I am going to go down a different path on this subject, so bare with me on this Nomatches.
I find pushing e-cigarettes onto friends and family members has about 5% success rate. It creates unneeded and undue tension and generally is not worth the energy, frustration or effort.
Now that's a pretty bold statement, so allow to me support it with a little explanation. As former smokers most of us have tried to quit via cold turkey, patches, gum, hypno-therapy, etc. until we finally were open to the idea of trying e-cigarettes. We were self-motivated.
E-cigs have been around for quite a few years, so ask yourself why you didn't try them 2 or 3 years ago? Chances are it was because you weren't ready and as we all know first hand it's not just as simple as
buy it and it works. It's a commitment and for it to be truly successful one must be highly motivated.
Bombarding a smoker with guilt ridden rationale shouldn't be a desired role for anyone take on. Yet it happens because many new vapers are so overwhelmed by their own success they want to project their success and share it with others, especially loved ones.
I have friends and family members try my e-cigs out of curiosity or to perhaps simply please me since they saw that I was so excited about it. When I had first started these gestures on their behalf triggered me to pounce on them, get them hooked-up, excessively rant about my own success, and health benefits. I was basically brow beating them into trying e-cigs only to have their experience become an epic fail within weeks.
Now I take a different tack which has had a 100% success rate so far. For the most part I do nothing. Sounds crazy but I simply
vape when I am around them and honestly tell them how much I enjoy it only when asked. My friends and family all know I smoked for 30+ years and that I had tried every avenue available to quit smoking in the past.
When a friend, family member or acquaintance approaches me and says, "So those things work for you..huh? Maybe I should try those because I desperately want to quit, I've tried everything else and nothing worked for me." When I hear that I know this is somebody that is ready mentally to make the switch. That's when I reply, "Give me you e-mail address, I"ll send you some links to read up on it and touch base with you in a week or so."
If it turns out that they won't even make the effort to look into the links I provided it shows to me that they aren't ready. If they have actually taken the time to look at the links, read up on e-cigs, and approach me with questions, then I offer to lend them a starter kit.
This relieves me of the burden of trying to convince them and places me in the position of simply assisting them. In every case (a dozen+) this approach has been completely successful and best of all stress-free. People do better when they come to a decision on their own and this is especially true when dealing with addiction.
In any case Nomatches I wish you the best of luck, your heart is in the right place.
, well, you know what they say . . . tastes are subjective, and chacun a son gout!
