Need vaping help/self-control! Suggestions?

[Ralikar]

I dumped a 3pack/day habit in 2 days (like 6 weeks ago) and I love vaping... My problem: I love vaping. I have an addictive personality and I work at home and I find I'm vaping like 24/7 as well as working out 2x/day and drinking mass coffee. So I'm constantly going through an anger, withdrawl, depression, can't sleep cycle. I just cut down from 12 to 6 juice and I seem to just be vaping more/harder to get satsfied.

So I guess I'm not sure if I should treat this like a cigarette with higher juice and only smoke 1x/hr etc or drop the juice way down to like 1mg and vape 24/7. I simply can't seem to find any constancy with vaping... If I pound down 1mg juice for like an hour with coffee (I won't give that up) and then relax the rest of the day I'll probably still go through the same cycle as my body adapts to this...

Any tips? (I'm not blaming this on vaping--it's about my exercise/coffee/overtraining nature).

 

[markfm]

You may be on too low a strength, so you aren't just coming off the other stuff in cigs but too little nic too.

Coming from just one pad of full flavor cigs, I needed 24 mg, with 30 for strong craving points (like just after waking up), dropped to 12-15 for chain vaping. Anything less and I just wasn't getting the right amount of nic.

Over time I was able to cut my mg, but wasn't in a rush to do so.

Good luck!

 

[jj2]

You might cut back on the coffee or at least drink decaffeinated.

 

[Stosh]

Have you tried doing both? Have some high nic juice (18-24mg) for when you're craving the nicotine hit. And some low (6-12mg) to just keep your hands busy at other times. Starting out as a heavy smoker, I used up to 36mg to kill my craving. Better PVs, higher voltage, and learning how to draw a huge plume of vapor allowed me to cut back to the 20-25mg now, and to be able to actually put down the PV at times without cravings.

Beat the analog craving first, then consider cutting the nicotine or vaping time at your leisure.

 

[keyzygirl]

I started at 36 and have moved down slowly to 12mg.I think if you raised your nic a bit,you might be better off.You can move down slowly.It takes time to taper down.

 

[ThreePutt]

The wife says I'm obsessed with vaping. I just call it enthusiasm I work from home and chain-vape all day. Sometimes, I'll try to think about treating it like a ciggy (1 session/hr). Both work, as I'm not thinking of analogs anymore.

I slow down when I have a distinct aftertaste (the nic?) after I've been hitting the PV for awhile. I down a coke, the taste goes away, and I start back up again.

I use 24mg across the board, in every flavor.

 

[Ever1ast]

I concur, sounds like you're too low on the nic for as much as you smoked...you'll never get enough on 6-12. Can't speak for everyone but I was a pack a day and went straight to 18mg, and occasionally some 24. Tried the 12 and it was just not enough...I wouldn't put it down. I'd up the juice you're getting and see if it curbs the cravings.

 

[BWG707]

I was smoking about 5 to 7 ciggys a day and I went straight to 36mg; 30mg and 24mg when I have no other choice. The main reason for this is the TH. I find that anything lower than at least 24mg has no TH, except maybe some of the Cinn. or Menthols, and I can't stand those flavors. Usually even 24mg don't have much of a TH. Even some of the 30mg and 36mg flavors have very little TH, and I'm using a 5volt mod. I can vape hard all day with the 36mg and not feel any nic. effects at all. For me it's solely for the TH.

 

[GiddyLydia]

You are Not Smoking Sixty Cigarettes every day! You quit putting 4,000 out of 4001 potentially harmful substances into your body, is this not awesome enough for another minute? Or month?

Maybe you should have two PV's handy for a while, one loaded with as much nicotine as you need to feel satisfied, the other with a nice flavor and zero nic for hours of guilt-free over-vaping your addictive-natured, tobacco-free self.

 

[zoiDman]

I would instead of cutting the Nicotine down in your e-Liquid, I would try increasing it.

When I tried to quit analogs, I was climbing the walls with 18mg. In a way that is how I found the ECF because I reading about how Nicotine in e-Cigs doesn't absorb at the same rate as Nicotine in analogs.

Anyway, I went up to 28mg and things got much better. I was able to get thru the brutal first two weeks by using High mg e-Liquid, drinking a ton of water and getting more exercise.

To some, like myself, quitting analogs is tough. You just have to Man Up and not smoke a cigarette today. Don't worry about anything else. Just get thru today.

 

[wv2win]

As others have suggested, move the nic strength up to the 24-36mg range. The other factor in better simulating an analog (inhaled feel) along with the nic strength, is the warmth of the vapor. Move up to a 5 volt or variable volt PV and you will find your vaping much better satisfies your "smoking" need.

