Nicotine VS No-nicotine - Big difference??

[iloveangel]

I was wondering if there is a HUGE difference between inhaling just the tobacco flavour VS one infused with actual nicotine...Do any of you find that smoking without the nicotine has enough of a placebo effect, or do you truly crave the nicotine no matter what?

I've never tried to quit (i knew in my heart of hearts i like to 'smoke'- heavy smoker for years) but i think i could replace it with an e-cig. Before i splurge, i just wanted to know if other smokers out there felt that the nicotine was essential, or just psychological...

Thanks!

 

[iloveangel]

i just re-read my post, and it sounds redundant coming from a smoker, lol, but i seriously do wonder if a nicotine-free e-cig is good enough to fool my brain (foolish as that may sound).

 

[Michael Curry]

I would have to say in my experience, essential. Especially in the beginning.

From what many have said, there's far more to a cigarette addiction than just nicotine. There are supposedly compounds added that increase the addictive nature of nicotine. Contrast that to the nicotine in an e-cig. Just plain ol' nicotine. Many people have found that cutting back once they are firmly switched is far easier than they ever expected. And quite a few cut all the way back to zero.

As far as using a placebo effect to break a long standing, chemically enhanced addiction - well, sounds like a recipe for failure to me.

 

[DC2]

I think everyone is different, and I have seen people use zero nicotine to successful stop smoking.
Having said that, I think you'll find most people have a much easier time WITH the nicotine.

As the previous poster said, for many people it does get easier to drop the nicotine once you're firmly switched over.
But there are also quite a few people who really struggle to drop down the nicotine.

 

[HeadLikeOrange]

It's necessary. The real trick to switching to e-cigs it to train your mind that when the nicotine craving hits, you crave your e-cig, and not a regular smoke. It takes a while (probably differs per person, but a couple of weeks for me), and the only way to do it is to go straight to the e-cig when a craving hits, no matter how much you want a smoke. If the e-cig isn't killing that craving (because there's no nicotine), it just isn't going to work.

But I think just about everyone here will agree that quitting (or severely cutting back) is easy and mostly painless if you've got a good e-cig.

 

[Rainielu]

For me, nicotine is essential. I'm a true addict. Frankly, I'm not interested in giving up nicotine; I just wanted to stop smoking. My e-cig has made that possible when absolutely nothing else did and I think I tried everything on the market.

 

[Vapoor eyes er]

Nicotine is addictive and I tried to vape on No Nic stuff and it just didn't work. Not only missed the Nic in my system but also missed the Lung/ TH. Then there are the "other" habits- looking for my ashtray, thinking I left a burning analog in the Living Room, panicking when going out that I forgot my analogs. It took me 1 full month to get away from these habits. You have to decide how strong your addiction to Nicotine is or how much you presently smoke and go from there.

 

[iloveangel]

Thanks SO much to everyone answering.. It's pretty much what i thought, and you all just confirmed it! Dying to get one now (pun intended).

 

[iloveangel]

Nicotine is addictive and I tried to vape on No Nic stuff and it just didn't work. Not only missed the Nic in my system but also missed the Lung/ TH. Then there are the "other" habits- looking for my ashtray, thinking I left a burning analog in the Living Room, panicking when going out that I forgot my analogs. It took me 1 full month to get away from these habits. You have to decide how strong your addiction to Nicotine is or how much you presently smoke and go from there.

i hear you... it's everything associated with smoking that has become an unconscious part of me too.. I get that there is somewhat of a long road ahead of me in terms of really changing my habits, but for the first time i'm hopeful and enthusiastic about reducing the health risks associated with smoking, as well as not polluting my home (for the benefit of others)! Thanks again!

 

[wv2win]

Unfortunately, nicotine is one of the two major ingredients in good throat hit or the "inhaled feel" of a cigarette when you vape. I think a majority of us could wean ourselves off of nicotine from a "chemical" dependency standpoint. But without the nicotine, vaping becomes like just breathing in warm air, i.e. no throat hit. That's the big issue, IMO.

 

[dormouse]

Juice with no nicotine has no throat hit. But there are some TH additives you can use (Flavourart makes QHit, vapornice has something else, Totally Wicked has a strong capsacin i.e. pepper juice). Then there are some flavors that add some thriat sensation - mint, menthol, cinnamon, ginger, pepper (FreedomSmokeUSA has pepper eliquid), other spices, some liquor flavors.

 

[Brewlady]

I think one of the best things about vaping is that long-term, hard-core smokers have actually weaned themselves completely off of nicotine, and vaping, but gradually reducing the nicotine level they vape. I've been on ECF long enough to attest to seeing members sell off their complete vaping stock because they were done. A lot of smokers who "test the e-cig waters" end up accidentally quitting cigarettes, and some realize that by gradually reducing the nicotine they are using at their own pace, they eventually have no desire to bother with vaping at all.

Honestly I think that, as an advocate of harm-reduction, we should be emphasizing this aspect of vaping more. My best friends son was smoking a pack a day. For his 23rd birthday, I gave him an eGo kit and a bunch of samples in different strengths. That was back in July. I saw him a few days ago, and he is not vaping OR SMOKING.

 

[Boodle]

Someday maybe I'll ditch the nic. For now I'm thrilled to be tobacco and smoke-free, a feat I'd been trying to conquer unsuccessfully for years. YEAH all of us.

