One of the hardest things to deal with addiction is the social stance that addiction results because an individual is some how less than.... Addiction isn't a moral issue it results because we have changed how our bodies and brains work via substances.
Electronic Cigarettes effect on Cigarette Cravings
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I haven't tried the patch, gum, or pharmaceuticals and I really wasn't looking to give up smoking when I found vaping. After the first week, only the occasional craving remains which is easily controlled by a good vape. Other benefits: No more wheezing, or morning cough, or shortness of breath. Moreover, my head is clear and my attention span and memory have improved, so the absence of the other chemicals in cigarettes seems to be helping my A.D.D. symptoms.
That was much nicer than the responses going through my head, so I think I will step away from this line of the post. And have a big vape. And up the nic. I'm feeling the need for much more nic to calm my angry brain.
To the OP... Yes, I have tried almost everything to quit. vaping is the only think that has made me optimistic that I can quit in years. I still smoke on rare occasion. Mostly when I am around others who are smoking. After a year I still can't figure out what makes me do it- purely the habit I guess. I hate the smell, I hate the taste, vaping is so much more satisfying and tastes so much better, but still something draws me back in. Not the addiction, that is completely addressed with the vaping. I am building my determination to give the cigs up completely though, it won't be long. Also though, allowing myself to smoke if I felt the need is one of the things that has made this easier.
Is it 100% safe to inhale the chemicals in our juice? No one knows for sure. It will be years before the long term studies are complete. Is it exponentially safer than inhaling the toxins in cigarettes? Without a doubt.
I just started vaping for 3 days. Haven't touched an analog and have no cravings for it too. Used to be a 15sticks per day smoker.
its only 3 days, I don't know if the cravings will come back? But I'm sure I'm enjoying the vape more
its only 3 days, I don't know if the cravings will come back? But I'm sure I'm enjoying the vape more
40 year chain smoker. I don't like to chew gum for long periods, but I found lozenges somewhat helpful. They were good for a 2-3 hours plane flight or movie but could not satisfy all of the other parts of smoking addiction. Vaping is much better at simulating cigarette smoking. I had lots of cravings for the first month, and still have an occasional minor craving after 4 months. However, I have learned how to vape thru the cravings. I would have never quit on lozenges alone, but I quit in 3 days with vaping.
This is exactly the kind of response I would expect from the sentiments that were expressed, and were similar to my initial reaction. I've witnessed enough of the ugliest of human behaviors (in myself and others) to know that I would rather fight my instincts and do whatever i can to diminish these effects than add to them. I'm an emotional person, though, so reason doesn't always prevail, but I try my best.
I smoked on and off for 20 years (mostly on.) For the past 8 or 9, it was maybe 1/2 a pack a day. I just could not give up that morning, late afternoon and one or two evening smokes on most days. I would push myself as long as I could take it and then run to the bathroom to sneak one. I wanted to quit so badly - by now I was a closet smoker.
I used a cig-a-like electronic cigarette for over a year which cut my cravings down in between. A few months ago, I picked up a new system. Within 3 weeks the cravings were gone and I was totally smoke free. I haven't touched a cigarette since September 11th. This happened without thinking. I forgot to smoke.
My husband was a heavy smoker for close to 30 years. He was at his wits end trying to quit. His last step before Chantix was hypnosis which I was getting ready to schedule. In August, he got the same setup as I did. He was a heavier smoker, so he changed his patterns. He'd have a cigarette first thing in the morning, then vape for a few hours. Had a cigarette with lunch, then would vape for a few hours. He'd have one or two in the evening and would only smoke in the kitchen. On September 11th, he stopped smoking completely. No cravings whatsoever.
Take what you want from this, but they TOTALLY work. Someone said it's a placebo effect, some say it's like a pacifier. I see it as both. I loved smoking. I'm also finding out that it's easier to give up nicotine than it was to give up an actual cigarette. My nicotine intake is down by half from when I started and I plan to phase it out completely. When I get to 0 nicotine, I'll see if I'm ready to give up vaping then
I used a cig-a-like electronic cigarette for over a year which cut my cravings down in between. A few months ago, I picked up a new system. Within 3 weeks the cravings were gone and I was totally smoke free. I haven't touched a cigarette since September 11th. This happened without thinking. I forgot to smoke.
My husband was a heavy smoker for close to 30 years. He was at his wits end trying to quit. His last step before Chantix was hypnosis which I was getting ready to schedule. In August, he got the same setup as I did. He was a heavier smoker, so he changed his patterns. He'd have a cigarette first thing in the morning, then vape for a few hours. Had a cigarette with lunch, then would vape for a few hours. He'd have one or two in the evening and would only smoke in the kitchen. On September 11th, he stopped smoking completely. No cravings whatsoever.
