i almost forgot about the smoking thing!

Oh! So I stopped posting on DW a month before I quit smoking: October 2016. So that's two--TWO--years smoke-free!

...with vape*. Yeah. In fruity flavors, even. I literally did it over a weekend with half a pack of cigarettes left and never wanted to go near a cigarette again. Yeah, you could say it worked.

And because I am a vapevangelist: I literally buy vape pens for smokers among my friends and tell the good news that you can quit and vape will change your life and also you will smell like, amazingly good and people will ask you what bodywash you use. I am like a street corner and small box away from starting some kind of fruity-vape religion, no lie.

Okay, done.

So its possible I may review my latest vape acquisitions. I went the hipster route by accident and ended up with Smok, not Juul, and so buy my vape locally. But if you vape and like to hear about that kind of thing, I am that person who talks about it. And my primary shop also ships over the greater US, so I can also link directly when I find something I like. They're also the shop where no one is visibly stoned while mixing my vape, which is a plus.

So, context: I get my vape from The Vapor Studio and tend toward the house blends, not necessarily because I want to be this goddamn hipster but because my nic is 18 MG (I just stepped down from 24) and premium blends don't go that high.

...yes, my vape is handmixed in shop and it's like I don't even know myself.

* yes, I am aware of the research, the lack of research, the various problems that have been found in specific brands of vape as well as the potential dangers and risks; I discussed it with my doctor. Having pneumonia twice, bronchitis yearly, and my father diagnosed with COPD did not help me quit. Vape did it in three days; it tastes good, it smells good, and after less than a month, I couldn't even stand the smell of cigarettes. At minimum, this is a reducing harm while I step down to a nicotine free life and my apartment constantly smells of fruit and candy.

Comments

[jamethiel]

Hey, congrats! Anything that helps you get towards quitting is good.

(Also cigarettes do smell really bad. Going to my mother's place is always a trial.)

[seperis]

THank you! And yeah, I really notice smokers now.

[kore]

After quitting smoking, I was MORTIFIED to find out how obvious it is when someone casually gets up from a classroom or work desk and returns reeking of cigarette smoke. It's like wearing a big red sign.

[lilacsigil]

Cigarette smoke is a migraine trigger for me so I really really wish my country would allow vaping with nicotine so more people would be doing that. We know how bad cigarette smoking is, vaping might not be magic pure unicorns (or it might!) but it's a massive harm reduction!

[seperis]

Basically, this: it's massive harm reduction. It also tackles more than just the nicotine craving, but the physical actions--having something in your hand, inhaling, etc. And it does have an element of ritual: adding more juice or changing coils, for example, which is great for those who smoked for stress relief.

Yes, I did hyperexamine myself on this, and honestly, all of that plus the sheer pleasantness did the trick. It smells amazing, it tastes good (or at least is taste neutral for some types), but honestly, a lot of it for me was the smell. I knew our sense of smell can be influential, but I literally started vaping because at a bus stop, some girl wandered by trailing this amazing smell and it was her vape pen. That pretty much decided me.

[cathyw]

my understanding is that vaping is Not Good But Better Than Smoking so... :)

on the other hand there is talk about banning the yummy flavors because they make them more appealing to children. ugh.

[seperis]

There are already guides on making your own flavored vapes. Honestly, if I was slightly more hipster> I WOULD TOTALLY BE DOING THAT. it's basically the base liquid + nicotine + flavor.

[kara_mckay]

Congratulations! I quit back in 2012, and I've wondered about vaping because I STILL struggle to write without smoking. Not as bad as it used to be, but I'm beginning to suspect I'll never reach the point whereat I never grab for my nonexistent pack of cigarettes when I'm in the writing groove.

[seperis]

I was genuinely surprised how fast and easy it was.

[laisserais]

Congrats on two years!

