From a doctor's point of view, a previous smoking history DOES count, no matter how long you've been off the cigs. Every cigarette you've smoked in your life causes damage, and it's all cumulative. It takes years to get back the lungs of a never-smoker (10 years? Maybe 15?). Sure, I feel SOOOO much better and I'll never smoke again, but I'm not kidding myself that something awful won't rear its ugly head years down the line because of my stupidity for 34 years. We're ex-smokers, and our lungs will show it for a long time, unfortunately.
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Think how much healthier you are vaping! If and when it is ever banned and if you do indeed start smoking again just add your vaping time to the life expectancy of a regular smoker and you will live a longer life 
I have only given up 2 1/2 months from a 30 odd year habit that got to 50 smokes a day but know already that if vaping was banned other types of NRT would now work where it has failed in the past because i no longer need the tar.
Switching to vaping from smokes so far was similar to quitting cold turkey for me without that little stick pushing me off the cliff every time.
The problem for smokers is tobbaco addiction is not the same for all tobacco smokers but the nicotine addiction is similar!
I wonder how a blind smoker quitting would react to a NRT nicotine inhaler? I would presume from my point that they cant see the smoke but is getting both a throat hit and a lung hit with the fowl taste? Perhaps they would need the smell for it to be affective?
Den
I have only given up 2 1/2 months from a 30 odd year habit that got to 50 smokes a day but know already that if vaping was banned other types of NRT would now work where it has failed in the past because i no longer need the tar.
Switching to vaping from smokes so far was similar to quitting cold turkey for me without that little stick pushing me off the cliff every time.
The problem for smokers is tobbaco addiction is not the same for all tobacco smokers but the nicotine addiction is similar!
I wonder how a blind smoker quitting would react to a NRT nicotine inhaler? I would presume from my point that they cant see the smoke but is getting both a throat hit and a lung hit with the fowl taste? Perhaps they would need the smell for it to be affective?
Den
I read the OP as saying that once you are addicted to nicotine, you always will be wether you choose to use it or not. I certainly agree with this otherwise I wouldn't have started smoking again after 5 years quit just because I got stressed out one weekend and smoked 3 or 4 cigarettes. BUT - I do feel that one can completely adjust to vaping instead of smoking. Maybe it takes some longer than others but it was pretty quick for me and I don't crave cigarettes at all.
I've come to the conclusion that the term ex-smoker is a fallacy, it doesn't exist. Once you are a smoker you will always be one. You may be choosing not to smoke, you may be vaping as opposed to smoking, but in the background, in a tiny piece of your brain, right in the back of your mind, you remember the good smokes.
I haven't had a cigarette for nearly 3 months, will be 3 months on the 23rd of this month and that's due to vaping. I need you to understand I was the epitome of smoking, I LOVED smoking, the way the smoke felt in my mouth, that first dawn smoke sitting outside my house with my cup of coffee; everyone knew I was a smoker and nobody believed i would ever stop.
I like vaping but sometimes feel it's not enough, its nothing to do with the flavours or the equipment, its difficult to put my finger on, I don't get that same kick or feeling as i did when i smoked, I even dream about smoking sometimes.
I put this post out there because it's more an admission of guilt (?) or at least a need to share what's in my head and nothing about the hardware of vaping. I would like to think I will never smoke again, that vaping will be my be all and end all of this particular addiction. But dammit, sometimes i just want a smoke.
You are not alone, my friend.. I remember being EXACTLY where you are now. To a T.
That was over two years ago, and since then I have staged myself down to zero nic and then set the ecig down altogether.
I can't say I don't miss it every once in a while... But I can honestly say I am proud that I can't stand to be in a smoke filled room anymore! lol I have absolutely no desire to smoke, it's just that mental reflex that makes me miss it.
This too shall fade.
Good luck.
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Live a miserable life or a happy one?
My mother gave up smoking over 30 years ago and always complains to me that she would die for a smoke but is too scared to smoke even one due to health risks.
Until just recently for years I thought wow just have a smoke and be done with it! its making you so miserable you may as well go out happy!
Now i am not smoking she hasnt once mentioned wanting a smoke?
My 2 brothers and 2 sisters have never smoked and I found out she has never told them how bad she still still wants a smoke?
