I'm Smoking Again and Need Words of Wisdom

[tippyclubb]

I'm sitting in the computer room smoking with the window wide open ( freezing my as* off ), ceiling fan on high, and a blanket shoved under the closed door to keep the smell from penetrating the house. It's not working, my non smoking husband tells me the whole house smells like smoke.

Why do we play such mind games with ourselves when we smoke? We know its wrong, we know it stinks, and we understand all the possible health complications, but yet we continue to do it.

For me, its not a matter of nicotine withdrawal physically as I have quit smoking countless times easily. However, my non smoking days never last long. It's the mental addiction I can't seem to shake off. Never once have I had withdrawal symptoms, other than mentally. I can't stop thinking about cigarettes no matter how hard I try to kick this habit.

Sadly, smoking has become my first love in life and has taken over my life completely 100%. I can't do anything without smoking first. It seems it's the most important thing in my life. Shame on me. I get up and first thing I have to do is go outside irregardless of rain, sleet, snow, -20 degrees, 103 degrees and smoke. When I get to work I have to smoke some more before I go inside. Of course I'm out there smoking on all breaks no matter what the weather brings. When I do quit smoking I get so much done because I'm not always having to stop too smoke. Waking up with fresh breath, not coughing, and breathing deeply is a wonderful feeling. I love it when I don't smoke. Somehow, I always lose sight of that.

It wasn't so long ago I bought a few e-cigs and analogs were a distant memory, so I thought. Three weeks cigarette free, and yes I was happy about my newly found achievement. Yes, people noticed I wasn't smoking anymore and praised me too. I was blasking in the glory of my freedom of not being addicted anymore. I was proud of myself, but then I got cocky and thought well I have this habit licked now so I can smoke one now and then. I'm sure you all know the rest of the story. Yep, I'm back to smoking and with a vengence now. Making up for lost time. Silly me and feeling pathetic for being weak to tobacco. I have so much to live for and I know if I don't quit this smoking it will take me out of life before I'm ready.

My excuse to pick up that first analog was, these e-cigs are so aggravaiting always have to drip juice in the atty & cartridge, cleaning the atty, charging the battery, juice leaking everywhere and sometimes the damn thing taste burnt. However, I felt so much better not smoking those death sticks.

Tomorrow morning I am done. My plan is to buy another e-cig, 510 or a Ego. I have read so much on this forum about so many e-cigs its confusing, overwhelming. My goal is to be smoke free and I will need some help, because obviously I can't do it on my own.

Thank you for any advice and didn't intend this post to be a mini novel.

 

[AzPlumber]

Don't be too hard on yourself, tobacco is very adictive along with the mental aspect. Don't give up and let it win. Not sure what you have tried, but try and increase your nic level, get a few cartos and try them out or change your flavors up a little. I am sure you can break free of tobacco, just have to find the right combo for you. I smoked for 30 plus years and tried to quit countless times, I am over two months with out an analog using e-cigs.

 

[JQside]

Smoking will consume your life. It did mine.

I've had enough. One day I decided to set a schedule like this pack in my pocket will be the last. I got ready for it like seeing myself in various situations where the temptation is greatest. I didn't avoid those situations. I confronted them. I went there and I knew I was ready. I'm probably not even vaping if I didn't see a generic kit in a smoke store. Like I said, I confronted those situations. I went there to buy a coke or something. I didn't buy a pack of cigarette. I went to parking lots as well where I normally smoke before going to a shopping mall and after. At home I did the same thing. I avoided coffee, I set my mind not to smoke after meals. Things like that.

;-)

 

[Danielsuzuki]

I smoked for 20 years myself. Never thought I'd quit-mainly because I'm one of those folks who enjoys it. About 4 months ago I bought a cigarette style kr808d-1 kit with a red led at the end. The kit came with everything. A passthrough for increased power, a personal charging kit for camping and such, 3 batteries, 20 cartomizers, a carrying case, and charger. I mean I bought every damn thing. The day it came in the mail, my family left for a long trip into a neighboring state. I figured this would be the ultimate test of the damn thing, as my worst cravings are in the car. I've only had a cig or two in the past four months. Ran a 5k about a month or so ago.

