How long have you been smoke-free, and how did vaping help you to quit?

[AngeNZ]

I've been smoke-free since 21st Jan 2018 - which is when I accidentally quit smoking

Long story short:
21st Jan 2018
Completely smashed up my ankle - needed two plates inserted, along with 15 screws. I was a smoker at that time

In the ER, they told me I'd need major surgery, that I no longer smoked, and slapped a patch on my arm

Spent 8 days in hospital before the surgery, chewing nic gum, damn near chewing nic patches, and when I could handle it, crutching to the bathroom, to vape on a lil innokin t18 vape pen (that my parents brought into the hospital for me)

After the surgery, a few days later I was staying at my parents recovering. My mindset being - that I had to stop smoking for a month or two til my fractures healed, then I would start again

So I vaped my head off. Couldn't do much else, so I shopped my head off I ordered a bunch of different ejuice flavours and coils.

2 weeks down the track, I was actually enjoying vaping. I was vaping inside and it tasted a hell of a lot better than smoking.

2 more weeks later - I was a convert. My previous cunning plan went complely out the window - I was now a vaper, and would stay a vaper. Screw smoking

I ordered an upgraded starter kit, more ejuice, moved back home and healed. A month later I found ECF and the rest is history

 

[Sloth Tonight]

Smoke-free since June 2014. Had been smoking cigs for 9 years, less a few months at one point where I quit cold turkey before relapsing. I went through a pack of rolling tobacco per day. Smoking was embarrassing for me as I work in hospitality and Mrs Sloth isn't a smoker. I would go chain-smoke 2 or 3 cigs every chance I got, then wash my face and hands and eat a breath mint. Rinse and repeat often throughout the day.

At first, vaping was something I picked up to try and cut back (not quit) smoking. But once I found a flavor that really hit home, I knew I could stop altogether.

I had been coughing up black phlegm every morning. That went away in 2 weeks. Vaping improved my health in numerous ways very quickly. My sense of taste and smell came back. We have a gas stove and if a pilot light ever went out, I'd never smell it and Mrs Sloth would yell at me when she got home. She became 100% convinced vaping was legit when she realized she hadn't smelled an extinguished pilot light in months (because I smelled it first and re-lit it).

As for quitting, it took me about 2 weeks from the time I got my first APV. In that time-frame I tapered the number of cigs and found the flavors necessary to get me over the line.

Good stuff, AngeNZ. Looking forward to other's stories as well!

 

[scott58]

10 years. First vape = last cigarette.

 

[vapdivrr]

Haven't touched a cigarette since 2011 when I vaped my first genesis atomizer and been rebuilding ever since. I had tried cig a likes first, but I was still kind of smoking, then moved shortly to carts and old style dripping attys, but once I moved to gennys, I knew I would never smoke again....its been a day and night change in my health, no doubt...I absolutely have no more chest issues, none, nadda.

 

[greek mule]

Smoke free since 29 September 2016.
I wanted to quit smoking so badly but I couldn't.Started using e-cig and smoking less at the same time and after around 3 months I lit my last analog and that's it!It was the variety of flavors that helped me to do the switch.
Always curious to try different flavors kept me away from the stinkies.

 

[Rossum]

In December it will be six years. I also quit "by accident", but there was no injury involved, unless you count the damage to my health caused by 36 years of smoking cigs.

I became intrigued by the concept of "electronic cigarettes" during the second half of 2013 by a number of articles in the media that were lamenting the fact that the FDA wasn't doing its job because they hadn't regulated these things. That got me thinking that there might be something to them and maybe I should check them out before the government got around to messing them up.

I did some cursory research and ordered an eGo style starter kit. I had no intention of quitting smoking; I just wanted to see if I could use it to cut back some. The answer was a resounding, "Yes!". The first full day, I had that kit, I smoked four cigs instead of my usual 40+. That was also the day I found and joined ECF. The next day, I smoked two. The next couple of days, one each. The day after that, I drove an hour through a snow storm to what was then the closest vape shop, where I upgraded to some Pro Tanks and bigger batteries, and that was that.

Two weeks later, I ordered my first DNA mod and my first liter of nic base. I didn't have a clue how to DIY, but I sure wasn't going to let any damn bureaucrat take this miracle away from me.

 

[jandrew]

Short version:
March 21, 2013 --- so 6.5 years now (after 35-ish years of smoking).

Longer version:

I had a cardiac event earlier in the year and was scheduled for a PCI procedure and was intent on quitting no matter what. I started too low with 12mg/ml and 16mg/ml --- the 12mg/ml was like puffing flavored (tobacco) air, no throat hit or sensation at all, and the 16mg/ml gave the tiniest hint of a tickle in my throat. Ordered more juice (18-24mg/ml) and DIY supplies and was soon getting a satisfying throat hit and had discovered unflavored. I still had major cravings, it was not a simple replacement --- but I managed by vaping more and having a range of higher strength liquid on hand.

