thoughts after being analog free for several days and "trying" one

[nin_brokenhalo5]

I wouldn't have done this with any other cessation method I have tried in the past. That is how confident I am that vaping is the only thing that will work for me. I enjoy it so much more than tobacco at this point in time.

Anyway, I smoked an analog last night after being free of them for about 48 hours just to see if I would enjoy the flavor of a cig.

Well, it tasted like crap of course, but that is not what I found interesting and worth writing about.

I found that halfway through the analog I felt that dizzy, haven't had a cig in a long time feeling and I felt my heart rate increase. All pretty much normal physiological effects of tobacco.

When I vape I never get dizzy or *feel* my heart rate increase. Just feel satisfied and a bit relaxed and maybe a bit euphoric at times. Even if it has been 6 hours between vapes which is normal during the week. I crave smoking but my PV has been satisfying it to perfection.

So I am finding it difficult to compare drag for drag how much nicotine I am getting in an analog compared to vaping. My analog of choice is/was American Spirit full flavored (blue box) which has 1.8 mg nic per cig.

I started out vaping about 3 weeks ago on a DSE 901. It immediately reduced my analog consumption from a pack a day to about 4 or 5 a day using 18mg and 11mg liquids. I was afraid to jump to 24mg nic for some reason and figured I just needed a more "powerful" PV so picked up an eGo at a ridiculously great price at liberty-flights with the 20% discount on top of the sale price. It did meet my expectations but still found I needed that morning cig. That is when I ordered a sample of a 24mg juice and started using that in the morning. That was all I needed to quit analogs.

Not sure if I have a question here now or just wanted to share thoughts on this, but I am thinking that either my brand of cig delivers way more nic to the bloodstream drag for drag than the vape or that it is the other chemicals in an analog that contribute to the dizziness and heart stimulation?

It's confusing because I think I am taking less drags on the PV and using for about the same length of time as I would with analogs.

Guess I will have to try a zero mg liquid at some point just to see how much of my addiction is psychological. I do have a bottle in my stash but have not even tried it yet.

Any thoughts would be appreciated but I understand if my post is long winded and tough to answer beng that the question is difficult to pinpoint.

How about this: Do you feel "dizzy" and experience an increased heart rate if you vape after abstaining for a period of time equal to when you abstained from an analog and then had one?

Jeez where am i going with this??

Guess I just would like to quantify how much 18mg vaping equals how many analogs or something like that.

Thanks for hanging in there to this point and happy vaping to all.

 

[typocinnamongrl]

I had a similar experience, been analog free for almost a month and tried a drag off a friends cig and whoa! DISGUSTING! I didnt smoke enough to get the head rush, but I know just what your talking about.. Its all that carbon monoxide cutting the oxygen off to your brain.... which is why you dont get that same feeling with vaping. But I can relate to the feeling of euphoria as well...

I was wondering myself how much nicotine I am consuming (also at 18mg) compared to when I smoked cigs.. I figured each cig was aprox. 1mg and I was a 1/2 pack a day... Im vaping around 1ml.. so 18mg a day... 8 more mg of nic per day than smoking... so closer to a full pack BUT Im pretty sure the absorption rate is much different... however I have found I can still be satisfied vaping 12mg... 18 is just better! Or maybe its all in my head... who knows! I love vaping though! Congrats on qutting! And good luck to you!

 

[1337lord]

same for me. also i just feel better about life in general since switching. any one else feel that way?

 

[nin_brokenhalo5]

Interesting.

Perhaps I should keep track of how many ml I am using..but still it wouldn't add up. I assumed that if I had a 18mg juice in a 10ml bottle that I would be getting 1 analog (1.8mg nic) for 1 cc. No chance of that being equal. 1ml is quite a lot of drops of liquid, could probably last me all day..but no way one analong would last me one day.

I do wrangle in my head about if by strictly vaping that I have quit "smoking". Sure I am not inhaling tobacco and all the toxins in it, but I am not 100% certain on the long term safety of vaping either. I do feel that it is a "safer" choice though and I feel better in the chest vaping than I do smoking tobacco.

Thank you for the reply.

