With all due respect, this is almost certainly a psychosomatic reaction. There just isn't enough of a difference between 24mg and 18mg for physiological symptoms to manifest themselves just because you switched from the former to the latter. If you put each one in an unmarked bottle and didn't keep track of which you were vaping on a given day, I'd be willing to bet my life savings you wouldn't notice any difference whatsoever.
That's exactly how I found out how big the difference actually was. I filled my tank with some 18 mg thinking it was 24, and went about my day. Yeah, I certainly noticed the difference.
I tend to agree. Everyone is different, but I went from 36 mg, to 24, to 18 and then to 12 and I never noticed the slightest difference. And that's after smoking cigs for 45 years. It's a difficult habit to understand with simple logic, and science does't offer much. I have read some studies where the tried to get rats addicted to nicotine (without the other components of tobacco smoke). Nearly all of the experiments failed to show clear signs of dependency. One recent experiment succeeded, but it was very difficult to do. They had to time the dosage and frequency perfectly, and even then they got signs of only moderate dependency--nothing approaching the levels observed with truly addictive drugs. Reading between the lines, I could tell they were disappointed.
Two things here: 1) It really is unusual for someone to drop their nic level that dramatically and not notice a difference, so please count yourself lucky
and 2) you're assuming I'm addicted for the sake of being addicted. I mentioned at one point (idk if it was this thread or another) that "addiction" to something may just mean that you're getting something you need out of it, and medical science hasn't caught up with why you're addicted to it yet.
It may sound rather vague to say I have issues with focus, but would it be vague to say that I got sent to a neurologist when I was little because I spaced out so much my teacher thought I was having seizures? That's what I'm dealing with here. I don't have a definitive diagnosis because whatever's going on up there doesn't fit into a neat mold (i.e. I have some kind of mix of attention deficit and dissociative disorder with a mood condition, but that never quite got nailed down), but I do know that I cannot take attention deficit drugs. Nor would I want to because nicotine works extremely well and has so few side effects.
Think of it this way: if you needed pain medicine and you accidentally took a pill that was lower in strength than your usual dose without realizing it, would you notice the difference? I am not dependent on nicotine because I use nicotine, I am dependent on it because it helps me function.
(Fwiw, what I'm doing is known pejoratively in some medical circles as "self medicating", but I loathe that term because I've only seen it used to imply that if I choose something other than doctor-prescribed pharmaceuticals I'm doing something wrong.)
Hiccups are a precursor to vomiting from too much nicotine. I get hiccups at 24mg and not at 18mg. That said, at one point, early on, I was able to vape 24mg, but have reduced that from year one. In fact, it was the fact that I grabbed an earlier bottle of eliquid, thinking it was a current one, where I first recognized this phenomena. I picked up the 24mg bottle by mistake - in effect - an 'unmarked bottle' because I didn't notice it was 24mg beforehand. Similar label, different mg. I don't recall any effects on focus, etc. nor have I tried to see if there was any difference, but the hiccups is a physical thing.
Thank you Kent
it goes to show that everyone reacts to nicotine differently. I think for any drug there are certain thresholds where someone will have a different reaction, and those thresholds are different for each person. For Kent and I there is a distinct difference between 18 and 24 mg, others may not notice a difference there but will at, say, dropping from 12 to 6. It is person-specific - you cannot assume your experience applies uniformly to everyone else.
all I could think was, why would anyone want to even try quitting this way if it costs more than smoking? Isn't that a disincentive?? The only reason I ever tried patches is because my state will give out a free two week supply to anyone who wants to quit.
