Hello from Turkey

[basak]

Hi everyone,

I am a smoker since age 14 which makes almost 24 years of smoking... Whenever I tried to quit (once for 6 months and once for 1,5 year) I gained tons of weight and found my self in a huge depression. I finally decided that smoking was a part of my life. Yet things started to change when I went to UK 2 weeks ago. It was like I was the only dirty addict between all those people and I really felt bad. I also was surprised to see how many people was carrying and using e-cigarettes. One day when I was out of cigarettes I went to find a tobacco shop but instead I found myself in an EC shop and bought a simple device. Never planned to quit smoking and never thought that EC could work for me. So whatever I did that day was completely instinctive. I vaped and smoked for few days but I realised that I wasn't finishing the cigarettes I was rolling, vaping was enough satisfying. So I am smoke free since 8 days and never ever craved for smoking. I know it's too early to say but I don't think I'll ever smoke again.

Yet I am very confused about how to use EC, how to find proper devices and e-liquids (since all these are banned in Turkey and shipping are mostly rejected at the customs). I wish I bought more supplies from UK but I didn't know that would make me stop smoking...

I am planning to go to France and Belgium on October. Any store advice will be appreciated.

Also I am wondering why I am still feeling like a smoker? The taste in my mouth is still the same. Maybe it is because the flavour I chose (rolling tobacco). I coughed for a few days, I think I breath better but I don't see the difference yet. Am I vaping too much (4 ml a day, 0,6 mg) or am I doing something wrong?

PS: Sorry for the poor English!

 

[Eskie]

Hi and welcome! Congrats on getting off cigarettes fr over a week now. There are lots of folks around here who are able to answer your questions. There are also other members who are from Turkey and may be able to give you advice for items that can be obtained locally.

 

[basak]

Hi and welcome! Congrats on getting off cigarettes fr over a week now. There are lots of folks around here who are able to answer your questions. There are also other members who are from Turkey and may be able to give you advice for items that can be obtained locally.

Thank you

 

[Tonee N]

Hello and Welcome, 8 days, keeping going and don't look back![emoji106]
I gained a little baby fat but that went away when I got my lung capacity back.[emoji6]

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk

 

[suprtrkr]

Hi and welcome. I am not able to help you regarding equipment and juice in your country. Neither can I recommend anything in particular unless I know a bit more about how you like to vape. I can tell you it takes a while-- months, usually-- for your taste buds to heal up after smoking for years.

 

[stols001]

Congrats on stopping vaping, that's fantastic! I love these "accidental" quitting stories, and I'm very happy for you that vaping is satisfying you.

I don't know much about the laws of importation in Turkey, but you may want to check that out. A lot of great things can be found online, just make sure you won't get fined, have your shipments returned, or locked up or whatever. These things do happen.

If not, when you are ready to travel again, you may want to check out some of the international forums for the countries you are going to visit for recommendations of what to pick up.

Coughing/taste issues after 8 days is pretty normal. It may be your flavoring, I never had much luck with tobacco flavors, mainly because I find them gross tasting compared to regular flavoring. If you badly want a true tobacco taste probably NET flavors (naturally extracted tobacco) may help you out, though that particular juice can have issues depending on what you vape, and may be hard for you to find. I had vapers/smokers tongue for a while at first and couldn't taste much, I vaped strong flavors like peppermint to help me through that moment. Now that I've been off cigarettes a while I vastly prefer other flavorings, and the good news is you have many to try or even make, on down the road, if you so desire.

Congratulations, and I hope you get the answers (and vape equipment) you are looking for.

Anna

 

[QcVaper]

First off welcome to ecf,the place where we all share the love of vapers and vaping

For your first question : no there's isin't such a thing as "vaping too much" the worst that'll happen is getting a nicotine buzz which i doubt is harmfull.Flavor wise surely any flavor you vape will give you said taste in your mouth so it's completely normal,i for one went with fruity as i couldn't stand the taste anyway.Equipment wise though, that's the hardest thing,anyone can make suggestions if you'd like but everyone here likes different setup for different reasons. It always depend on what you'd like to achieve with that setup (besides quitting smoking).

Oh and give it time the feel better part is not instant could take a couple months if you smoked for so long and you might cough brown bits (tar from lungs).

 

[Letitia]

Welcome & congratulations.

 

[Mike McVape]

Welcome to the forum. Sorry I can't help you with vaping legalize issues in Turkey. Lots of countries have damn stupid ignorant laws when it comes to something that can help people get off much worse smoking tobacco!

 

[ColdHeartClan]

Welcome to the forum! It's awesome that you basically accidentally quit, that's kinda my story too.

As someone from the USA where we're on the brink of some awful regulations against vaping products stories from countries like Turkey where they're already banned entirely makes me scared and sad I hope you can find answers friend.

 

[basak]

Thank you for all of these nice, welcoming messages!

I still don’t know if I am doing the right thing, I guess time and my body will show this. Yet I made a simple logic: If EC is banned in such a country like mine, where the human life has no value at all and on the other hand it is allowed and encouraged in a country like Uk where the human life has a bit more value, so this must be better than smoking. Beside I believe that the latest researches are showing that vaping does some significant improvement on users health.

