Thanks to everyone for your input. I tried DL vaping, but it felt like sucking on a straw and decided it was not for me. I have settled on Blueberry, coffee and cherry flavors, but think I'll increase my nic from 12 to 15. I'm not a DIY juicer or a coil builder and have no idea where I would start. I may investigate DIY juice just to get rid of all these bottles.
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I think it's different for everyone. I was a very heavy smoker (1,5-2 packs a day) for 25 years. More importantly, I *love* cigarettes. I love everything about them. But it got to a point I got tired of smelling bad all the time, having to go outside for a smoke, etc, and decided it was time to quit.
I put zero pressure on myself. I bought the simplest, easiest setup and tried. When I really felt like a cigarette, I smoked one. I had maybe 10 smokes a day every day during the first week. After that I started to tell myself I didn't need a cigarette every time I felt like one. I put in more effort not to smoke. I started to try different juices until I found one I truly loved. After another couple of week, my desire to smoke decreased by a LOT. So, for me, it was baby steps. I still have a smoke when I really want one badly. Maybe once or twice a week. But it's going well and it feels like a miracle, to be honest. I couldn't even imagine myself as a non-smoker until not long ago. So, I guess it's a personality thing to a certain extent. Cold turkey x tapering. Whatever works for you is awesome. Hang in there!
I put zero pressure on myself. I bought the simplest, easiest setup and tried. When I really felt like a cigarette, I smoked one. I had maybe 10 smokes a day every day during the first week. After that I started to tell myself I didn't need a cigarette every time I felt like one. I put in more effort not to smoke. I started to try different juices until I found one I truly loved. After another couple of week, my desire to smoke decreased by a LOT. So, for me, it was baby steps. I still have a smoke when I really want one badly. Maybe once or twice a week. But it's going well and it feels like a miracle, to be honest. I couldn't even imagine myself as a non-smoker until not long ago. So, I guess it's a personality thing to a certain extent. Cold turkey x tapering. Whatever works for you is awesome. Hang in there!
Thanks Monica,
I think I have to handle this like dieting. Be aware of what I'm putting in my mouth and find a way to carry my ecig with me all the time. I can't vape in the house, since my husband thinks it will set off his asthma. I have to go outside whenever I vape.
I think I have to handle this like dieting. Be aware of what I'm putting in my mouth and find a way to carry my ecig with me all the time. I can't vape in the house, since my husband thinks it will set off his asthma. I have to go outside whenever I vape.
I do think that maybe having to go outside to vape makes it harder, as being able to do it inside is a bit of a vaping perk, at least for me. Having said that, I started carrying mine in my jeans pocket (even though it sticks out a bit) and I love just pulling it out and having a quick puff when I'm out and about without having to do it for 5-ish minutes like a cigarette. And, after a coffee, the taste of the juice is YUMMO!! Another thing is that being a teacher I was always paranoid about walking into one-on-one lessons and carrying the smell of my last smoke with me. Today I puff away and walk right in and it feels awesome. My point is, I think you start to discover the joys of it with time, too. On top of it, it's a pretty enjoyable hobby. I think talking to other vapers, trying different juices, looking at different equipment, all of that helps.
Vaping indoors is a real perk for me. I hated smoking outside in the cold. I did it but I hated it.
My kiddo vaped and he had asthma and allergies so bad, he got 5 years of allergy shots. He was fine. While I understand your husband's concerns, I might suggest a) a garage if you have one b) trying it out cautiously with an air purifier (although I'm not a doc and well, I just am some random person on the internet).
I smoked and I have mild asthma. It really only did me in the last 1.5 years of smoking and I was smoking 3 ppd day at that point.
Vaping is far more benign than smoking, and there is lots of studies on the LACK of impact of second hand vapes, conducted places in like, vape shops where the vape is so thick, you can't see from one end to the other and etc.
I am a non believer in second hand vape I tend to think it's an artefact to "mimic smoking' and scare people away. I'm not a doctor but Britain allows vaping IN HOSPITALS. I don't know where exactly what areas an etc., but there are plenty of asthmatic folks having attacks inside those hospitals I am fairly certain.
