Totally agreed. I'll go to bed with my vape stick nearby, but when I wake in the morning, it could be a good hour before I take a first puff. As a regular smoker, almost everything that is done is based around how many smokes can I get in before I get really busy (again), and then mentally planning for those.
One significant difference is that with a cigarette it is a defined unit, well known to a smoker. But with vaping, it is an endless stream that sure we may measure in ml's, but is so so secondary to thought process that surrounded 'how many do I have left in this pack?'
As someone who still chooses to smoke, that has carried over for me. I now will have a couple puffs and put it out. Which is part of reason I self identify as moderate smoker. It literally can take me 5 days to smoke 1 cigarette, and I can smoke 3 of those 5 days. Because of how strong the taste and how immediate the nic delivery is, I don't need to sit there for the 10 minutes to get what I came there to enjoy.
Yet, without vaping in the picture, I'm sure most everyone reading this knows it would be incredibly challenging for me to stick to just a couple puffs every few days and keep wanting to identify as a smoker. I've been doing it for a few months now, and been vaping over 2 years.
My main point here is that vaping dramatically changes how one approaches their desire to use nicotine and how one may go about feeding the habit/addiction.
This cracks me up, because of how honest and accurate it is. When I quit cold turkey my first time, I had this same exact concern going in. Like what the heck am I supposed to do with myself when I'm in a room? Just sit there? LOL.
Obviously, you adapt and learn to do without the constant holding something. At times, it can become addictive to see how long you can go without holding something. And now that I'm back to being part time smoker/full time vaper, I haven't lost sight of things I picked up from the days (and years) without.
One thing I used to notice often (but now just periodically) is how when I'm in a room with fellow humans, especially when we are facing each other (i.e. in a living room) is how often people have to cross some part of their body, and thus can't just sit there. Cross arms, cross legs, fold hands, cross ankles; it is rare where I observe a human not doing one of those when sitting down, having a conversation.
Likewise, if I go to party where adult beverages are being served, all those who are engaged in having an adult drink, absolutely must hold their cup at all times, and guys will almost always hold it around stomach level and gals will hold it at chest level. As I rarely drink and instead will have a soda or water, I like to observe this phenomenon occasionally. Humors me much.
For me, when I was cold turkey there were 2 things that made me want to smoke. Whenever I saw someone light up in a movie, and make it look super cool/suave, I wanted to do that aspect of smoking again. Or there were times where I hadn't had a smoke for say 5 years, but had a dream the night before where I was convinced I had one just a few days ago, and when I woke up, I was feeling like I'm a smoker again. None of these 2 experiences led me back to becoming a smoker again.
When a smoker, the phantom smell thing would make me want one. But as a smoker, it was umpteen things that would be a trigger for me. I used to think the best smoke of the day was after a meal, and preferably a good meal at night (like steak dinner).
With vaping, all these things are out the window, cause of what I said near top of this post. It is more like endless stream of nicotine, even while I'm not doing it all the time. Just a different mindset as the 'unit of dosage' has kinda lost all meaning to me.
All good questions. I think it depends on who you ask and what their awareness is on the topic. For alcoholics, the prevailing wisdom is that one is never enough and thus the stigma of (full blown) addict is present even when not drinking (for years). For smoking, I think it is about the same, as I'm sure there are some reading this that think I'm playing a dangerous game maintaining a desire to be a moderate smoker.
I think it is very challenging for humans to understand how anyone could go from addict to moderation. Easy to understand how one could go from moderation to addiction, but not the other way around. I fully believe I've done this with smoking, and am now using it in true moderation. As vaping is in the picture, it's not too challenging to understand the how, but still... a bit challenging, because I simply no longer have those cravings for smoking that one (or most everyone) assumes comes with smoking, just by smoking a little. It is clearly not the substance in engineered logs that, in my case, has allowed me to maintain level of moderation. But a mindset, and one that is very empowering. I could walk away from smoking, and continue vaping, but I do truly enjoy smoking still sometimes and do not crave it. Of the 11 criteria from DSM, none would be at work in my use of smoking. And yet, I still smoke logs. Imagine that.
