Cass, e-smoking is NOT your only option off cigarettes. Drop that idea. Read the section on the forum on alternatives to cigarettes. Do anything and everything to avoid inhaling tobacco smoke into your lungs. Don't put all your eggs in the e-smoking basket. Put 'em as many places as you can.
Chantix is a bad option, IMO. I've done it. Others here have too. If you'd like to make yourself sick or insane, get a prescription. Otherwise, use the NRT products or snus or dissolvable tobacco or cigars or pipes or nasal snuff .... you get the idea.
Honestly, I'm trying to not think about NOT smoking. I'm just...uh...trying to cut down. Yeah, that's it
I've quit on just about everything but scripts. I rarely take anything in the "medicine realm" to begin with and get too wrapped up in what is put in a little pill to make it do what it does. Both of my docs have been VERY cool about not pressuring me. They both have basically told me that I need to wrap my head around the idea first, and come to them if I need help. Second doc said the same thing, all smiley and neutral, until my tests came back and he looked kind of panicked and told me how to get get Chantix for $50 (instead of $120).
I've heard GREAT stories about it. And terrible nightmares. So, I told him I'm still on the line and was working with an electronic-cig. That seemed to brighten his day because he laughed...until he realized I was serious.
Really, it always amazes me when people say you should quit smoking...as if it's a concept they've come up with, that has never occurred to you before.
I can't agree with you enough about putting your eggs in as many places as possible. The best quitting success I ever had was the nic-gum/hypnotherapy/herbal-filter-that-looks-like-a-cig/box-in-the-garage/jellybeans/chewing-gum/sleep combo. Or something like that.
A year later, I would STILL wake up every morning and give myself the quitting speech, "Remember you're not a smoker. Just get through the first hour without it. You can't sleep all day. Tomorrow will be easier."
For me...it never was.
I don't want to use the Chantix, TropicalBob. But on the other hand, I think, even if I have bad side effects, can't I just stop taking it? I just haven't learned enough about it to be comfortable with it. I'll check out the forums about cig alternative and see what new has been developed in the last 5 years. I gotta tell you though, the e cig is getting better each day. Today, I went to the bank, went home, went shopping, then home again, then dropped off the kids at the movie, and ended up at home a final time. Typically, I would have smoked 11-12 real cigs in that time. Today, I smoked 2. So, I'm feeling pretty good about it.