I was also gifted a Vmod squonker soon thereafter, which was a great device --- it meant I could load up the 9ml bottle with 21mg/ml unflavored, but also drip higher strengths (up to 32mg/ml) and flavors (mostly tobacco) whenever needed/desired.

The PCI procedure was more complicated than initially thought, so there was a second one with a specially trained interventionist, that was followed by a blood pressure crash and a code blue call and many hours in the Cardiac ICU with lots of poking/prodding/examining --- but I did walk out of the hospital (the next day, in fact) with further resolve/motivation to remain quit.

By the end of the first year I was down to a stable 18mg/ml where I stayed for another year and then dropped to 12mg/ml and about another year later 10mg/ml (where I remain today).

 

[Dr. Seuss]

I started by randomly picking up a Vuse at a gas station because my figuring was that I could hit it in the bathroom at work and not have to wait for smoke breaks. I was not very aware of “vape etiquette” or the ethics of bathroom vaping yet.

I liked it, still smoked though. I liked the clean cerebral buzz from a vape and the dirty body buzz of a cigarette. At the point I got serious with it I ordered a Kangertech Kbox kit and started wrapping wire etc.

At that point I had a terribly stressful job, drank and smoked so my blood pressure was off the charts, literally. Above stage 2 hypertension, it was ridiculous, I could have blown a gasket at any point.

Eventually I got tired of the hassle of needing cigarettes, running to the store, ash, needing to go outside or make my place stink, the cost etc. At that point it became a mission to kick the smokes which wasn’t difficult because I’d made my mind up and became a vaper.

I’m not exactly sure when I smoked my last one but it’s been well over a year. Somewhere in there I smoked one just because it was around and I snuffed it out halfway because I felt like I was being poisoned, my body wasn’t primed to digest all that garbage that made the dirty body buzz I previously enjoyed. It was making me ill.

Somewhere else in there I also kicked the job and the drinking and as of my last doctor visit my blood pressure is perfect. I don’t cough up funky stuff, absolutely no issues breathing. All is good and well.

 

[ENAUD]

A little over six years for me, I accidentally quit smoking Had been told about vaping by my wife and looked into it, she had a co-worker e-mail me some info and links back when shops were few and far between. Took a few months but one day on a lark I made the drive to one of the few shops around back then, about a 35 minute drive. I spent an hour or so talking with the shop owner, and he said something that clicked with me, don't think of it as quitting, he said. Think of it as changing the way you get your nicotine, a healthier less damaging way...well, that made sense to me...three days later I was a non smoker. After 35 years of being a slave to burning tobacco, I was free, simple as that!

Since that time I have gone from having a hard time climbing a flight of stairs, and hacking and coughing constantly, to being able to ride a bicycle 20, 30 or more miles with ease... and no more constant hacking and shortness of breath. MOLON LABE.

 

[*RJ*]

A little over six years for me, I accidentally quit smoking Had been told about vaping by my wife and looked into it, she had a co-worker e-mail me some info and links back when shops were few and far between. Took a few months but one day on a lark I made the drive to one of the few shops around back then, about a 35 minute drive. I spent an hour or so talking with the shop owner, and he said something that clicked with me, don't think of it as quitting, he said. Think of it as changing the way you get your nicotine, a healthier less damaging way...well, that made sense to me...three days later I was a non smoker. After 35 years of being a slave to burning tobacco, I was free, simple as that!

Since that time I have gone from having a hard time climbing a flight of stairs, and hacking and coughing constantly, to being able to ride a bicycle 20, 30 or more miles with ease... and no more constant hacking and shortness of breath. MOLON LABE.

MOLON LABE. My son has that saying on a car tag on the front of his truck. In reference to his guns. Come and Take.

 

[Terri McVeety]

About to celebrate my first year vaperversary! On Oct 27, 2018 I picked up a cigalike and smoked the last cigarette. That was after 45 years a smoker. Was up to 2 1/2 packs a day then.

 

[bnrkwest]

I tried my first ecig in 2009, it was a 3 piece unit, no battery life but I thought this could work to stop smoking. But alas the little ecigs were so frustrating & I went back to smoking until 2011 and cartos came on the scene, I loved those little cartos, so easy and better battery life. I quit smoking in Sept 2011 and that was my last cigarette. I found ECF around that same time and it has been a wonderful journey ever since I feel so much better!