Take what you want from this, but they TOTALLY work. Someone said it's a placebo effect, some say it's like a pacifier. I see it as both. I loved smoking. I'm also finding out that it's easier to give up nicotine than it was to give up an actual cigarette. My nicotine intake is down by half from when I started and I plan to phase it out completely. When I get to 0 nicotine, I'll see if I'm ready to give up vaping then
A placebo is a sugar pill, it has nothing in to that does anything, e-juice with nic in it is not a placebo.
As to the rest of your post. May I ask which school of medicine you studied at? When did you get your degree and in what field of medicine? I really am interested to know this being as what you are saying goes against everything medical science has proven over the last 50 or so years.
I tried everything to quit smoking except Chantix and wellbutron and the ecig was my last hope.The day I got my starter kit is the day i quit smoking Everyone is different and I realize that i am lucky that there were no withdrawals.
Everyone is different and I realize that i am lucky that there were no withdrawals.
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I have not tried any gum or patches. When I first began vaping only 2 months ago I would smoke an analog in the morning and vape the rest of the day... After 4 days of this routine I went outside to smoke my analog and as soon as I lit it I put it out... For some reason I couldn't stand the taste of it and it made me cough... I smoked analogs for 14 years and suddenly I just couldn't stand the taste or smell of them.. hope this help with your research..
Don't worry, this is not going into any academic paper. I cannot use this anyway as the population on an electronic cigarette forum cannot be considered a random sampling. It is more for my profession interest as I have talked to a limited number of patients and they all rave about how this was the product that finally saved them after gums and patches failed. I wanted to see if their experience was common and from what I am seeing it is. I just feel as a doctor powerless to help because one thing I can tell you from my 10 years in medicine is that the nicotine patches and gums do NOT work. And when you get to have a better understanding of the origins of addiction and how it works in the brain it makes perfect sense why they don't work and why electronic cigarettes do. Thank you all so much for your replies and rest assured this is not being publicized, just used by a physician to give some better guidance to his patients
You are absolutely correct. They are a placebo. And actually if you use the nicotine free ones they are even more of a placebo. And you are amazingly insightful to point out that yes placebos can and do work. Thousands of research studies have proven the efficacy of placebos. And yes, in the case the user knows it is a placebo but I agree, for this case it does not matter. The parts of your brain that cause addiction are very primitive unsophistocated parts of the brain that we share with lizards and even insects. Addiction does not come from the high up, reasoning and thinking parts of our brain. Your thinking is spot on and if you take it a step further a whole new world will open up to you and you will see that addiction treatment has been off base for decades.
It is great that you are looking into this to help your patients 
To just add my story -
I have smoked for 46 years - I started at age 12. Other than one brief attempt at age 20 to quit cold turkey I have never attempted to quit again. I have used nicorette gum and nicorette inhaler for travel when I had to go long hours without smoking. Just from these experiences I knew that I would not be able to quit with these.
I actually started using an cigarette "like" ecig on Oct 30 - just to see if it would help me cut down from the 30 cigarettes I was smoking every day. I was actually pretty surprized how well even these - what I now know not very efficient ecigs - worked. I was down to 3/4 cigarettes a day right away. I stopped smoking in my house (yes something I know I should have done years ago) so that I had to go outside if I actually wanted to smoke. I think this change also helped with making the ecig more appealing.
I then found ECF and read all the great info here for two weeks. The support and encouragement here is also something that helped me as much as the new eGo Twist kit that arrived on Nov 22. I started using the new ecig along with better ejuice with 18mg of nic and did not even want the one cigarette a day that I was still smoking. I just figured why have that smoke - when the vapor actually tastes better.
So - I actually quit smoking and I was not even planning to do so. I know that it is still very early in the process for me - but I have sat with my best friend having coffee and she smoked 4 cigarettes and I vaped. I have been with other friends while they are smoking and I have no desire to smoke.
However, I do know at least at this point that if I could not vape - I would go back to smoking. I still "love" smoking and still do not feel that I want to quit. So for me it is really just that I have switched to a less harmful way to smoke. So I hope this helps you - for sure if you have patients like me that actually do not want to quit - this has worked for me and I am still amazed everyday that I am not smoking.
To just add my story -I have smoked for 46 years - I started at age 12. Other than one brief attempt at age 20 to quit cold turkey I have never attempted to quit again. I have used nicorette gum and nicorette inhaler for travel when I had to go long hours without smoking. Just from these experiences I knew that I would not be able to quit with these.
