Interest/desire - Ya gotta wanna, or need to, or have some strong personal motivation. I'd been looking to cut back and/or quit but couldn't/wouldn't do it. I smoked generic ultra lights for many years and in the last year or so had started poking small holes in the cigs, next to the filter, to waft out some of the strength, doing that kind of stuff. e-cig's provided an acceptable middle ground. On a very granular level the similiarities were strong enough to run with. The differences I looked at as clearly as I could to determine - is this working and if it is/isn't, what's going on? I'm still doing that, but I think I past Hump Day of the transition this week.
Weighing the Tradeoffs - I had smoke, smell, ashes, garbage, mess, hassles up the ying yang smoking cigarettes. The process is a train wreck for anyone but the most casual smoker and even then you're at risk of accidentally setting yourself on fire. Oh, and it will be an expensive fire, as costs are constantly going up - smokers have become the Well Of First Choice for government to dip into -after all, if you're going to kill yourself smoking you might as well fund a school somewhere doing it.
Plus, you're hated by nearly everyone and reviled by Health Services who prefer to help people that don't smoke as anyone who can read a label knows it's bad for you. Make room in line for those who aren't actively sticking rusty nails into their hearts.
Where's the "win" in that? It's expensive, I don't like it, no one else does and if I die from it the Obit will probably read "We Told Him But He Wouldn't Listen...We Loved Him Anyway!".
So I weigh the tradeoff - now I've got chargers, batteries, atomizers and stuff yeah - but its' interesting stuff, with little lights and instructions in weird Chinese/English. I feel very global and even slightly European doing the e-cig's.
And it's Cheaper Stuff, that isn't delivering clouds of brown smoke into my lungs and the world around me. I can Vape on the run, quickie and put it in my pocket. No Toxic Mushroom Clouds. Now I've got sweet little whiffs of air that's ... gone almost as soon as I produce it. It may not be a win-win but at least it's a win. I got one win, at least. Score = "1!" to "-1000"
Tangible Stuff That Helped - I use the RN 4081, and like it. I can get a hit from my li'l Nic' Bic and I'm good to go. And this board. It's a veritable Reading Room of Hope.
This is the stuff that's helped me and I'm still running it all down as I go. Good luck in abundance and best wishes for a successful tomorrow and a prosperous today!
It does help to know there are other people out there going through the same thing. But it's different from just knowing there are other people going through the tortures of the damned while trying to quit "cold turkey." It's fascinating hearing one success-story after another due to this e-cig technology. That's a cool thing: rather than oy, this is miserable it's more like wow...this is working. Pretty striking difference.
Didn't do quite that well today. :-( But I didn't back-slide too far.
Yes, that part is odd. Those "triggers" for smoking are pretty compelling once the habit is ingrained: starting a phone call; driving; after meals; break time at work; having a drink with friends. Or: moments of stress. Etc.
Or you could buy yourself a pack of . . .
Thanks Kathy!
That's what I do as well.
Some people seem to give 'em up at once. I'm not doing that...did 4 today so far (6 yesterday, down from 22-25 per day). We went to dinner with a couple of smokers and when we were done and outside the restaurant, of course they lit up. I took out the 510. The cigarette smoke should have made me gag, but (sigh) it actually smelled good and when I went home...sigh again...I made one with the injector machine and smoked it. It tasted pretty awful, but I got most of the way through it. What is this habit, anyway? I thought. Then something struck me: part of it -- as dumb as this sounds -- seemed to be that smoking the cigarette is a kind of break. It has a beginning, a middle, and an end (just like the cigarette itself as it gets smoked down). Then, the "session" is over. I wondered if that wasn't part of the appeal (why it would be, I can't imagine). With the e-cig, I can just puff away at my desk -- there's no "break" in it. Aw, who knows...anyway, there must be a lot of habitual behavior in smoking having nothing to do with the nicotine craving itself.
On seeing that he really didn't want to talk about it, I let it drop. He's a neighbor. No point getting at odds with the neighbors.These days almost nobody I know smokes cigarettes. So friends' reactions range from vaguely amused (the e-cig seems like kind of a toy or gimmick, I guess) to "attaboy!" Actually so far all of them have been encouraging. Seeing someone who's smoked for a long time cut down to some fraction of his former amount strikes them as a good thing. One guy (who never smoked) is flat-out amazed. "Unbelievable," he keeps saying when he sees the e-cig in action.
We've all run into anti-smoking "nazis" at some point. Maybe they're concerned that you're about to start dumping on them in that fashion?
Not that she has much of a choice in the matter if she's going to smoke tobacco. Who knows -- maybe there's a puritan "element" in this. As in: "If you [we] are going to smoke, you [we] are supposed to suffer."
