How Long Were You A Smoker Before Vaping

[T-Bone]

That is, if you stopped smoking once you started vaping.

I was a smoker for 24 years...and I don't think I missed a day since the first day I picked up a cigarette.

[Compenstine]

For me it would have been about 35 years of the stinkies.

[spydre]

Let's see - started at 15, stopped at 39, so that would be 24 years - well, okay, actually started in the fall of the year I was 15, when I started hanging out and spending most of my free time with a girl who smoked (how on earth did those places sell us cigarettes at FIFTEEN YEARS OLD?). Took ten days to finish off the supply of analogs we had after we started vaping (and some family issues/tragedy played a part in that), but the last of those were gone July 17 of last year at like, two AM. I had two cheat days - one at a family reunion RIGHT after, where I had two cigarettes, and one where my mom was facing a SERIOUS medical crisis (almost lost her leg), and I was with my sister at the hospital - still just a couple weeks after dropping the analogs, and I grabbed three of her cigarettes out of stress, and frustration.

The next time I thought I would be tempted was at another family function (like the first time I slipped up), but by that time, our house was aired out, all of our clothes had been washed, and I had been away from the smell of cigarettes for a while. The smell of people smoking darn near turned my stomach. My son had been away from cigarette smoke long enough that he thought he was having trouble breathing, and had to actually leave the house, and spent a good deal of the time we were there outside. I was in favor, initially, if we had guests who smoked allowing them to go ahead and smoke in our house, still, but after smelling that, nope, not doing it. Which reminds me, I need to wash the downstairs bathroom curtains. I'm SURE that's where the cigarette smell in there is coming from - I've eliminated all other possible sources, unless the wallpaper is somehow holding on to it.

[Itsmedeanna64]

For me it was about 7 yrs of cigs. I went through some pretty bad family issues and I felt at the time it was either that or drinking, and I haven't ever drank! Lol. It was in fact 7 yrs of shame because I was really ashamed of myself that I stooped to that point. I also at that point was dealing with bleeding stomach ulcers. Now with no cigs and 2yrs in and out of the hospital 9 times I am feeling better. It was pretty rough and still hard some days but I don't want a cig at all, don't miss it, don't crave it and don't intend to ever go there again.

Dc

[Earthling789]

Thirty years... pack-a-day average, and pushing 2-pack-a-day in the last year of smoking...

I stopped once before for several months, roughly 16-17 years ago, but could never kick the cravings... Gum, patches, Chantix... all garbage in my book. Vaping has been the ONLY salvation!

[T-Bone]

Let's see - started at 15, stopped at 39, so that would be 24 years -

Same ages for me, too. I remember being 11 or 12 and riding my bike to the store to buy smokes for my mother. Gee, I wonder where I picked up the habit.

[Compenstine]

I was the same getting them for my Dad. I would change the number on the note and get one for myself too. I was a bad boy.

[T-Bone]

Thirty years... pack-a-day average, and pushing 2-pack-a-day in the last year of smoking...

I stopped once before for several months, roughly 16-17 years ago, but could never kick the cravings... Gum, patches, Chantix... all garbage in my book. Vaping has been the ONLY salvation!

None of those other things worked for me, either. And, like you, I was really starting to push it right up towards 2 packs a day towards the end there. I'd buy a pack in the morning and usually end up picking up another on the way home. Then during a few hours of evening TV smoke about half of that pack. It was getting bad.

[T-Bone]

I was the same getting them for my Dad. I would change the number on the note and get one for myself too. I was a bad boy.

I never actually thought of smoking at that time...but it obviously showed me nothing was wrong with it. So once I started hanging out with friends and becoming more independent, we all smoked. This was back when you could smoke in public places. We were all 15 and 16, one of my friends had a car first and we would go to the local mall, hang out outside the arcade and smoke like crazy.

One of those friends was actually allowed to smoke in his house at that age, his folks were split up and after school we'd usually go to his house, listen to our 80 metal music and smoke like morons. We spent a lot of time at his house.

[smacksy]

I'm 61 and been smoking 2 packs of Marlboro a day for over 40 yrs..my grandson introduced me to vaping 2 yrs ago and I haven't smoked that nasty tobacco ever since..my COPD has improved and I hardly need to use an inhaler anymore.. Started off with a spinner/protank and now dripping on mech mods and RDA's..truly vaping has saved my life..

