How many people say you're still a smoker?

[legpro]

I have been running into this a bit lately . People see me with my Nico stick And ask me what it is. I give the whole e cig explanation and tell them that I quite smoking the day I started vaping. The normal reply is "But your still smoking" It's no different".......And I must say it has been getting on my nerves. This is from smokers and non smokers

 

[SlimXero]

I find myself saying I'm taking a smoke break or something along those lines, as vape-break just doesn't flow as well and i'm used to saying smoke. But I'm slowly correcting my speech.

 

[ez2dealwit]

I still consider myself a smoker although I call it vaping. Until I kick the nicotine addiction, I will consider myself a smoker. I wanted to quit altogether but every since I started vaping I really don't want to quit vaping. I smoked for 21 years and the things that bothered me the most about smoking such as the smell, annoyance to others and the funny heartbeat I had recently developed, don't bother others or me anymore. Not to mention I breathe easier. The greatest benefit of course was getting rid of the funny heartbeat. My body temperature even seemed to decrease. I have now increased my home AC by 2 degrees - i live in sunny and hot Florida. It is such a shame that the FDA will allow the sell of cigarettes but seemed determined to stamp out e-cigs. People can develop lung cancer whether they smoke, don't smoke or never been around second-hand smoke. One night while watching Penn & Teller on Showtime, they did a segment on smoking (maybe cancer). They said the number of smoking related deaths were 100,010 and the non-smoking related deaths were 100,000. The numbers aren't exact but I'm sure I'm very close to what they said. Take what they said with a grain of salt but those numbers are so close you truely can't compare them. No doubt smoking causes health problems but to put the e-cig to death without giving it some good research first doesn't make much since. Especially, when you have so many people already using it and swearing by the benefits. Personally I don't think people do it for the costs. I have spent over $500 in the one month that I haven't bought analogs, buying juice and equipment and really don't see an end to the spending. BTW, I've only been vaping for a month. I love being able to vape in the car and in the house without the awful analog smell. I love being able to vape around people and not getting asked to stand-downwind. Hopefully, the negative press will stop so we can vape forever.

 

[Mary Kay]

My friends and family are so thrilled for me that I never get bad mouthed. I am going to a dance in Nov. Lots of people who I see only a couple of times a year will be there. So I am sure I will hear more varied comments.

The only comment I had to deal with that was at all negative was when a hospital cop said I couldn't smoke on hospital grounds. I said I don't smoke and showed him my P.V. All he said was 'Oh, I saw smoke!" So I took a drag. Then He says"my wife smokes" I grabbed a card and gave it to him. The jerk pushes it away and told me "I quit cold turkey and so can she"! People like that make me want to punch them! I bet his wife has a wonderful life with the slob.

 

[FL-Eagle]

I get the same comments from people although they are far and few between. This may sound odd to some people but since I started vaping and no longer use tobacco I do still consider myself a smoker.
Over the years I have quit and started again, repeat and I now look at it as a person who is an alcoholic, even though they quit drinking they still consider themselves an alcoholic....this is how I now look at it with my smoking as well.

Now since vaping, I have had none of the anxiety, none of the intense cravings to smoke (one point when I quit I started dreaming about having a analog) that was when I tired using Chantix.

After being a smoker for 30+ yrs I still find myself saying I'm going to have a smoke.
I am trying to make myself call them a PV instead of an e-cig to force myself to differentiate between the two...that may sound silly I know but really they are two different things.

I've even had a couple people tell me that I am just trading one addiction for another. And there may be a grain of truth to that, but I feel that I am still ahead of the curve as I'm not getting all the crap that is in an analog, I'm breathing better, sleeping better, food is tasting better, my wife has told me I am snoring less...so I am coming out over all by switching to vaping.

In the end it doesn't matter what a few people think by still considering me a smoker but what matters really is what's best for me and how I've been feeling since I started vaping.