Again, no doc but maybe educate you/your husband, try an experiment with his doctor's consent or presence if you feel at all comfortable? Obviously you should do what you feel is best but maybe limited to one room with an air filter? IDK.
If it's just a fear... .it's a fear. If it's like a strict doctor mandate It may be something else.
Again, it's just a thought, it's really up to you and hubby to figure out. But, as an asthmatic who had a chronic mild wheeze most of her life, I vape (a lot) and like, it is totally GONE with vaping.
Etc.
Anna
My kiddo vaped and he had asthma and allergies so bad, he got 5 years of allergy shots. He was fine. While I understand your husband's concerns, I might suggest a) a garage if you have one b) trying it out cautiously with an air purifier (although I'm not a doc and well, I just am some random person on the internet).
I smoked and I have mild asthma. It really only did me in the last 1.5 years of smoking and I was smoking 3 ppd day at that point.
Vaping is far more benign than smoking, and there is lots of studies on the LACK of impact of second hand vapes, conducted places in like, vape shops where the vape is so thick, you can't see from one end to the other and etc.
I am a non believer in second hand vape I tend to think it's an artefact to "mimic smoking' and scare people away. I'm not a doctor but Britain allows vaping IN HOSPITALS. I don't know where exactly what areas an etc., but there are plenty of asthmatic folks having attacks inside those hospitals I am fairly certain.
Again, no doc but maybe educate you/your husband, try an experiment with his doctor's consent or presence if you feel at all comfortable? Obviously you should do what you feel is best but maybe limited to one room with an air filter? IDK.
If it's just a fear... .it's a fear. If it's like a strict doctor mandate It may be something else.
Again, it's just a thought, it's really up to you and hubby to figure out. But, as an asthmatic who had a chronic mild wheeze most of her life, I vape (a lot) and like, it is totally GONE with vaping.
Etc.
Anna
You have to remember to vape, even if you don't have a craving hit your vape every once and a while if you wait too long and your nic level crashes you're going to want to have a smoke because cigarettes will give you faster relief than vaping so to your body it just makes sense to end the problem quicker.
Also you say you're a MTL vaper, maybe that's just not your thing, I both MTL and DTL to stay happy. I MTL while out so I don't invade people's personal space with fruit clouds and DTL at home because I get a better hit.
Also you say you're a MTL vaper, maybe that's just not your thing, I both MTL and DTL to stay happy. I MTL while out so I don't invade people's personal space with fruit clouds and DTL at home because I get a better hit.
Jiggs, I was fortunate after I started vaping. The end of the first week I vaped I suddenly realized that I had only smoked about 6 cigarettes a day in the last week vaping (down from 2 packs a day) and hadn't thought about it. i just smoked when I wanted one and vaped the rest of the time. I did that for a year and decided I wanted to buy a Provari. I told myself when the Provari came in I'd finish the last pack and quit. I did and haven't smoked or wanted one since that day in 2011. I was shocked that I didn't want or need those few cigs a day. Maybe it was honoring the deal I made with myself that helped me quit.
Keep on vaping. Vaping will at least take away some of the smokes and that's a good thing. Set a target date for reducing the number you smoke each day by one. The next week, drop another ciggy off your daily dose. What's really important is eventually quitting. You are already smoking less when you vape. Lots of us are chain vapers. The ecig seldom leaves our hand or our pocket.
You mentioned direct to lung vaping. That didn't help me either. I was hooked on the cigarette style puff. I enjoyed inhaling the smoke and exhaling it and I've continued that through into vaping. I like puffing. We call it Tootle Puffing for some reason! That style is relaxing to me.
Keep on vaping. Vaping will at least take away some of the smokes and that's a good thing. Set a target date for reducing the number you smoke each day by one. The next week, drop another ciggy off your daily dose. What's really important is eventually quitting. You are already smoking less when you vape. Lots of us are chain vapers. The ecig seldom leaves our hand or our pocket.