Here's the deal: I believe your problem is the oral fixation due to muscle memory. Same here. That's why I bought the whole deal, and stayed as close to a real smoke as I could. I don't limit myself to how much I spend on supplies. Whatever it takes. I spent much more on vaping then smoking. Much more. But I feel better, and that matters a lot more then the money. I buy equipment that comes with a great warrantee, and used prefilled cartomizers exclusively up until recently, so during the worst of my recovery I wasn't spending time fiddling with juice and bad equipment. It was all pretty painless.

I use low resistance atomizers and larger batteries now, and am confident that this addiction is under a simbilance of control-but I never let my guard down. Never. One of the reasons I haven't had a drink in almost 5 years is because I never ever forget what it was like. I'll never forget what I felt like in the morning. Never forget the smell. The ashes on everything in my world. ....... that!

Check out a quality supplier of cig style pv's. Smokeless Image, Bloog, ect. Buy a .... ton of batteries and keep a STEADY supply of prefilled cartos coming into your mailbox for at least a few months. On your three month anniversary treat yourself to a Darwin from Nhaler, or a Provari from Provape. And more important than anything else... KEEP ON VAPING!!!

 

[dormouse]

Attys suck in some ways. Did you try cartomizers? Did you have a fat battery model or mod so you could the hotter LR and dual coil cartomizers? Did you have high PG juices with good TH? There are probably way you could improve whatever experience you had with ecigs.

 

[sliq]

here's some words of wisdom from my dad:

"Don't fuc k this up!"

 

[lunabella]

I totally agree with AzPlumber. Don't be so hard on yourself!! You're not a horrible person; cigarettes are just horribly addictive. It's an addiction - both physically and mentally, and it's a very hard habit to break.

I still smoked about 4-5 cigarettes/day for the first few days after getting my pv, which I considered a huge success because I smoked over a pack a day for about 20 years. I only quit smoking analogs after I ran out of cigarettes and refused to buy another pack because I knew I'd continue to smoke if I had them around. It wasn't easy though, and man oh man was I cranky for a couple of days!!

For some, the switch to e-cigs is really easy and they quit smoking as soon as they get their pv. For others, it's more of a struggle. For me, I really wasn't sold on any juice I tried until I was off the analogs for a couple of days and my tastes started to change a bit. That's when I really started to enjoy vaping and the variety of flavours.

Any time I've stopped smoking in the past I've always started up again because, like you, I thought 'i've got this thing licked; i could have one here and there and be fine!' Some people might be able to do that - I know with absolute certainty that I can't.

Everyone's story is personal to them, so don't compare yourself to others and feel you've failed if you didn't quit smoking as soon as you pick up your pv!! Make quitting smoking your goal. You might not quit smoking on day one, or even week one. Maybe the plan that works best for you is to use your pv to cut down on smoking at first, and wean yourself off of the cigarettes little by little by a goal date. What works for one might not work for someone else, so you'll just have to figure out what works best for you and keep at it.

You may want to look at it in another way - don't consider every analog smoked a failure. Instead, consider it a victory when you choose to pick up your pv and vape instead of picking up a cigarette and smoking.

You're on the right track by making up your mind that you want to start vaping again. Good luck - you can do it!!

 

[Pete A.]

My excuse to pick up that first analog was, these e-cigs are so aggravaiting always have to drip juice in the atty & cartridge, cleaning the atty, charging the battery, juice leaking everywhere and sometimes the damn thing taste burnt.

I wish more people would focus on this. This forum is filled with smart creative people who do really cool things, modding and mixing and experimenting. But, so much of the energy is directed in ways that only appeal to the enthusiasts and hobbyist vapers. I have yet to see anybody come up with the reasonably priced easy to use, plug and play vaping system that solves all the issues out of the box. So, switching from smoke to vapor involves either struggling with all the twitchy frustrations of an new technology or investing the time and money to make finding that right solution a serious pursuit.

Smoking is easy. Bad in so many ways, but easy.

Vaping will explode in popularity when the right solution for the mass market is found. Right now it seems like the vaping culture, business and marketing is too dominated by the aficionados. Big Tobacco didn't become Big Tobacco by putting out crappy unsmokable cigarettes for new wannabee smokers and focusing instead on $100 custom hand rolled cigars for the few people who appreciated them. "Yeah, those cigarettes are pretty crappy, but if you modify the filter, re-roll them in better paper and mix up some stuff to soak them in, they'll be pretty good. When you get the hang of that you will be ready to try some of these expensive hand rolled Cubans". Sadly, that is very close to the experience of most people who try e-cigs for the first time.

