Glad I Started When I Did

This past week marks 5 years since I smoked a cigarette. It honestly doesn't seem that long, it seems like yesterday I was huddled out in the cold at work with the smokers. I had been a smoker for 28 years.

Unlike many I see posting here, I cannot say vaping helped me quit. I quit cold turkey, and never tried an ecig until about a year after I quit smoking. At that point I was still doing well as a non-smoker, I didn't physically crave smoking, but I missed the 28 year habit of lighting up, having something to fiddle with, and just the relaxing feeling of the inhale/exhale. I had been eating a lot more to make up for the void, and having been underweight all my life I started packing on pounds (too many!). I sorely needed a non-food substitute for the comfort I was missing, but wasn't about to go back to smoking.

I tried a junky convenience store ecig after that first year, and thought "if this was what they were like than forget it". I continued on not smoking, but still missing the habit. About two years after that I began seeing the new advanced products coming out, and did a lot of research. I bought my first starter kit in 2013, and slowly advanced up to bigger and better gear.

People ask why would start vaping after I had already kicked the cigarette habit, and I say, "Why not?". Other than nicotine I'm not getting any of the negative things I got with cigarettes. And in my opinion, there's really nothing wrong with a little nicotine. Nicotine is not what was killing me, it was the smoke that was delivering the nicotine that was killing me.

So I'm 5 years smoke free, I no longer hack in the mornings, my chest never hurts and my clothes, car and hair don't stink anymore.
I have no intentions on giving up vaping, as it has no negative impact on my life, and i enjoy it, so why stop?

I have since gotten my son, my step-son, and his wife to all trade vaping for smoking, so bonus points for saving all their lives too!  

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  

VAPING TESTIMONIAL
I smoked for over 50 years and it got to the point where I could barely breathe. I knew I had to quit but I also knew I had no will power to do so. Then 6 years ago I tried vaping and it literally saved my life. I still got my nicotine fix and could finally breathe easier and I was not inhaling all those harmful chemicals. I know taking anything into your lungs is harmful but vaping really is the lesser of two evils. And speaking of evils look at these statistics:
Cigarette smoking is responsible for more than 480,000 deaths per year
68,557 people died in 2018 of an opioid overdose
in 2017, 39,773 people in the US lost their lives at the point of a gun
In 2016, 10,497 people died in alcohol-impaired driving crashes
30,000 deaths were the result of domestic abuse world wide in 2018.
There are 2,200 alcohol poisoning deaths in the US each year.
so in the last year 631,027 died of unnatural causes, extrapolated over six years that is 3,786,162 deaths
1978 to 1995 a total of 37 Americans were killed by falling vending machines
There have been six confirmed deaths connected to vaping across the US
of these two were from lithium batteries exploding and not the vaping itself
and two were from people experimenting by adding dangerous chemicals to their e-cigarettes.
So in reality only two people died due to vaping.
and you pick vaping as a just cause. Really? where are your values and priorities?
more people die each year from choking or acts of stupidity than vaping.
Of all these causes you could get behind why are you picking the least dangerous and offensive one? I think it's time people learned to pick their battles.
so, 480,000 deaths by cigarettes and why doesn't the government care? Here's why, because for every smoker that dies a new smoker starts. And tobacco is such a cash cow the government doesn't want it to disappear. In Canada the average taxes on a carton of cigarettes is 65%, in the US the taxes are around 45%. That's a lot of free cash. But, if people switch to vaping there are no taxes associated with it. There are no health concerns, it is purely greed.
Here is the thing about statistics: you can make up anything you want or manipulate the facts to get your point of view across. Why? Because they can't be verified. So all the government does is use scare tactics and people are gullible enough to believe it. They have no scientific proof to back up their claims, it is all BS.
Vaping is a much safer alternative to smoking, so why don't they shut down the tobacco industry? MONEY!! MONEY!! MONEY!!
I will defend vaping over cigarettes forever.  

Seeking relief from nicotine addiction, some e-cigarette users turn to cigarettes - CNN

Even though McClain knows the dangers of cigarettes — lung cancer runs in his family — he thinks it might be easier to kick cigarettes than his Juul. Plus, his mom keeps warning him about the mysterious vaping-related illnesses that have sickened hundreds across the country.
So last month, McClain bought his first pack of cigarettes in years. Then he tweeted about it.
"Bought a juul to quit smoking cigarettes," he wrote, "now I'm smoking cigarettes to quit the juul." He ended with this hashtag: #circleoflife.
Click to expand...

By the time the anti-vaping zealots figure out what they've done it will be to late to undo. Actually, it probably is too late.  

