Hi everyone! I've been lurking for about a week, overdosing on information as I tried to figure out whether to give e-cigs a try, and what kind. I found this forum pretty quickly during my first google search, and I'm very glad I did so wanted to introduce myself and start getting to know people here.
I started smoking almost 25 years ago, back when it was a social thing to do. Ironically, it's become so hard to smoke anywhere that it's not a social thing for me anymore. Pretty much the only place I smoke is at home and in my car. Granted, I work from home much of the time, so that's still a lot of smoking - can go anywhere from 1 to 2 packs per day, depending on projects and phone use.
The strangest part of my smoking habit is that I can, if necessary, go for hours and hours without a cigarette. But at the first opportunity, I smoke like a fiend again. So restaurants, bars, airplanes, visits with non-smokers, are not so much a problem. But as soon as I'm alone and in my own space, the cigarettes come back out.
I can't say that I really want to stop smoking, sort-of. I've been successful at living in denial about the effects on my health - I don't cough, my blood pressure is fine, etc. I guess, in my head, I planned to quit "someday", but was never quite ready to. No doubt I'm addicted to the nicotine, but I'm also hugely addicted to the hand/mouth action. Smoking is an activity, a pacifier, a comfort, a way to mark time. It's a way to put off doing something else, and to pass time until something. I "need" smoking.
So why look into e-cigarettes now? Because I need the smoking activity (I really, really do), but everything about cigarettes was becoming a bigger and bigger pile of suck.
The thing that finally got me was the constant battle against smell and smoke. Oh, the gajillions of air fresheners and cleaners and fans and sprays and candles and incense and carbon HVAC filters I've used! And then there was my habit of cracking windows open all the time, winter or summer, thereby sending all my heat and air conditioning outside, while somehow still managing to contain way too much smoke and smell in my house. I would go into cleaning and air freshening frenzies before friends or family were to visit. I change into different clothes as soon as I come home, to try to minimize the smell on my work and other clothes.
When I found myself contemplating spending major $$$$ on a whole house air purifier system thingie (which probably wouldn't work anyway)....I took a deep breath, lit a cigarette (or many), and tried to get a grip and considered my options.
I've tried quitting before, with little success. Which leads me to my thread title - I was so afraid to try e-cigs because...what if that DIDN'T WORK either?? Then what? So when my package came, I dithered. I didn't open it for a day or so. And then I made sure to carefully charge each battery and read all the instructions. And read more threads here. When I finally screwed the thing together, I think that's when I really faced my fear that this might not do the trick for me and I'd been afraid to hope that maybe, just maybe...
It's only been a few days now, but I'm so relieved already. I've averaged about 5 or 6 cigarettes these last few days, and during each one, I keep asking, "hmm, is this really better than the e-cig? do I really want this more?" I'm not sure that I do.
So the hope is alive that I can eventually transition and give up the smokey sticks entirely. As well as the air freshener aisle at the store!
I started smoking almost 25 years ago, back when it was a social thing to do. Ironically, it's become so hard to smoke anywhere that it's not a social thing for me anymore. Pretty much the only place I smoke is at home and in my car. Granted, I work from home much of the time, so that's still a lot of smoking - can go anywhere from 1 to 2 packs per day, depending on projects and phone use.
The strangest part of my smoking habit is that I can, if necessary, go for hours and hours without a cigarette. But at the first opportunity, I smoke like a fiend again. So restaurants, bars, airplanes, visits with non-smokers, are not so much a problem. But as soon as I'm alone and in my own space, the cigarettes come back out.
I can't say that I really want to stop smoking, sort-of. I've been successful at living in denial about the effects on my health - I don't cough, my blood pressure is fine, etc. I guess, in my head, I planned to quit "someday", but was never quite ready to. No doubt I'm addicted to the nicotine, but I'm also hugely addicted to the hand/mouth action. Smoking is an activity, a pacifier, a comfort, a way to mark time. It's a way to put off doing something else, and to pass time until something. I "need" smoking.
So why look into e-cigarettes now? Because I need the smoking activity (I really, really do), but everything about cigarettes was becoming a bigger and bigger pile of suck.
The thing that finally got me was the constant battle against smell and smoke. Oh, the gajillions of air fresheners and cleaners and fans and sprays and candles and incense and carbon HVAC filters I've used! And then there was my habit of cracking windows open all the time, winter or summer, thereby sending all my heat and air conditioning outside, while somehow still managing to contain way too much smoke and smell in my house. I would go into cleaning and air freshening frenzies before friends or family were to visit. I change into different clothes as soon as I come home, to try to minimize the smell on my work and other clothes.
When I found myself contemplating spending major $$$$ on a whole house air purifier system thingie (which probably wouldn't work anyway)....I took a deep breath, lit a cigarette (or many), and tried to get a grip and considered my options.
I've tried quitting before, with little success. Which leads me to my thread title - I was so afraid to try e-cigs because...what if that DIDN'T WORK either?? Then what? So when my package came, I dithered. I didn't open it for a day or so. And then I made sure to carefully charge each battery and read all the instructions. And read more threads here. When I finally screwed the thing together, I think that's when I really faced my fear that this might not do the trick for me and I'd been afraid to hope that maybe, just maybe...
It's only been a few days now, but I'm so relieved already. I've averaged about 5 or 6 cigarettes these last few days, and during each one, I keep asking, "hmm, is this really better than the e-cig? do I really want this more?" I'm not sure that I do.
So the hope is alive that I can eventually transition and give up the smokey sticks entirely. As well as the air freshener aisle at the store!