I, too, have found that vaping makes me less smelly and more socially acceptable. Even though it's probably no better than cigarettes, health-wise, it's really remarkable what an effect smoking had on my self-esteem. Like, I knew I smelled bad, so I never wanted to be around people, and the worse I felt about how gross I was, the more I wanted to smoke?? idk. It's super embarrassing that I STILL smoke something. I feel like it's a failure of will. But honestly, vaping is literally step one. And it's already made a world of difference. seven months and counting.

[seperis]

I will say that since I started vaping, I stopped having yearly (er, maybe twice a year) bronchitis and the morning cough ceased entirely. So that part seems okay.

I feel like it's a failure of will.

Dude, if it was a matter of will, I would have failed (and did!) so many times. For me at least, the combination of 'fantastic smell and taste' created a very fast aversion to cigarette smoke and cigarettes. I honestly think the aversion probably did some of the work for me.

Also--and I have no idea how to quantify this--a couple of months in, I forgot there was a difference between cigarattes and vape. Like sure, I read that you also get a high from the tar, but while I remember it was a thing, I don't remember what it felt like as opposed to tar.

This is completely amateur I know nothing random thought, but--it's possible your nic level is too low? I started at 24, which is fairly high, yeah, but it also meant no craving for nicotine at all those first weeks. I've stepped down to 18 and hope to get to 12 by this time next year, but I'm taking it veeerrrry slowly. AGAIN NOT A PRO but that seems to be one reason it's still hard to get off; there's really no standard other than "try this nic amount and hope" and I got lucky I went high.

But honestly, vaping is literally step one. And it's already made a world of difference. seven months and counting.

YESSSSSSSS. Celebrate every step, because this is hard.

[kore]

Oh dude, if recovering from addiction were a matter of willpower....and quitting smoking is so hard. One friend of mine put it "Anything that helps you kill yourself less is good." I paid in blood to quit smoking with just the patch and Prozac back in the dark ages, so I'm honestly happy to see people get better options now.

[amara1783]

Thanks for posting about this! Partner and I bought a vape pen for a friend of ours as an Xmas present to help them quit smoking (which they have been trying to do) and it is great to hear that you've had such a great (and accidentally hipster :D) experience.

[seperis]

That's a wonderful idea! If you can, take them to a vape shop; honestly, they smell good and the guys--at least at both of the ones I go to--are great about answering questions and trying out different types/flavors in the store (which saved me from some very horrifying juices that smelled great and tasted like Lovecraft invented them).

[j00j]

Congratulations! Glad you have a harm reduction strategy that works for you (and smells fruitylicious!)

[archaeologist_d]

Glad to hear that you are working toward not smoking any more. My mom died of lung cancer and it was pretty horrible at the end.

[lastscorpion]

Was it The Grand Sophy that has this whole section on personally blended snuffs? Some Georgette Heyer, I think.
Congrats on quitting smoking!

[aerialiste]

So proud of you, petal. SO. PROUD. Cigarettes are harder to kick than heroin and you DID IT.

[kore]

Having pneumonia twice, bronchitis yearly, and my father diagnosed with COPD did not help me quit. Vape did it in three days

I am kinda 'hunh?' on vaping, but I am a HUGE fan of harm reduction and good on ya mate for quitting. I also had bronchitis yearly (and then more often than yearly) before quitting and a terrible cough, and a family history of cancer, -- and yeah, if insanely logical reasons to quit were enough to make people quit, addiction wouldn't be a Thing. Congratulations!

[grammarwoman]

My husband has been a smoker for longer than I want to think about (sigh), and took up vaping in the last year. It has drastically cut down on his cigarette smoking, and means he can vape in the house instead of scurrying away to his man-hut in the garage.

The kid asked me just yesterday about vaping being better/worse than smoking (something something speaker at school was maligning vaping as being worse), and I got to caveat my way through an explanation (vaping is attractive to kids because of the candy flavors so authority figures hate it, kids shouldn't start smoking OR vaping because smoking is stupid/expensive/unhealthy, I hope he never smokes, etc.) while praising him for not just swallowing someone else's opinion. "I was going to ask him for his sources, but I forgot at the end" - I was so proud.