I started smoking again...

[Spider]

Hello everyone,

I've been smoking again for a long time after successfully quitting on e-cigs for 3 months.

I'm really disappointed with myself and I haven't been on this forum in all of that time but I've decided that I'm definitely quitting this time and I gave up yesterday.

I just wanted to see how everyone else was doing and how long you have all been tobacco free since I haven't been on here in so long.

Hopefully it will be the encouragement I need to keep me on the straight and narrow this time.

Thanks all,

Spider

 

[surbitonPete]

Hi spider I had wondered what happened to you....was it just the addiction that made you go back to smoking tobacco?

 

[JustPuffin]

Today is 3 months smoke free for me.
Deep breathing got me through a few of the rough spots.
Something so simple that we take for granted.

The other thing that helps me is towards the end of the day
I sometimes don't get the satisfaction.
But a couple drops of menthol refreshes and gives me the the throat hit I crave.

 

[TropicalBob]

How good to see you back, Spider. You're one of the Old-Timers that I missed.

My guess is e-cigs are no more than 40% effective over a year's period. Lots -- and I think lots -- of older posters who are no longer here went back to cigarettes. E-cigs are not a complete substitute and we have some threads on "what is missing."

I've managed to stay off since July 17, 2007, by using snus, dissolvables and e-cigs. I quit using snus, then found e-smoking on Jan. 3, 2008. Been e-smoking since. But I think of real cigarettes every day. That has not gone away. I find I want a real cigarette most when a crisis arises -- and there have been a few!

I know you might have a problem obtaining snus, but they are essential to my routine. I cannot rely on ONE thing to stay off cigs. I choose what I want at any given moment.

Good luck this time.

 

[Tallgirl1974]

You can do it- people quit smoking and stay quit all the time, but even they say they still crave and miss it! Its kinda like being a recovering addict for the rest of your life....heck I guess since nic is a drug and we are addicts, its just like any other addiction and life without it.
I hate the smell and taste of a real cigarette now. I have gum as a back up in case I find myself without my PV. I started with med, now on low, and plan on trying lots of no nic taste to get completely off the nic.
Im done with tobacco. I have to be.

 

[Kate]

Hi Spider, it's great to see you back

Take it easy on yourself and break the habit one step at a time. If you can't quit smoking then settle for cutting down, it's not the end of the world.

Mwah xxx

 

[aldo]

Sorry to hear that SPIDER...i was a 2-3 packs a day(Tareytons in the US, Pallmall in Greece) smoker for 35 years....after my first "drag' from an e-cig Dec-12-2008 i have not smoked analogs.....more importantly i have not realy craved one ...i vape about 1-1.5 ml of 11mg nic juice a day and it keeps me happy ......on the weekends i treet myself to 18mg nic juice.

 

[LaceyUnderall]

Spider... welcome back.

Quit beating yourself up! You smoked tobacco. Who gives a s*hit.

You came back to the ecig and my next curious question is why? Was there something that you felt? Thought? I am not curious as to why you "failed" as some want to call it... or what was missing... we all know that the e-cig is NOT smoking but it is a damn good close alternative... best there is out there to date. But what made you swear off tobacco again?

This, is of course, a very personal question (or not)... but it is definitely a good study idea: With the fail rate of alternative nicotine products, which ones do users go back to after a relapse and what took them back?

Poor TB... what are you going to do in May when they take your dissolvables AND ecigs away?

 

[TropicalBob]

Smoke expensive pipe tobacco, I reckon.

Lacey is right about not beating yourself up. If cigarettes weren't so incredibly appealing, they wouldn't sustain a 45-million user base here in the States!

Actually, Lacey, I think the FDA will move slowly against alternatives like snus and dissolvables. Star Scientific's dissolvables were on the market long before February 2007, so they should be grandfathered into legality. Those are the ones I use. I can do without American snus, and no one seems to know what the FDA will do about imported snus from Sweden.

I'm stashed for a year or two of non-availability of anything. But not a happy camper, mind you. To throw a blanket ban on harm reduction products is to sacrifice the health of millions for the profits of a few.

