One Month In So Far And Not A Single Problem

History. I'm 66, smoked for more than 30 years, quit when I had a small heart attack at about 47-49 years old. BP issues requiring meds and other health issues.

About last August 2019 I had a bunch of stress come up and handled it badly. I started on mild cigars and moved to medium strong. Got in a situation where I couldn't smoke a stogie, so bummed a cigarette. That morphed into smoking more than a carton and stogies.

I knew they'd kill me so I picked up a Juul 3%, not enough moved to 5%.
Moved on to a Vinci x and 50 salt.

Have been mixing and dropping the salt and was to 25ish. Was getting a lot of choking white phlegm every morn. Vaping mostly tobacco with very little flavor. 70-30 was better than 50-50 for muscus/phlegm problem.

The purpose of vaping was to avoid analogs and eventually quit all nicotine.

I'm into the second day today. Piece of nicorette gum in one cheek and a nicorette lozenge in the other. Both 2mg. Consult your doctor on doubling up patches, gum etc.

Withdrawal wasn't bad so far at all. Don't know if vape nic absorbs different or not. It's different than quitting analogs somehow for me anyway.

Anyhow, passing it on for anyone thinking of going down the path of being nic free again. I was off everything for 15+ years and for my heart and health am going there again.

I do have to say though that vaping definitely kept me 100% off analogs once I switched. And didn't palpitate or sense any issues from it, other than a 20 count BP rise.

I vaped lightly, 100-150 2-3 second puffs per day. I still have the equipment and juice if I fail, but so far it's going well.

Dave  

A few month ago I was vaping 24mg juice, been doing that for a few years. I started strong to quit cigs. My biggest cravings happen when I wake up, and after a meal.

I made the decision to quit vaping so I cut the strength down to 10mg 2 month ago. Then a few days ago I cut down to 5mg. I plan do cut down further to 2.5mg a month from now, and then 1.25mg...etc. I do DIY juice so all I have to do is dilute my jar when I have 50% left.

Right now I still get some craving at trigger time, and each time I cut down, I need to puff more in the first few days.

I wonder if my cravings will decrease as my nic level decreases. Once I'm at 1.25mg I plan to quit cold turkey, and I wonder how hard it will be? I should also mention that I vape menthol, so each time I dilute my juice I'm also weakening the cooling sensation that I'm used to.

thanks  

Hello fellow vapers.
Here is a topic I was thinking of lately and I wanted to ask your opinion/plans.

Generally speaking, e-cigs were invented in order to help smokers switch from smoking regular cigs to something much less harmful and eventually help people quit this (one of the worst) habit of smoking / adding nicotine to your system.

Ideal plan was to give a smoker something similar (as a process) with enough nicotine to satisfy his needs but without all that sh@t that cigs contain.
After some time this ex-smoker was suppose to start lowering amounts of nicotine in his e-juice up until he is OK with 0 mg. nic vaping.
And eventually quit vaping as well, eliminating the habit.

In reality, I'd say about 80% of ex-smokers who became vapers don't even plan to quit vaping, they have their preferred nic. level and they keep on vaping it year after year being happy about it.

So what's your opinion on that? Do you also plan to keep on vaping or you might quit it in the future?  

Hey guys!

Couple different issues here. I bought an e-cig on a whim, and a couple days later was analog free. That was going on three months ago. First week was tough, after that was easy. The pride of being an ex-smoker was enough motivation to stick with the vapes. Of course, I upgraded in equipment quickly and primarily vape RDA's through a sigeili 150 that I usually use between 50-70 watts with the rda, less with an atlantis or subtank mini.

The issues began a few weeks ago. Out of nowhere, my taste buds changed. My "set" flavors all of a sudden started becoming very harsh and awful. Changing to a different flavor from a different vendor (also went from 3mg to 6) seemed to help a little. After getting used to the new stuff, the old stuff I had tasted a little better too....though I cut one flavor down about 50/50 with straight VG (I typically use a max vg or 70vg 30pg mix). I vape 10-15ml per day.

The second issue is, even with all of this equipment producing massive vapor, it still doesn't seem to scratch the itch. I've been depressed lately, a lot. I crave analogs like there's no tomorrow. I feel like I no longer have any pride or motivation to be a non-smoker. I was actually getting up to go get a pack yesterday since in my mind I couldn't come up with a good reason not to......until I thought of my 2.5 year old son and decided not to for him.

So my questions a
-Did my taste buds literally change overnight like that????? Different flavors, different tanks, different RDA's, different batteries....they all tasted bad.
-Why the hell would the demons of addiction decide to start attacking in the third month when the previous urges were quickly passing?

Help!  

Hi All! Sorry if this is long. This place is a lifesaver. I was a 30 year PAD smoker. Tried all the recommendations to quit. Resigned to smoking forever. I heard of vaping in 2013 and found this site. The day my Ego arrived in the mail on April 15, 2013, I put down the cigs and haven’t had a puff since that day. (I still smoke in my dreams every night.) I started out at 18 mg, and went up to 24 for a while. I vaped way higher nicotine than my cigs had, and much more often. I even took my Ego pen to bed and put it under my pillow to use through the night. No matter how much Nicotine I inhaled, I still went through the same withdrawals that I did when quitting cold turkey, or the gum, or the patch, or setting a timer between smokes. It was obvious I wasn’t withdrawing from nicotine. It’s from whatever chemicals are in the cigarettes.