She obviously only fancies a smoke when I was around and smoking which is not very often,every other time in the 30 years she did not really want a smoke or she would have mentioned it to others around her?
She is a happy non smoker, I just thought she wasn't happy all the time and thought i shared her pain!
Truth is cravings or wants will come and go forever but perhaps not as frequent as I or other smokers imagined
Den
My mother gave up smoking over 30 years ago and always complains to me that she would die for a smoke but is too scared to smoke even one due to health risks.
Until just recently for years I thought wow just have a smoke and be done with it! its making you so miserable you may as well go out happy!
Now i am not smoking she hasnt once mentioned wanting a smoke?
My 2 brothers and 2 sisters have never smoked and I found out she has never told them how bad she still still wants a smoke?
She obviously only fancies a smoke when I was around and smoking which is not very often,every other time in the 30 years she did not really want a smoke or she would have mentioned it to others around her?
She is a happy non smoker, I just thought she wasn't happy all the time and thought i shared her pain!
Truth is cravings or wants will come and go forever but perhaps not as frequent as I or other smokers imagined
Den
Can I get an Amen?
EDIT: I consider myself one of the very fortunate ones who took to vaping immediately. It was kind of like the opposite of a perfect storm. Everything was aligning up to that day... When I got it, I never looked back... and never will.
EDIT: I consider myself one of the very fortunate ones who took to vaping immediately. It was kind of like the opposite of a perfect storm. Everything was aligning up to that day... When I got it, I never looked back... and never will.
I've come to the conclusion that the term ex-smoker is a fallacy, it doesn't exist. Once you are a smoker you will always be one. You may be choosing not to smoke, you may be vaping as opposed to smoking, but in the background, in a tiny piece of your brain, right in the back of your mind, you remember the good smokes.
I haven't had a cigarette for nearly 3 months, will be 3 months on the 23rd of this month and that's due to vaping. I need you to understand I was the epitome of smoking, I LOVED smoking, the way the smoke felt in my mouth, that first dawn smoke sitting outside my house with my cup of coffee; everyone knew I was a smoker and nobody believed i would ever stop.
I like vaping but sometimes feel it's not enough, its nothing to do with the flavours or the equipment, its difficult to put my finger on, I don't get that same kick or feeling as i did when i smoked, I even dream about smoking sometimes.
I put this post out there because it's more an admission of guilt (?) or at least a need to share what's in my head and nothing about the hardware of vaping. I would like to think I will never smoke again, that vaping will be my be all and end all of this particular addiction. But dammit, sometimes i just want a smoke.
I can't say what the OP is feeling or expressing (although I think the OP wrote very clearly and intelligently) but I can give my interpretation of it which may or may not be the point that the OP was making. While reading it I was thinking yep this person is absolutely correct on the main point. The way I've expressed it to others in the past is that addiction to smoking is the same as addiction to any other drug. Actually there have been studies that prove it's harder to quit smoking than it is to quit some hard drugs that people suffer through DTs in order to quit.
I do believe it's possible to kick the habit, but just as an alcoholic can not have just a little alcohol or a ...... addict a little ...... an addicted smoker can not have just a couple cigs a day and not get sucked back into the habit. Well, now with vaping you can, but if you're not vaping it would be almost impossible or otherwise we all would have quit long ago. If the majority of us folks who used to smoke look back at our many failures at quitting it's that little game our brain plays telling us that we can have just 2 or 3 cigs a day and stop there. Sure we did that for a short time, but then before we knew it we were back to our old level of smoking within usually a matter of a few days to maybe a couple weeks.
Hopefully all of us folks who smoked before would never go back to smoking again if for some reason all of a sudden no vaping products were available, but I'd bet that at least 95% of us would when the old cravings kicked in and it became unbearable. I may be wrong, but I've literally tried quitting smoking hundreds of times and I can still clearly remember the intense cravings that drove me back to smoking all those times.
We'll probably have to agree to disagree since almost all of the replies I read disagreed with the OP, but yeah if a person was addicted to smoking then I feel they will always be addicted just like the addicts of other drugs. It's for that reason that I'm so thankful that I stumbled upon vaping. I am an ex smoker and intend to stay that way, but I also realize that I am also an addict and always will be even if I'm not smoking.
