I could be wrong about this but I think we all go through a period of chain vaping from time to time.
Probably so. The topic comes up all the time here at ECF. I see it go by pretty regularly. And you see lots of long time vapers react with a shrug and a, "yeah, and?"
I have to wonder if part of it isn't because vaping is new to us when we switch and we
notice our use more. I doubt very much any of us were in the habit of counting our cigarettes and measuring the rate of use and such things. We just smoked. Switching to vaping disrupts old habits and you have to pay attention. At least for a while.
Thinking about it, I can't honestly tell you how my vaping "compares" to my smoking. Because when I think about it, I don't remember the smoking in great detail. It was such a habitual thing, so second nature, it just sort of... happened. My "gut feeling" is that my vaping is now
roughly equivalent to my smoking habits. It "feels" like I'm reaching for the PV about as much as I did the cigarette while I'm typing this post. But, you know, I didn't video myself smoking so I could compare and contrast or anything like that.
The other thing that occurs to me at least is whether there actually is such a thing as "chain vaping". Vaping is a whole different critter than smoking in terms of the nicotine absorption and there aren't yet many studies on what's equivalent to what. Some companies advertise "equivalent to a pack" or some such but they're guessing. You'd have to run studies with blood tests and all. They haven't done that. They just what's equivalent to what based maybe on what a few people at the company said seemed right ("I used to smoke X packs a day and now use Y cartos a day"... something like that I'll bet... or they're just flat making it up).
As I understand the whole nicotine addiction thing, we get used to having some level of nicotine circulating in our blood streams. When that level gets low, we get "cravings" (the infamous "nicotine fit" and such). We unconsciously regulate that level by smoking (dipping, chewing, hooka...ing?, whatever and I bet I misspelled that anyway).
Nicotine absorption in vaping is very different from that of smoking in particular since the absorption in smoking is via the lungs (which is a very rapid way of getting something into the blood stream) but vaping is via the mouth and nasal passages (which is slower and may mean less per "puff" but I'm not certain on that). To me, it would just make sense if anybody's vaping is more frequent.
If you're trying to maintain X level of nic in your blood stream (whatever value X you're used to) and vaping absorption is slower, you're going to vape more often and more, call it, "evenly" across a period of time. Smoking rushes a big batch of nic into your blood stream (we've all felt that "ah" feeling with that first cig of the day or after some period of being unable to smoke like, oh, on a plane). It just seems to make sense to me that in vaping your habits will shift to frequent, small "doses" across a period of time to keep that nic level up since you don't get big "rushes" like in smoking.
So what would be the line between "chain vaping" and "normal vaping"? For that matter, what's "normal"? I sure dunno. Until there are more actual studies with actual measures of actually circulating nicotine, I don't know anybody knows. Yet.
That kind of leaves us stuck right now with the measure of, "Does it work for you?"
Me, I couldn't care less if I "chain" vape or "rope" vape or "thread" vape or whatever the heck. I'm just still dazed at the very idea I actually escaped smoking. I'd given up on quitting. Every single attempt was a nightmare and I always failed. If I had to attach a PV to my head with a tube like some Borg outta Star Trek and every breath is a vape, I just don't care. For the first time in actual decades, there are no cigarettes in my house. None. Not even one. That's freaking amazing in my book.
(Okay, who wound Mark up? He's pontificating again.)