Fear of replacing one addiction with another

[Tamster]

Greetings, Fellow Vapers!

Some five weeks ago, I found myself crying to my [adult] daughter, confessing how I had once again relapsed to smoking. We talked about e-cigs, and that made me sob even more: I didn't want to substitute one addiction for another!

It was decided that smoking analogs had to go -- whatever it took ... And it took me here ... And I haven't smoked an analog since getting my first starter kit, 4+ weeks ago.

I have made it a point to select the lowest nicotine-levels in the juices I've ordered over the last month.

I'm trying hard not "fall in love" with vaping [because I really do not want to develop another selfish habit!], yet I want to acknowledge something that has finally broken me of the stinking/suicidal smoking-habit.

I guess I'm wondering if anyone else here has those kinds of mixed feelings about vaping? (As we speak, I'm enjoying the heck out of my Ego-T-type-B, with delicious Halo juices :-o !?)

 

[classwife]

Yep...one step at a time.....maybe you'll let it go ...maybe not...but you aren't smoking cigarettes !!

Congratulations !!

I smoked for over 40 years....I am very thankful for this alternative !

 

[JWebb]

If you look into your daughters eyes and know she wants you to be around for her for years to come, it is not that hard of a decision to abandon the 4,000 cancer causing chemicals in analogs and substitute the ecigs. The best goal is to stop the analogs and then use the ecigs to wean yourself off the ecig/nicotine habit once and for all, but in a way that truly will work for you so there are no more relapses. I think that makes sense. You can start with a higher nic mg rating and then cut down as your body adjusts until no more. Just my opinion...

 

[Rosa]

IMO, switching from tobacco cigs to electronic cigs could never be described as "selfish"... even if you never give it up. What you have given up is all the things that made your addiction to nicotine selfish.

 

[Tamster]

Yep...one step at a time.....maybe you'll let it go ...maybe not...but you aren't smoking cigarettes !!

Congratulations !!

I smoked for over 40 years....I am very thankful for this alternative !

What you wrote, precisely! Thanks for that -- and giant congrats to you for kicking that crap to the curb, after 40 years! Way to go!!!

 

[Steelrat]

For me, it's really kind of difficult to see this as a selfish thing. I actually sat down, spent who knows how many hours/days/weeks researching it prior to getting directly involved. Yeah, the money thing is there, and yeah the "I don't smell like...like...whatever the hell that nasty burned garbage smell is, any more." But truth be told, the most intense desire came when I looked in my son's eyes.

My son is autistic. He speaks very seldom.

You want this? to be rid of the evil? Then, no matter what, no matter the fear you have, the self loathing you may think is nagging at you...it's the nasty evil trying to pull you back in...and it doesn't speak either...it just tugs at you...nudges you...

SO...selfish? YOUR DAMN RIGHT I'M SELFISH! If my desire to be around for an "extra" 20 years is selfish, then you can count me in ANY DAY.

P.S. Philip Morris can suck it!

 

[Susett]

Hello Tamster and congrats on getting back off the analog.
I went thru push and pull with my conscious and my ego. I was very proud of myself for quitting smoking some 3 yrs ago (chantex). And for a long time it was about gone.. but I guess stress and life just have me in a state and I wanted to smoke again. I really wanted the comfort and familiarity of handling the smoking. So I did manage to stay off the cigs but unsure that I would stay off the smoking I choose to vape. Some people view it as a lose, or a regression, or crumbling will power. Lots of friends ask why I would choose to start that after quitting .. smoking never really leaves you I guess. After some 30 years.

Anyway when I sit down in the morning with my coffee I get to have a smoke. To tell the truth at this stage gotta face the truth of the matter, I had to give up most of my caffine, I had to give up sugar because of diabetis, so also had to stay off the nicotine. It seems the older you get the more you give up. So I figure rather than go back to smoking analogs I would take one small victory for myself. And now I can have a cig with my morning coffee.. one of lifes small pleasures. And I dare anyone to try and take it away from me lol

Sorry I get so chatty lol.. again congrats on your accomplisments.
Susett

 

[roxics]

Is it selfish to eat healthy instead of unhealthy?

 

[Tamster]

The best goal is to stop the analogs and then use the ecigs to wean yourself off the ecig/nicotine habit once and for all

Yep, JWebb! For sure, that's it! ... Just over these last few weeks, I notice that when I wake up in the middle of the night to get a glass of water, I don't automatically think of smoking -- so I'm pretty sure the nicotine-obsession has been kicked ...

