To the ones who managed to quit vaping

[Wimmas]

I smoked cigarettes for around 10 years and quit the habit / addiction through vaping in early July 2017, something I am extremely grateful for and something I would not have been able to do without vaping. It is such an amazing, uplifting and supportive community. It has been a priceless journey for me and actually became somewhat of a hobby in the process.

I absolutely love vaping and the taste of all the different juices, BUT, my intention was to quit any and all addiction in my life. Lately I have been wondering more and more about the idea of quitting vaping. I do not believe it posses any health risks, or at most just a fraction of what smoking did to my body. It's just that I am at a time in my life where I am very health conscious and exploring that side of the spectrum. Since 2011 I have had a lot of gut issues and have spent more money than I can count on trying to find a diagnosis without any success - I have made peace with it and learnt how to best cope with it and work around it. I have also recently been on the brink of being diagnosed with high blood pressure, something which no 29 year old should be diagnosed with at the prime of their career and life. With this said, I would like to stay true to my promise to myself - getting rid of any addiction and "bad habits".

How I quit cigarettes - smoked my last cigarette on a Tuesday evening and put my old dusty Twisp Clearo on charge, the next morning I said to myself "This is all you have, you can't smoke, so it's this or nothing". My idea to quit vaping: Spend quite a bit on juice at vapecon to last me a while, and once the juice runs out, I sadly leave vaping behind me. The dilemma is, which I believe is quite a natural response, is that I have a fear of failure and not quite sure that my approach is the best. I am on 3mg nic at the moment and have been for probably the last 2 years. Would it maybe be a good idea to purchase 0mg before totally quitting?

Some advise from those who have managed to do it successfully or those who might have a different idea than me would be greatly appreciated?

 

[Resistance]

@SarChasm some advice for @Wimmas would be appreciated bro.

 

[SarChasm]

Hmmm.
Before all your 3mg juice runs out, ask someone you know for a little 0mg to test and see how you feel about it.

I too tried this approach but found the 0mg extremely unsatisfactory, it felt thin with very little to no mouth feel. The same recipes I used to mix without nic just came out very underwhelming. Started mixing at 2mg, eventually then down to 1.5mg until the 1.5 started feeling lackluster.
At that point I knew I wasn't going to enjoy 1.5mg much longer so going less was out of the question. From there I decided to thug out the cravings and just quit.

The first two days were the worst for me, not because I felt cravings, but because I would feel itchy due to sitting still for such extended periods of time.

Just my 2c because I was asked, hope you find something that works for you bro.

 

[Grand Guru]

I agree with @SarChasm on the approach. I started at 18mg 3 years ago. Now I'm down to 2mg with a very slow downgrade. My intention is to quit vaping by beginning of next year.

 

[ARYANTO]

Why way wait allll this years to ''all of a sudden'' become ''health concious'' did the DR told ya stop vaping and buy a bike , new takkies ,etc?
So , all the money you spent on a new mod and the latest tank was just down the drain , you could have bought takkies 5 years ago . Anyway it's your life.

 

[Rob Fisher]

Having given up smoking nearly 6 years ago and feeling way more healthy than I have in many many many years and walking between 5 and 8 km's a day I doubt I will ever give up. Yes I know I should but it's my fantastic hobby and I love it!

I will be buried with my Dvarw's!

 

[Wimmas]

Hmmm.
Before all your 3mg juice runs out, ask someone you know for a little 0mg to test and see how you feel about it.

I too tried this approach but found the 0mg extremely unsatisfactory, it felt thin with very little to no mouth feel. The same recipes I used to mix without nic just came out very underwhelming. Started mixing at 2mg, eventually then down to 1.5mg until the 1.5 started feeling lackluster.
At that point I knew I wasn't going to enjoy 1.5mg much longer so going less was out of the question. From there I decided to thug out the cravings and just quit.

The first two days were the worst for me, not because I felt cravings, but because I would feel itchy due to sitting still for such extended periods of time.

