Not ready to be a non-smoker

[blueeyekelly]

Ok I'm weirded out. I got my e-cig a week ago monday.... in the first week with it I smoked about 5 analogs.... yesterday I got PG so sence yesterday afternoon I have had almost (I'll explane in a minute) nicotine.

So I head to bed a couple minutes ago and I light a analog, I have a partial pack by the bed, and I can't stand it... Not smoking is just weird, I have been smoking over half my life, what do people who don't smoke do when they need a break???? I know it is strange but I don't know how to be a non-smoker, I started smoking at 14 so... how do you be a non-smoker?

It seams I can do without analogs (I would prefure to stay away from them because it did not taste nearly as good as butter rum flavored) I think my little experament just proved to me I don't need the nic... Its just my oral fixation I have I think....

Yes I know people all over the place want to quit smoking and here I am freaking out that I just might be able to... Ok I think I need to go check into a looney bin or something.... I think I will start with bed though...

P.S do not try Key-Lime... not to good of an idea ....

 

[Bryn]

Just give yourself time. I smoked anologs for 35 years. When I got my first e-cig I started to smoke less and less then completely stopped within two weeks and have not touched one for 3 weeks now which surprised me.

To me it was oral fixation and sight of smoke coming from my mouth so e-cig is the best thing ever happened to me. Vapor looks so much like smoke and I enjoy it.

I don't plan to go back to analogs because I find that I breathe easier now and my sinus problem has gone away. No more coughing in mornings. I smell nicer. No more buying febreeze to spray around to hide stink which I know now that I was only kidding myself.

 

[blueeyekelly]

Thanks its just strange... actully didn't really think of quiting... its just happening... I have to take up kniting now or something else for when I give the kids a five minute break....LOL... I don't know why I am freaking out about this but I am... I figured this is the only place I could freak out about this hehehe

Thanks

 

[ritalee76]

FWIW, I know exactly what you mean

The e-cig cures the craving for the nicotine but there are some things that are ingrained in me. I used to time things by cigarettes. For example, "Let me smoke a cigarette real quick and then I'll fold the clothes" LOL

Now, I just have to decide to fold the clothes. Or not.

I also find that even though I don't NEED to leave my desk to go smoke, sometimes I do just NEED to leave my desk and give my brain a little break.

It used to take me three cigarettes and ten lights to get to work. Now I nurse my e-cig like a pacifier. LOL

I did start out by quitting analogues altogether. Now I find that I end up smoking a cigarette or two if I'm around smokers. Not that I need it or even want it... when someone says "wanna go smoke", sometimes I DO... Just because I need the social interaction and to get away from it all for a minute.

However, at home, I have no cigarettes. No desire to smoke. Just happily vaping away. For some reason, the ppl at work convince me to smoke LOL Maybe its the high-stress environment combined with the fact that its so nice outside!

Hope that helps!

Rita

 

[kylewinther]

keep giving it a try, it will grow on you. best of luck

 

[Betty C]

This might sound odd, but I still don't think that I "quit smoking" or that I'm a 'non-smoker'. Mentally I have filed myself under the category of 'not smoking cigarettes anymore'. I'm still taking in nicotine, so I consider myself still in the smoker-realm.

This is probably just a failsafe for me mentally, as I'm not ready to consider myself as a nonsmoker either. I have some negative connotations associated with 'nonsmokers' as a label, most of the 'nonnies' I know are excrutiatingly right-wing anti-smokers. For me, the smoking habit is akin to acoholism-type addiction. Now that I've smoked cigarettes, I can't truly shake the addiction and will associate myself as a 'smoker'. Just as alcoholics - even after 20 years off the drink - are still clinically 'alcoholics'.

 

[jtwh20]

This might sound odd, but I still don't think that I "quit smoking" or that I'm a 'non-smoker'.

I look at it that way as well - I just don't smoke analogs - vaping only and the occasional Ariva

 

[blueeyekelly]

Its is still messing up my timing, just weird (yes that is my favorate word this week...lol) the whole "Let me smoke then I will do X" I guess now I just have to do X without fortifing myself, Bummer...lol

I'm not sure where I put vaping yet. I guess it is kind of like the limbo of smoking, not really smoking but not a non-smoker...lol

Oh and I do not want to become one of those sterotypical x-smokers that are so anti smoking you just want to slap them...

Guess I just have to give it a little more time and see where I fall I know I am just being silly....

 

[Betty C]

I don't think it's silly at all! Stopping any behavior after you've done it for a long time messes you up! We are creatures of habit, after all. Smoking is linked to your entire day, unlike most other 'bad habits'. Everything heavy smokers do is usually related in one way or another to the timing of a cigarette. When that trigger is taken away, it's REALLY hard to reorganize everything.

It does get easier though

 

[Lochstar]

You're dead on as far as the oral fixation part goes. That's how PV's work where patches and gum and such doesn't as well. Gradual change seems more permanent in these instances.

Tho I'm with Ritalee in that I do sort of miss getting away from my desk for a few minutes at a time. I tend to overfocus and forget how long I'm working and next thing I know I'm having to stretch 33 ways from Sunday every time I get up hehe.

 

[blueeyekelly]

That reorganizing thing is being a... pain...lol.. Thanks for saying I'm not completly off my rocker...lol... I guess you don't relize how much your day revolves (not quite the right word..) around something till you don't have to do it anymore...

For example with vapping I can take a drag or two and thats it, but smoking I have to finish the whole thing because darn it I paid for it and I don't want to be wastefull... LOL


Thanks for being here for me