A Little Testimonial And Some Questions

[stevenf]

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.

[FTJoe]

If you do some searches you'll find a bunch of discussion on nicotine addiction (speakeasy was the biggest contributor). Bottom line is we "believe" the most harmful effects of smoking is the act of burning the tobacco and inhaling the smoke along with the rest of the chemicals and carcinogens the companies put in there. Nicotine is addictive, but so is caffeine. So they hook you with the nicotine, and as we know, there is no provision for reducing the nicotine in a cigarette which means your stuck unless you have an alternative. Okay - preaching to the choir, I know but many here believe as long as they're not smoking, and can get their nicotine "safely", that's all they need and I believe that's true.

So having said that, I did want to quit the nicotine as it is a monkey on my back. I started with a strength of 24mg, kept to my routine as if I was smoking and after a few weeks of getting used to vaping I started cutting down. Probably an average of 2mg-4mg a week or so. I went to zero, vaping like a fiend. Then all of a sudden, the mental queue disappeared. No more morning vape, after eating, pretty much only when I drank and even that's gone now. I went outside once with a smoker on Sunday at a superbowl party. I did make the mistake in the beginning of going 0 nic real quick. I believe for me much of the smoking desire is the mental association. My brain knows in the past if I smoked, I would get nicotine and it would feel good. When I dropped to 0 nic, it was fine for me as my brain still associated the act of vaping with the gratification of getting nicotine. I wasn't getting it, but the addictive part of my brain that made that association was fooled. Unfortunately the part of my brain that was going through nicotine withdrawal was not fooled and I became quite foul tempered. Back I went and reduced it slowly. Why my mental association has dropped off I don't know. I do know I am struggling with weight (a little) so forcing myself to vape here and there to see if that is still necessary to satisfy some hand to mouth urge.

I've seen others here vary their nic during the day, big does in the morning and/or at night, then bring it down when they really just don't need it. But again, if you look up the nicotine discussion, you'll see there's a great argument for it not being a big deal.

Edited February 9, 2010 by FTJoe

[nana]

I'm sure it would be quite different for each person, but for me, I gradually went down on my nic levels. It wasn't intentional in the beginning. I started vaping with 36mg and did good with that. I did have a couple of times when I vaped too much and didn't feel well, but other than that I was good. I had some 24mg, too, just because in the beginning I didn't know what level I should be using. I started to use that and it seemed to do good, so when the 36mg was gone, I just never ordered any more of that. I didn't pay any attention to the timeline, but I know at one point I decided to try the 18mg. Again I did well on that and didn't order any more 24 after that. Before long I wondered how I'd do at 12mg. No problem switching to that either. After that I really wanted to see how low I could go. I started cutting the 12mg in half and did just fine at 6mg. Then I started cutting that down to 3mg and have been just fine with, too. I started vaping in October and I would say it was in November that I went down to 24 and probably down to 18 and then 12 in December. That's just guess really. I know that by January I was down to 6 though. I have even been vaping 0 quite a bit of the time. I'm not completely down to 0 though. I have my times where I know I NEED some nic and use the 3mg or even the 6mg at times. I just find that I'm needing it less and less. I still have the 12mg in the house and use that to cut down, but I haven't used it at that level since December.

Once I knew I did fine by lowering my nic level this way, I decided I should just cut it down to 0 completely so that if there ever was a ban, I'd be okay and never go back to analogs. I'm pretty sure that I can do it at this point, but I have so much juice left with nic in it, that I will stay where I am for awhile until I'm out of the juice. I can't just throw it away. I really don't have a huge desire to be nic free, but don't want a ban to cause me problems later. I did not start vaping with the idea of giving up the nic, it just sort of happened along the way. And I really don't plan to quit vaping even if I get to and stay at 0 nic. If I gradually start vaping less and less, that's okay with me. I just don't plan to quit. I enjoy it.

[jmhester]

I have to be totally honest. I think I'm even more addicted to nicotine than ever. I vape constantly. I tell myself that when things "settle down", I'll start dropping the nic level until I'm off the stuff but I don't see that happening anytime soon. However, I feel better, look better, smell better, and perform better having not taken in carbon monoxide, tar, and a host of other nasty chems. If they ban these things, I'm sure are anything that I will go back to analogs.

I hope your experience is different!

[stevenf]

Thanks for the replies. I started this as another attempt at quitting but having been so disappointed with myself and all the other methods I really have a hard time getting my expectations up. So far this has exceeded mine so I guess I'm scared as heck that sometime soon I'm gonna hit that wall that can't be climbed. If you know what I mean. For me it really doesn't matter if it's bad for me or not. I know I'm addicted to it and having already enough other bad habits, I just want this one off my back. It does help to read about how others have done it or what they tried and I'm in no big hurry as long as it remains a legal option. God knows the government will never ban tobacco.

[FTJoe]

I have to be totally honest. I think I'm even more addicted to nicotine than ever. I vape constantly. I tell myself that when things "settle down", I'll start dropping the nic level until I'm off the stuff but I don't see that happening anytime soon. However, I feel better, look better, smell better, and perform better having not taken in carbon monoxide, tar, and a host of other nasty chems. If they ban these things, I'm sure are anything that I will go back to analogs.

I hope your experience is different!

I have to say, based on speakeasy's comments a while back which I cautiously agree with, no big deal doing nic. I also cautiously say, trust your body, if it's telling you it feels good, then trust it. Mine rebelled a while back and I blew part of an artery (dissection). So I need to keep my blood pressure down and I wanted to quit the nic for that reason.

[DAYVAPE]

Sorry... but HIGH NIC RULES!

That's just me though.

[FTJoe]

Sorry... but HIGH NIC RULES!

That's just me though.

Okay dayvape, come down from the ledge. ;-) That's my point, don't go nuts getting rid of the nicotine. For me I wanted to go no nic after I was told I blew most of my celiac artery away and it's on the verge of going and always will be.