For the moment my only concern is that I have only one device (Endura T20) and what will I do if something happens to it? The shipping would probably be returned so I have to wait and be patient until I go to France.

About the e-liquids, I found 2 reliable turkish brand (Efkar and Heisenberg). Efkar’s tobacco flavor has no difference with the one (Vaporized) I bought from UK, it’s even better. I have a very conservative taste so I’ll probably stick with the tobacco flavors yet I ordered a different one (cookie flavor) just to try.

This is my 9th day and I am more than ok.

 

[stols001]

I'm glad to hear it basak. 9 days is phenomenal!

I do think time and your body will show you if this is for you over cigarettes, most successful vapers have had that experience. Yes, there are more positive studies coming out all the time but for me the best proof is that my doctors are telling me I'm doing well and my lung health is improving. These may be more subjective measures and it's anecdotal data, but you know what, if my docs all told me I was getting worse and didn't "feel" my own health improvements, I would be seriously worried, so if they tell me *good* news, there is no reason for me not to believe in them to the exact same extent I would if I was getting poor outcomes.

It took me a couple weeks to fully start noticing improvements but it's been all steadily increasing since then!

Good luck, I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that your mod holds up. Do everything you can to treat it well!

Anna

 

[basak]

So glad for you Anna! It's very encouraging to hear this for people like me.
I have allergic asthma. I've been diagnosed few years ago after a while I stopped smoking. Smoking masks a lot of disease as you may know.. So far I had any discomfort with vaping, it's even better I think. I'll see what will happen in time..

 

[Maytwin]

I am planning to go to France and Belgium on October. Any store advice will be appreciated.

Welcome to the forum.

I don't know about Belgium but where I live here in France, vape shops can be found in most big supermarket malls. They're obviously more pricey than buying online but if that's your only option to obtain devices/eliquids etc then I think it's definitely worth it. One or two I've used in the past have knowledgeable and helpful staff which is a bonus. As with the UK and the rest of the EU vaping laws are governed by the Tobacco Products Directive e.g. nic level is capped at 20 mg/ml, eliquid containers cannot be larger than 10ml etc etc but due to a different interpretation/translation, you can still get tanks larger than 2ml here !! Thankfully France seems to be taking a similar approach to the UK when it comes to vaping, but if I remember correctly, Belgium has added some of its own stricter rules.

Good luck and I hope you can get what you need while you're in France.

 

[basak]

Welcome to the forum.

I don't know about Belgium but where I live here in France, vape shops can be found in most big supermarket malls. They're obviously more pricey than buying online but if that's your only option to obtain devices/eliquids etc then I think it's definitely worth it. One or two I've used in the past have knowledgeable and helpful staff which is a bonus. As with the UK and the rest of the EU vaping laws are governed by the Tobacco Products Directive e.g. nic level is capped at 20 mg/ml, eliquid containers cannot be larger than 10ml etc etc but due to a different interpretation/translation, you can still get tanks larger than 2ml here !! Thankfully France seems to be taking a similar approach to the UK when it comes to vaping, but if I remember correctly, Belgium has added some of its own stricter rules.

Good luck and I hope you can get what you need while you're in France.

Thank you! This is very helpful I think I rather do a face to face shopping when I go to France since I have plenty Of questions to ask..

 

[BrotherBob]

So I am smoke free since 8 days and never ever craved for smoking. I know it's too early to say but I don't think I'll ever smoke again.

Welcome and glad you joined.
Your on your way to quitting smoking. Keep vaping and you will find some pleasant surprises.
Might like to read the following compilations:
dannyv45's blog | E-Cigarette Forum
diy_beginners_guide - DIY_eJuice
http://www.thevaperstable.com/diy/
DIY E-Juice Resources: Over 100+ DIY E-Juice Resources – E Juice Makers
Getting Started: DIY 101 – Mixing Your Own eLiquid
http://diyordievaping.com/category/latestnews/beginnertips/
A Beginner's Guide To Making The Most Highly-Rated Recipes by Scottes777 • r/electronic_cigarette
What you need to know as as far as supplies and safety for the first time juicer. | E-Cigarette Forum

since all these are banned in Turkey

You might want to look into DIY:
Getting Started: DIY 101 – Mixing Your Own eLiquid
http://diyordievaping.com/category/latestnews/beginnertips/
http://www.ecigexpress.com/shop/diy-e-liquid/diyordie-concentrates.html
DIY E-Juice Resources: Over 100+ DIY E-Juice Resources – E Juice Makers
How to get started mixing your own DIY e liquids.

 

[basak]

Thank you Bob! I'll check these soon✌

 

[stols001]

You'll be glad, basak BB has some sort of amazing inventory or search function ability to select excellent links to read on almost each and every issue. I learned so much just by reading his links my first post, he's a real boon to the New user's forum (I am an "Official Fan of Brother Bob"-- Sometimes I think of him as the New Vaper's forum assigned monk or scribe, or whatever).

Anna