You mentioned direct to lung vaping. That didn't help me either. I was hooked on the cigarette style puff. I enjoyed inhaling the smoke and exhaling it and I've continued that through into vaping. I like puffing. We call it Tootle Puffing for some reason! That style is relaxing to me.
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The only willpower I used was finding better vapes and not giving up. However it did take a long time, 9 months total transition, plus another year of 1 cig a month (YES that's enough to avoid certain withdrawal symptoms). I dropped to half the smokes almost immediately, but after that progress was slow enough to seem like it wasn't happening at times. However, I never went backwards. I kept count of cigs as I made them with an injector machine (if nothing else, STOP smoking Fire Safety Cigarettes, required of all manufactured cigs in the US, they're twice as bad, where's the FDA???). This also meant vaping was little increased effort, because smoking was also DIY....
Going that slow is not ideal, but don't think you can't just because others seem to have an easier time of it. I think that in my case, nicotine was only a small factor in my addiction. Vaping allowed some smoking without falling back down the rabbit hole.
My initial action was to find things about vaping I liked, even though it didn't really seem to relate to smoking or quitting. Don't try to think too far ahead. If you really like vaping -- I do -- you will want to do it, next step is having more time for it you aren't smoking.
Equipment is a big factor. Frankly, of everything I've tried, 9 out of 10 atomizers I've disliked. The shop may be right you don't have the right vape for you and yet their suggestions could be worse. I liked small pen vapes with very tight airflow, and still prefer them among tanks I've tried. My main vape is a RDA (Rebuildable Dripping Atomizer) at 14-16 watts. This has great flavor and allows for continuous changing and combining of ejuice flavors to taste, and are the easiest device to build. I use what I call a "lazy draw" which is not a tight airflow but simply not pulling hard, allowing a different kind of hybrid MTL-DL usage. I also moved into DIY, which was slow at first but allowed more experimentation with unflavored and light flavored juices -- paying normal prices sways me towards intense flavors.
It's a good question if getting better equipment earlier would have helped speed up my progress, but it was needed to fully quit.
Going that slow is not ideal, but don't think you can't just because others seem to have an easier time of it. I think that in my case, nicotine was only a small factor in my addiction. Vaping allowed some smoking without falling back down the rabbit hole.
My initial action was to find things about vaping I liked, even though it didn't really seem to relate to smoking or quitting. Don't try to think too far ahead. If you really like vaping -- I do -- you will want to do it, next step is having more time for it you aren't smoking.
Equipment is a big factor. Frankly, of everything I've tried, 9 out of 10 atomizers I've disliked. The shop may be right you don't have the right vape for you and yet their suggestions could be worse. I liked small pen vapes with very tight airflow, and still prefer them among tanks I've tried. My main vape is a RDA (Rebuildable Dripping Atomizer) at 14-16 watts. This has great flavor and allows for continuous changing and combining of ejuice flavors to taste, and are the easiest device to build. I use what I call a "lazy draw" which is not a tight airflow but simply not pulling hard, allowing a different kind of hybrid MTL-DL usage. I also moved into DIY, which was slow at first but allowed more experimentation with unflavored and light flavored juices -- paying normal prices sways me towards intense flavors.
It's a good question if getting better equipment earlier would have helped speed up my progress, but it was needed to fully quit.
I know I will probably get my head bashed here for it but here I go :
If you can afford it (and I understand that not everybody can, also depending on where you are), you could try smoke cessation drugs in combination with vaping.
I mean things like bupropion (Wellbutrin)
The thing I noticed in many smokers in my area is that, rather than thing of an addiction it is a thing of self medication of depression that turned into addiction. I know nothing about your medical background, both in mental and physical matter, but I think it may be beneficial to discuss this with a health proffesional.
Even if you are mentally healthy (other than being addicted), cigarettes contain a lot more compounds than nicotine that alter the mind. And I do not mean nic salts. I mean MAOIs which are antidepressants. That may be why you are unable to switch, are IMHO MAOIs are much bigger factor in addiction than nicotine itself. The thing with drugs like bupropion is that they stimulate the same receptors that nicotine does (nicotinic acetylcholine receptors) and at the same time increase other neurohormones just like MAOIs (although through different mechanism). You could use vaping to satisfy behavioral addiction and drugs I mentioned for "physical addiction".
