Hello all. I started searching the other thread but got bogged down quickly. I'll just repeat the highlights of my adventures in vaping.
I smoked a pack a day like clockwork, for over 20 years. I smoked and loved it. I smoked and never ever wanted to quit. I still love the way they smell. I still crave the way they made me feel. I used smoking to avoid feeling my emotions (if I got angry or sad or whatever, I just smoked one after the other until I felt normal again) and I used smoking like my crutch. Smoking was my best friend and only companion for a lot of years after I quit drinking. So when I decided to quit it wasn't because I wanted to, it was because "I knew I should" or "for my health" or "because it's too expensive" or "because I can't die like my mother did" but it was always an intangible reason.
I saw a friend at work vaping a pipe mod and got curious about it. I bought some extremely overpriced regular ego kit off the internet with some truly disgusting tasting liquid. I didn't know about ECF yet. So I burnt up or popped every atty that came with my kit, and found a live place to talk about vaping at a local flea market where I actually got good advice and liquid that tasted lots better than the stuff that came in my kit. Wow talk about expensive! Still smoking a pack a day, spending lots of money on vaping but not saving any because still smoking. It began to look like I was getting more nicotine than usual, almost like vaping was supplementing my regular smoking habit.
So an internet search brought me to ECF, and in a really uninspired moment I logged in with this ridiculous username which was a lie for a really long time. I never quit, heck I never even cut back. So I read and read and read and researched and bought stuff and spent a lot of money and still smoked. I don't think I ever said I was still smoking in any of my posts, but I'm sure I lied and said I had quit. I found this thread through a referral on the general forum (I think???) and found a home here fast. The people here were honest and helpful and informative and supportive. If they said something wouldn't work I believed it. If they said something tasted like dirty gym socks I didn't buy it.
Now I DIY all my own liquids because everything I could afford to buy tasted either meh or plain gross. I can make meh and gross for a lot less than buying it pre-made. In all that trial and error of buying liquids I decided what types of stuff I did not like (anything menthol and a lot of fruits) and what I did like (strong, rich, heavy flavors like tobacco/vanilla/coffee etc.) and started buying up flavorings left and right. I DIYed like a maniac for a while, but now I'm sitting on so much already made stuff that I haven't pulled out the mad scientist lab for a long time. I will again soon, because I'm vaping up all the stuff I've been sitting on!
Here's what helped me quit. I needed gear that was dependable, not too fiddly, and that didn't mute flavor too much. I needed a stronger battery (variable voltage/wattage) than my regular ego's. I needed the flavors I really liked and I needed 24 mg nic. I needed WTA for a while, but now I'll leave that for those of you who really need it more than I do. I cut back slowly with the idea that I would eventually get down to 0 cigarettes daily. I needed a real reason to quit and I mean a really good reason. For me it was financial. I literally ran out of money one day and did not get paid for a week. I had all this vape gear and liquids around so I said "I'll just try to go until payday without killing anyone." I gave away the last cig in my pack that day. I came here and cried and screamed and ranted and raved. I got hugged and I got kicked in the rear when I needed it. I got through it. Since then I haven't bought a pack. I have smoked one cigarette a couple times, once at Thanksgiving and once a couple weeks after that. I could do it again, but if I do, I'll be right back at a pack a day habit. I am and probably always will be one bad decision or weak moment away from that pack a day habit.
So that's my really long vaping story. I probably left out a lot, but the gist of it is there. Quitting sucks. Vaping makes it suck less. Having friends to help me through it was the only thing that made it bearable. We borrowed the phrase "embrace the suck" to describe it.
I'm dying to see snow though just not dying to drive on to work tom