I actually started using an cigarette "like" ecig on Oct 30 - just to see if it would help me cut down from the 30 cigarettes I was smoking every day. I was actually pretty surprized how well even these - what I now know not very efficient ecigs - worked. I was down to 3/4 cigarettes a day right away. I stopped smoking in my house (yes something I know I should have done years ago) so that I had to go outside if I actually wanted to smoke. I think this change also helped with making the ecig more appealing.
I then found ECF and read all the great info here for two weeks. The support and encouragement here is also something that helped me as much as the new eGo Twist kit that arrived on Nov 22. I started using the new ecig along with better ejuice with 18mg of nic and did not even want the one cigarette a day that I was still smoking. I just figured why have that smoke - when the vapor actually tastes better.
So - I actually quit smoking and I was not even planning to do so. I know that it is still very early in the process for me - but I have sat with my best friend having coffee and she smoked 4 cigarettes and I vaped. I have been with other friends while they are smoking and I have no desire to smoke.
However, I do know at least at this point that if I could not vape - I would go back to smoking. I still "love" smoking and still do not feel that I want to quit. So for me it is really just that I have switched to a less harmful way to smoke. So I hope this helps you - for sure if you have patients like me that actually do not want to quit - this has worked for me and I am still amazed everyday that I am not smoking.
I smoked for 25 years and was a 1 - 2 pack a day menthol light user. I've used patches & gum when I was unable to smoke and have never been able to wean myself from cigarettes. I was involved in a study and used a Smokerlyzer® CO Monitor for a period of 9 months, taking reading hourly, daily, and then weekly. I was not able to wean myself from cigarettes using the Smokerlyzer® CO Monitor. I quit approximately 5 years ago using a generic eCigarette model using 24mg of nicotine exclusively. This level of nicotine was much stronger than I received with cigarettes and I was able to wean myself from the cigarettes & the eCigarette over a 6 month period. Within a year I took up smoking again as I began socializing with smokers. I am now using an improved model of eCigarette where I can regulate my nicotine intake, 0mg to 15mg for casual vaping to 24mg when pronounced withdrawal symptoms occur. I've read on ECF that these stronger urges will ease between a 2-3 week period, so I persevere.
I smoked for about 5 years (I'm 25), roughly a pack a day. I finally decided to really delve into the e-cig world and just spent a ton of money on 12 different e-cigs, which I am reviewing for this forum. I am returning them all except the V2 and Volt.
As far as cravings, I didn't even really *intend* to quit but I found once I started that I just plain didn't feel like having a regular cig. It really surprised me. I still have half a pack left that I bought 2 weeks ago. Every now and then I'll light it up out of curiosity, or to compare. It feels like nothing when I inhale, and although I still like the smell a bit the taste is pretty bad. I haven't finished a cig in 2 weeks, a puff or two and I toss it.
It's also great because to me cigarettes and coffee were tied together, and if I was smoking I always had to be drinking something besides water to mask the taste the cigs left in my mouth. Coffee, coke, juice, etc... I don't have that problem any more!
As far as cravings, I didn't even really *intend* to quit but I found once I started that I just plain didn't feel like having a regular cig. It really surprised me. I still have half a pack left that I bought 2 weeks ago. Every now and then I'll light it up out of curiosity, or to compare. It feels like nothing when I inhale, and although I still like the smell a bit the taste is pretty bad. I haven't finished a cig in 2 weeks, a puff or two and I toss it.
It's also great because to me cigarettes and coffee were tied together, and if I was smoking I always had to be drinking something besides water to mask the taste the cigs left in my mouth. Coffee, coke, juice, etc... I don't have that problem any more!
NO NO NO !!. The harmful substance in a cigarette is "TAR". Without the tar the electric cigarette is a placebo. You are focusing on nicotine when nicotine isn't the issue, TAR IS. Tar is the killer !. It has nothing to do with addiction. It is to do with the fact it kills people. So which is more important to you ? I think i make this quite clear in my original post. ELECTRIC CIGARETTES ARE A PLACEBO. This makes them more acceptable, do you not understand that ?. Nicotine is present in electric cigarettes so the smart choice is to use the electric cigarette as a placebo to avoid the tar ? Nicotine is just the hook. BASICALLY, USE THE PLACEBO AS A REPLACEMENT FOR TAR. Could i make this point any clearer ?. So to encourage any government to accept the electric cigarette would be to suggest that it is a placebo, because it is. And again "nicotine has nothing to do with it". It's a tar replacement PLACEBO. And your comments are detrimental to the idea that electric cigarettes are acceptable in society. If your FDA understood this idea then everyone could benefit.