 

[Iffy]

Either ya do or ya don't! Your choice, not ours.

If ya do, then we're here to assist ya. If ya don't... we're still here to help ya!

 

[salemgold]

I'm sitting in the computer room smoking with the window wide open ( freezing my as* off ), ceiling fan on high, and a blanket shoved under the closed door to keep the smell from penetrating the house. It's not working, my non smoking husband tells me the whole house smells like smoke.

Why do we play such mind games with ourselves when we smoke? We know its wrong, we know it stinks, and we understand all the possible health complications, but yet we continue to do it.

For me, its not a matter of nicotine withdrawal physically as I have quit smoking countless times easily. However, my non smoking days never last long. It's the mental addiction I can't seem to shake off. Never once have I had withdrawal symptoms, other than mentally. I can't stop thinking about cigarettes no matter how hard I try to kick this habit.

Sadly, smoking has become my first love in life and has taken over my life completely 100%. I can't do anything without smoking first. It seems it's the most important thing in my life. Shame on me. I get up and first thing I have to do is go outside irregardless of rain, sleet, snow, -20 degrees, 103 degrees and smoke. When I get to work I have to smoke some more before I go inside. Of course I'm out there smoking on all breaks no matter what the weather brings. When I do quit smoking I get so much done because I'm not always having to stop too smoke. Waking up with fresh breath, not coughing, and breathing deeply is a wonderful feeling. I love it when I don't smoke. Somehow, I always lose sight of that.

It wasn't so long ago I bought a few e-cigs and analogs were a distant memory, so I thought. Three weeks cigarette free, and yes I was happy about my newly found achievement. Yes, people noticed I wasn't smoking anymore and praised me too. I was blasking in the glory of my freedom of not being addicted anymore. I was proud of myself, but then I got cocky and thought well I have this habit licked now so I can smoke one now and then. I'm sure you all know the rest of the story. Yep, I'm back to smoking and with a vengence now. Making up for lost time. Silly me and feeling pathetic for being weak to tobacco. I have so much to live for and I know if I don't quit this smoking it will take me out of life before I'm ready.

My excuse to pick up that first analog was, these e-cigs are so aggravaiting always have to drip juice in the atty & cartridge, cleaning the atty, charging the battery, juice leaking everywhere and sometimes the damn thing taste burnt. However, I felt so much better not smoking those death sticks.

Tomorrow morning I am done. My plan is to buy another e-cig, 510 or a Ego. I have read so much on this forum about so many e-cigs its confusing, overwhelming. My goal is to be smoke free and I will need some help, because obviously I can't do it on my own.

Thank you for any advice and didn't intend this post to be a mini novel.

Well you are right. You may not be able to do it on your own but with the help and support you will find on this forum it may just be the key to success for you. I think that the major part of this whole thing is that you have to really want to quit smoking.

Some of your story sounds alot like my mom. She started vaping with me about 1.5 years ago and was doing well. I filled all of her cartomizers, bought all of her juice and did as much leg work as I could for her but she still found something to complain about with the ecigs. She was looking for an excuse to go back to the cigs and if you are looking you will find one.

My best advice to you is to go with something like a Riva from Liberty Flights as they hold a charge much longer and will cut down on the aggravation of always having to keep batteries charged.
Also you may want to use cartomizers. You can fill as many as you like ahead of time and not have to deal with constant dripping/flooding of an atty. Make it as easy as possible on yourself and keep reminding yourself of reasons why you should keep vaping instead of the other way around.
With that and the help and support you will find on this forum, you really can do it and for good this time

Good luck and remember there are always folks on this forum ready and willing to help at most times of the day or night

 

[salemgold]

I wish more people would focus on this. This forum is filled with smart creative people who do really cool things, modding and mixing and experimenting. But, so much of the energy is directed in ways that only appeal to the enthusiasts and hobbyist vapers. I have yet to see anybody come up with the reasonably priced easy to use, plug and play vaping system that solves all the issues out of the box. So, switching from smoke to vapor involves either struggling with all the twitchy frustrations of an new technology or investing the time and money to make finding that right solution a serious pursuit.

Smoking is easy. Bad in so many ways, but easy.

