Let me begin by stating that the contents of this post are entirely my own observations regarding my own personal experiences. I am in no way attempting to make any broad assumptions or claims and simply want to share some information that I hope might be helpful to others.
I quit smoking and started vaping August 15th, 2013. Between that date and yesterday (8 months, 20 days) I had perhaps a dozen cigarettes and for pretty much all of that I had been extremely happy with my experience. I had smoked about 10 years and at my peak I smoked about a pack every 2 days so I was obviously extremely happy to have quit the cancer sticks. I began with Blu but very quickly progressed to a ProVari and any number of different clearos. My most recent setup has been a ProVari and a Kayfun Lite Plus. I began at 18mg nic liquid but then after a couple months moved to 12mg nic and have stuck with that ever since. Without naming particular brands of juice I can just say that I have used at least a dozen different brands from the lower priced ones all the way up to the very top of the top high end.
A few months ago, I can't say exactly when, I began to notice that I was having a more difficult time than usual focusing on work. I also began to have higher than normal levels of anxiety and was also feeling increasingly depressed. I say "higher than normal" and "increasingly depressed" because I've struggled with these issues for years and have reached out for professional help on more than one occasion. In addition to this, I had been feeling increasingly lethargic. More and more days went by with me sitting at my computer, watching videos, streams, whatever I could to fill my brain, vaping all the while, knowing I had things to do and wanting to do them, but being unable to bring myself to do them. When I would sit down to do work my thoughts were foggy and I found it quite literally impossible to even think about the task at hand. This increasingly added to my anxiety as I'd worry about not being able to complete the tasks that I knew I had to complete, which caused me to want to forget about everything, so I'd go back and fill my brain with more videos, and you can see where the cycle goes from there. I thought it was depression, or adult ADD, or some kind of anxiety disorder, and in fact I still do think that all of those things are VERY real possibilities and will continue to go see my doctor.
The reason I'm posting this in this forum is because yesterday afternoon, as I was vaping my delicious creme brulee juice, I felt exactly this way, yet for reasons I cannot recall I decided to put the vape down and didn't pick it up again for the rest of the day. By the time I went to bed, my head felt just a little clearer. When I woke up this morning I resolved to not vape at all simply as a test to see if I saw a change in my mental health. What occurred for me today was nothing short of miraculous. I wasn't tired at all during the day. I was able to focus on my work and I got more done today than I had in weeks and thoroughly enjoyed what I was doing! I bought a pack of cigarettes for the first time in almost 9 months and had about 5 smokes during the course of the day, which admittedly was probably the worst idea ever, but I wanted to control for nicotine as best I could.
I want to know if anyone else has had any similar experiences. Is there anyone out there with diagnosed (or undiagnosed) mental health issues that have seen some sort of correlation with vaping? Are there people who have no previous mental health issues and yet feel vaping has affected their mental state negatively? Or positively for that matter!
Again, please note that I in no way want people to stop vaping and start smoking again! I have gotten a number of my friends to switch to vaping and will continue to push vaping to any and all smokers that want to make a change. Just know that prior to today I don't think that I would have even had the ability to focus long enough to write this post let alone finish all the work that I got done today.
I quit smoking and started vaping August 15th, 2013. Between that date and yesterday (8 months, 20 days) I had perhaps a dozen cigarettes and for pretty much all of that I had been extremely happy with my experience. I had smoked about 10 years and at my peak I smoked about a pack every 2 days so I was obviously extremely happy to have quit the cancer sticks. I began with Blu but very quickly progressed to a ProVari and any number of different clearos. My most recent setup has been a ProVari and a Kayfun Lite Plus. I began at 18mg nic liquid but then after a couple months moved to 12mg nic and have stuck with that ever since. Without naming particular brands of juice I can just say that I have used at least a dozen different brands from the lower priced ones all the way up to the very top of the top high end.
A few months ago, I can't say exactly when, I began to notice that I was having a more difficult time than usual focusing on work. I also began to have higher than normal levels of anxiety and was also feeling increasingly depressed. I say "higher than normal" and "increasingly depressed" because I've struggled with these issues for years and have reached out for professional help on more than one occasion. In addition to this, I had been feeling increasingly lethargic. More and more days went by with me sitting at my computer, watching videos, streams, whatever I could to fill my brain, vaping all the while, knowing I had things to do and wanting to do them, but being unable to bring myself to do them. When I would sit down to do work my thoughts were foggy and I found it quite literally impossible to even think about the task at hand. This increasingly added to my anxiety as I'd worry about not being able to complete the tasks that I knew I had to complete, which caused me to want to forget about everything, so I'd go back and fill my brain with more videos, and you can see where the cycle goes from there. I thought it was depression, or adult ADD, or some kind of anxiety disorder, and in fact I still do think that all of those things are VERY real possibilities and will continue to go see my doctor.
The reason I'm posting this in this forum is because yesterday afternoon, as I was vaping my delicious creme brulee juice, I felt exactly this way, yet for reasons I cannot recall I decided to put the vape down and didn't pick it up again for the rest of the day. By the time I went to bed, my head felt just a little clearer. When I woke up this morning I resolved to not vape at all simply as a test to see if I saw a change in my mental health. What occurred for me today was nothing short of miraculous. I wasn't tired at all during the day. I was able to focus on my work and I got more done today than I had in weeks and thoroughly enjoyed what I was doing! I bought a pack of cigarettes for the first time in almost 9 months and had about 5 smokes during the course of the day, which admittedly was probably the worst idea ever, but I wanted to control for nicotine as best I could.
I want to know if anyone else has had any similar experiences. Is there anyone out there with diagnosed (or undiagnosed) mental health issues that have seen some sort of correlation with vaping? Are there people who have no previous mental health issues and yet feel vaping has affected their mental state negatively? Or positively for that matter!
Again, please note that I in no way want people to stop vaping and start smoking again! I have gotten a number of my friends to switch to vaping and will continue to push vaping to any and all smokers that want to make a change. Just know that prior to today I don't think that I would have even had the ability to focus long enough to write this post let alone finish all the work that I got done today.