 

[Jebbn]

coming up 2yrs for me, 2yrs vaping today and in one month 2yrs tobacco free.
42yrs a tobacco user.
I didnt "accidentally" quit tobacco once I started vaping, I worked hard at it. I had 6 to 9 months tobacco habit withdrawals, constant cravings for tobacco for all that time. I think it was around the 9month mark where I realised I hadnt wanted a tobacco for awhile.
I was quite surprised that I was consuming more nic while vaping than I ever had in my life time of smoking tobacco and still all I wanted was tobacco.
Vaping is a poor substitute for tobacco and cigarettes for me, but it has still been the only thing that has been successful in 42yrs of tobacco use.
Not a lot to do with vaping has been easy for me.
I find the flavours to be cheap, trashy and obnoxious tasting. If I didnt discover unflavoured there is no way I couldve stuck vaping out to quit tobacco.
I cant do PG past about 4% with out horrible skin reactions etc.
Even with PG eliminated I still have problems with VG. I have to try and keep juice consumption below the 4-5ml a day mark or pay for it for the next 12 or so hours.
Im fine with all this, I dont mind or care. Set parameters and confines in vaping seem to suit me.

Before I started vaping and quit smoking my platelets level was very low. I was having weekly blood tests because I was physically shutting down. I was weak, tired all the time, everything ached, any physical activity was a chore and....lots of other stuff Im not going to talk about here.
They couldnt really find anything wrong despite the constant blood tests and visits to specialists.
Once I quit smoking the platelets levels started rising. After about 6months I was only going fortnightly for blood tests. After a year blood tests were changed to monthly. At 18months the doctor said they didnt need to see me for 5yrs.
Vaping gave me the opportunity to turn my life around. Its a fantastic tool for quitting tobacco. I say that even though Ive had problems settling on what I am able to vape.

The plan going forward once I reach the two year tobacco free stage(in 4weeks) is to phase out vaping as a daily thing.

 

[sonicbomb]

9 years.
Desperately wanted to quit, a guy at work had a cigalike. Saw wanted bought one. Never looked back.

 

[mgordon1100]

I've never been smoke free , but I quit cigarettes 10 years ago. Tbh, I have a smoke every once in a while, but only when I'm around a smoker and I get the urge. That's about once in 3 or 4 months.

What drove me to quit, was not feeling like crap in the morning, it was money. I couldn't afford them anymore. They had that cigalike made by N Joy at the 7-11. I used it for a while, it kept me from buying cigarettes, but was unsatisfactory after a while. That's when I found ECF and became informed. This site opened up a world of options to me, I couldn't imagine. First the Ego, then mechs, I learned that dripping was much better than tanks with high prices coils. But most importantly, I learned what you DO NOT vape.

FF several years, and "Popcorn Lung" was the scare. Doh! Didn't we learn not to touch that? I know we did, and I never. Cinnamon was another, but I did love it. Just couldn't be a daily. Ever try that? The mouth and lips eventually have a perpetual burning sensation. Obviously I'm all for adults to do what they want to, and it would be nice for them to be informed on what they subject themselves to. I won't even take a prescription drug without doing the research on it first.

If adults can't bother themselves to be informed, then they have zero sympathy from me. Kids are just stupid that way, they get a pass, but the adults that fail to see that kids will do anything from smoking, to drinking, to needles, etc. They get no respect. I digress. Lol. Sorry for my rant, I just had to stop myself. This fiasco makes me so angry. Cheers!

 

[EIHYPI]

For five years I have been "smoke free" due to vaping. I put smoke free in quotes because there was about a pack of stinkies in between all together. There were a few times that I was forced to smoke because I didn't have my vapes available. Vaping helped me quit because I was able to use common sense and logic. By saying to myself if I have another way to consume nicotine that is similar to a cigarette I would get the same sensation. Therefore there should be nothing in a cigarette for me to desire anymore. I work very well with logic and it has helped me numerous times. For example I lost 35 pounds in a month and a half. This was by saying to myself that if I eat low calorie high nutrition with a lot of exercise I will lose weight fast. Logically it made a lot of sense and I didn't touch sweets in period. The times that I touched the cigarettes was by choice with self control and I admit it was a bad one. With these reasons I was able to hop right back onto the correct path. I was on the right one all along.

 

[Diver9543]

Smoking for me was a 45-year habit that was interrupted a few times with attempts to quit. I tried hypnotism, cold turkey, patches, and gum. The longest that I ever lasted was about 5 years and then while taking care of my wife during her operations and chemo treatments it got the best of me and I picked them up again. I was watching a news piece on a local station about a new vape store opening in my area. I had a friend drive me there and I got my first ego with a clearomizer tank. I think my ejuice was 12 mg/ml. This just didn’t do it for me and I continued smoking.