Just my 2c because I was asked, hope you find something that works for you bro.

@SarChasm Sound advice, thank you! Makes a lot of sense and I think I will go with this. Instead of vaping mediocre juice in my last days I will rather vape great juice and suffer the first few days after quitting.

Why way wait allll this years to ''all of a sudden'' become ''health concious'' did the DR told ya stop vaping and buy a bike , new takkies ,etc?
So , all the money you spent on a new mod and the latest tank was just down the drain , you could have bought takkies 5 years ago . Anyway it's your life.

@ARYANTO it's actually not an "all of a sudden" bright spark idea. I have actually always been a health conscious individual. I do quite a bit of physical activity - mountain biking, gym, swimming. Long story short - I absolutely despised smoking and somehow my friends convinced me to try a cigarette in late Gr 11 of High School - I gave in and what was a "now and then, sneaky" cigarette eventually turned into an addiction. 10 years down the line I quit through vaping. If I hadn't done it via vaping, I am not sure I would've been successful with quitting. I am 100% pro-vaping and as stated, do not believe it posses nearly as much health risks as cigarettes. So it's not really the health aspect of vaping, but more a personal goal I set for myself - get rid of any addiction. There is no denying that the nic in vaping is addictive, maybe not to the extent as with cigarette, but it is an addiction. With nic comes elevated blood pressure. Not too mention the money I can save, the hassle of rewicking daily, charging batteries etc.

As stated above, I am 100% pro-vaping, but for me personally it was always just a stepping stone to eventually quit inhaling anything other than oxygen.

 

[Jos]

Good luck @Wimmas #youcandoit

 

[360twin]

@Wimmas If I could offer some advice based on my own and two others' experiences. I realise that this is an old post and I do not visit this site anymore, but wanted to provide a comment that may assist you and others. If you have given up in the interim, great! If you haven't, I found it to be much easier than you may imagine.

I have recently turned 60. I gave up smoking in December 2013, and stopped vaping in November last year. I have recently been diagnosed with COPD, most likely due to decades of the stinkies. I now carry a new 'vape' with me that I use 2 - 3 times a day (Ventolin) when physically active. Google COPD if you want to scare yourself.

I have always mixed my own juice as I like to know what goes into my lungs, and have done so for my wife and one of my employees for the period that we have vaped. In November last year my wife asked me to make her some juice with 0% nicotine (we were all vaping 3mg/ml at the time), and I and my employee decided to try it at the same time. Unsurprisingly the taste was greatly improved, but what was surprising was the lack of any consequential effect from the lack of nicotine.

I have read somewhere that some research had indicated that nicotine was not addictive (don't remember where), and all three of us would agree with this statement. I vaped 0% for about a week before coincidently becoming ill, and did not bother to start gain once I had recovered a week later. My employee carried on for a further 3 months or so, until he dropped and broke his tank, when he also decided to chuck it in. My wife still vapes, but her consumption is very low (~1ml/day) and still 0% nicotine.

I am not suggesting that cigarettes are non-addictive, but I do believe that there is something other than the nicotine in them that keeps people hooked. Or maybe the way it is consumed affects its addictiveness – like the difference between snorting cocaine and smoking crack. And possibly a psychological 'bond' is transferred to e-cigs when switching from smoking to vaping.

The strange thing was that neither of us experienced any withdrawal symptoms when switching to 0% nicotine, which was hardly anticipated. Based on our experience, I would suggest that vaping is not chemically addictive at all, and therefore should be easier to quit than smoking. Why not try 0% and see if you have a similar experience?

I still believe that vaping is generally way less dangerous to your health than smoking, and will not hesitate to question a smoker whether they have considered it as an alternative, but the past discovery of the lethal effects of Diacetyl, and the recent discovery of equally potentially lethal effects of Vitamin E acetate in the USA, suggest that it is not necessarily an entirely ‘safe’ pastime. Who knows how many other compounds currently in use will be found to be detrimental to your health in future.