I had quit, FINALLY, after 15 years of a pack or more a day smoking. What an accomplishment! Something i would be proud of for an entire year. The benefits I had seen were amazing! I could HIKE again, 3000ft elevation gain in 3 miles! Wow! Something i had not done since i was 13. Well, there I was... Camping with some friends.
I knew I should have brought my backups, I KNEW IT! All i had was two 18650's, my mini mech which took 1 and an RDA... It was only a matter of time before something went wrong. I did not bring the tools to rebuild the atomizer. I had no charger for my batteries- and we would be here for a week. What the hell was I thinking?
The trip was a blast, we did a TON of fishing, nights were spent with our group of party-goers by the campfire. We drank ALOT and we shared our stories.. In the back of my mind, i knew... I was going to be without nicotine at some point in this trip. WHY, Why did i not come prepared. Something SO IMPORTANT to me and i did not bring what i needed.
Then it happened. I was on my second battery- three days into the trip. The vape was becoming very weak, I was almost done. I fought hard to conserve, only vaping a puff or two every hour or so. I still needed SOME nicotine. It was about 8PM, time for another puff... Only.. Nothing. "OK" i said. "I can still do this, I dont need it". It had been an hour since my last puff and honestly, I did need it.
9 O'clock rolled around, we were hanging out around the fire drinking... everyone was smoking and I had nothing to occupy my hands. I was desperate. "I can go lay down, maybe if I go to sleep, wake up early and pack up- I can make it home and this will all be over". I laid down... Restless. The next thirty minutes felt like 10 hours, I did NEED it.
I will just go hang out some more, forget about it. I climbed out of the tent and rejoined the group around 10, seems like no one was tired. I knew i couldn't sleep. The alcohol was starting to loosen my grasp on priorities... Ok, just one drag, something to get me by. I looked at my buddy smoking and decided I would ask.. "hey man, let me hit your cig". Huge mistake! "Here, just have one" he said. Ok, what harm would a couple drags do? I lit the cig, inhaled deeply and noticed a few things.
The first drag was very weird. It tasted very bad, completely like chemicals. It was so satisfying though! I smoked that cigarette and enjoyed it, every moment. The campground we were at had a store that was open until 11, and guess what.. I needed nicotine. They sold cigs. The rest was history. I regretted that to this day. I had messed up, so bad. I had so much under my belt, so much accomplished- i was a loser that day.
Its been 5 years since then. My lungs have gotten so bad. I smoked 2 packs a day, marb 100's. I cough in my sleep and when i wake up. I vomit sometimes from how bad it is. Sometimes, i have a hard time breathing- something new and unfamiliar... I know why though. These past 6 months have been bad. It was time to make a change.
I proposed something to my wife; who does not smoke and never has. She loves sugar, if she could quit that... something i did 7 years ago... Then i would quit smoking. DEAL! She was onboard. Two weeks have passed, she has quit sweet creamer in her coffe, candy, chocolate, sweet tea, everything. She did it. Ok, My turn.
I went out tonight about 6 hours ago and bought a new vape. I have not smoked since i bought it! I can do this, I know I can! She is already proud of me, and I am too. Its time to quit once and for all, and I know i can do this... Here's to believing!
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've tried to quit smoking using vape stuff many times over the last two years or so. I've made it two weeks twice and otherwise have not made it long enough to remember. I had a dream last night that I was vaping. When I woke up I got excited about that (that I wasn't smoking in the dream). I went back to bed and woke up this morning in the middle of a dream that I was smoking. Ahk!
I know that I cannot ever have another puff if I want this to work. There is a thread about how gross smoking tastes after vaping. It's true that for me, smoking is sort of gross and leaves a nasty taste in my mouth, but clearly I like it no matter how disgusting it is.
Around February, my boyfriend said he wanted to quit smoking in the spring. We quit on the same day (last Monday). He uses nicotine gum and I have my vaping. He enjoys taking a puff off my equipment. But a "puff" has turned into about as much as I use it. Last Saturday he said he only had one piece of nicotine gum because he vaped most of the time. I'm trying not to be annoyed, but it kind of irritates me a little. Mostly because I chain-vape and don't want him to take it from me. A few days ago, I noticed he kept adjusting the voltage and handing it back to me without changing it back to where I had it! I made sure he stopped doing that.