Over the last 7 years, I’ve gone down from 18mg, to 12, to 6, and now 3. Not by choice. I was happy at 18. I started getting lightheaded, so stepped down the nicotine in levels. Not because I wanted less nicotine, but because my body couldn’t handle it. I’m now at 3mg, and starting to getting lightheaded from it. Next step is 0mg. I’ve no problem going to no nicotine, but after so long, I can’t imagine not having the inhale/exhale/hand to mouth repetition.

Has anyone gotten to 0mg and still vapes, or have you broken the habit?  

Hi my name is Steve and I'm a smokaholic. I've been clean for nearly 1.5 years and I've even converted a few people along the way.

I haven't been back here for a while but I had some questions about steeping so I logged in but I thought I report in on my journey to quit smoking. January marked one full year so I'm almost up to 1.5 years free of smoke. I'd like to eventually quit nicotine altogether but for now I'm happy to be smoke free, though I did just lower my nicotine level to 12mg, that is however in a higher watt unit. How long has it been for you? Do you think you will ever quit vaping too?  

Some of y'all may remember me, some not so fondly, but that's okay. I used to be a very frequent and outspoken contributor here.

I haven't posted in awhile. Mainly because I fell off the wagon big time after 5 years of vaping and felt like a hypocrite posting on these forums.

I've tried new vaping products in the interim and just haven't been able to stay away from the cancer sticks.

That changed for me yesterday after trying the Iqos device.

I tried one, bought one and haven't had an analog since.

For those wondering about these, especially those who are looking for that missing something with nicotine salts, WTA etc, give these a try.

They are basically a miniature dry herb vaporizer for tobacco.

You get that same instant rush from a cigarette, those same missing chemicals, and a very similar hand and mouth feel.

No harshness or coughing like from vaping either. And the taste is PHENOMENAL. I'm not a fan of tobacco flavors....have never smoked for the taste.... but this is the fullest, cleanest tobacco flavor I've ever experienced.

And the best part is, since nothing is burning like a cigarette, there's a big reduction in tar and harmful chemicals.

I will try to post a video review in the next few days if anyone is interested.

This is a game changer for me, even bigger than that first kr808 I tried over a decade ago....and if keeps someone else off of cigarettes, I think it's worth posting here  

Hi all-
I haven't posted in a long while. I am in need of some suggestions as to what could be going in with me all of the sudden with my vaping.

Within the past two months I have a very hard time breathing when vaping. I was just thinking at first that I was getting sick or something. Then, I stopped for a few days completely and I felt better so I started again. The evening of the first day back to vaping, I laid in bed trying to go to sleep feeling like an elephant was sitting on my chest and that my throat was closing up. It was very scary. So scary that I have now been to the pulmonologist as well as the cardiologist (because the chest heaviness was bad). My lungs are clear and heart is in good condition. Soooooo....I went and purchased a ZERO nicotine juice thinking that maybe it was the nicotine. NOPE.....that didn't work either, I have used my e-cig only on the past two Saturdays and it has zero nicotine liquid in it and I still have the same problem after the day of vaping. I feel like I am struggling to breath. It is horrible. It takes a day or so to subside. I really enjoy my vape. I quit analogs on April 9, 2011 and have been vaping every since. Does anyone have any idea what the problem could possibly be? Maybe I should try just VG Juices....would that make a difference? Please help....any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!!  

I was just thinking about some of the unique things about vaping that is different from analog's

In the past I had used my analog as sort of a timer. Worked great for cooking a frozen pizza, It took me roughly 10 minutes to have a smoke. I could string several together for things that required more time.


The last cig would kick off my sleep. "when I finish this one it's lights out" . When I vape with a tank it is never finished.


Analogs were a convenient excuse to get away from non preferred people or activities.


Analogs at an event, would decide for you, who your social group would be. It would be the group huddled by the entrance smoking.


Would force you to get out of bed and start the day. Especially when you were hung over and out of them.


Could refresh you day of the week memory. "Hmm got three packs left, bought the carton on Monday, So it must be Thursday.


Forced me to clean my room or car. Looking for that Emergency Smoke.


Meet girls (smoking girls).


Anybody else notice the weird differences?  

I smoked my last cigarette at 8:05am on May 5, 2014 . I didn't know then if it would really be the day I finally quit, but I told myself to really try to go 24 hours without smoking, a goal I had never achieved. And I made it! So then I told myself, if I could go a day, I could truly make it.

I started smoking at a very young age, and smoked 35 years. I made numerous attempts to quit going back to my college years. I tried cold turkey, cutting back, the patch, gum, a nicotine inhaler, Wellbutrin and Chantix. No matter what, I couldn't break that 24 hour goal. I would go through ashtrays and light up every disgusting butt for 1 or 2 nasty drags.

My last few years of smoking I was under a PAD, but only due to financial reasons. I just wouldn't let myself have more than 1 cigarette per hour, but I certainly smoked the heck out of each one. The filter would be collapsed by the time I was finished.

Thank you, ECF. I was so clueless when I started vaping. I didn't know which was 510 and which was ego threading on my batteries. I didn't know an atomizer from a clearomizer. I didn't know what rebuildables were, or that the ones I saw online were clones. I kept googling different things, and kept ending up here to read. Finally after 3 months of lurking, I joined.

The journey has been amazing! The technology changes alone in the 14 months I've been vaping are mind boggling. And I've met some truly kind and generous folks here, from those who give their time all day to help others, to those who give hardware and juice to those in a financial crunch. Thank you, all