 

[Ralikar]

Thanks! I'm not craving cigs at all... What I meant is that I love nicotine and seem to enjoy vaping 24/7. So I'm wondering if other chain vapers got to a point where they had to force themselves to treat this more like a cigarette and establish break times or they simply reduced the nicotine so low it was okay to chain vape.

 

[birdbrains]

I too love nicotine! It's a pretty fine drug.

But I started buying all my juices at 24 from the get-go and... there have definitely been times when chain-vaping that my body says "whooooa there, let's hold off on that next puff big guy." Now I'm slowly easing into a more analog-type use, where I only pick it up once every 45 minutes or so and take about 5 hits.

So I guess I'm just repeating what everyone else has said--up those nic levels at least for some of your juices.

 

[Ralikar]

Yea, I may have to raise the levels... And just enjoy a more sporadic vape...

 

[Vocalek]

I smoked a pack a day for years and years. Then when the Surgeon General suggested that if we could not quit, we should at least switch to light cigarettes, I did. My consumption went up to 2 packs and then 2-1/2 packs a day. Some years later I read that mine was not an isolated experience.

Scientists figured out that smokers were compensating for the lack of nicotine. Some were smoking more cigarettes, as I was, and some were taking more puffs and/or drawing the smoke deeper into their lungs. Some were holding the smoke in to wring every last drop of nicotine out. Mind you, none of us were doing this consciously. This was our bodies crying out for relief from depression, anger, inattentiveness, fatigue, confusion. We got that relief from the nicotine.

I went on bupropion as an antidepressant, and managed to cut back to 1-1/2 packs a day.

I tried switching to nicotine gum, but find that my stomach rebels if I try to chew more than 5 or 6 pieces a day. This did, however, allow me to eliminate another 10 cigarettes a day, getting me back down to the pack a day that I used to smoke. When I read about the "compensatory smoking" that users of "reduced tar and nicotine" cigarettes do, I researched until I found a brand that delivers the most nicotine. After switching from "lights" to that brand, I got down to half a pack a day (I was still taking the bupropion and chewing the nicotine gum).

I managed to get rid of those last 10 cigarettes when I switched to vaping. I was having difficulties at first with somne of the symptoms cited by the OP. At the time I was ordering the highest strength of cartridge (18 mg). I learned from this forum about refilling cartrdiges and ordered 24 mg. strength liquid. That did the job. I am smoke-free since 3/27/2009.

This is my story. Not any medical advice to others. I'm just sharing what worked for me.

 

[Ralikar]

I am going to up the nic and control the vaping a bit.... Ty for the help all.

 

[Thulium]

Thanks! I'm not craving cigs at all... What I meant is that I love nicotine and seem to enjoy vaping 24/7. So I'm wondering if other chain vapers got to a point where they had to force themselves to treat this more like a cigarette and establish break times or they simply reduced the nicotine so low it was okay to chain vape.

It might seem like a cheap answer, but I really believe that is a very personal choice. Even if you vape all you can all day long you'll be adding less than a teaspoon or two of air sanitizing propylene glycol and/or glycerine with some flavorings (food flavorings are meant to be inhaled, btw...that's how they work), so if you'd otherwise be burning multiple packs of cigarettes, chain vaping is obviously a better alternative. On the other hand, if you feel your "chain vaping" is becoming a problem or getting out of control, you can help limit the amount of time you spend vaping by increasing the nicotine strength. But generally I recommend choosing your nicotine strength based on what you enjoy vaping because you will naturally change the way you inhale or the amount you use to get the nicotine you are craving and most people will stop using nicotine before they make themselves sick.

 

[rolygate]

I think that many of us need to be out there doing stuff, and working either from home or in an office is an artificial environment that causes us unconsciously to react as if in a prison or cage. Also, because of your personal nature, you need to consciously control your actions.

This being the case you need some tricks to control things.

-- Walk a couple miles every day. Everybody needs that whatever else they do.
-- Keep two e-cigs handy. One has high nic strength, one low. Keep them just out of reach so you have to get up to reach them. Only use the low strength one within 2 hours of going to bed.
-- Use the high one as much as you need, it's probably best to use minimum flavoring, for heavy use.
-- Keep a dumbell right by your chair and when you start to fiddle around, do some curls, tricep extensions, overhead press. And some squats.

You might be able to figure out some other stuff too. The problem is being confined, and your restless nature. Find things to compensate.

 

[Ralikar]

I'm not a prisoner And I work out twice a day and go out . But I appreciate the help--it does come down to self control in some ways.