Last night he asked me what stuff I buy (the battery, clearomizers and liquid- sorry, I don't know the correct terminology for everything). He was reading up on vaping. I am hoping he's considering buying his own stuff.
I'm thrilled that he quit smoking and want to be supportive of him regardless of how he does it but I sort of want to say, "get your own!"
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
Because it has a coil? Because it has a tank that contains VG or PG? Because the user expels vapor that looks like smoke ? Because it has a battery? Because the tank holds liquid that contains nicotine? What if the tank does not contain nicotine? Is it still an E-Cig?
These are my burning questions for tonight while watching Modern Marvels on H2 (History Channel 2)
That and I really need to know what exactly constitutes an E-cig. I've been tobacco free, smoke free for almost two years. Vaping exclusively. I'm close to zero nicotine now. Will I still be an E-cig user when I go to zero? Obviously yes, but why ?
I really dig vaping a million times more then I dug smoking. I hated smoking. Just did it for 40 years 'cause I couldn't get off the stinkies til I discovered E-cig (24 mg/ml when I first quit smoking) almost two years ago. Still can't believe I've been smoke free for so long.
Hope you weigh in on the subject of "What constitutes an E-Cig ?"
So I'm a 19 year old guy, started smoking when I was 14 and finally quit cigarettes 3 months ago. My parents like that I quit smoking but they think vaping some sort of gateway drug that will make me want to, and I quote, "smoke {OTHER STUFF}". What I don't understand is that both of my parents both smoke a pack a day. I even tried to convince them to switch to vaping but they said they don't want to smoke that "{OTHER STUFF} device". Even when I vape in my room, they come in and get pissed off because they're tired of smelling my "fruity {MODERATED}". How can I convince them to get a better understanding of vaping and potentially start them on it too?
I know this is useless for most of you and if the mods want to delete it please do but I am so frustrated with the media and the politicians and I have no outlet for this, so here we are.
I actually have never smoked or vaped (aside from a trial puff here and there), but my wife and mother both have smoked and do vape. I'm on here because I'm the research and order guy.
They switched from smoking to vaping in 2007 almost at the same time, so it's been 12 years for them.
My mom was a smoker for 50ish years, and as a waitress, she was at about 2 packs a day. She's always had fairly good health because she worked on it, but as she got older you could hear the "smoker's cough" develop and just see the symptoms of aging and the early signs of lung issues. One of her sisters has COPD and another died of lung cancer. She swapped to e-cigs and never had a relapse to cigarettes. Within a year the cough was gone. She is 75 and most people think she is in her 50s. She is active and in great health with only mild diabetes (controlled with diet and I think the minimum dose of a pill, no insulin). She has had chest x-rays and a few other exams and they doubt her when she tells them she is an ex-smoker.
My wife has a similar story. Lighter smoker for a shorter time, but same results. Better health, lungs fully healed from smoking. No side effects from vaping.
Oh and my wife's father was a huge smoker and used e-cigs to completely quit smoking/vaping altogether when the pills/patches/gum wouldn't work at all.
Now, they both utilize products from vapor4life.com that resemble cigarettes and use the "light or ultralight" (I wanna say 1.8% or 1.1%... something like that) equivalent nicotine level. They don't have the giant boxes the "kids" use that produce a room full of vape smoke to be edgy and cool. They vape pretty much the same times they'd take a smoke break though I think less often really... I think they take fewer puffs maybe a little more often? I dunno, it's hard to remember since they haven't smoked in 12 years. My wife will hold hers casually hidden in her hand and get a couple puffs during movies and slowly let the vapor escape and NOBODY knows. Not even me sitting next to her.
Their health is so much better. My mom uses a plain nicotine flavor that tastes like her Winston lights did and my wife has a Menthol that tastes close to her Salem Slim Light 100s. Neither were fond of the fun flavors. I got some 0 nicotine grape the first year and puffed on it once in a while and it was neat (not really inhaling, more like a cigar or a pipe) and that was that.
I am so pissed off at the Trumps and the media for their generalized reporting and the banning of products. I'm pissed at the people/kids who use vaping like its a toy and fun hipster trend and got it banned from airplanes and restaurants. I look at my mom who most likely would have died of lung cancer or be on oxygen by now if not for vaping and I just want to punch these people in the face. How can single digit deaths, which I understand was using sketchy products anyway, trigger fear and a ban when the cigarette companies kill MILLIONS and cause cancer (to smokers and people who are adjacent to smokers via 2nd hand smoke) just have to put a warning label on their product?