I did say in my original post that withdrawal symptoms from addictive substances aren't why people are addicted. What i said was, "it's more about the person and not the substance". They act like spoilt children that have to have their way. They want something and will do anything to get it. And "neural chemistry" doesn't change the fact that these types of people act like spoilt brats. And were doing so long before they ever knew the illegal substances existed. They blame all of there obnoxious idiosychracies on the substances they abuse. They hide behind it and use it as a sheild. It's like this "oh i feel cold" "must be the substance". "oh i feel good today" "must be the substance" Absolutely every aspect of their life is covered by their substance abuse. And to add insult to injury they expect everyone else to believe this ridiculous nonsense. I know dozens of people all "addicted" to this n that and they "all" claim sickness benefit based on the symptoms of withdrawal. I wasn't born yesterday, I am an observer. I've been observing this for about 20 years.
Smoked for 15 years, PaD+ red labels on normal week and could get into 2 on stressed days.
Not like a craving, more like transition issues. Like morning coffee and cigarette on balcony for over 5 years. It's something that you do without thinking, so I sometimes did catch myself that I'm going out with coffee, but without cigarette... got myself confused
I did try gum and attended seminars by local hospital. They can show me smokers lungs as much as they want, but I just don't care... We inhale so much crap every day in big cities that I doubt cigarettes are really the worst in all of that.
Got my cig for less than a month and had 3 smokes in first day, just because I had left some and that was it.
Not when stressed or around smoking people, and there are many around me... starting to dislike the smell of them actually. The only problem I could see in ecig is lack of guidance. You can see thousands of ads outside in random kiosks. You buy one of those, well they acre crap... the juice with your standard tobacco flavor is just plain horrible. I still wonder who the hell thinks that Marlboro flavor is anywhere near cigar-ish taste... Top it with nonsense of "that guy" who sold you it and you're back on analogs in 10 minutes.
So, after finding this wonderful forum I wanted to rant, but instead found lots of support and basic fact - look for flavors outside tobacco, you will never find exact same taste of cigarette.
And yea, decent equipment is a must. I've bought some real cheap stuff just to try out if it's any good and because of that almost got back to cigarettes... thrown away 80$ on cartos alone in first week... add some terrible juices that are in garbage now and you'll get past your weekly cig budget...
We all tend to look for cheaper stuff and when you have no idea you either listen to somebody or base your decision on something you found, both can be just wrong like I had. It would be amazing if medicine would co-op with ecigs. Just selling decent starter kit with decent juices.
TL/DR: No craving for analogs. Must resist craving to buy every juice in market and mods...
Not like a craving, more like transition issues. Like morning coffee and cigarette on balcony for over 5 years. It's something that you do without thinking, so I sometimes did catch myself that I'm going out with coffee, but without cigarette... got myself confused
I did try gum and attended seminars by local hospital. They can show me smokers lungs as much as they want, but I just don't care... We inhale so much crap every day in big cities that I doubt cigarettes are really the worst in all of that.
Got my cig for less than a month and had 3 smokes in first day, just because I had left some and that was it.
Not when stressed or around smoking people, and there are many around me... starting to dislike the smell of them actually. The only problem I could see in ecig is lack of guidance. You can see thousands of ads outside in random kiosks. You buy one of those, well they acre crap... the juice with your standard tobacco flavor is just plain horrible. I still wonder who the hell thinks that Marlboro flavor is anywhere near cigar-ish taste... Top it with nonsense of "that guy" who sold you it and you're back on analogs in 10 minutes.
So, after finding this wonderful forum I wanted to rant, but instead found lots of support and basic fact - look for flavors outside tobacco, you will never find exact same taste of cigarette.
And yea, decent equipment is a must. I've bought some real cheap stuff just to try out if it's any good and because of that almost got back to cigarettes... thrown away 80$ on cartos alone in first week... add some terrible juices that are in garbage now and you'll get past your weekly cig budget...
We all tend to look for cheaper stuff and when you have no idea you either listen to somebody or base your decision on something you found, both can be just wrong like I had. It would be amazing if medicine would co-op with ecigs. Just selling decent starter kit with decent juices.
TL/DR: No craving for analogs. Must resist craving to buy every juice in market and mods...
I smoked about 20-30 cigs per day for 25 years. Tried patches but they didn't help me at all. Tried to quit cold turkey many times but failed. Chewed 4mg nicorette gum for 2 years but always had a craving for cigs. Started vaping 4 months ago and have no urges for cigarettes at all. Also the desire for a cig with morning coffee has become non-existent. Started with 24mg/ml nic and have reduced to 18mg/ml by reducing the amount of nic in my fluid by 1mg per mix with each batch I make. I've had no noticable cravings with slow reduction of nicotine.
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