Quit cigs cold turkey or cool cucumber?

[jeffree]

If you've quit cigs completely for, say, at least a couple of months...

Did you quit suddenly or gradually? And how hard has it been?

I'm working on a theory that it may be a bit easier to quit cigs if done using the band-aid approach. My last cig immediately preceded my very first vape, and that was 10 months ago. I've really never looked back, and it hasn't been that hard to do. I smoked MLs, pack a day for 20-some years, yet it all ended with a whimper. No bang. Anti-climatic. Poof. So what about you?

 

[Mavrickk]

Got my first PV and 3 days had my last cigg. I have had a hit from someone elses just to see if I still like it and it was nasty. No desire for an analog since then.

 

[biidaaban]

we were so proud when we quit. i was a little cranky for about a week and looked for my lighter off and on for 3days. but other than that, it was like having the hiccups for 37 years and suddenly they were gone.

 

[pianoguy]

The first 3 days I had my VK I had a few cigs, only when I really felt I need to have one. Each day I pushed that first one off further, and the 4th day I never got around to lighting up. I did carry a pack around with me for the first week or so, but never was tempted to have one. I had very mild withdrawals for the first couple weeks, and that was it. Now it's been over a year since I put 40+ years of cigarettes behind me, and I couldn't imagine a more painless way to do it.

 

[plantlvr]

It's been over a year since I had a cig. Started with a 510 and the first couple of days vaping, I lit up a cig and took one puff, yuck! Got my V4L kit a couple weeks later cus I was getting tired of the dripping and haven't wanted a cig at all. I've never quit before so have nothing to compare it to but it's been a real smooth transition for me.

 

[NCC]

I was one of the accidental quitters, and it was immediate. I had not planned to quit, bought my first PV as an interesting gadget. It was delivered to me at my workplace. I put the battery on charge right away. A few hours later, I took it outside with the smokers and took a drag ... coughed on it. Took a few more drags and coughed, which caught the notice of the smokers around me. I knew then and there that this thing was going to change my life. It has.

I've grown accustomed to myself as a non-smoker now. But, for several months I was STUNNED, not only that I was no longer smoking ... but also that it had been so effortless for me to quit.

I smoked around a carton/week for over 35 years, ,and didn't think I would quit until some smoking related matter ended my life.

I've decided the cough reaction I had at first was due to the unfamiliar sensation of vapor vs. smoke in my lungs. After 10 months vaping, I may well have a cough reaction to smoke if I tried it today.

Maybe I was READY to quit back in January, and just didn't consciously realize it.

 

[Clover~]

Well when I started looking into ecigs, it was because I wanted to quit so bad! I just loved inhaling and exhaling smoke and the habbit and the nicotine. It sounded so perfect. So when I got my kit I quit there and then. I think my desire to quit really helped and the fact that everything tastes so good! I only smoked for almost five years but I could tell I was never going to quit. This was a life saver.

 

[Julmar]

I received my kit back in August and since the first puff on my little purple magic stick I have been analog free......have had cravings but I just puff away on my e cig and am as happy as can be. My husband still smokes and that does not even bother me, but the smell sure does...it stinks!!

 

[Electric Power]

If you've quit cigs completely for, say, at least a couple of months...

Did you quit suddenly or gradually? And how hard has it been?

I'm working on a theory that it may be a bit easier to quit cigs if done using the band-aid approach. My last cig immediately preceded my very first vape, and that was 10 months ago. I've really never looked back, and it hasn't been that hard to do. I smoked MLs, pack a day for 20-some years, yet it all ended with a whimper. No bang. Anti-climatic. Poof. So what about you?

Great thread.....I'll let you know as soon as I get my first shipment!

 

[HeatherC]

My First vape didn't hurt my lungs....EVERY drag off a cigarette was excruciating due to pleurisy. So it was pretty easy for me to end my love affair with the tobacco sticks.......LOVE vaping and don't plan to quit any time soon tho although I started at 36 mg of nicotine and am now down to 12 mg of nic. I have been vaping for 157 days now......and having been a 3 pack a day smoker I have avoided 8998 cigarettes as of this moment!!!!

 

[dale1962]

Started vaping over a year ago got a kit and never looked back and I smoked a pack a day since I was 14 now 48.The transition for me has been fairly easy because I can chain vape and my lung's never hurt plus all the great flavor's.Now I definately vape more than I smoked but it really does'nt feel like I have quit smoking other than feeling better....have just substituted 1 habit for another but much more healthier habit IMO.

 

[DawnsFolly]

I hadn't planned to quit at all. I LIKED to smoke. I was helping out at my girlfriends office and running outside about every hour to smoke made it hard to get anything done. At another friends house someone offered to let me try their V4L PV. Just couldn't believe how tasty it was. She let me keep the cartomizer. The next afternoon I went to the mall and bought a starter kit. Two batteries, a usb charger and a five pack of cartomizers plus another five pack of menthol - for $268. They weren't that tasty. The next day I ordered a V4L kit and a few good tasting cartomizers. A couple of days vaping and cigarettes tasted terrible. After that I smoked only whenever and just enough to get rid of headaches. About 3 weeks of doing both, vaping is the only thing I want. There is still a half pack of smokes on the car console. I can have one whenever I want, but I don't want to smoke. 35 years of smoking, about 20 with menthol, tobacco grosses me out & I still have the original pack of menthols cartos. I feel better every day.
Thanks V4L

 

[VapingRulz]

Smoked for 37+ years and like the original poster, I smoked my last cigarette as I was opening my V4L package. I am still surprised that I quit smoking immediately. Like most long-term smokers out there, I had tried many times to quit - but it never worked for long. This time was different. The transition from tobacco cigarettes to the e-cig was seamless. Over a year later now and I'm still vaping. I can smell a smoker from very far away. I got on the elevator a couple of weeks ago with a guy who had clearly just been outside on a smoke break and he reeked! It was really gross - and to think that I used to smell like that! I'm glad it's all behind me now.