Anyway, I'm rambling. I don't know where this goes. Maybe it'll spark discussion. Maybe it'll be deleted and I'll be told I'm an idiot. Maybe someone who isn't sure if vaping will help them quit smoking will see three success stories and take a step in the right direction. I dunno...
Fight the good fight people.
I've been trying to get my dad to quit smoking for two years now. He wanted to quit using an e-cig. However, he just can't seem to stick with it. He has been smoking for 30+ years. He smokes almost two packs a day.
I think the problem really is that he hasn't -tried-. As soon as he wants a real smoke, he lights one up. He only uses his e-cig is places he can't smoke.
He says he wants something that taste like tobacco. I've tried buying him numerous tobacco e-liquids. The closest was one from Ahlusion, but he still says it isn't like tobacco. He keeps saying he'll quit, but then he doesn't.
He has an ego with a mini protank, he seems fine with that. He isn't very amused by my mech mods and RTAs. lol.
I'm just lost as to what to do. A lot of people say to just stop telling him to do so and let him do it on his own. It is hard to just sit and watch him smoke though, esp when my mom had lung cancer just over a year ago (luckily, she did quit smoking with an e-cig and went into remission after radiation treatment). When I switched, I had only just started to smoke again (I smoked 3 years, quit, then started smoking again for about 4 months, then to an e-cig). I didn't like tobacco flavors when I started and almost immediately went to fruit flavors. He's tried those too, doesn't have much interest in them.
So my question to you ex long term smokers, what helped you make the switch? I feel like I just can't relate to smoking 30 something years.
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'm not proud of this, but I broke down and had a cig this morning (been months since I quit, but still "slip" once in a while)
The next door neighbor came by (she knows I vape) and there I am smoking. She said " just don't vape... it's very dangerous!" It almost killed me... and she didn't seen concerned at all that I was smoking (I think her husband used to smoke and had heart issues... he passed away) I made one of my "bad jokes"... said "it will drive you to smoking again" She didn't even get it. It's called "social engineering" and is very powerful (at least to the "sheeple") We have all discussed this. Your average person doesn't read or listen to the whole story, just knows "vaping is dangerous!" I give up... just can't get through to some people
I posted this in 2016 in this thread: Starting to smell smoke after years of vaping?
Some of the replies freaked me out and the phantom smoke smell went away eventually though I don't know exactly how. I received some questions from other people so I thought I should follow up on what happened in my situation.
About three years ago I ended up going to the doctor because I couldn't sleep and was referred to a sleep specialist and found out I had sleep apnea. I had a week on their sleep monitor and was told I stopped breathing hundreds (or thousands? can't remember, but a lot!) of times a night and could suffocate and die at any time. Then they wanted me to buy a cpap machine and be hooked up to this thing for the rest of my life, like a pod in The Matrix, and pay for all these supplies regularly. After a week on the cpap machine I was almost suffocated by the machine multiple times and I woke up gasping for air, either because I knocked the mask loose in my sleep or because they said they had to adjust settings over the internet.
I knew the cpap wasn't going to work for me so I took it all back and never went back to the doctor (I was "only" out the $1000 or so for all the testing and what not). From reading about sleep apnea and my own logic, it made sense if I was overweight that my nasal passages and throat could be enlarged also and could be causing my breathing problems. I totally changed my diet and never ate fast food or processed food again and had to cut back to 1500-1700 calories a day to lose about 2-6 lbs of weight a week. I lost almost half of my body weight over the course of 1.5 years and my sleep apnea went away. Over that period I also switched up my vaping hardware and juice so I don't know when the phantom smoke smell disappeared, but it did, and luckily I didn't have brain cancer or anything else some people suggested.
I know weight isn't the only thing that causes sleep apnea, but in my case it did. Now I actually get REM sleep and when I get to bed on time, I'm fully rested. From what the doctors told me, before all this I was being woken constantly trying to breath. I was tired 24 hours a day no matter how much "sleep" I got and would fall asleep just sitting down for a few minutes anywhere. Sometimes I had to pull off the road for a 10 minute nap or risk falling asleep while driving. Driving long distances was misery. Now when I think back I can only describe those years as a walking dream. That's what it felt like being deprived of sleep for years.
It's hard to believe that obstructed breathing wouldn't have contributed to the sense of smell, but it was either that or just switching up my vaping. I believe the weight had something to do with it.