What took you so long?

[generic mutant]

There are a few threads on "Why did you switch?", but I'm not sure I've seen one on the timing specifically. Got me curious...

You're here now, which presumably means you're vaping (or at least thinking about starting). Presumably, like me, you'd heard of vaping before you started in earnest. So what changed?

For me, it was a combination of two major things. Firstly, I didn't want to switch one addictive thing for another if I could avoid it. I'd tried vaping with friends' cigalikes / Egos, and enjoyed it enough that I didn't really think of it as a 'quit nicotine' system, but rather an alternative to smoking. I wanted to try to quit with a tapering dose of conventional NRT first, and hadn't really had the right 'life circumstances' to do that, so when they turned up, and I tried and failed, the door was opened.

Secondly, I was waiting for more definitive scientific assessment of the safety of vaping. Now obviously scientific knowledge is provisional, and nothing suddenly becomes set in stone. Nevertheless, I'd heard about vaping for quite a few years - must have been around 2008 - 2009 that some of my friends picked it up. Back then I don't think there was much information readily available, although I admit I wasn't actively looking for it. The picture seems clear enough now that it's "safe enough" to reasonably recommend to any smoker, even if it does turn into a lifelong habit - and I suspect for me it might well do, even if only at pubs and social gatherings.

 

[crxess]

Actually I had not heard of Vaping. I had decided I needed to find a high success way to try once more to quit. I had actually ordered a medication from Europe that has a much higher rate than anything BP has to offer, has been around for Many many years and is Natural. Highly rated company took my money and I expected a 30-40 day shipping time to receipt........... Yea, that never happened and I was approaching my self imposed deadline.

Wish I had found ECF, but I didn't. I Did however find E-cig info, researched a bit, found I could piece together the Starter Kits I found for much less(2x for less than 1 kit)
Made the mistake....er......order and received the kit the day before my quit date. Charged the batteries and read everything that I could find about the setup.
The next night I walked in from work at 7:15pm , ate a quick dinner and at 7:30 finished my last Smoke.

Never looked Back.

Though I Loath those first 402 mini e-cigs, I carry them in my lunch container daily as a reminder IT CAN BE DONE!

 

[CommaHolly]

I saw e-cigs in a mall kiosk probably 15 years ago or more,,,,,

the claims didn't seem accurate to me (each carto worth a pack of cigs, etc), and the cartos seemed expensive,,,,,,

so I didn't bother,,,,,,

fast forward to last year,,,,,,,,,,,,,,I found out I can fill my own, egos are now available, etc,,,,,,,I figured I'd give it a try then!

 

[generic mutant]

crxess: Did the medication arrive late, or not at all?

Not that it matters now of course, just got me curious.

It's odd. A lot of people from the States seem to say that vaping is relatively unknown there. It seems like it's quite a lot more visible in Britain, and has been for some time - but then I guess smoking was never vilified here to the same extent, so perhaps that explains it.

 

[generic mutant]

I saw e-cigs in a mall kiosk probably 15 years ago or more,,,,,

the claims didn't seem accurate to me (each carto worth a pack of cigs, etc), and the cartos seemed expensive,,,,,,

so I didn't bother,,,,,,

fast forward to last year,,,,,,,,,,,,,,I found out I can fill my own, egos are now available, etc,,,,,,,I figured I'd give it a try then!

15 years ago?! Crikey. I think you probably made the right choice then, they were probably distinctly shoddy. I had no idea they'd been around that long at all (the early US patent notwithstanding).

And yes, the technology is still improving hugely, but it feels like it's made the shift to a new phase of maturity in the last couple of years.

 

[ctkid57]

I didn't know. I wish I had heard of vaping 2 years ago!

 

[SissySpike]

I started smoking to get off the gum. Then went to the patch and ended up vaping. ;-)I take chantex so I can have a viable defense if I ever decide to go postal!

 

[ctkid57]

I didn't know. I wish I had heard of vaping 2 years ago!

Was I the only one living in a cave?

 

[klynnn]

I wish I had heard about vaping 48 years ago. Being old is a pita.

 

[ctkid57]

I started smoking to get off the gum. Then went to the patch and ended up vaping. ;-)I take chantex so I can have a viable defense if I ever decide to go postal!

Don't get me started on the Chantix! I wanted to kill people! My daughter said, Dad please start smoking again.

 

[SissySpike]

Don't get me started on the Chantix! I wanted to kill people! My daughter said, Dad please start smoking again.

I watch Law and Order Im pretty sure its a good defense!