Vaping will explode in popularity when the right solution for the mass market is found. Right now it seems like the vaping culture, business and marketing is too dominated by the aficionados. Big Tobacco didn't become Big Tobacco by putting out crappy unsmokable cigarettes for new wannabee smokers and focusing instead on $100 custom hand rolled cigars for the few people who appreciated them. "Yeah, those cigarettes are pretty crappy, but if you modify the filter, re-roll them in better paper and mix up some stuff to soak them in, they'll be pretty good. When you get the hang of that you will be ready to try some of these expensive hand rolled Cubans". Sadly, that is very close to the experience of most people who try e-cigs for the first time.

I must disagree with you here. The ecigs (small affordable ones) have come a very long way in the last few years. It was not that long ago that an atty and a POS ecig were the only options but not the case at all today. You can get prefilled cartomizers now so you don't even have to handle the juice if you wish not to. The Ego and Riva have amazing battery life compared to the mini ecigs so the only thing left to do is charge 2 batteries and screw a prefilled cartomizer on the end and puff away. I am not sure how much easier that it could get than that.

The mods are also exploding but they are not only useful for the collectors and hobbyist but also for the folks like me that need a little more power from an ecig to keep me off the cigs. The modders and hobbyists are the main source of advancement for ecigs and equipment so they are to be commended for their work. Without them we would likely still be uisng the crappy mini ecigs with horrible battery life and no power to speak of. Now that is where twitchy frustrations come into play.

I just wanted to offer you another point of view and wish you the best of luck.

 

[JQside]

My excuse to pick up that first analog was, these e-cigs are so aggravaiting always have to drip juice in the atty & cartridge, cleaning the atty, charging the battery, juice leaking everywhere and sometimes the damn thing taste burnt. However, I felt so much better not smoking those death sticks.

Yes. It's frustrating at first for me. The constant refilling, atty cleaning, charging, recharging of batteries, burnt taste, you name it. For a simple device such as this, you'd think that the solution should have been found in a year or two. I'm of the impression that companies that are discovering the growing market are not even addressing these issues. They're just there for the profit. But I'm still optimistic that they'll finally get it and spend more time in perfecting it rather than rush for the quick buck.

I've got different types so far, minis, 510s with/without tanks, Egos' with/without tanks, penstyles with tanks, autos and manuals. They all occupy my table. Chargers are all over the place, sets of batteries, empty cartos wondering whether to dispose them or not. I read forums like this wondering whether to go for low resistance cartos, bigger batteries with bigger voltages, etc. Looking for the prefect e-cig seems endless.

;-)

 

[Syn007]

Maybe you can try higher nic concentration. If 16-18mg is not enough then try 24mg, or 36mg max. Anything higher is not advisable for fear of overdose. When the nic is high enough you probably would'nt want to pick up a cig, as they will make u feel like puking.

Bigger ecig batteries will help to prolong that 'power hit'. Better still if you get those variable voltages ones with higher volt options.

I can empathize with you regarding the new technical hassle you might encounter with ecig. But they can be reduced when you get more familiar with the many types of ecig setup. And perhaps find your perfect vape someday.

In the end, you'll still need the most important thing ever - willpower.. to get rid of analogs forever.

 

[Off Topic]

I'm a technical type, and a foodie. I enjoy playing with the hardware, flavors. I enjoy vaping WAY more than I ever liked smoking, and I did that for 20 years.

Without my passions, I can see how a non-tech, would find this daunting--and quite a hassle compared to "Pull it out of the pack and light it...stop at any store for more when you run out.

 

[keholman15]

not any word to say to you, just feel you are make your life a joke

 

[kabonk]

I never clean my attys I just toss them after a month or 2. batteries put on the charger once every 24 hours or so for a couple of hours, leaking ejuice no not since I replaced the feader tubes on my Reos and maybe I've been lucky but I haven't had a carto tank leak yet. I'm not saying its maintenance free but smoking was a pain in the ... too had to get in my car and go buy cigarettes rain, sleet, or snow all hours of the day and night, emptying ashtrays, clean the sticky brown residue off of everything, be treated like a leper, be told that I stunk by my loved ones and thier no stop nagging about when are you going to quit smoking, all the burn holes in my close, car and furniture, yellow teeth and fingers, standing out in the cold in the middle of winter to smoke, fiending for a cigarette if I was stuck in a meeting or at the airport oh I could just go on and on but I'll stop

 

[Pete A.]

