Ex-Smoker vs. Recovering Smoker

[lettucehead]

Would like your thoughts on this subject -

When is one an 'Ex-Smoker'?
Is 1 day since your last cig long enough? 1 week? 1 month? Is it a whole year?

When is the danger of relapse over?
Or, as I believe, is it never over?

Which brings up the second item -
If the danger from relapse is never over, does that make one really a 'Recovering Smoker'?
Much like a former problem drinker is a 'Recovering Alcoholic'?

Both are addictions.
Abet, not equal addictions, but addictions none the less.

Can a former addiction ever be considered to be of no future risk?
In which case, the vigilance of recovery can not falter....

 

[dlsw]

Would like your thoughts on this subject -

When is one an 'Ex-Smoker'?
Is 1 day since your last cig long enough? 1 week? 1 month? Is it a whole year?

When is the danger of relapse over?
Or, as I believe, is it never over?

Which brings up the second item -
If the danger from relapse is never over, does that make one really a 'Recovering Smoker'?
Much like a former problem drinker is a 'Recovering Alcoholic'?

Both are addictions.
Abet, not equal addictions, but addictions none the less.

Can a former addiction ever be considered to be of no future risk?
In which case, the vigilance of recovery can not falter....

Nice, I've thought about this issue as well and have decided that I don't want to call it either as I have switched to vaping. on the occasions in which I quit or was in recovery before this, I had cravings so bad that I would dream about smoking! Don't get me wrong, with a smoking husband, I am vigilant, but the terms quitting and in recovery do not adequately express what I have experienced in the last 4 months and some change.

 

[Stosh]

I guess we're recovering smokers, because I know for myself, take away my
nicotine and I'm climbing the walls, and back to smoking in a heartbeat.

The gum and patches were supposed to wean me off nic, yeah right, soon
as I reached low nic on them, I was smoking again...

 

[candimccann]

Recovering is a good description. I always feel like I am one power outage or postal service glitch away from buying a pack of cigarettes. Last year we had an outage of 6 days, if I were vaping then I can almost guarantee I would have started smoking again.

 

[Xaiver]

I think that 'recovering' is a pronoun that doctors dreamed up to make people feel better about quitting something. One of those goal-systems, which don't really work for me unless they involve giving me money or free things.

That said, most former smokers that quit via cold turkey will crave cigarettes on and off for the rest of their life. I say most because the ones that I've spoken with still have the twitch, 10, 20 years later. It gets more mild, but I don't believe it ever goes away, it may even turn into a light craving like "Gosh, I would love a strawberry right now."

vaping is a whole different beast. In fact, I think that most of the people here can agree with me when I say: I don't crave cigarettes, in fact they repulse me. I've tried them a few times since I switched, 2 drags on an analog was the most I could get. It then took me a gallon or two of root beer to wash the licked-ashtray flavor from my tongue.

 

[Huffelpuff]

I think that all answers are right. It's like deciding to be a vegetarian. You don't have to declare to the world "I do not eat meat" and label yourself a vegetarian - you simply can make the small choice to change this part of your lifestyle. Same with smoking - I know that I will never go back, I've lost all desire. Regardless of the label, reformed smoker - recovering smoker - it simply is who I am now. No need to make a label for it IMHO.

 

[AJMoore]

IDK, I think of myself as a smoker and would smoke in a heartbeat if I didn't have my e cig. Two and a half years, not one single drag but I think I'm a smoker, as said, I just substituted. Recovering? Maybe, but life long recovery?

 

[Ctor]

Well, if we're vaping nicotiine, we're still addicts. Sorta like an alcoholic switching from wiskey to vodka. It might be cleaner/healthier, but we're still feeding our addiction. So ex-smoker would be right, and when we give up nicotine, we'd be recovering nicotine addicts .

 

[dlsw]

Well, if we're vaping nicotiine, we're still addicts. Sorta like an alcoholic switching from wiskey to vodka. It might be cleaner/healthier, but we're still feeding our addiction. So ex-smoker would be right, and when we give up nicotine, we'd be recovering nicotine addicts .

Exactly, except that vodka would do as much damage and vaping is less risky than smoking. But, that being said, I consider myself a "switcher"... Oh that's too weird.

 

[Ctor]

Exactly, except that vodka would do as much damage and vaping is less risky than smoking. But, that being said, I consider myself a "switcher"... Oh that's too weird.

I didn't mean to imply vodka was any healthier than any other alcohol, it was an analogy for switching the "packaging" of the addictive substance.

 

[AJMoore]

What? Vodka isn't healthier? Damn.

 

[HawkeyeFLA]

I didn't mean to imply vodka was any healthier than any other alcohol, it was an analogy for switching the "packaging" of the addictive substance.

I always make a comparison of soda to coffee/tea using caffeine as the addiction. Seems to at least explain it better to some.

 

[dlsw]

I didn't mean to imply vodka was any healthier than any other alcohol, it was an analogy for switching the "packaging" of the addictive substance.

Ok, I get it...

 

[AJMoore]

....or apples to Oreos, they are both food, kinda.

 

[iamtumus]

it's like the methadone maintenance program.
people who quit without it will think you haven't quit, people who are still using think you have.
when in reality it's just whatever works to help you live a normal, healthier life.

 

[chemsoldier83]

All addicts are referred to as recovering because you can relapse at any time. No matter how long it has been.

 

[wavey]

i like to think i have quit so i tell myself i have quit quit it more of a final word telling my little inner voice i no longer need that anymore so its quit, quit, quit, all the way.

 

[Filibuster]

I don't think about it much. I quit smoking around four months ago, on the day I received my Volt kit. I never plan to smoke again.

Of course I never planned to quit smoking until I placed the order for my Volt. Not that it was even planned, per se. I hoped to quit smoking. I find I like vaping. It's fun. It's a hobby. It's my new, presumably healthier vice.

 

[ohai]

Interesting how words that all mean basically the same thing can imply so many different things to different people.

For me, I think I'm both an ex-smoker and a recovering smoker, but I'm not a non-smoker.

I'm an ex-smoker because I no longer smoke, and intend to never smoke again.

I'm a recovering smoker because, after doing it for 28 years, I've got a long way to go to repair the damage it's done and extricate myself psychologically from something that was such a huge part of my life for so long.

I'm not a non-smoker, because that term implies to me someone who has never smoked and would not understand the way cigarette addiction can overtake your life and control you through your need for nicotine, would be baffled by the idea that a smoker needs to have something to do with their hands and their mouth and their breathing as much as they need that nicotine. Non-smokers cannot get these things, because they never needed these things. An ex-smoker gets it, because they've been there and back.

 

[brummyjon]

It's probably all just semantics. I stopped smoking for two and a half years, and I was certain I had finally cracked it. All it took was one business trip to London, a couple of beers, a bit of boredom and a late night tobacconist to start again.
The way I feel now (andf it is early days) is that vaping is something I have switched to, with no real effort at all. I am very comfortably down to 6mg/ml, and don't envisage going back to something that smells so bad, costs so much and.. well, we all know the score.

Having said that, I have no idea what the future holds. Maybe I will vape for the rest of my life. Maybe when the novelty has worn off, I will just not bother one day.... all I know is I'm pretty content right now.