I smoked for another 6 months or so and my birthday was coming up in a couple of weeks. As the old adage goes I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. I went back to the vape shop and met a really good sales associate and he hooked me up with a much better setup and 24 mg/ml ejuice. I duel used for a couple of weeks and set my birthday as a stop date for quitting the cigarettes.

I had my last cigarette around noon on my birthday and the next day I found this forum and it has been downhill from there. I have been cigarette free for the last 4 years and 7 months. I am now vaping 5 mg/ml unflavored ejuice that I DIY.

 

[kates]

I started smoking at 14 and smoked for 38 years. For 20 of those years I tried to give up smoking – using Allen Carr, cold turkey, chantix and every nicotine replacement available. I tried many, many times. I finally decided that I was going to 'give up giving up' and would accept I was going to be a life long smoker.

We ran a pub and one of the customers was using an ecig. I had a go and thought it might be worth a try. Not as a quitting tool but as a way to substitute some cigarettes. (I had tried one in 2009 but it didn't work – someone gave it to me and the battery wasn't charged but I had no idea - just thought it was rubbish). For a few months I dual used - if I wanted a cigarette I had one – but to my surprise was only smoking a couple a day. I realised that I had almost completely given up without even trying. To me, it seemed like a miracle. I have been cigarette free for almost 7 years now. I started at 27/28 mg (max. in UK was 36mg at the time) and now vape at 9mg.

Once I'd stopped smoking I went through a period of thinking a lot about how safe it actually was. It just seemed too good to be true. So I started researching. I learnt not to assume reporters knew what they were talking about or scientists knew what they were doing. I started looking at research and realising how there were studies which e.g. didn't compare with no smoking/ vaping & smoking to give a comparison of results. How they didn't know how the equipment worked or what the liquids contained. How there would be misrepresentation and sometimes downright lies and these would be repeated as fact. That every study, article, reference, piece of research needed to be double checked to get to the truth, regardless of who did it.

I eventually decided that it was impossible to say for sure that it was safe, but I felt better. I had stopped coughing in the morning, had more energy and didn't smell of stale tobacco etc. In the last 7 years I have only had a couple of minor colds and no other health problems. All the research I did showed it was likely to be much, much safer than smoking (and as I continue to reassess, I still feel that way).

I don't think vaping makes me invincible or protects me from illness, - but I do believe cigarettes are magnitudes more harmful. Three years ago my husband was diagnosed with throat cancer and had a laryngectomy. He had the operation 10 days after the diagnosis so it all happened in a very short time (we thought he had swollen glands, no other symptons). He smoked for 35 years. Of course it may have nothing to do with cigarettes or it may have happened anyway– someone we met during chemo & radiotherapy had never smoked or vaped/ someone else had given up smoking a year before – but all the evidence points to it likely being smoking related in his case. All I can do is assess evidence, make my own risk decisions and act accordingly. Personally, I will do everything I can to never return to cigarettes and vaping is the only thing that guarantees that for me.

 

[fiddleshe]

Like many of you I have tried to quit numerous ways from gum to Wellbutrin to finally NJoys. I got them by the case becase my friend was the wife of the CEO. It worked but I didnt want to be a burden on her asking so I moved onto the nicotrol inhaler with little success. A few years later I disovered the Ego. I got my first Ego and joined this forum in 2013 to find there was more than the ce4. I got a Protank 2 and was happy. Then I went through some major life changes and went back to smoking for 2 years.
When I came back I disovered the Kayfuns. Then some other tanks and I havent looked back. I started out at 24mg and now Im down to 5.
I no longer have to use 2 inhalers and see a pulmonologist. My last breathing study was normal. I havent had bronchitis in 2.5 years. I feel better in general.
Vaping has changed my life. I hope I dont vape forever but if I do its better than the alternative.

 

[Zaryk]

I quit October of 2017. I smoked for 20 years. It took multiple tries over the years to find vape equipment that would work for me.

I tried vaping on the ego batteries with MTL Kanger tanks and aspire nautilus tanks when those were new and popular. Didn't work for me. Went back to smoking.

Tried cig a likes, and again, didn't work. Back to the smokes.

Tried a Smok Xcube ultra and a Smok TFV8 Beast tank. This was when I realized this could work. It costed much more to keep going than smoking (I rolled my own cigs at $12 a week for two cartons) so I went back to smoking for a short time.

This I when I discovered rebuildables. I started making coils for myself. After seeing the guy at a local shop make some juice for me, I knew I could do that too. I picked up a couple RDAs and RTAs. I disliked constantly dripping so I used a reload rta mostly. Having full control over my vape through my coils and making my own juice was the key for me, I was smoke free within a week of vaping this way and never looked back.