Negative Reactions ... REALLY ?!?

[Wuzznt Me]

You have fun. We'll take care of the in laws.

 

[retic1959]

I think we will all be there in spirit

Absolutely agree with this as magic mist from my Vamo fills the air!

 

[Psylent]

Whether you feel better or not after venting. You already do, you chose to vape.

 

[MASchlabach23]

Whether you feel better or not after venting. You already do, you chose to vape.

Actually, feeling better. A few smiles, and even a laugh!

Thank you guys so much!

 

[ut1205]

Do not take this in anyway as advice as to what you should do but in my 60 something years I have found that you have to "rid yourself of toxic people" They just want your life to be as miserable as theirs is. With family members this can be difficult but in my case I either make myself unavailable for family gatherings or if I must attend I limit the time that I am exposed to them. There are several people that I considered good friends that I no longer associate with. Even though they seemed to enjoy it, their negativity and gossip was having a negative affect on me.

My wife is happy that I'm not smoking analogs now but I believe it's more because the house "smells" better. I don't think that she believes that it is any safer than real cigarettes.

Again, I'm in no way qualified to give advice but you have to do what is right for you. I know you have the support of everyone here.

Good Luck!!

 

[ghola1was]

I hope all goes well with you today. The people you described, sounds like if it wasn't one thing it would be another.

Screw 'em. You married the best one out of the bunch, the rest are just "factory seconds".

 

[wbart]

I am the most fun one here, I beat people with my mods... Could be the fact I am at work and have not slept in 26 hours.... Overtime for replacement mods!!!

 

[Tvan]

Keep moving forward the way you are. They only act like that because you are family and they are concerned. My family would be the same way. It's the "It doesn't look like a cigarette" understanding. They will come around, just give it some time.

 

[MASchlabach23]

Do not take this in anyway as advice as to what you should do but in my 60 something years I have found that you have to "rid yourself of toxic people" They just want your life to be as miserable as theirs is. With family members this can be difficult but in my case I either make myself unavailable for family gatherings or if I must attend I limit the time that I am exposed to them. There are several people that I considered good friends that I no longer associate with. Even though they seemed to enjoy it, their negativity and gossip was having a negative affect on me.

I wish wish wish I could just not go ALL the time, they get together almost weekly. But sad to say, my hubby is VERY family oriented and I married into all the in-laws living within a five mile radius. Joy.

After five years of marriage, this is just about the only thing we ever fight about.

Screw 'em. You married the best one out of the bunch, the rest are just "factory seconds".

I totally did.

 

[fabricator4]

Not sure that there's really any advice to be had on this issue, but please don't let that stop you if you have any. I guess I'm just feeling the need to vent...

Actually it's something many of us have to deal with. Vaping looks like smoking, but it's not. You may go through withdrawal symptoms when your body starts missing some of those other 4,000 chemicals that it has been used to for last few decades. After about 3 or 4 months when we have been through the ringer that tobacco cessation forces on us, there is no doubt in our minds that we have quit smoking by replacing it with a far less harmful alternative. Vaping allows us to easily give up 95% of what smoking was doing to us. The other 5% is nicotine addiction and the hand to mouth habit. Even people who have tried to give up smoking a few times do not understand tobacco addiction as well as a vaper who has given up cigarettes for good.

It's also a fact that nicotine by itself is only a fraction as addictive as tobacco cigarettes, and that nicotine does not cause cancer, COPD, emphysema, or any of the other smoking related diseases. Those diseases are all down the tar, carcinogens, carbon monoxide and other poisons that result from burning tobacco. Being able rattle these facts off normally quietens any objections from family and friends.

I successfully, and more importantly happily, switched over to vaping just over a month ago, and am getting incredibly discouraged by some of the negative reactions I'm getting from... Well, from family! I mean, of all people, really? REALLY ?!?

Vaping probably has a 30% to 70% success rate for smoking cessation depending which report you look at. CASAA tend to use the lower 30% figure, erring on the cautious side but the fact is that tradition NRT products only have a 6% success rate, and that is after only 3 months. Many vapers can tell you that the 3 and 4 month period was a very difficult time for them, and without vaping they probably would not have been able to stop smoking again.

In a recent study about 300 participants were given cigalikes and told to try them. These participants were smokers who did not have any intention of attempting to quit at that time. 16% of those participants went on to give up smoking, which is two and half times better that the best figures quoted for traditional NRT in subjects who wanted to give up smoking.

Please don't get me wrong, my husband is incredibly proud of me and my parents are being very supportive as well. But that's pretty much it. My biological sister, as well as pretty much all of my in-laws, are really pooh-poohing the transition. It's almost as if they would prefer I stick with the smoking. How insane is that?

So at family gatherings, such as the one in about five hours with the whole slew of in-laws, my anxiety starts rising. Let's face it, I am NOT a people person. As my anxiety crests, I feel the need to vape. I vape. I even step outside and out of sight to vape, only to return to their "commenting" on my new-found habit. We're talking... Very. Obvious. Disdain.

So now we're well past the crest and pretty much peaking at some point beyond pissy, and somewhere in my brain the thought process short circuits: "Well screw this, I might as well light up." But the thing is, I don't even want a cigarette! At this point, I'm just feeling the need to do something... Out of anger? In spite? I don't know, the whole thing makes no sense to me.

Yep, been there. If you're in your own home, vape when you feel like it. It's about having the strength to not care what others say because at least YOU are doing the right thing. If you can laugh at their disdain, you will find it's not such a big deal, either for them or for you.

