Hi ECF!
Decided to stop lurking about and post for once, so I thought I'd make an introduction. My name is Wes, and I've been vaping since about May. My vaping story is a bit...atypical, I guess. I didn't come to vaping for the same reasons most everyone seems to; I'm not an ex-heavy smoker (I smoked a few pipes or cigars now and then). Instead, I decided to try e-cigs because they were the cheapest and potentially safest way I could find to use nicotine as a treatment for a condition I've had since I was around 7. I know, I know, several of you are probably thinking: what?
I have had muscular tics almost daily since they first manifested when I was a kid. To give you an idea of what I'm talking about - the only difference between my situation and someone with "full-blown" Tourette's is I don't have the vocal tics that show up in their cases. Otherwise, I'm just one step down on the tic disorder spectrum. I've spent a lot of my life trying to find treatments for these, as they can sometimes be debilitating - my muscles in my neck once chorded up so bad that I was in pain for several days. It's gotten a bit better as I've gotten older, as is typical, but it never went away.
When I was in college, I tried tobacco a few times borrowing a smoke from friends, and I noticed something weird. Whenever I smoked tobacco, my tics were minimized, and sometimes went fully away. I decided to research, and found that there had been a few studies (but admittedly not a ton of them) showing that Tourettes patients showed some reduced tic activity when treated with nicotine patches. So, there was some research to back up what I was seeing. I talked to my neurologist about it, and he explained that it made sense to him based on what he knew about the way nicotine interacts with neurotransmitters in the brain (although he wasn't about to recommend I take up smoking!). But the problem was, as many of you have intimate experience, smoking with any frequency made me feel like crap. So it wasn't something I was about to do long-term, even if it provided relief from my tics.
I tried patches, and while they sort of worked, they were a pain in the .... to keep on my skin for any period of time, and they were >super< expensive for long-term use. I couldn't keep affording them. I kept a pipe and a bit of pipe tobacco around for days when my tics were especially bad, but I tried to avoid it if at all possible, because I hated waking up tasting stale smoke on my tongue from the day before.
Then e-cigs came around. I watched info about them for a long while, and decided to pull the trigger on buying one early this year, after talking it over with my wife. I bought a basic ego/clearo kit, and sure enough, it worked. My tics have been minimal ever since, except on days where I'm especially stressed.
I know I am making what many will see as an irrational decision, choosing to use an addictive substance to treat a disorder that doesn't present a threat to my life. However, I believe I am making a rational decision to treat this in the least invasive, potentially safest way possible. After all, the only other traditional treatments that I haven't already tried for these tics - antipsychotics like Haldol - have side effect profiles that make nicotine look like child's play.
So, I just wanted to say hi, and put this all out there. Are there any others in the community that have similar stories? Nice to meet you all, and hope you're having a happy new year!
-Wes
Decided to stop lurking about and post for once, so I thought I'd make an introduction. My name is Wes, and I've been vaping since about May. My vaping story is a bit...atypical, I guess. I didn't come to vaping for the same reasons most everyone seems to; I'm not an ex-heavy smoker (I smoked a few pipes or cigars now and then). Instead, I decided to try e-cigs because they were the cheapest and potentially safest way I could find to use nicotine as a treatment for a condition I've had since I was around 7. I know, I know, several of you are probably thinking: what?
I have had muscular tics almost daily since they first manifested when I was a kid. To give you an idea of what I'm talking about - the only difference between my situation and someone with "full-blown" Tourette's is I don't have the vocal tics that show up in their cases. Otherwise, I'm just one step down on the tic disorder spectrum. I've spent a lot of my life trying to find treatments for these, as they can sometimes be debilitating - my muscles in my neck once chorded up so bad that I was in pain for several days. It's gotten a bit better as I've gotten older, as is typical, but it never went away.
When I was in college, I tried tobacco a few times borrowing a smoke from friends, and I noticed something weird. Whenever I smoked tobacco, my tics were minimized, and sometimes went fully away. I decided to research, and found that there had been a few studies (but admittedly not a ton of them) showing that Tourettes patients showed some reduced tic activity when treated with nicotine patches. So, there was some research to back up what I was seeing. I talked to my neurologist about it, and he explained that it made sense to him based on what he knew about the way nicotine interacts with neurotransmitters in the brain (although he wasn't about to recommend I take up smoking!). But the problem was, as many of you have intimate experience, smoking with any frequency made me feel like crap. So it wasn't something I was about to do long-term, even if it provided relief from my tics.
I tried patches, and while they sort of worked, they were a pain in the .... to keep on my skin for any period of time, and they were >super< expensive for long-term use. I couldn't keep affording them. I kept a pipe and a bit of pipe tobacco around for days when my tics were especially bad, but I tried to avoid it if at all possible, because I hated waking up tasting stale smoke on my tongue from the day before.
Then e-cigs came around. I watched info about them for a long while, and decided to pull the trigger on buying one early this year, after talking it over with my wife. I bought a basic ego/clearo kit, and sure enough, it worked. My tics have been minimal ever since, except on days where I'm especially stressed.
I know I am making what many will see as an irrational decision, choosing to use an addictive substance to treat a disorder that doesn't present a threat to my life. However, I believe I am making a rational decision to treat this in the least invasive, potentially safest way possible. After all, the only other traditional treatments that I haven't already tried for these tics - antipsychotics like Haldol - have side effect profiles that make nicotine look like child's play.
So, I just wanted to say hi, and put this all out there. Are there any others in the community that have similar stories? Nice to meet you all, and hope you're having a happy new year!
-Wes
