# I finally quit smoking. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 4, 2010, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-finally-quit-smoking/552633 "2010-09-04T22:44:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mindfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindfield/32/19759_2.png) [@Mindfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mindfield)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2010, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-finally-quit-smoking/552633/1 "2010-09-04T22:44:04Z")
For real. Well, kinda. It’s been a long time since I checked in here; life has been busy for me. Between my day job, learning to develop iPhone games, and recently being contracted to do the soundtrack for another iPhone game, I haven’t had a lot of free time. But I miss the place, y’know? So time for me to check back in. Mainly I just wanted to share the news that I kicked the butts for good. Tobacco is a thing of the past for me. I’m still getting nicotine though, but rather than going with a patch or gum or Chantix or something, I switched to electronic cigarettes. And _man_ do they work. I was concerned about whether or not they’d be a suitable replacement for cigarettes, but I did a lot of research on them before diving in, and the more I read about them the more I liked the idea. I took the plunge a little over a week ago, and the first “vape” (the eCig term for it) followed the last cigarette I smoked. Well, almost. Yesterday I conducted a little test. I like my data empirical, y’see, so I had to find out for myself. Yesterday represented my one-week anniversary of quitting smoking by way of vaping with eCigs, and I was feeling better than I had in _years_. I smoked for 21 years, so this was a _huge_ change. My sense of smell was bouncing back, my sense of taste was perking up, my sinuses were clearing, my lungs were clearing, and I even found I have more energy than I have in a long time, and that’s flippin’ awesome. But had I _really_ kicked the butts for good? I had to know. I effectively didn’t need cigarettes anymore the moment I started vaping, and with all of my senses coming back from the dead, I wanted to know how they’d taste, how they’d feel, and whether they still had any hold on me, even though I really didn’t have any craving for them. So I sparked one up. And it was _nasty_. The first drag I took transported me back to my dumbass 17-year-old self when I first took up smoking. It smelled like smoke, it tasted like smoke. Like an ashtray. Like a smoker’s breath. It was quite unpleasant. And I realized, _this is what I smelled like to other people._ It had quite conclusively confirmed that not only did I not want cigarettes anymore, I didn’t _need_ cigarettes anymore. So just like that. I switched from smoking to vaping, and in that transitional instant, left tobacco behind forever. And I’ve never felt better. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2010, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-finally-quit-smoking/552633/2 "2010-09-04T23:14:20Z")
Congratulations! Wishing you many more years as a quitter. ---
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2010, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-finally-quit-smoking/552633/3 "2010-09-05T03:40:57Z")
I quit two years ago, and maybe every six months or so I’ll light one up, just to reaffirm that yes, they are nasty and I’m glad I quit. The other night I smoked one of my friends’ cigarettes after going out to dinner, and promptly violently threw up my meal. Good lord. I will never pick up another cigarette as long as I shall live. You can quit for real and for good, and if you think you need those ecigs, you aren’t giving yourself nearly enough credit!