I must disagree with you here. The ecigs (small affordable ones) have come a very long way in the last few years. It was not that long ago that an atty and a POS ecig were the only options but not the case at all today. You can get prefilled cartomizers now so you don't even have to handle the juice if you wish not to. The Ego and Riva have amazing battery life compared to the mini ecigs so the only thing left to do is charge 2 batteries and screw a prefilled cartomizer on the end and puff away. I am not sure how much easier that it could get than that.

The mods are also exploding but they are not only useful for the collectors and hobbyist but also for the folks like me that need a little more power from an ecig to keep me off the cigs. The modders and hobbyists are the main source of advancement for ecigs and equipment so they are to be commended for their work. Without them we would likely still be uisng the crappy mini ecigs with horrible battery life and no power to speak of. Now that is where twitchy frustrations come into play.

I just wanted to offer you another point of view and wish you the best of luck.

I agree that the modders have driven the advancement and I hope my post wasn't seen as me taking a swipe at them. I live in one of the smoking capitols of the country and am a new vaping enthusiast. I know countless smokers and have been spreading the knowledge and getting a lot of feedback from regular smokers. I am pretty tech savvy and enjoy the challenge of experimenting and learning something new. Most of the world does not fit into that category. Even for me the learning curve has been a bumpy and winding road.

You are right that the technology has made a great deal of progress in the last two years. Unfortunately, too much of that two year old technology is still being sold. For the average smoker who sees an e-cig kit for sale somewhere it is a total crap shoot as to what they will get.

I am still learning and searching for the right product for the average smoker and the right way to put it in their hands. The demographic of smokers and the demographic of the internet savvy people willing to buy an unknown product have a relatively small overlap. There is a huge audience that is missing out either from lack of exposure or bad luck leading to bad experiences and failure. I know that is in no small part to the legal gray area that the industry has been pushed into. I made a living from internet poker for many years(until the government protected me from making so much money). I see so many similarities between the current e-cig industry and the pre-2003 internet poker industry. I also think there is a very real possibility of an e-cig boom, that opens the market to 1000x as many people, as happened with internet poker in 2003.

Thanks for your input.

 

[MsTick]

Riva batteries from Liberty Flights and Vortex cartos from gotvapes (you'll need a 510-808 adapter) are as close as you can get to no-fuss vaping. Pop off the top, fill, screw on battery and you're pretty much good for all day. The Vortex are a little expensive, but I don't want to have to mess around with dripping or topping off at work, or needing to carry a syringe, and the latest version works very nicely.

I was also a smoke-at-every-opportunity smoker, and this combination has kept me off analogs for 7 months.

 

[El Diablo Marrón]

I kinda like the fact they are not hassle free.. i like messing with things.and it gives me something to do on a boring tv night.

I'm a technical type, and a foodie. I enjoy playing with the hardware, flavors. I enjoy vaping WAY more than I ever liked smoking, and I did that for 20 years.

Without my passions, I can see how a non-tech, would find this daunting--and quite a hassle compared to "Pull it out of the pack and light it...stop at any store for more when you run out.

 

[Pete A.]

Riva batteries from Liberty Flights and Vortex cartos from gotvapes (you'll need a 510-808 adapter) are as close as you can get to no-fuss vaping. Pop off the top, fill, screw on battery and you're pretty much good for all day. The Vortex are a little expensive, but I don't want to have to mess around with dripping or topping off at work, or needing to carry a syringe, and the latest version works very nicely.

I was also a smoke-at-every-opportunity smoker, and this combination has kept me off analogs for 7 months.

Cool, I had not seen the Vortex, another order to make. I tried the Fluxos. Pretty disappointed. Funny that you mention the syringe. In my interactions with people that is an absolute turn off. Anything that requires a syringe to fill is not going to work mainstream. I am actually working on a dual coil carto tank design that uses a mega-xl carto tube as the tank and screws on to the cone threads. It holds about 2.5 ml plus what you put in the carto. Makes for a very clean simple look that is no bigger than the battery but holds a serious amount of liquid. It is my first mod attempt. this is a mock-up, I am no machinist, but after a trip to home Depot for some o-rings and spacers I should have a working prototype in a day or two.


It is just a skinny tank around a dual coil that compromises a little volume for aesthetics but still lasts all day and removes the need to top off the carto and is easy to fill with a bottle. Big impressive mods do not appeal to the average smoker but in my experience the Ego/Riva with a drip tip is a pretty easy step for people to make. This keeps the look and feel but eliminates some of the filling and dry/burnt carto hassles.