But during the day, I really like the vaping experience ... So there really is a difference: the analogs I *had* to do -- but the vapes are just something I like to do ... (but isn't that what we thought about smoking when we first started to do it? -- oh, cripes, I'm confusing myself! :/ )

 

[technovapir]

Hi Tamster!!
I really like vaping more than I ever liked smoking. I still miss smoking only because it was so "easy" and vaping takes a bit of prep, especially if you're out & about.
I don't have a plan to quit vaping though. I'm OK with doing it forever if I feel like it. Unlike smoking, I sometimes find myself even going a whole day without it, and then I'm really surprised when I realize that I haven't even thought about it.
It's not perfect, but it's so much better than my previous 30 year addiction to tobacco, I'm just going to relax and go with it guilt free!
Take Care and welcome to ECF !

 

[swedishfish]

I'm trying hard not "fall in love" with vaping [because I really do not want to develop another selfish habit!], yet I want to acknowledge something that has finally broken me of the stinking/suicidal smoking-habit.

I guess I'm wondering if anyone else here has those kinds of mixed feelings about vaping? (As we speak, I'm enjoying the heck out of my Ego-T-type-B, with delicious Halo juices :-o !?)

I fell in love with vaping. I refuse to feel guilty or feel like crap because I'm vaping. I got enough of that when I was smoking. If I didn't 100% embrace vaping, I'd probably be back smoking. I'm doing something positive and 100% better for me than smoking was and I'm enjoying the hell out of it. Maybe I'll quit vaping one day, who knows. But I'm doing something that I never in a million years thought was possible- I'm not smoking cigarettes. Yea for me!

 

[Noodoggy]

yes its another addiction, but one with far less undesirable consequences than the previous one. I drink coffee. It's an addiction. I dont start my day without it. Woe be to one who prevents me my start to my day without coffee. but it is a minor undesirable consquence to my addiction. same with e-cigs. i look at it in terms of me being able to see my daughter graduate from college 16 years from now. At some point seeing her marry. There was such an odds stacked against me when I was smoking being the age I am (39) that I would get to see those things with her. Plus, now when she is grown up, she will have less memory of me and my smoky smell as her memories of me when she was a child. Take small steps to get you where you want to go, but the important part is to take the steps. Waiting to get it all in one fell swoop just makes it an all or nothing and those dont go well in life. =) May your vaping be long lasting!

 

[dormouse]

Yes you are replacing one with another. However, if you have any self control at all (and I have very little) then you won't go ape-crap with vaping and get onto the more bigger better stronger path. When I started vaping I was determined not to increase my nicotine dependence or my dependence on TH. I did not let myself vape all the time. At home I keep the ecigs in another room and go there to vape. That keeps me from vaping all the time. Because I did not let myself vape all the time it was pretty easy to drop my nicotine level (I would just vape extra to smooth over the transition). With vaping I did what is impossible with cigarettes - over a number of months I got my nicotine level down to alternating 0mg and 4mg juices, much lower than any cigarettes. I am pretty pleased.

I don't know if I can get rid of the dragging and breathing stuff habit - I actually think that is the strongest part of the habit. But my need is much much less desperate now. It's nice.

 

[H. Wordsmythe]

Greetings, Fellow Vapers!

Some five weeks ago, I found myself crying to my [adult] daughter, confessing how I had once again relapsed to smoking. We talked about e-cigs, and that made me sob even more: I didn't want to substitute one addiction for another!

It was decided that smoking analogs had to go -- whatever it took ... And it took me here ... And I haven't smoked an analog since getting my first starter kit, 4+ weeks ago.

I have made it a point to select the lowest nicotine-levels in the juices I've ordered over the last month.

I'm trying hard not "fall in love" with vaping [because I really do not want to develop another selfish habit!], yet I want to acknowledge something that has finally broken me of the stinking/suicidal smoking-habit.

I guess I'm wondering if anyone else here has those kinds of mixed feelings about vaping? (As we speak, I'm enjoying the heck out of my Ego-T-type-B, with delicious Halo juices :-o !?)

I feel no guilt whatsoever. I'm not worried about or bothered by my dependence on vaping. I'm not even interested in cutting down my nicotine. We've been conditioned to believe that nicotine is the devil and addiction is a sin, but I don't buy it. Habits are part of the human experience. Habits keep us happy and sane. Even people who don't smoke and aren't nic-fiends have dependencies - it just so happens that our dependency is socially unacceptable. Well I refuse to drink the koolaid. Unless someone proves to me that vaping will kill me one day, I intend to vape on and vape proudly...

 

[chevelle]

Greetings, Fellow Vapers!

