Quitting....a cautionary tale

[TheorignalET]

Hi - started V4L in Feb - did not smoke any cigarettes from Feb-July without a problem - quitting was so easy with the PV. Maybe too easy. For some reason started bumming an occasional cig from the wife or a golfing buddy - hey quitting was easy, right? Well, by September I was no longer vaping and was back on the butts. Took me until last week to quit again and start vaping. Stocking up on some higher nic juice for emergencies.

Moral is: maybe ya can't even have one...no pressure though

 

[dotma]

That's good to know. Wishing you better luck this time!

 

[genuinefraud]

I quit smoking cigarettes in Feb also, and have not had a single cigarette since.
It is the only way to quit.. refrain from cheating.. even once.. because once you cheat, you'll cheat again and before you know it, you're smoking every day again.

 

[keyzygirl]

Its just not worth the chance when vaping is so much better.

 

[southernIL]

I know exactly how you feel I had the same thing happen to me twice and still have a hard time not bumming a cig when at a bar with friends. Thank god I love vaping more than smoking!

 

[jeffree]

Totally agree, Theo. Some here might be able to handle the occasional 'test' smoke, but I've seen many here who couldn't, including someone close to me. One or two smokes and then back to those nasty cigs. If you're really serious about the cig quits, why even take the chance? Vaping's better anyhow, IMO, so why play games?

Edit to Theo... I didn't mean 'you' personally above--I was thinking about others who might be tempted. Hate those cigs to no end. All the very best to you on the path!

 

[Morandir835]

TheorignalET sir glad you're back off the analogs. It's a test not work taking....

 

[Mmc]

Finally decided new years eve it was one to the other, not both. Chose vaping. Even at this point wouldn't test myself with just one. That would be all it would take. Congrats on getting off analogs again

 

[jeffree]

OT... Morandir, if you don't mind my saying so, you're looking particularly debonair these days.

 

[Morandir835]

Thank you Jeffree sir. Figured it was time to bring back King. This avatar is from the 82-87 years, going to one from the 90's next. Then it's holiday King Diamond time...

 

[Skyway]

I am surprised really. After 4 months of straight vaping, I tried a cig from a friend and it tasted like ... and I actually got a little sick to my stomach. I have been off of cigs for a little over a year now.

 

[plantlvr]

Havn't had even a puff in over two years now, and I smoked for almost 40 and loooved to smoke. Vaping is so much better, it takes a bit more 'prep' time than putting a bic to the stick. But it's worth it, so worth it.

 

[kittypie]

Hi - started V4L in Feb - did not smoke any cigarettes from Feb-July without a problem - quitting was so easy with the PV. Maybe too easy. For some reason started bumming an occasional cig from the wife or a golfing buddy - hey quitting was easy, right? Well, by September I was no longer vaping and was back on the butts. Took me until last week to quit again and start vaping. Stocking up on some higher nic juice for emergencies.

Moral is: maybe ya can't even have one...no pressure though

Another moral is, you're only human. Glad you're back to vaping.

 

[TheorignalET]

Thanks. I'm very glad I have made it through more than a week now and am not looking back. Knowing what I know now, it is more unlikely that I'll fall off the wagon again. I prefer vaping as well. Maybe it's the ritual of lighting, opening up a new pack etc, plus a smoke is a known quantity - unless I count hits, I don't know when to stop vaping....well, I hope I like the Outlaw apple!

 

[plarkinjr]

... a smoke is a known quantity - unless I count hits, I don't know when to stop vaping....

Great observation, and one I've been struggling with. Since I can vape in the house, its even worse. I've spent less time "walking the property", but more time working (I work from home). And I can vape while watching TV or reading in bed. I can chain-vape, and have found myself doing so. But I guess if its OK, then why should I worry?

 

[TheorignalET]

Well, when the weather is still warm enough, I still go out with the smokers and go in when they do, so the social aspect is still active and sometimes you even get a convert. Sometimes, you need the 10 minute break from the world.

 

[plarkinjr]

Well, when the weather is still warm enough, I still go out with the smokers and go in when they do, so the social aspect is still active and sometimes you even get a convert. Sometimes, you need the 10 minute break from the world.

One of the many times I fell of the wagon and took up smoking again was at an office job: Most coworkers smoked, and I began going out with them on smoke breaks. That was often when some of the best brainstorming and pie-in-the-sky sessions took place. If you stayed in your cube with your nose to the stone, you'd miss out. I can see if I were back in an office job with smokers, being a vaper allows me to participate. Add one more reason to vape vs "just not smoke"!

 

[NoMatches]

I quit Feb 22, 2011. I started a thread here some time ago about this very subject. I know I am one of those who cannot ever take another puff. Just last week I walked past someone smoking, and I felt an urge. I know if I smoke just one, just one puff, I risk losing everything I've worked for.

I quit once, about 30 some odd years ago for 3 months. I had one cigarette, and it took another 30 years to have just one non smoking day (although I did once go 6 days with nic gum since then). The seductress can be irresistable, over powering. I just refuse to return her phone calls.

 

[Cat_in_the_Playground]

I really don't worry that if I take a single puff that I will return to analogs. Not anymore. A few years before I discovered vaping, I had quit for a month or two. I remembered when I would smoke 3 analogs a day. I thought, "ah, one won't hurt me. Even 3 a day wouldn't be that bad." Unfortunately, those 3/day was 1 PPD before I knew it (and sometimes more).

This time is different. It probably took me 3 weeks or so to quit smoking after I started vaping. But, I would still get a craving for one. Then my friend would come over and she would give me one. So, when she came over (about 1/week), I would bum one. Each visit I was able to smoke less and less. Then it got to the point that within a few drags I would become physically ill - nauseas, headache. I eventually told her that the next time she came over, no matter how much I begged, not to give me one. I was just going to waste it anyway. Now even the faintest whiff of an analog makes me ill. Even the smell from someone coming in who has finished smoking.

I won't say I don't get this nostalgic craving for one (especially when I see it on TV - where I can't smell it), but I know the second I smell it, I remember how ill I felt the last few times I tried to burn one that I have no desire to smoke.Those last 2-3 I tried to burn and got so sick, I couldn't believe I used to smoke 1 PPD (even up to 2 PPD on some occassions). I don't know what made my last quit different (could it be the vaping?), but this time I know I would never go back. It can't be the length of time without because I have quit for longer periods and returned with the greatest of ease. The funny thing is also that when I quit for those 2 months, I did it because I wanted to quit. When I quit this time, I really didn't even care. I entered the world of vaping because my friend wanted to use it as a tool to quit. I just decided to join her for support (and I'm the one that quit and she still smokes - go figure).

While I don't worry anymore, I have been there and do know the feeling about the inability to have even a drag off someone else's. Like an alcoholic that can't have even a sip of alcohol...

 

[plarkinjr]

I've quit smoking so many times over the past 30 years, and each time was hard, and I'd find myself going back to it within a year. I took up vaping 2 weeks ago and within 3 or 4 days was completely off "analogs". I wasn't intending to quit per se, but vaping was so much nicer than cigs. And far less "painful" than patches, gum, or cold-turkey. It helps that I can vape in the house, instead of stopping what I'm doing to feed my nic addiction outside.

I still have a partial pack sitting on my phone-hutch where I last put it, and honestly haven't really wanted it. I hope a year from now I still won't be smoking, and that my vaping nic levels will have been reduced.