 

[ritalee76]

Welcome back, Spider!!!

You were one of the first posters I paid attention too when I was lurking a few months back... before I joined and was researching

Glad to see you're back!

-rita
PS... I still smoke a cig or two during the day at work. My co-workers offer, I take them...

 

[LaceyUnderall]

Actually, Lacey, I think the FDA will move slowly against alternatives like snus and dissolvables. Star Scientific's dissolvables were on the market long before February 2007, so they should be grandfathered into legality. Those are the ones I use. I can do without American snus, and no one seems to know what the FDA will do about imported snus from Sweden.

I'm stashed for a year or two of non-availability of anything. But not a happy camper, mind you. To throw a blanket ban on harm reduction products is to sacrifice the health of millions for the profits of a few.

Well thank god because when I read through the Waxman bill, I got very nervous for you... thinking oh my... I hope TB is stocked up! Hopefully you are right and they do move slowly. But, you never know.

 

[katink]

Welcome back Spider

 

[nitewriter]

Welcome back Spider. Glad to see you're back on e-cigs too. Don't beat yourself up, be proud of yourself that you're back!

I've been off analogs since New Years Eve. It will be 4 months the end of this month.

..That creepy spider sig still bothers me though. 8-o

 

[BARENETTED]

May 5th will be 4 months for me.

Dont be too hard on yourself. I quit once for 4 years. After that, I quit every week for a few days, using the patch and smoking!

If at first you don't succeed............................................

 

[Spider]

Just when you thought you wouldn't see the crawling spider again!

Thanks to everyone for your support and updates. I'm so glad there are still so many people going strong and more every day. Especially TB, who is both knowledgeable and inspirational.

Although I can't remember exactly, I think I started smoking again when I'd had quite a few drinks and thought one wouldn't hurt, because I felt I was missing out. Then I starting having just 1-2 cigs per day until I was back on 10 a day again.

The thought of quitting again was in my mind ever since, like a nagging feeling - but it didn't bother me so much because I knew I'd found it easy to quit for 3 months and thought I could quit anytime I wanted. That's probably why I was away for so long, I was enjoying smoking believing that I would give up soon anyway.

Then a friend of mine decided to give up using patches and I thought it was as good a time as any, and by that time I'd realised it was now or never. I've gone cold turkey this time because I couldn't find my charger! I had my last 'analogue' cigarette last Sunday, so I'm almost at the end of my first week.

I will be using my e-cig now though as I've found my charger now.. I must say though I feel so great since quitting I don't know how I ever started again!

Just as a side-note: Someone from the NHS came to my workplace to get people onto the various NRT treatments available and I told her I'd be using e-cigs and she looked very disappointed and sort of smug while she proclaimed that they are untested and have 'all the same chemicals as cigarettes'.

I was so annoyed that she was being so ignorant, and for the first time since I became aware of e-cigs it seemed that some kind of negative propaganda had spread.

Obviously I told her I'd be using them anyway, and had found them to be the most effective.

Again, thanks to everyone - this community is fantastic!

Spider

 

[Kit]

Hello Stranger

 

[TheEmperorOfIceCream]

Eeeeek!

Oh, it's you again.

I got buttonholed by an NHS bod who was working all the smokers outside a tube station (I was with a hot-smoking buddy). She'd never heard of e-cigs but was intrigued by my SD (and very receptive). So yours coulda just been a hear-nuthin-but-evil zealot.

Welcome back, eight-eyes.

Emp

 

[techtravis]

some days are rough. I've found I prefer SNUS with my 14mg nicotine e-cig liquid.

Helps on those bad days

 

[Spider]

I'm glad everyone is still on here - Hi Katink, Kit, Emp! Glad you eventually joined Rita!

I usually only get comments about my eight legs Emp!

Spider

 

[TropicalBob]

You smoked 'em out, Spider. Emp has returned, but rarely posts (he knows better than to jump into frays). Hadn't seen Kit for awhile. Good to see all of the oldtimers rallying around here.