New to vaping...sort of. I have tried cheap gas station disposables with no success. I upgraded to blu and liked it alright. Just bought an ego-t and love it. I am currently using ignite maple syrup "organic" 18mg blend. I have a few noob questions. When it comes to vaping how much is too much? I am a pack a day smoker for 10 years and ready to quit. I'm worried about cigarette withdrawals and the mental addiction to cigarette smoking. Any advice for a newby? I know there are a TON of threads and feel a bit overwhelmed with all the terminology. I look forward to being an active member and appreciate all the support. This forum seems amazing!
At risk of repeating myself (but this subject comes up often anyway)...
There's no chart or formula to consult on this. "Too much" would be the getting of too much nicotine. Which would cause things like insomnia, "jittery" feeling (like too much coffee), headache, maybe nausea. But it would be actually quite hard to get a nicotine "overdose" on vaping. You'd have to work at it. Or just up and drink your juice. Which would be not fun at all. Folks regularly "chain vape" without a problem. Shoot, if I'm watching a show or movie, I might as well duct tape the VTR to my head. I'm spouting vapor like an old steam engine or something.
(I used to chain smoke in times like that so I must just have a thing about needing my hands to be "busy" or something silly like that. Dunno. Don't care either. Lower my nic level on purpose so I didn't have to care.)
Don't worry about exact numbers and even if it seems you vape "a lot", blow it off. Vape it off?
What "too much" really is? Smoking. Vaping like a fiend can't be anything near as damaging as smoking.
In my experience--and I've run into it repeatedly having been around ECF a while--folks who are new tend to "vape a lot" (for whatever value "a lot" is to them). I did. Chain vaped often. Then, in time, leveled off. Interestingly enough, a year and change later, my vape habits now kind of mimic my old smoking habits. That being if I'm busy with something, I pull out the VTR now and again to puff a few times. If I'm more idle (like watching TV), I'm puffing almost non-stop. It's obviously not all only about the nicotine. There's habits and stuff in there.
Pay more attention to how you feel and what the "urge to smoke" is doing. Watch your habits. Try to swap vaping in where you'd normally have smoked. I did all kinds of silly little things at the start. Like where I'd have my ashtrays sitting at the ready (like to the side of the computer here), I put vape stuff in (at the time, my Blu). I consciously decided not to try "cold turkey" but shoved the smoking further away. Like put the one pack allowed in the house (only one at a time was the rule) in a cabinet in the kitchen. The vapor was handy, the cigs much less so. Yeah I'd let myself have one if I just had to but the rule was I could only take one cig out of the cabinet at a time and stay standing in the kitchen. No comfy chairs.
You're swapping out one way of getting your nicotine for another. And they're rather different. Smoke is very efficient and fast at getting nicotine into the bloodstream (along with dozens of cancer causing chemicals along for the ride). Vapor is less so. The primary absorption is in the mouth and nasal passages (some folks do a "deep" inhale when vaping but that's optional, personal choice as the amount of nic absorbed via the lungs in vaping is not much). I suspect new folks vape "a lot" at the outset because they're trying to adjust to this new way of getting their nicotine and their habits haven't shifted yet. So they compensate by trying lots and lots and lots of vapor.
Because, as I understand it, the thing is smokers (and other tobacco users for that matter) become used to having some level of nicotine circulating in their blood stream all the time. When that level drops below the point they're comfortable with, they get cravings (the infamous "nicotine fit"). Your body struggles to maintain a kind of "equilibrium" in nicotine and when you up and change things, it goes a little crazy trying to adjust. But you will adjust. Just give yourself time.
Also, if you do smoke some, don't beat yourself up. I took a good six weeks to stop smoking completely. I immediately dropped to much, much lower level (two packs a day to maybe a half dozen cigs a day at first). But stopping entirely took a while. Had a lot to do with finding a kit that worked for me (I stumbled my way to a eGo style and wish I'd known about them before I wasted money on Bleah... erm, Blu). Finding juices I liked. Fiddling with nicotine levels. So on and such like.
Not everybody stops all at once. Some do and that's great. Others, we take time. And how long it takes doesn't seem to have much to do with how successful you are long term. A number of the long time vapers around here took a while to stop smoking entirely. A few weeks isn't unusual. They still talk about having quit smoking in terms of years ago. I'm at 15 months now since I ran out of cigs and just didn't bother to buy another pack. And I was a two pack a day smoker for thirty something years.
I say don't worry about "too much vaping". Worry about "too much smoking". You can adjust the vaping later. And finding a level that works for you can take a while. Or not. You won't know until you get there.
