at all.

Like doots, I am using them as a smoking alternative. What the future holds, I do not know. I do know that I loved smoking, so at best, I may lower the nicotine content over time, but I definitely will continue vaping.

 

[quasimod]

[...]
Being poor i would like to save the money i don't spend on cigarettes and not plough it all back into a new addiction!

Any thoughts?

It's not exactly a "new" addiction. You're still addicted to nicotine, you just gave up the smoke, and 99% of the harm. You've also gained a certain amount of control over your addiction, in the sense that you can determine to a much finer degree the amount of nicotine you consume. This is why you will be able to eventually quit vaping by slowly reducing your nicotine over time, unlike cigarettes.

 

[kase]

I say yes to both with absolutely zero remorse.