I began vaping in 2013. It was a basic setup: Ego Twist with a couple of Vivi Nova tanks.
It took some trial and error but found a couple of juices that I liked and stuck with them. Started
at 18 mg and settled on 12 mg nicotine level. The Ego was nothing special, but it seemed to work well at the time as I quit smoking for an entire year with it. As time wore on, I began getting to get more and more burnt / dry hits. Seemed to be happening all the time. Went through countless coils and it became such an issue that I finally got tired of messing with it and quit vaping. Went back to cigarettes. Looking back, I believe I was using a High VG or possibly Max VG liquid which may have been the cause. Desperate to get off cigarettes again I tried again last year. Bought several starter kits including Innokin IO and Innokin Endura T22. Did not like either of these. Just seemed to give me a headache even after just a couple of puffs. I tried both with 12mg and 6mg. Did not notice much of a difference. I just did not get the satisfaction I remember from years earlier. So gave up on vaping again and went back to analogs.

It is now 2019 and I am really sick and tired of smoking cigarettes. I hate them but can’t stop.
Along comes the JUUL, I decided to give it a shot and just figured it would not work.
At first I did not like it. Seemed WAY to strong at 5%. Stuck with it for a week and thought - hey this is not bad. Mainly was using Virginia and every once in a while a Mango pod was nice (Maybe ½ to 1 full pod a day). I was still smoking a couple of cigs in the morning but after that I would use the JUUL the rest of the day. It was by no means great but good enough. I would constantly struggle to get a decent hit off of it though. There always seemed to be air bubbles in the pods causing a problem or I had to pull the pod out and put it back in just to get it to hit decently. Like I said just good enough. After about 6 months or I started have stomach issues. Mainly really bad gas and thought it might be due to the higher nic level in the 5% pods. So I dropped down to 3% for a month or so and noticed no difference. Finally decided to quit the JUUL altogether to see if it made any difference. Within a week everything went away and was back to normal. No more JULL for me. I am guessing something in the Nicsalts didn’t agree with me. I never had this issue with freebase nicotine.

So, am now looking for a device to replace the JULL that does not use nicsalts and was hoping to get some recommendations. I do not need a big mod device to blow clouds or anything like that.
I want something very simple that hits well and does not burn. I am open to anything really as long as it works. I do prefer MTL style and have heard good things about the Joyetech AIO as well as the SMOK infinix devices. I am really open to anything that will work well. Prefer something small, easy to use and that fits in my pocket. Also, I prefer tobacco flavors and am planning to try out the Blacknote stuff which is a 50/50 PG/VG mix so looking for a device suited to that. Any advice or recommendations would be appreciated. Thanks!  

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?  

2 Years ago, I tried my first cigalike and promptly ordered a Halo Triton Kit, and have been cigarette and smoke free since.

I just wanted to thank ECF for help keeping me focused, interested and distracted with the rapidly changing technology to remain smoke free. Special recognition to the 2 sub-forums that helped me the most: http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...ussion/519685-natural-tobaccos-part-deux.html and Halo . That's where I started and I am forever grateful for the help, encouragement and PIF'ing that occurred after I lost my job a month after I began vaping. It was a bad time to having just quit smoking, but because of ECF, vaping, and the folks at those 2 threads, I remain a vaper and never looked back.  

Seen it mentioned over and over here that after vaping for a variable period
of time analogs start tasting 'nasty' to many (most?) people. Happened with
my father in law after about two months. Has not yet happened with a coworker
who vapes and still smokes. Think he has vaped over a year total and at
least four months with a proper rig.

So, exactly how can vaping while quitting change the taste of cigarettes when
cold turkey or the patch do not? At least they did not in the past, wife and
I quit and started back at least four times each before we finally
succeeded. Final time was almost six years ago so we were well before the
fire retardant / carpet glue was added.

Anyone quit and restart via vaping both before and after fire retardant was
added? Was the nasty taste absent back then or less pronounced?

Curious to hear from from anyone who has quit and restarted with different
methods and how the taste differs. Have read that Chantix and similar also
can cause a nasty taste. Is it the same as from vaping or different?

Never seen or found a thread devoted to this so though I would start one.  

I simply just want to hear from people who have not smoked cigarettes and began vaping 0 nic. Please do not lecture me on why you think I shouldn't start. I have done my research (and actually have vaped e-cigs before so I know what it feels like) and would just like to know that there are others in the same boat as me. I enjoy the variety of flavors to choose from and getting to create vapor without the addiction of nicotine. Once again, I will not vape with nicotine.

Thank you!  

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?