I had to lmao over that tough love post, sounded like me talking to ......me!
I think the nicotine addiction is half the battle, the other half is 26 years of rituals and habit's associated with cigarettes ... The key for me is replacing old rituals and habits with new ones....
Buy cigarettes : DIY some e-liquid or open some up.
Open a new pack : fresh tank/carto/clearo
Throw away the plastic/foil : add to the condom collection or toss this one?
Tamp the pack down : check volts/ohms/juice level
Check how many left in the pack : check charge on battery/juice level
Smokes, lighter,keys? Check! : pv, backups,keys? Check!
Light up : Vape!
Find a spot where I can smoke. : find a spot where I can vape.
Make sure it's really "out" : secure pv/power off
Empty ashtrays : clean/replace tanks,attys,carto, clearos
Deep clean, deodorize things : sort growing collection of vape gear!
Everyone has their own little satisfaction triggers, I know for me more important than "taste", or just about anything else is a righteous cloud of vapor! I care about the other factors, I want a "warm" enough vape, the right amount of throat hit for me, has to be enough nicotine to do the trick, etc. But nothing seems to quiet the psychological madness for me like a big cloud of exhale. It's weird but thin wispy vapor drives me nuts completely separate from nicotine level, flavor or anything else. I need that big ole cloud when I exhale and all is right with my experience. That has little to do with the chemical addiction to nicotine and everything to do with my attachment to the ritual and process of smoking. At home I always went outside or out to the garage to smoke, at work there is a hiding spot for smoking. Sometimes I still go to those places to vape, other people avoid there old "smoking haunts", completely -I say whatever works for you and reduces your anxiety while you are switching.
I never beat myself up during the process either, from reduction of analogs to significant reduction, to having a few here and there to one on occasion to now , no analogs. I refused(and refuse) to stress or obsess over it, the total switch came on fairly quickly but I suspect everyone moves thru that process in their own way, and on their own time schedule. Now I simply refuse to go backwards, I keep some 36mg on hand if I think I'm getting too antsy, I've bought snus(they say its an acquired taste, I thought it tasted like salty toe jam!), but I am not going backwards. I see it as having switched, not quit. That distinction is important for me to keep my head in the right place. I wanted to avoid the whole quitting/on the bandwagon/off the bandwagon thinking, it would not have worked for me personally, ymmv. My success rate of giving things up that I really enjoy is extremely low, but I honestly don't feel like I've given anything up, (except maybe my risk of cancer), I've simply switched to vaping it rather than smoking it!
If you want to do it, you can do it. How exactly you get from point A to point B, and how long it takes you to get there is more a personal thing. I was never able to "quit" because I never wanted to "quit". I really did want to change/switch so I've been able to. Really, don't stress or worry about the bumps on the way, they are inevitable sometimes. Equipment does fail, you will get stressed etc, but minimize your exposure to those bumps - have backups, and backups for those backups and your odds of making it over the bumps and humps will continue to improve. I wish you the best of luck, the only way you can truly fail at it is to give up on it completely. Hang in there !