OR
You could try WTA (Whole Tobbaco Alkaloids) liquids which also contain MAOIs if I remember correctly.
Just remember : I am not a medical health proffesional and what I present here is a just my two cents which are to be taken with a grain of salt, even tho I have experience in psychiatry and myself study medically oriented high school, doesn't mean you should go out on street and find the first person which offers you pack of bupropion for some cash (not saying that you would, just making myself safe here)
If you can afford it (and I understand that not everybody can, also depending on where you are), you could try smoke cessation drugs in combination with vaping.
I mean things like bupropion (Wellbutrin)
The thing I noticed in many smokers in my area is that, rather than thing of an addiction it is a thing of self medication of depression that turned into addiction. I know nothing about your medical background, both in mental and physical matter, but I think it may be beneficial to discuss this with a health proffesional.
Even if you are mentally healthy (other than being addicted), cigarettes contain a lot more compounds than nicotine that alter the mind. And I do not mean nic salts. I mean MAOIs which are antidepressants. That may be why you are unable to switch, are IMHO MAOIs are much bigger factor in addiction than nicotine itself. The thing with drugs like bupropion is that they stimulate the same receptors that nicotine does (nicotinic acetylcholine receptors) and at the same time increase other neurohormones just like MAOIs (although through different mechanism). You could use vaping to satisfy behavioral addiction and drugs I mentioned for "physical addiction".
OR
You could try WTA (Whole Tobbaco Alkaloids) liquids which also contain MAOIs if I remember correctly.
Just remember : I am not a medical health proffesional and what I present here is a just my two cents which are to be taken with a grain of salt, even tho I have experience in psychiatry and myself study medically oriented high school, doesn't mean you should go out on street and find the first person which offers you pack of bupropion for some cash (not saying that you would, just making myself safe here)
There's something else I forgot to mention but which was key for me and without it I would have failed miserably: THROAT HIT. I don't know how much of it you're getting but on my first week I needed very high PG juice to get enough of a throat hit. Otherwise I kept thinking about cigarettes.
I started to respond to this thread and halfway through a longish post I stopped and went through a chain of emails I sent to my brother as a way of logging my progress while I was quitting. After reading them and reading about the things I felt and went through Im going to have to reevaluate what my quitting experience was like.
But heres a synopsis of my one year experience:
It wasnt easy!!!
The part that I didnt quite understand until I went back and read through the emails was that it wasnt a 1yr endeavour, it was more like a 5yr project.
Im still processing the information and clues I left myself in the email chain/journal/blog but I can see that I did indeed struggle quite a few times and even while I was heavily dosed up on nicotine and chain vaping.
About all I can add is I made a conscious decision to not smoke and stuck to it. Vaping wasnt so much a silver bullet, it was more just a distraction, a really useful and helpful distraction for me.
But heres a synopsis of my one year experience:
It wasnt easy!!!
The part that I didnt quite understand until I went back and read through the emails was that it wasnt a 1yr endeavour, it was more like a 5yr project.
Im still processing the information and clues I left myself in the email chain/journal/blog but I can see that I did indeed struggle quite a few times and even while I was heavily dosed up on nicotine and chain vaping.
About all I can add is I made a conscious decision to not smoke and stuck to it. Vaping wasnt so much a silver bullet, it was more just a distraction, a really useful and helpful distraction for me.
during my transition.. its kinda difficult to make the switch. i vape and still buy cigarettes sparingly. at first, i bought a juice that tastes like marlboro menthol green, my brand. but i figured it wont justify quitting by vaping the same juice that gives me a hit and feel of my favorite cigarette. until i found a juice that i really really like.. i went for pastries. if you want to quit on analogs, go for pastry or fruity flavors, 6mg at most. i went for Keladi Cheese and Customixed Butterball, im very very thankful to those.. after a few weeks, it made cigarettes taste like hitting a dead duck's rotting butthole. that doesn't mean i tried hitting a dead duck's rotting butthole for real, but... im pretty sure you dig it..
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