I guess about two and a half weeks have passed since my wife, mother-in-law and myself jumped into the e-cig thing. Before I started vaping I was smoking probably about a pack a day and I also chewed tobacco, about a can a day. I should say here that I really like to chew tobacco. I,ve been doing it since I was about 14 and really didn't see myself quitting anytime soon. However, after almost 30 years of it, I worry alot about the health effects and I'm getting kinda tired of it, the worrying that is.
So we all got our e-cigs and supplies and after several days of vaping my initial impression was that it was somewhat satisfying but I wasn't getting nearly enough nicotine from it using my 24 mg juice. So, I kinda made it a mission to see what level of nicotine would actually satisfy my craving. After a few days of experimenting I finally settled on a nic level of 32 mg. At this point I realized that I didn't really need a chew or a smoke. I still wanted it but the need was being satisfied by vaping. Then after a couple of days vaping at 32mg with no analogs or chew I realized that no amount of vaping was going to give me the same buzz that smoking an analog will give, especially that first one in the morning. Just the right amount of nicotine makes me feel good and normal. More than that just makes me feel like crap. The 32mg juice that I started with was starting to hurt my throat and lungs so I dropped to 24mg for a couple of days and am now using 18mg juice.
I have not chewed or smoked in 12 days and I know my nicotine level is far below what it was before I started vaping. So I have a couple of questions for those who have used vaping to either completely quit or reduce your nicotine levels.
How much did you reduce at one time before it was noticeably difficult?
Did you gradually reduce the level constantly or did you stay at one level for a period of time and then drop the level?
How close did you get to zero nicotine before you just quit using it altogether?
Any other advice you would give to someone trying to get off of the nicotine?
Don't get me wrong here, I still want to use tobacco because I really like it. However, this is by far the most progress I've ever made and I'm starting to feel like I may be gaining the power over it. Hopefully the government wisdom will not intervene and I'll be tobacco and nicotine free some day soon. Thanks for any advice or just share your story.