 

[pamdis]

I don't remember how many years ago it was, but my son bought me an electronic cigarette. It was all black, one piece, smaller than a cigarette, and advertised as 'mimicking smoking'. It didn't even have nicotine in it. We had a heck of a time trying to get it to work.

Six months ago, my son again says, 'Why don't you try an e-cig?". I reminded him that I did years ago and he laughs and says, "No, they are completely different now. All my friends are using them, and they actually work now."

I researched it, bought an ego kit and haven't looked back since.

ETA: I really had no clue all these years about what was going on in the e-cig market.

 

[graybuck]

The industry I work in has a distinct negative attitude towards smoking. It became more difficult to try and hide my habit. I began to feel like an outcast sneaking around, trying to hide the smell. I finaly thought I would try an e-cig. Worked for me and now I don't have the issues with my work environment.

I would have to admit I never had any health issues as a smoker. Since I quit I have had more health issues than I would have ever imagined. Depression, muscle aches, weight gain.. have made this a tough path. I keep moving forward trying different options and learning to deal with stress differently. I am working through the problems and expect I will be better off for my struggles.

 

[Dzaw]

I was just sick of being cold... Up until I tried it, I was pretty sure this whole e-cig thing was a gimmicky waste of time and money. Finally decided one day that for the 8 bucks I should at least try that disposable they had on the counter when I was buying a pack of poison.

Never looked back! Stopped cigs that day, been vaping ever since.

Did I mention how sick I was of being cold?

 

[klynnn]

I saw an ad for v2 on the computer ads 2+ years ago. I thought what the hell why not. Spent 200.00 on the best kit they had plus a ton of refills. It was great worked for a month then chinese new years came about and couldn't get the prefills for awhile. Went back to cigs reluctantly but then found ecf and the diy forum. Today I make my own with a little help from friends.

 

[glasseye]

I tried it back in 2007 or 2008 with the 510 stick batteries. The flavors were pretty bad and the cartos had the fish tank filter stuff. I tried but it wasn't good enough. I did use them here and there, still have them too, but now I use the little Nano clearos on them. Much better. But last year I tried it again and the flavors! OMG the flavors!!!! Plus the variable voltage! What?!? That did the trick for me and I quit that day. Of course it all went downhill when I got VW, mechanicals...haha

 

[Shadav]

what took me so long was 1) all that I knew about were the blu's and then njoys 2) I didn't smoke cigs I smoked cloves 3) cost, at the time I didn't want to spend $100 for something that I probably wouldn't like/use
but as vaping became more common place and flavoriful a thought occurred to me that surely I couldn't be the only clove smoker looking to vape....well at the time apparently I was....so chance have it I was able to buy a blu kit (at the time, half off...still over priced) for $45 after looking into some (outdated) videos of diy juice and refilling carts got fairly good at diy clove

Thankfully finally found ecf and well learned that there's a lot more to vaping than e-cigs which made diy juice a lot easier...lmfao now over a year later of vaping and 6 months smoke free I do less actual diy and more mixing premixed flavors as I've found I rather enjoy flavors instead of just trying to find a clove replacement and thanks to fasttech was able to afford vaping.

 

[MikeZ28]

I tried the Smoking Everywhere cigalikes back in 2008 or so. They sucked, it turned be off to the whole idea for a long time. Last October I bought a blu starter kit on a whim. They worked but didn't really take care of the cravings. That brought be online to research what else might be out there. I had a false start with an overpriced rebranded ego kit but then I found ecf and things have been good since with all the great info on here.

Six months ago being a non-smoker wasn't in the realm of possibility. How times have changed

 

[generic mutant]

...
I would have to admit I never had any health issues as a smoker. Since I quit I have had more health issues than I would have ever imagined. Depression, muscle aches, weight gain.. have made this a tough path. I keep moving forward trying different options and learning to deal with stress differently. I am working through the problems and expect I will be better off for my struggles.

It's deceptive, isn't it... You don't really know how grim you're going to feel when you quit, so you just keep smoking.

Good thing we gave up when we did, I say (whenever that may for all of us have been... )

 

[Zealous]

I didn't wait long after being introduced to start vaping. I was introduced to it through a mall kiosk but that one was no good. However I did think there might be better so I started looking as I liked the idea of the device & thought it would work to help me quit. The Blu was next & while it was ok & a better performer than the one in the mall it was still not great. Once I found dripping & ego style batteries I stuck with it pretty much immediately & stopped smoking all together at that point.