...I'm trying hard not "fall in love" with vaping [because I really do not want to develop another selfish habit!], yet I want to acknowledge something that has finally broken me of the stinking/suicidal smoking-habit.

I guess I'm wondering if anyone else here has those kinds of mixed feelings about vaping? (As we speak, I'm enjoying the heck out of my Ego-T-type-B, with delicious Halo juices :-o !?)

Sure, I have mixed feelings about the possibility of replacing one addiction for another. I know it is a common trait with those of us who were slaves to cigarettes for decades. I refuse to beat myself over it though. I feel confident in saying that many of our brothers and sisters here have been through the hottest fires of hell itself with our former addiction. I gladly trade the former life of guilt and misery for this alternative form of nicotine replacement therapy we call vaping. If it leads to being addicted to the PV... well, so be it. Although I believe it is far more manageable. My plan is to lower my nic levels until I reach Zero and then maybe recreationally vape or not at all. I have already begun the lowering process and feel that good progress has been made toward kicking it completely. I'm not in love with vaping. Its more of a friendly tool...a weapon for destroying a true evil.

Stand tall my friend and take it one step at a time. You have already made the most important decision! Embrace it and be proud.

 

[Iffy]

You want selfish... here's some of my ol' selfishness:

Made my family put up with my smokers breath and polluted clothes. Put them through hell when I went cold turkey for 10 weeks 17 years ago. Paid more for health in$urance. Less time romping with the grand babies. Stepping out from events to suck that cig, rain/shine/sleet/snow. On and on...

Not any more after 45 years of 1.5/2 PaD!!!

 

[Rickajho]

The way I see it:

You are concerned about replacing your addiction to nicotine with... an addiction to nicotine? If quitting cigarettes is the real issue here then why are you getting hung up on that? In other words, nothing about your addiction issue has actually changed.

If your goal is to get off nicotine rather than quitting cigarettes then that's a different issue.

It's a point I didn't get personally hung up on.

I do know that I feel a lot better vaping than smoking even after five weeks. I didn't realize how jacked-up I was from smoking cigarettes until I switched to vaping and a lot of the higher-strung aspects of my personality settled down. (And I'm using 26 mg liquids when vaping.) I haven't tested yet, but I have to believe just based on how I feel physiologically and mentally that I'm taking in a lot less nicotine vaping than I did on a pack/pack and a half a day .... habit.

I saw my Allergist last week and we talked a lot about my switch to e-cigs. He wanted a lot of information about the PV, the liquid contents (PG versus VG) and the nicotine levels in the liquids. His only remarkable comment on the entire matter was regarding the nicotine level "...it's one of those things where you are only going to absorb so much nicotine." Beyond that he expressed no interest or concern as to if I had any intention of quitting vaping or when.

In other words, it got me off cigarettes and if it keeps me from smoking again, as an Allergist, he is ok with that.

I may cut my nicotine level or quit vaping entirely - in the future. But right now I'm not smoking, not freaking out from nicotine withdrawal, and not failing at a quit smoking attempt. Which is a heck of a lot more than I can say about the other dozen or so times I tried to quit with conventional approaches.

Relax. Don't get too far ahead of yourself. Not smoking is a good thing.

Rick

 

[soundasleep]

My wife is still a little concerned about how much I vape compared to how much I used to smoke. What can I saw, I enjoy it! Seriously though, according to the figures I've read on nic content and absorbtion my vaping habits seem to match quite well to how much I used to smoke.

Having read all the currently available evidence I have no doubt in my mind AT ALL that vaping is so much safer than if I still smoked. The number one question I get is "are you going to ween yourself off the nicotine?" For the moment, that answer is definately a "no". I don't drink coffee, so I figure the long term effects are similar to if I did and I'm not worried.

The wife is SLOWLY coming around, either that or she's just sick of me throwing evidence at her

 

[mwa102464]

Lowering Nic levels can take time, think about it you smoked for all those years right and took in so much Nic. So if it takes you a couple years to start to lower your MG it's OK. I've been vaping for going on 3 yrs now and started at 36mg for the first couple of months then dropped quickly to 24mg and used the 24 for a long time, now I'm back and forth down to 18mg, 16mg,12mg and finding them great, bottom line is it can take time for the body to adjust from all those yrs of Analog use and everyone is also different in there make up so bottom line is it can take longer or shorter time periods for people to lower there MG.

 

[phonedude]

Hello and welcome to the forum. I believe that is a decision each of us must make for ourselves. I am still deciding for myself but haven't reached a conclusion yet.