 

[n2xe]

Yep, nicotine absorption with an e-cig is nil. I started at 18mg and was fine with it but 24mg is a knock out punch if you find yourself jonesing for an analog. Don't be afraid to try higher nic, it's easy to tell when it's time to back off.

 

[No Brag]

Yeah, I tried an analog after a couple of weeks of not having any. I didn't even finish it. If I had tried that with anything else i would probably have gone back to smoking. Not with vaping.

 

[nin_brokenhalo5]

Yep, nicotine absorption with an e-cig is nil. I started at 18mg and was fine with it but 24mg is a knock out punch if you find yourself jonesing for an analog. Don't be afraid to try higher nic, it's easy to tell when it's time to back off.

Thank you n2xe.

I have been using the 24mg in the mornings like I said. Been working well and not ruling out an even higher one to try. I was a rather heavy smoker of one of the stronger analogs on the market. It's truly almost too good to be true that I have reduced and abstained as much as I have.

Hmm very close to post 15 now...looking forward to adding the sig banner.

 

[Triptik]

I only put down analogs 4 days ago... I just love it when I really really want one and start a vape session. two three four puffs and the feeling dies down a little. I stop counting the vape puffs and forget all about the ciggy I wanted.

I've quit five separate times in my 19 year smoking history. Never has it been so easy. I'm looking forward to adding the cig banner too.

Cheers

 

[Stosh]

Starting out to stay off the analogs I was vaping 30-36mg juice, chain vaping all day.
Had been a heavy smoker, strong cigs, smoke 'em to the filter, the heavy nic juice did
it for me. Don't forget smoking an analog you're getting a lot of carbon monoxide,
the "dizzy" could be lack of oxygen.

 

[Lisa66]

I cheated a few days in with the one lone analog I had left.....not sure why I saved it. I definitely got the light-headedness. I don't get that with vaping at all. I do, however, get the increased heart rate.

 

[tenzip]

I don't notice any "symptoms" from vaping, other than a slightly queasy feeling if I vape a lot on an empty stomach, like first thing in the morning.

I'm not going to break down and smoke my last analog. I now am able to smell smokers, and I keep thinking to myself, did I actually smell that bad? Gack.

I'm looking at my last analog in it's box right now. I should go to Hobby Lobby and get some acrylic resin and preserve it forever. Should I break it first? Or leave it intact, sealed away forever?

 

[toriL]

With most cigarettes sold ammonia is added to the tobacco, which boosts the nicotine availability up to 100x the normal level a smoker would get from smoking untreated tobacco. Almost all commercial tobacco companies have been doing this since the seventies. So most of us smokers have been freebasing nicotine for a long time.

When we quit smoking or cut down to just a couple a day, that kick from the freebased nicotine is really felt for what it is! It goes straight to the brain and like I said above, is about 100x more potent than smoking untreated tobacco.

I think this is why I had such a tough time giving up cigs completely for many months, I still was craving that kick. I now keep higher mg juice for first thing in the morning and the evening before bed and even that isn't the same feeling - but since I know what my body is craving it makes it easier to just vape hard and know the craving will go away.

 

[sallen7093]

same for me. also i just feel better about life in general since switching. any one else feel that way?

I feel the same way. I have smoked for close to 40 yrs. I have NEVER tried to quit before. I put those suckers down yesterday after my batts charged and haven't looked back. And my husband is still alive!!! No _itchin or nuttin!

 

[nin_brokenhalo5]

Stosh, you are making me ponder going for a sample of a juice higher than the 24mg that I have as my highest.... I feel I am just getting by with that in the morning which is the most crucial time for me. 18mg does me well for the most part during the day. I do not bring my PV to work as at work I never ran out for analogs, was able to function fine for hours until breaks and see no need to change that.

Then the next crucial point is right when I get home from work after a stressful day which in my line of work is EVERY day.

So perhaps a sample of the thirty-something mg might be of benefit.

I appreciate everyones comments very much. You are all awesome and proud to be on this journey with you all. A lot of us seem to be at similar junctures.

I have eliminated pretty much every vice from my life in the last five years and have found cigarettes to be the most insidious one to break. I guess you can say that I have an addictive personality. Part of me is concerned that I have just switched addictions here and part of me is so proud to be saying that I have gone days without an analog.