 

[x06jagnaroundx]

For me vaping high nic as opposed to low nic considerably changed the feel and taste of vaping. I started at 24 and it was way to harsh on my throat and tasted bad to me. The next week I tried some 8mg and the feel and taste was good for me. Honestly I'm thinking of switching to 0 nic very soon because I never really was a heavy smoker and I think i could just maybe vape 8mg when I wake up and then 0 throughout the day and then maybe 8mg again before bed. For some reason i don't ever find my self craving my PV but I constantly vape it only because i like doing vapor tricks.

 

[Jaka]

Joining the chorus to say that starting with nicotine is very important if you're hoping to quit smoking. Without nicotine, an e-cig is basically one step up from sucking on an empty ball-point pen barrel (which I tried!) in that it gives you something to inhale -- but without nicotine, even that is more a visible thing than a tangible one.

Nicotine is addictive and I tried to vape on No Nic stuff and it just didn't work. Not only missed the Nic in my system but also missed the Lung/ TH. Then there are the "other" habits- looking for my ashtray, thinking I left a burning analog in the Living Room, panicking when going out that I forgot my analogs. It took me 1 full month to get away from these habits. You have to decide how strong your addiction to Nicotine is or how much you presently smoke and go from there.

i hear you... it's everything associated with smoking that has become an unconscious part of me too.. I get that there is somewhat of a long road ahead of me in terms of really changing my habits, but for the first time i'm hopeful and enthusiastic about reducing the health risks associated with smoking, as well as not polluting my home (for the benefit of others)! Thanks again!

You both make excellent points about the habits associated with smoking, even the unpleasant ones. Giving them up can be as traumatic as giving up the nicotine, and since nothing but smoking is smoking (believe me, I tried!), there's going to be some dissonance as new habits and rituals don't quite perfectly fit into the holes left by the old ones. This is another reason the nicotine is so important. Ultimately, we probably have our happy associations with smoking rituals because our brains connect those habits to getting what it wants -- mainly, nicotine. Breaking those associations is terribly difficult; they last dormant for years, and just when we think they're gone, their ghosts spring up in times of stress. Replacing them, though, is much easier -- if the brain associates both the opening of a fresh pack of smokes and breaking the seal on a new e-cig cartridge with getting what it wants, you're free to choose which of those you want to indulge. As long as you indulge one of them, the brain will likely be happy. If you keep choosing the e-cig, the old associations are being overwritten instead of just left to fade away on their own.

I'm honestly not sure if I'm still addicted to nicotine, although I have no doubt that I used to be. Without the high highs and low lows, it's just not as big a deal. If I don't have it, I feel a little itchy, discontented, dull -- not even as bad as I used to feel if I didn't get my morning coffee, though. I don't panic any more if I discover I'm four hours away from home and only have a few drops of juice. (I don't like the idea, but I don't panic. It's inconvenient, but I'm not going to move mountains to get back home and correct the problem; it's more like leaving the house without my wallet than leaving the house without my pants.)

 

[hdconx]

I was a heavy smoker - 2 packs a day for 25 years. I am analog-free since Jan, a week after I started vaping. Initially, I started with 18mg nicotine strength menthol but switched to 12mg because I couldn't notice any difference in terms of TH.

Throat hit is important for me to get a satisfactory puff. Although my experience limited to 18mg and 12mg nic strength trials, i found that several other factors played role in getting a good TH. The type of carto/atty, battery voltage, coil resistance, cleanliness of coil, how well the wick is saturated with ejuice, etc, have all affected the strength of TH for me.

While I hear all the time that the nicotine strength what affects the TH, my experience is not the same. Is it because menthol flavor masks the effect of nicotine strength?

 

[MikenGA]

I actually have a strong physical withdrawal reaction when body nic goes low. This past weekend I was in a seminar all afternoon. About an hour before it ended, I felt the need for what used to be a 'smoke break'. That next hour went very slow, and I was ready to climb walls. Soon as I was out, I pulled out my PV and gave it a helluva workout. After about 15 minutes of vaping, all was well again. Yep...I'm addicted to nic, but I'm thankful at this point to have a satisfying alternative to analogs. '0' nic wouldn't have done the job, and if '0' was all I had, I would have quickly bought a pack of analogs.

Just today I got some Fluxomizers from GV, and they are hitting so GOOD I need to lower the nic level from 24mg, probably down to 18mg or 12mg. Didn't think I could do it before, but vaping is surprisingly better than analogs in so many ways.

When I've gone cold turkey in the past, clouds of depression hung over me for months, until I started smoking again. I'm hoping to eventually get nic levels down to about 6mg, if that's enough to keep the clouds away. If not, I'll up it again.

I don't have any plans to ever go to '0' nic for myself, because I prefer vaping over a prescription for tranquilizers...and monthly vaping costs are less than a monthly prescription plus doctor's visit!

Whatever y'all decide, I support you in finding what works best for YOU.

EDIT: Is nic "essential"? For me and my continued vaping success, YES!

 

[whitetortuga]

I figured the best way will be to wean myself down. I'm sure (personally) it would trick my brain, but my body would most likely start to notice it wasn't there! I figure I'll take it slow! It took years to get to where I am smoking today, and it'll take some time to wean back off of it!

Good luck on your journey!

 

[dirfm]

Good info for a new member

 

[mafig]

i am 30+ yrs habitual smoker be4 now a habitual vaper..be4 vapor i breathe out harm others now it does not..nicotine is poisonous so doing the e-cig way i am only poisoning myself..best gadget i ever use..wish i got to know about e-cig earlier..happy vaping from now on