[Earthling789]

I was the same getting them for my Dad. I would change the number on the note and get one for myself too. I was a bad boy.

Oh, I do remember those days... dad would give me $1, and I'd ride my bike to the little corner store with one gas-pump and buy him two packs of Viceroy, and there was always just enough left over for a candy-bar or RC-cola. I guess he knew the bribery of a candy-bar or cola was enough to get me to go to the store for him (because mom never let us have candy/cola except on rare or special occasions).

I never started smoking that early (was actually 17 when I started buying them for me), but back then, there was nothing to stop a 7-yr old from buying a pack and lighting-up... Let's face it, up until the late 70's, practically 2/3 or more of the population smoked! And, it wasn't uncommon when I was in HS for a teacher to bum a smoke off students between classes or before/after school....

[aufin]

Don't know exactly, but over 50 years. Started way too early, but it's never too late to quit. Put nasties down the same day I bought my setup - Apr, '13 - and haven't looked back. Made a lot of people happy that day.

[jasonculp]

Right around 28 years.

[ckf]

Right around 28 years.

About the same for me. It feels good to be smoke free after all those years.

[Tam]

38 years. For the last ten I was trying everything I could to get off of them. The only thing that worked for any length of time was going cold turkey. That lasted about six months before I fell off the wagon. The next time I tried cold turkey again, my SO asked (very enthusiastically) if he could go to the store and get me a pack. Boy, talk about a foul mood... LOL.

Nothing worked for long until I found a co-worker puffing on an e-cig one day. It's a miracle that I haven't wanted to go back to smoking.

[Earthling789]

my SO asked (very enthusiastically) if he could go to the store and get me a pack. Boy, talk about a foul mood... LOL.

When I quit cold-turkey all those years ago, my wife told me "I hate your nasty habit, but if you don't start smoking again, one of us is moving out!" The next day she came home with a carton of my favorites Apparently I was a grizzly-bear to EVERYONE during that time...

[Tam]

When I quit cold-turkey all those years ago, my wife told me "I hate your nasty habit, but if you don't start smoking again, one of us is moving out!" The next day she came home with a carton of my favorites Apparently I was a grizzly-bear to EVERYONE during that time...

Yeah, it seems I gave b-i-t-c-h a whole new and improved definition when I was without smokes.

[Rixter]

I smoked for about 35 years. I got a Leo 800mAh on 4/8/2012, and never smoked another cigarette...never even had the first craving for one.

[Jeffb]

Started stealing smokes from my dad when I was 13. Quit off and on through the years. Had my last smoke in 2009 after smoking for 31 years. I had my last cig the day I began vaping. Haven't had an analog since

[bcartervol98]

Roughly 25 years.

[VapeBerry]

20 now, started when I was 14, pack a day since 15.

[ATFD48]

20 years, the last 15 years or so have been 2 packs a day.

[JohnnyFog]

I started when I was 16 and quit when I was 23. I started again when I was 27 and quit again when I was 30. I started again when I was 35 and quit a little over a week ago when I switched to vaping after multiple disasterous attempts to give it up again.

So I guess I have smoked cigarettes for a total of 21 years since I'm 46 now. The transition to vaping has been rather uneventful so far so my next goal is to work my way to 0mg nicotine in the vaping. I'm at 18mg now.

I plan to start making my own e-liquids starting sometime next week and I'm going to start at a 15mg level and try to hold that for about a month or so.

[kfolse107]

Started smoking at about 15 years old and I'm 55 now. 2 packs a day for probably the last 20 years. I tried quitting cold turkey for 1 week several years ago. April 1st of 2014 I started Chantix and vaping. Fortunately the chantix was pretty well tolerated. Both helped me quit in less than a month. I have been smoke free for 8 months now.

I remember walking to the corner store at 8 years old, buying smokes with my neighbor for his Dad. They sold them to us without any questions asked.

[spydre]

I smoked for about 35 years. I got a Leo 800mAh on 4/8/2012, and never smoked another cigarette...never even had the first craving for one.

Rixter, other than first two slip ups within my first, heck, less than a month of vaping, I've had an actual hard to get over craving ONCE. That Thanksgiving, we were at my sister's, and darn near everyone was smoking except my mother and my brother and his family. The smell hit me, and I wanted one. I mean, it hit me hard that I wanted one.

Occasionally, through the last year and a half, I'll just out of the blue want a cigarette, but it's not a nicotine craving, it's more of a mental thing.