 

[Mary Kay]

Well Said Fl. Eagle! Yeah, maybe we are switching delivery systems..but it's the same old addiction! I don't care..I feel better! The kids aren't saying..hurry up G'ma..we want to start the movie, when I used to have to go have a smoke! I am not forever airing out the house and the car.
My Dr. has forgotten to give me "The Lecture" when I go see her.
let them say what they like..I am proud of us!

 

[FluffaPuff]

My husband, who quit smoking "cold turkey" two years ago, thinks that my vaping is better than smoking, but still looks at me as "the addict". He just can't understand why I want to keep smoking in one way or another. The bottom line is that I don't really want to stop.

 

[FL-Eagle]

Fluffa, that is pretty much the bottom line for me...I always wind up going back because I admit that I do enjoy it.
My ultimate goal with this is to drop to a zero NIC and basically just go through the motions so to speak.

 

[Mary Kay]

I got a friend started on a passthru this weekend (our 901 manuals are in route from China) She has tried everything to quit. She fell in love with the passthru! Once she gets her P.V.s to take with her everywhere (other then just on the computer usb) I think she can quit! I know I did.
These things are miracles for those of us addicted to the motion as well as the nic.

 

[Tanizaki]

Pretty much all my friends and acquaintances have deemed it a welcome change.

 

[NCC]

The people I work with kept giving me congratulations and "attaboys" when they realized I was off of cigarettes. The funny thing is, I honestly don't feel I deserve the praise. Because, there has been no effort on my part. Vaping caused me to quit smoking. I hadn't even planned on quitting at the time I received my first PV. But, as I was coughing on my first few drags, I knew. Here I am, at over a month, with zero cravings (and have cigarettes in the house). Wow, that's really off topic, sorry.

A little more on topic: Very few people have said I'm still smoking, but there are those few that do. More importantly, to me, I don't consider myself to be a smoker any longer. I vape. I may well vape the rest of my life. I have no plans to quit, and that doesn't bother me a bit. I smoked cigarettes for 35 years and this is a much less harmful way to feed my addiction. Maybe, a long way down the road. Right now, it's not on my radar.

 

[Datpapi]

As my line of work in the IT profession requires attention to technical details, I've encountered these comments myself and have been very quick to correct those making them. The smoke produced from burning tobacco and white vapor clouds produced from atomized water are NOT the same thing. I simply tell them what they see me inhaling is not much different than inhaling the steam in a hot shower or being in a club full of fog from a fog machine. There is a BIG difference. While there is still a nicotine addiction there, nicotine itself has yet to be linked to the many harms of analog smoking. I no longer have the 700+ degree smoke from regular cigs singeing the lining of my lungs, the tar, and several thousand other chemicals being burned and inhaled.

No, there is a huge difference between vaping and smoking and I for one am very proud that I have made the switch. While long term nicotine use may have it's own downsides, the act of what I am doing - vaping vs smoking, are completely seperate and different. Simply because one may not understand the difference between a vapor cloud and smoke does not mean their ignorance should be allowed to "down" me or anyone as "not actually having quit smoking". We have! So be proud! While some of us may still be addicted to nicotine, it was the method we were obtaining that nicotine that was more harmful than the actual nicotine(unless of course we decided to screw around with the nic strength of our juices)! We are no longer smoking to obtain our satisfaction, we are vaping - so I encourgage all to embrace that truth and be proud.

As for our nicotine addictions? Well that's an entirely different matter, but I am happy to say I am no longer "smoking" to get my fix!

 

[willdupre]

My friend was so impressed with my results that she immediately asked her two brothers, (two pack a day smokers, who are disabled, and so bored that smoking is one of their few pleasures) if they would like to try. previously she had talked to someone at a free state run program which provides an 8 week quitting program complete with free patches(which I knew they would never follow through with). when she told the woman running the program she was going to try her brothers on e-cigs the woman flipped out on her, telling her that it was just trading one addiction for another, and generally acting like Katie was offering her brothers crack rather than a healthier way of weening them off of the harmful effects of cigarettes without loosing the pleasure they got out of smoking.
If we get that attitude out of people who are actually in the business of getting people off of tobacco, what chance do we have of convincing people who are less knowledgeable.