Nic strengh for ex-chain smokers

[Vininim]

Prologue:
The hard thing about the switch from analogs to vaping is the self-awareness. After the initial months/years of analogs, you don't really keep checking yourself daily. One day your throat is sore, one day you realize your lung is affected, one day someone complains about the smell on your mouth/clothes that you can't even notice anymore, etc. Your health and social environment was what set up the baseline for the tobacco addiction.

vaping is so "harmless"(for me), that I'm not even being anxious here, I'm being smart: I know I'm very prone to nicotine poisoning. Specially because I have emetophobia (haven't thrown up in years now) so my brain/body has learned to "ignore" nausea. What will hit me when it happens will be the hard stuff. (Also, as my taste comes back, I just realized this "marlboro" juice is disgusting. Will confuse nausea with being disgusted with this poor choice of first liquid and buying 50 ml while at it )

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I used to chain smoke 2-3 packs a day (smoking for 7 years, chain smoking that figure for 3-4). Wake up, fully smoke 1-3 analogs while just reading or watching news. Then start "idle smoking habit" with the ashtray being 70% of the time a nasty incense holder. Number of packs vary since can't smoke everywhere, but I can smoke in front of my computer and it doesn't get in the way of programming, studying or playing.

Eventually I will get used to self-tritate, as I've read here, but have I started too high nicotine level? The problem I see is that sometimes I watch myself trying to ramp up, trying to get the 6-30 seconds "hit" an analog gives. Sometimes I watch myself doing "angry sucking" on my egos and worrying about breaking them.

Should I have two rigs with different nic levels? One with, let's say, 6 mg for "idle vaping", and one with 18 mg for "soothing hit vaping"? I don't want to raise my nicotine tolerance because of the different ramping that vaping has.


For science:

Should we work on a better ballpark math baseline for self tritation? I've read the nicotine absorption rate Nature article, and started to get some ideas of extrapolating the curves and using it to work the variables: ramping, old daily intake, nicotine tolerance. But this I will leave for another post when I think this through better.

 

[Bunnykiller]

I use 2 versions of nic levels a 36 and a 24 36 for those tense moments and 24 for all day leasure puffing and in the evening...

 

[Shootist]

To my knowledge there is no set math equation for the strength of e-liquid to number of analogs smoked per-day.

But a starting point would be 24mg e-liquid. If you find it not enough there are some companies that offer 36mg. Or if to strong drop to 18mg.

 

[Vininim]

Well, I've used 70% the needle bottle that comes with the ego (MB-H) + 2/3 18mg liquid in 7 days. (Needle bottle seems to be 30 ml, and the k&f bottles are 15 ml)

I'm more concerned with changing to a better gear(having my eyes on evic/vtr + aerotank) that produces more vapour and just raise my nic levels without noticing.

But then, I'm still transitioning and couldn't even tell if too much or too little since the withdraw symptoms are really hard when I cold turkey. So I could confuse anxiety heartbeat with too much nic.

 

[imsoenthused]

I was an unfiltered session chain smoker and I started out at 30mg, then backed down to 24mg on my second bottle when I was starting out. The only thing to watch out for with the higher strength juice is that some people, depending on their sensitivity and response to nicotine, may need to step down to a much lower strength in the evenings or find themselves completely unable to sleep.

 

[Goldfinger41]

I was smoking 2 packs a day, before I started vaping . I went to local B/M and tried different levels of nick. I tried 24mg and thought I was going to pass out, than tried 18 mg and that was just right.I tried 12mg and that was not enough nic to satisfy my needs I have bought many flavors, with the mind-set of staying away from anything that even smelled like a analog. And bought some serious sorry tasting liquid, but just about 3 months ago I have found some very smooth tasteful juice that I can really enjoy, from 4 different vendors.

 

[Bobthebuilder]

I like a good chain vape of 25mg right before hitting the sack
Gives me sweet dreams

 

[Grimwald]

I can only help by relating my own experience. I was a very heavy chain smoker for over 40 years. I started at 24 mg, but also had some 18mg that did OK, but the 24mg was best for me,

At about the 2-3 month mark I found myself getting woozy. Also had bouts of anxiety and sleeplessness. Called it the "running around like a headless chicken" syndrome. My symptoms seemed to be worse mid-morning and mid-afternoon. These were also the times when I was most hyped up on caffeine and sugar.

I'm not a doctor (but I did stay in a Holiday Inn last night) but I remember doing some research and found suggestions that the liver was changing. The speculation was that when your liver repairs and no longer has to process all of the chemicals in cigarette smoke, it begins to do a better job processing caffeine and sugar. Anyway, that seemed logical to me.

So, I cut down on caffeine, drinking more decaf, and cut back on sweets, eating healthier foods. I also began to cut my nic levels. I cut back to 18mg, then 15mg, 12mg...until today, after 2 years, I'm down to 7mg.

I'm still a chain vaper, and I now can enjoy caffeine and sweets, so everything seems to be in balance.

I think the bottom line is everyone is different. Listen to your body (and the voices in your head). Cravings...up the nic. "Headless chicken"...lower the nic.

 

[Dixie1954]

Awesome advice in this thread ty for starting it Vininim. I am having numerous struggles myself and this type of thread gives me hope

 

[maraud]

I started at 18 which worked but I wanted to cape more regularly and not as a 5 min escape so I dropped to 12. At work though I use 6mg as I tend to cape more in my office.

 

[amoret]

After over 40 years at 1-2 PAD I started with 18 mg/ml, but had to go up to 26 to actually quit the last couple of cigarettes a day. I later went back down to 18, but hit stress and had to go back up. Since then I have kept both on hand, but now that I'm starting DIY I'm finding that ~22 seems to work best.

 

[readeuler]

It's probably a great idea to have milder "idle vaping" liquid and heavy duty "give me the real stuff" liquid. And as others have mentioned, there is stronger stuff out there ( I did 36mg eliquid with my 510/cigalike, down to 24/30 with my ego, an it's super helpful, for me).

But the real reason for my post is that if you ever start playing with variables and curves for science, invite me to the fun!

 

[Warpigs]

After 30+ years 2-3 packs of Marlboro Reds a day and 2-3 bags of Red Man chew a week. I started off with 36-38nic. I'm now down to 24nic. I will start lowering it as I feel needed. My goal is to get to 0 nic. Either way, it's much better than smoking/chewing. Even if I don't get to 0 nic, every day without a cig is a good day