But what makes even less sense is the reaction I am getting from these people. I mean, do they not realize how much healthier this is than the 5,000+ chemical unknowns I have been inhaling for the past twenty years? Healthier for me. Healthier for them. Healthier for my husband, my children... My cats, for heaven's sake!

No, actually they probably don't. You might like to print out one of the informational brochures and give it to them to read. CASAA do one here: http://casaa.org/uploads/CASAA-Ecig-TriFold-Brochure.pdf and the page that is linked from has other printable materials as well : CASAA Printable Material

I know that I have lame-stream media to thank in part for their brand of thinking, but how can basic logic not apply? Not even a little bit?

Thank the FDA among others for a lot of it. The WHO has also made some rather stupid comments about electronic cigarettes.

And don't worry, I WILL NOT light up! I don't want to light up! (And it feels damn good to be able to say that, and mean it! ) I seriously have no idea what drives that particular neural misfire.

You'd better not, otherwise your ECF membership will have to be revoked..

Heheh. Just kidding. Good on you for giving up those stinkin cigarettes.

 

[Mattnatti]

Perhaps try to educate them on the fact that you are actually doing something to better yourself and if they keep gossiping you can always just smack them with a vamo or provari

Exactly, although I went 6weeks tobacco free after my recent 2x bypass I did start smoking again. Needless to say the family was not happy. I then switched and was very excited about it but family members were not so much. I would hear things like " your doing that more than you were smoking " and after a few times of hearing that I armed myself with very useful info from this forum and kindly shut them up.

Now I tell them how many analogs I have NOT Smoked in the amount of days I have been tobacco free. They are happy to hear this.

Don't let them get you down. It is your body, decision and peace of mind that you have take into consideration, not theirs.
Keep up the good work of being tobacco free.

 

[AttyPops]

You can talk to them until you're blue in the face...in the end it's your decision. Just say "thank you for your concern" and move on.

Educating people only works if they are willing to listen. It's good to try because it counters the ANTZ. However, in the end, if they keep giving you crap, you just say "screw em".

So personal rule: "1st time...educate, 2nd time...'thanks', 3rd time...'thanks', 4th time...'thanks'...)

 

[MASchlabach23]

Now I tell them how many analogs I have NOT Smoked in the amount of days I have been tobacco free. They are happy to hear this.

I like this approach. Might have to give it a try.

They seem to talk right over any of the informational... information.

You can talk to them until you're blue in the face...in the end it's your decision. Just say "thank you for your concern" and move on.

Unfortunately, this is too too true for this group.

The really sad thing is, back in 2010 my husband and his brother, myself and my sister-in-law all quit smoking within three months of each other when we found out both couples were expecting. Six weeks postpartum, two weeks into the colic, I fell off the wagon and my husband ending up following within the next month.

But we were open and honest about it, whereas my brother-in-law has been having a secret love affair with SNUS and his wife has been sneaking cigarettes whenever she's away from the family, a fact which she only "confessed" because she had to bum one off me at the time. And yet these two are among the loudest of the pooh-poohers. Well, at least she is.

I just don't get people.

The rest of them never smoked, so they just don't understand the nature of the beast.

 

[retic1959]

You can talk to them until you're blue in the face...in the end it's your decision. Just say "thank you for your concern" and move on. Educating people only works if they are willing to listen. It's good to try because it counters the ANTZ. However, in the end, if they keep giving you crap, you just say "screw em". So personal rule: "1st time...educate, 2nd time...'thanks', 3rd time...'thanks', 4th time...'thanks'...)

Yup, I tried talking to a democrat once and had much the same experience . I think I'll just use the Vamo on them next time .

 

[MASchlabach23]

Yup, I tried talking to a democrat once and had much the same experience . I think I'll just use the Vamo on them next time .

Yeah, you nailed that one on the head.

I married the brother raised in Texas after the divorce.

 

[AttyPops]

Yup, I tried talking to a democrat once and had much the same experience . I think I'll just use the Vamo on them next time .

Huh. Well, yeah, if you were in GA or LA there's only two or three of them to talk to, and they pretty much keep to themselves anyway. There may be a few others that are moderates too, but they seldom admit it. You'll have much better luck in the more open minded parts of the country. Have you considered moving?

 

[MASchlabach23]

Smiley faces inserted into political barbing... This IS a friendly and supportive forum!

You guys rock!!!

 

[retic1959]

Huh. Well, yeah, if you were in GA or LA there's only two or three of them to talk to, and they pretty much keep to themselves anyway. There may be a few others that are moderates too, but they seldom admit it. You'll have much better luck in the more open minded and less hateful parts of the country. Have you considered moving?

Absolutely not , that makes me wish I was in the land of cotton , Oh wait I AM YAY for me.

 

[xyanide]

Many people who didn't know about vaping mistook my vamo for an actual weapon.

I still get weird looks from my brothers when I get a new toy to try out or see me rebuilding an AGA-T. I think the thing is that some people regard vaping as pointless once you're off tobacco for a while. They see it as making a fool of yourself carrying around a weird thingy for no apparent reason. Most people I met are genuinely curious about it, smokers and non-smokers alike. Maybe I just enjoy avoiding idiots.

 

[AttyPops]

Only...stay out of New York City...they have a crazy super-left mayor. It's sad.

Back on topic!

Glad you're feeling a bit better OP. That's a big part of ECF...it's a support group.