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my addiction is to nicotine and the physical motion...which vaping sates. The smell of analogs nauseates me no end. So I'm an ex-smoker, and as long at my nicotine is supplied by non-tobacco means...I will remain so.
I consider myself an ex smoker. I never thought I would feel this way when I first started vaping, and now I can't stand the smell of smokes or smoking. It's just not something I want to ever do again.
I don't feel like a smoker. I don 't wake up and need to light up while waiting for the coffee. I don't feel the need to "use" the smoking area wherever I am. I am sure as hell never giving another dime to a company for a pack of smokes, spent way too much money to feel that crappy ever again. I no longer reach for a lighter when I get in the car. I don't have pockets full of stray tobacco or used butts. My hair doesn't smell like last week's ashtray. So at this stage of the game for me, I'm an ex smoker.
I never thought I would get to this point, and it's been interesting.
Quitting smoking is still a very hard thing to do, and I think for every smoke you don't smoke, you are ahead of the game.
Good luck with your journey! I hope you get to a point that you are happy with !
I don't feel like a smoker. I don 't wake up and need to light up while waiting for the coffee. I don't feel the need to "use" the smoking area wherever I am. I am sure as hell never giving another dime to a company for a pack of smokes, spent way too much money to feel that crappy ever again. I no longer reach for a lighter when I get in the car. I don't have pockets full of stray tobacco or used butts. My hair doesn't smell like last week's ashtray. So at this stage of the game for me, I'm an ex smoker.
I never thought I would get to this point, and it's been interesting.
Quitting smoking is still a very hard thing to do, and I think for every smoke you don't smoke, you are ahead of the game.
Good luck with your journey! I hope you get to a point that you are happy with !
Tartanraven, I feel you!
EDIT: But it is really weird standing in line at the gas station and only getting gas... and maybe some beer... ;-).
My local gas station clerk was confused when I stopped buying cigarettes. He asked me how I quit and I said, "Electronic cigarettes", and he asked me if I tried the ones there. I very politely said no, but the ones I did try worked, and he said, "Right on, man". I liked that.
But another point about The Gas Station: the packaging. The glossiness of the shrink wrap. The smell of a box of cigarettes. The the ritual of packing and unwrapping. Yes, these are hard habits to break, but like I said, a lot of these rituals were overcome by twisting cartos, filling tanks, snapping drip tips on and off, plugging and unplugging chargers, etc. Whenever I look at those rows of smokes, I have a little twinge, but there's a giant angel on my right shoulder with a PV-shaped bazooka saying, "Ain't no thing, Billy, ain't no thing..."
EDIT: But it is really weird standing in line at the gas station and only getting gas... and maybe some beer... ;-).
My local gas station clerk was confused when I stopped buying cigarettes. He asked me how I quit and I said, "Electronic cigarettes", and he asked me if I tried the ones there. I very politely said no, but the ones I did try worked, and he said, "Right on, man". I liked that.
But another point about The Gas Station: the packaging. The glossiness of the shrink wrap. The smell of a box of cigarettes. The the ritual of packing and unwrapping. Yes, these are hard habits to break, but like I said, a lot of these rituals were overcome by twisting cartos, filling tanks, snapping drip tips on and off, plugging and unplugging chargers, etc. Whenever I look at those rows of smokes, I have a little twinge, but there's a giant angel on my right shoulder with a PV-shaped bazooka saying, "Ain't no thing, Billy, ain't no thing..."
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Aye that! The people at my local petrol station had the same reaction. They sell the disposables and when I produced my rig, they were "Holy crap, that's huge!"
As someone who is not now, and never was addicted to nicotine, I have a different perspective.
I am quite certain that for many people SMOKING is the addiction, and nicotine just happens to be in there.
I totally understand what the OP is saying, and I feel the same way.
That is why I am involved in the NJoy King thread, because it makes me feel like I'm smoking, and that is what I REALLY want.
Am I the only one? Maybe, maybe not.
But if it was about the nicotine, the patches and the gum would work.
But they don't work.
If you were off nicotine for eight years, why would you still dream about smoking?
Unless maybe it was smoking you really missed, and not the nicotine?
I think for many people it is simply the act of smoking that is missing.
I think that in general the entire world overestimates the role of nicotine in smoking...
