So my fellow vapers, I took a lovely vacation to Thailand. I decided to go vape free for my vaca. I had my reasons. I didn't want any delays or problems with airport security, or in the country, especially after reading that the legality of ecigs was a bit fuzzy over there. If nothing else, I surely didn't want to end up in a Thai prison, even if that's probably a gross bit of paranoia lol. But what's more, I didn't want to miss out on anything because I was fiddling with my PV, or constantly worrying about dying batteries, or running out of juice.
Anyway, here was my experience. As you can see by my banner, I've been smoke free for quite a long time. I smoked cigarettes for only a couple years, but I was quite hopelessly addicted in that short period of time. I've vaped for the entirety of the time I've been off cigarettes. I've been as low as 6mg of nicotine, but at the time of my vacation, I was consistently vaping 18mg (you know life is, stress happens and you cope somehow. Nicotine is my coping mechanism).
Welp, cold turky, no nic. And my vacation began. Flying over. I'll tell you something, it was about 20 hrs travel time in all, and our biggest flight was 14 hrs. During that time, I was too preoccupied with being miserable to care about nicotine withdrawal. It was probably one of the worst experiences of my life, and it wasn't even a bad flight, just long, and boring, and a red eye. I couldn't sleep on the plain, so I was up for two days. I was a bit afraid of flying, but that passed. When you've spent 6 hrs through the middle of the night (and still had a whole lot of night to go, because you're crossing basically opposite time zones) on a plain, sleep deprived, hungry (the food was inedible), stiff, and uncomfortable, something happens within you. I've always thought of plains like sky-buses. Well maybe for short flights. On long flights, they're more akin to sky-jail. But by the point you've watched three terrible movies, and you realize you've still got 9 or 10 hrs of these shenanigans to go, you're kind of hoping that the plain goes down LOL. Because at least then you'd be off the flight. But I digress, the misery of a 14 hr flight is unparalleled to any withdrawal I could imagine.
Now, Just so this doesn't get too long, I'm not going to describe my whole vacation. To keep it short, it was absolutely lovely. As for the nicotine withdrawal, I was quite surprised. It really wasn't that bad. I felt a little irritable for the first few days, but god knows if that was from the nicotine or the jet lag. I was quite expecting to be climbing the wall for at least a week, and I just....wasn't. Now I had a safety net, I figured if I couldn't hack it, I could just pop into a pharmacy and get some gum, or god forbid, just smoke on my vacation. However, I really felt as if I just didn't....have to.
Now all that said, I had some lovely vape mail waiting for me when I got home. I had no intention of permanently quitting. I don't know if it's just the nature of addiction, or if I'm just not ready yet, but I do quite enjoy vaping, and fully planned on returning to it once doing so was easy again. So I definitely did this with an end in site.
But it gives me hope. I know we're all (well mostly anyway) addicts here. But my little experiment gave me hope, that there definitely is life after nicotine and that it doesn't have to be forever. I feel so confident how that when the times comes, and I am really ready to give it up, it won't be so hard. That I'll just go on with life as usual, minus nicotine and I'll still enjoy my life just as much as I ever have. I've come out of this feeling really great about myself and what the future might hold. So don't give up guys. There's always hope.
P.S. I got to pet an Elephant
Anyway, here was my experience. As you can see by my banner, I've been smoke free for quite a long time. I smoked cigarettes for only a couple years, but I was quite hopelessly addicted in that short period of time. I've vaped for the entirety of the time I've been off cigarettes. I've been as low as 6mg of nicotine, but at the time of my vacation, I was consistently vaping 18mg (you know life is, stress happens and you cope somehow. Nicotine is my coping mechanism).
Welp, cold turky, no nic. And my vacation began. Flying over. I'll tell you something, it was about 20 hrs travel time in all, and our biggest flight was 14 hrs. During that time, I was too preoccupied with being miserable to care about nicotine withdrawal. It was probably one of the worst experiences of my life, and it wasn't even a bad flight, just long, and boring, and a red eye. I couldn't sleep on the plain, so I was up for two days. I was a bit afraid of flying, but that passed. When you've spent 6 hrs through the middle of the night (and still had a whole lot of night to go, because you're crossing basically opposite time zones) on a plain, sleep deprived, hungry (the food was inedible), stiff, and uncomfortable, something happens within you. I've always thought of plains like sky-buses. Well maybe for short flights. On long flights, they're more akin to sky-jail. But by the point you've watched three terrible movies, and you realize you've still got 9 or 10 hrs of these shenanigans to go, you're kind of hoping that the plain goes down LOL. Because at least then you'd be off the flight. But I digress, the misery of a 14 hr flight is unparalleled to any withdrawal I could imagine.
Now, Just so this doesn't get too long, I'm not going to describe my whole vacation. To keep it short, it was absolutely lovely. As for the nicotine withdrawal, I was quite surprised. It really wasn't that bad. I felt a little irritable for the first few days, but god knows if that was from the nicotine or the jet lag. I was quite expecting to be climbing the wall for at least a week, and I just....wasn't. Now I had a safety net, I figured if I couldn't hack it, I could just pop into a pharmacy and get some gum, or god forbid, just smoke on my vacation. However, I really felt as if I just didn't....have to.
Now all that said, I had some lovely vape mail waiting for me when I got home. I had no intention of permanently quitting. I don't know if it's just the nature of addiction, or if I'm just not ready yet, but I do quite enjoy vaping, and fully planned on returning to it once doing so was easy again. So I definitely did this with an end in site.
But it gives me hope. I know we're all (well mostly anyway) addicts here. But my little experiment gave me hope, that there definitely is life after nicotine and that it doesn't have to be forever. I feel so confident how that when the times comes, and I am really ready to give it up, it won't be so hard. That I'll just go on with life as usual, minus nicotine and I'll still enjoy my life just as much as I ever have. I've come out of this feeling really great about myself and what the future might hold. So don't give up guys. There's always hope.
P.S. I got to pet an Elephant