If you put both in front of me today and asked me to choose one I would go straight to the PV...just really enjoying the flavors and the relaxation..mostly sampling tobacco ones..some have really nice undertones to them that are emphasized when I blow a bit out of my nose, something I never do with tobacco. Have so many small bottles and have found two for sure that I already placed orders for larger bottles of. I am awaiting a bevy of sample bottles of some other types of flavors. Peanut butter should be interesting to say the least. Hah. Was amused to read somewhere of someone mixing a peanut butter juice with grape to make a PBJ flavor.

OK I am rambling off topic here... G'night and happy vaping to all.

And heyyyy...I still can't seem to add a signature.

 

[jameth]

It can take an hour or so after post 15 for it to let you do a signature.

 

[Stosh]

Stosh, you are making me ponder going for a sample of a juice higher than the 24mg that I have as my highest....

..... Part of me is concerned that I have just switched addictions here and part of me is so proud to be saying that I have gone days without an analog..

You could get 10ml of 36mg juice, and if it's too strong just mix it with some 18mg,
to bring it down to 24mg, or whatever you're comfortable vaping. Listen to your body
it will tell you when you need more nic, or less even. after a while vaping you may find
it is too strong, or unnecessary, I did and have cut back from my first few months levels.

Regarding addictions, yup you switched from a killer one to being addicted to internet
shopping, mailman stalking, perfect flavor hunting, and best of all ECF.....

 

[fuzznut]

If you want to feel light-headed and dizzy, take a good vape hit and hold it in as long as you can. Repeat until you pass out.

 

[jameth]

Mailman stalking is the worst, well really just waiting from the moment of order to delivery sucks...

I order a lot of things online, and have ALWAYS absolutely hated waiting for things to arrive, I have no patience for that kind of stuff!

Amazon Prime helped with that problem since overnighting anything from amazon is 4 bucks with it, but that doesn't apply to this stuff.

I HATE WAITING AAARRRGGGG

Of course right now I have an eGo tank starter kit (Tornado Tank), an eGo USB passthrough kit, and about $90 worth of juice in shipping right now from various vendors....

Did I mention I hate waiting for stuff?

If anything makes me want to buy a pack of cigs and smoke them non stop, its waiting for stuff in shipping! ARG!

 

[Rosa]

vaping gives you about 80% of the nicotine you are inhaling but it absorbs slower than it does with analogs. They add something to smokes to make it absorb extra fast and efficiently. the dizzy feeling from smoking is from the carbon monoxide poisoning - lack of oxygen to the brain, you don't get that with vaping (unless you are hyperventilating with it... which I tried to do once or twice when I first started... hehehe)

 

[WolfMemnoch]

same for me. also i just feel better about life in general since switching. any one else feel that way?

Oh definitely. I haven't been over sleeping. When I do wake up I don't feel like I was caught under the wheels of an 18 wheeler. It seems to have also relieved quite a bit of anxiety that I had been dealing with prior.

I'm looking at my last analog in it's box right now. I should go to Hobby Lobby and get some acrylic resin and preserve it forever. Should I break it first? Or leave it intact, sealed away forever?

Mmm, so many options for an artistic venture! Could even wrap it up like a mummy and make a little sculpey sarcophagi of an analog. But that's just my brain running with ideas...

I have eliminated pretty much every vice from my life in the last five years and have found cigarettes to be the most insidious one to break. I guess you can say that I have an addictive personality. Part of me is concerned that I have just switched addictions here and part of me is so proud to be saying that I have gone days without an analog.

Congrats! And I agree they are. I wouldn't be too concerned about swapping addictions per se despite personality traits. You are eradicating the major one. The rest of the journey is merely a matter of going down the mg staircase. Much easier to limit one thing, than to loosen the bear trap it was before.

Mailman stalking is the worst, well really just waiting from the moment of order to delivery sucks...

Wait a minute, why am I writing this? I should be warming up my place by the window with the night vision goggles. The light will give me away. Radios to channel 42, commence stalking procedure over. -- Yeah, I have a juice order inbound. I have the gimmie gimmie vibe going.