 

[JenJen]

Well, I debated whether to put suddenly or gradually. I chose gradually, but actually it was rather suddenly I think! I got my e-cig and decided to just finish off the carton I had. I smoked 2 -4 cigs per day and at the end of 2 weeks I realized that I was forcing myself to smoke - I didn't even want the cigs! Obviously, that was insane so I tossed the remaining packs and haven't looked back.

It was incredibly easy for me, I don't crave cigs at all, even when I see other people smoking. I am exceedingly grateful to V4L for making it so easy and so pleasurable, and I am glad I no longer smell like an ashtray! That being said, I do know that not every one will have the same experience as I. I don't think people should beat themselves up for having a smoke here and there, but some people will actually have to say at some point "No more!" and stick to it. Perhaps I had reached that point, and that was why it was so bloody easy for me. I actually quit cold turkey for 3 years once - and craved a smoke every single day of those 3 years, I never got to the point where it was easy. I finally caved and started smoking again and had been smoking again for almost 3 years when I found V4L. I never even think of cigs now and know as long as I can vape I will not go back to smoking. Have I traded one addiction for another? Hell yeah! But I feel better, smell better, and I am not supporting the scum at the Tobacco Companies so I am good with it!

 

[jeffree]

Loving your posts, guys. Thanks! I see so much of my own experience there... quitting the same day my gear arrived (thinking "yeah, I can do this" to myself), finding the quits to be surprisingly easy, losing the cig cravings pretty quickly, and even feeling some (totally inappropriate!) disgust about the cig smokers I encounter. LOL. The analogy to hiccups cracks me up, too.

Keep those votes and stories coming.... from wherever you are on the cig-quitting road. I think I'm learning something here.

 

[Kim Fantoni]

Easy peasy no effort at all.

 

[lookin2quit]

Haven't quite managed to quit yet, despite what my banner might say. I manage to do it for 5 days or so, then invariably something drags me back to the analogs. I manage to keep it to one or two a day for a bit (versus 1-2 packs/day) and then none for another 5 days or so. I've discussed this with my therapist and psychiatrist and they think it's a neurotransmitter thing, plus hormones when I'm in PMS. So we're looking at possibly changing my meds a bit and seeing how that goes (many times when I fall back it's because I've fallen into a depression and/or extreme anxiety, so they think that maybe changing my meds will help). I *am* proud of myself for only having 1 or 2 on those days when I do give in, after so many years of 1-2 packs a day it's still an accomplishment even if I haven't totally quit yet.

Sorry this is so long, I have a bad tendency to ramble, I guess because I don't usually talk much so when I write I get it out all at once, lol.

 

[xdunlapx]

I was both, gradual then sudden. I started vaping January 2010. Had been smoking for 8 years. I tried numerous times to quit with my 510, but the 510 just wasn't cutting it, plus I was having tons of atomizer problems. It seemed like the darn then never worked right. Then I switched to the VK with the help of some members on here. I ordered some batteries, a charger and some cartos on Feb 10, 2010 and when I received it I was so happy with it. It was so easy to use. I finally quit smoking immediatly on March 13, 2010. So probably nearly one month to the day after I received my VK. I couldn't be happier.

I don't even take my pv with me out places, I can simply wait till I get home. And that is unheard of for me, usually I have to smoke right after eating, when I get up, like every 45 minutes or so. But now that I'm vaping I don't freak out about when I'll be able to vape. I know it's just an hour or so away.

I now use the PT and love it. I rarely use my batteries, really the only time I use my batteries is when my PT dies and I'm waiting for a few days until my new PT arrives. I am so happy I quit smoking. My asthma is mostly gone, really like 98% gone. I don't have chronic bronchitis (COPD) anymore, as far as I know. My doc said my lungs were clear when I went a while ago.

So that's my story.

 

[Redbone]

When I decided to go to a PV, before hand, I was ready to quit. I smoked cigs for 26 - 28 years, ever since I was about 13 years old. Pack a day since I was 18 and now i'm 42.

I liked and enjoyed smoking cigs, but I came to a point where I was just tired of the hacking in the morning, and the hacking everytime I laughed, and the stinkyness, etc.

I tried to quit numerous times, but that was before I discovered the PV.

Once I put my foot down and bought a PV and stuck to it, I never looked back and haven't had a cig since. I did try to smoke one a couple of weeks later, but it was nasty and I had to put it out after 2 tokes.

I can't even see myself ever wanting to smoke an analog again at this point.

I started on a PV with the objective of wanting to quit smokes.

 

[Adrenalynn]

I didn't really _want_ to quit. But decided I was over my ten-pack-years and needed to start giving that some consideration. Given that I didn't really _want_ to, it probably would have been pretty tough. I haven't had a cigarette since the day my original V4L order arrived almost a year ago now. Still tempted now and again. Seems to go in phases. But I did completely quit the first day.