And vastly underestimates everything else about smoking.
Don't get me wrong though, because I do believe there are many people that are very much addicted to nicotine.
But I am convinced that the actual NEED for nicotine is not as universal as the world likes to think it is.
I still smoke a cigarette now and then, just for fun.
I've probably had about 20 in the 42 months I've been vaping.
I have no problem having one, and no problem not having another one.
I'm not sure how common that is, but I'm also not sure many people have tried it either, so who knows?
Tartanraven, I feel you!
EDIT: But it is really weird standing in line at the gas station and only getting gas... and maybe some beer... ;-).
My local gas station clerk was confused when I stopped buying cigarettes. He asked me how I quit and I said, "Electronic cigarettes", and he asked me if I tried the ones there. I very politely said no, but the ones I did try worked, and he said, "Right on, man". I liked that.
But another point about The Gas Station: the packaging. The glossiness of the shrink wrap. The smell of a box of cigarettes. The the ritual of packing and unwrapping. Yes, these are hard habits to break, but like I said, a lot of these rituals were overcome by twisting cartos, filling tanks, snapping drip tips on and off, plugging and unplugging chargers, etc. Whenever I look at those rows of smokes, I have a little twinge, but there's a giant angel on my right shoulder with a PV-shaped bazooka saying, "Ain't no thing, Billy, ain't no thing..."
In Australia all cigarettes are now in a plain package and same colour package,they all look the same no matter what brand!the cigarette itself has no makers logo or Brand just a number near the filter. Cigarettes are not allowed to be displayed and are kept under the counter or in locked roller cabinets. Each plain package contains a graphic horror smoking related picture and a warning only.
I am luck really as I dont see cigarettes when I go to any shop even a dedicated tobacconists,I can now not recognise my old brand just by looking at a smokers packet. I am pleased to say that I have never bought a "plain Wrap" pack of smokes as I quit after my last regular pack when the plain wraps became law.
Cant see this happening in The States but it sort of helps a bit when you are serious about never smoking again
Den
I still smoke a cigarette now and then, just for fun.
I've probably had about 20 in the 42 months I've been vaping.
I have no problem having one, and no problem not having another one.
I'm not sure how common that is, but I'm also not sure many people have tried it either, so who knows?
From my own experience as a heavy smoker for over 30 years I can honestly say that the cigarette is just playing tricks with your mind until it drags you straight back in to where you left off!
I have quit 100s of times and each time I failed with just "1 cigarette". It is only the last smoke that makes you want another and that is proven fact!
Smokers smoke different quantities and at a different pace, the person who has 2 smokes a week is just as much a smoker as the one who smokes 50 a day.
Den
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Heard somebody say the other day that you don't ever quit smoking, you just avoid it for the rest of your life. Strangely, upon hearing that... made sense.
May well have been true before vaping as we know it was recently discovered as a true alternative
Den
There are no absolutes. We are all different. Some people stop smoking and easily become non smokers. Some (like me) will be a smoker until they die regardless of actually having a cigarette or not.
Some people need really high nic levels when vaping, way above what they got from cigarettes. Some of us vape nic levels way below what we got from cigarettes.
Some people just simply decide to stop smoking and that's that, they never look back (weirdos).
There are no absolutes. Some smokers become non smokers, some become ex smokers who will be haunted by it all their lives.
I love vaping but after a year I still get the occasional longing for a cigarette.
Some people need really high nic levels when vaping, way above what they got from cigarettes. Some of us vape nic levels way below what we got from cigarettes.
Some people just simply decide to stop smoking and that's that, they never look back (weirdos).
There are no absolutes. Some smokers become non smokers, some become ex smokers who will be haunted by it all their lives.
I love vaping but after a year I still get the occasional longing for a cigarette.
I DO consider myself an ex-smoker. I even have a pack of smokes on my desk to remind me. I do not smoke them anymore thus i'm am EX-smoker. I am proud to be an EX-smoker. After 35 years of smoking, and not craving an analog, I AM an EX-smoker.
Haha Tracker.
I smoked for 16 years.
Quit for 25 years.
Then i smoked again for another 10 years
Now I vape.
Due to my history, I guess you would say I'm a "recovering smoker" not necessarily an "ex-smoker".
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