I quit smoking about six months ago and I’m currently having a really rough time of it, since I’m still using nicotine gum and haven’t been able to kick that habit. I’m halfway on my way to giving up and picking up e-cigs, not so much for the nicotine anymore but for the “action” of smoking (all smokers know what I mean.) I’ve been told that vaping is a completely different experience than smoking, it’s more like “a steam bath for your lungs” or so I’ve been told.
However, this resulted in a heated discussion with a friend, who’s convinced that if I give up quitting nicotine and start vaping, I’ll eventually restart smoking actual cigarettes as well. His data point on this is his workplace, where dozens of co-workers vape all day at their desks but always light up real cigarettes outside. I told him his sample size was too small but he doesn’t accept that. (To be fair, he’s been through the same as me – quit smoking 10 years ago, chewed nicotine gum for 2 to 3 years, and finally kicked that habit by throwing away all his Nicorette and mass-chewing Big Red and Dentyne for the next several years.)
So, anyway…what’s the GQ/HO? I’m not really looking for advice about vaping but anecdotes & data about ex-smokers who pick up e-cigs and ultimately revert to real cigarettes (or not.)
I don’t think sample size plays in. It doesn’t sound like his co-workers are trying to quit or have any intention of quitting smoking. They’re just using vaping as a more-convenient stop-gap in places where they can’t smoke and smoking where they can.
I started vaping five or six years ago. It’s not the nicotine, it’s the back of the throat hit. I haven’t picked up or wanted to pick up a cigarette since.
A lot of people start vaping at times when they can’t smoke but smoke when they can. I did. I didn’t intend to quit smoking but eventually just didn’t buy any more cigarettes. That’s a pretty common story. It’s been about eight years now.
It took a few years but eventually I found smokers started to stink; I can now smell a smoker from 20 feet away – not the cigarette, the smoker.
I have no desire for a cigarette. I know many people who vape and of those who have completely quit cigarettes, none of them now have any desire to smoke; some have quit vaping but none have gone back to smoking.
What you’ve been told is correct. You are going to be disappointed; unfortunately it turns out the only things that provide genuine “cigarette action” are genuine cigarettes.
The ones that look like real cigarettes do not perform very well. Everything about them is weak because everything has to be small enough to fit inside a cigarette-sized and -shaped package.
The ones that perform more like a real cigarette are bulky, much bulkier than a real cigarette at least, and do not have the same “action.” They feel like you’re lifting a whole pack of cigarettes to your face.
Either way you’re going to be compromising something significantly.
Ecigs might not replace the ‘action’ of a cigarette exactly due to size etc, but they certainly replace the habit as a substitute very quickly. So instead of say having a cig after lunch you will naturally reach for the replacement in short order. I assumed that’s what buddha_david meant?
I’ve been vaping for 4, nearly 5 years and have no desire to smoke again, the smell and taste of cigarettes is really bad when you give up, really bad.
Yes, it’s the hand-to-mouth action, it’s sitting on the porch watching the sunset, it’s breaking out an “emergency smoke” while stuck in heavy traffic (although that particular urge I’m getting better at ignoring now.) I do still smoke weed but it’s a completely different type of action, almost medicinal in nature; I don’t smoke joints and my total usage is much lower than the average user.
I don’t know if this has any validity, but it may be you need to give up the oral delivery to truly quit. I used nicotine patches when I gave up 8 years ago, with Nicorette mints as a backup. 4 weeks on the patches and apart from a couple of the mints in the week after stopping the patches, (the mints taste pretty disgusting anyway), I just dropped smoking altogether. One particularly stressful day, I nearly took it up again but that was only a very short term thought.
I switched over to vaping about 3 years ago. It was pretty immediate - I think I only had one or two cigarettes the first week and I remember thinking “I am never spending another dime on these things”. Since that first week, I’ve bummed a couple just for the hell of it, but I don’t really like them anymore. My wife still smokes so there’s opportunity for temptation constantly but nope.
It’s been seven years now for me. Like others in this thread, the transition where I did both was short, maybe a week or two. I’ve not smoked a cigarette since, and find the smell disgusting.
When I was a smoker, every cigarette seemed almost like an emergency, or a “ration” of some sort. I was determined not to go above a pack and a half per day, so I would time myself between smokes. When I felt the urge, I’d check the time, and if it hadn’t been 30 minutes I’d force myself to wait.
With a cigarette, once you light up you’ve only got a few minutes to get the most out of it. I remember often getting pissed at myself because I’d be super involved with something, light up, put it in the ashtray, and forget about it until half of it had burned away. None of that matters now. There is hardly any waste with vaping (and no mess, either). I’ve got my device with me at all times, sure; the habit part is still there. In the beginning, I vaped the same way I used to smoke - five minutes of frantic puffing, then making myself put it down for half and hour. These days, I hit it whenever I feel like it. I usually take one hit, then put it down. Two, or three, or ten minutes later, I’ll feel the urge, and take another hit. I’m not consuming any more than I used to, it’s just spread out now, and I like it much better this way. This is one of the many reasons I will never go back to cigarettes. It’s kind of like a nicotine IV.
Last time I attempted to quit, which was about 15 years ago, was with patches only. Can’t remember if I used gum as well or not. My big mistake was that I didn’t actually “quit” except in the sense that I stopped buying cigarettes; instead, I would still bum them from people around me. Later I fell victim to that little voice in my head which said, “Go ahead and buy one pack, and smoke it, and don’t buy any more, everything will be fine.” Lying stupid voice.
So now at least I know that the break point is to avoid buying ANY more cigarettes, ever. And the problem with bumming cigs isn’t as much a problem anymore either, since everyone I used to know who smoked has since either quit, moved out of town, or died.
And the Smok V8 Stick starter kit can be bought on ebay for $25. I really like this one more than any other I’ve had in the years I’ve been doing this.
Well that’s one thing I like about vaping, if you are discreet it doesn’t matter what’s squashed or not. Nobody ever knows. If you take a small drag then hold it an extra couple seconds and blow out at the ground, nobody even notices it. Yes, I know there’s obnoxious “cloud chasers” out there but for the most part I can vape easily without annoying anybody.
