Transition advice

Hey Guys,

New to the forum. I've got myself a little rig and some juice and I have to say i'm really enjoying using it. But i'm still struggling to completely transition away from cigarettes.

For me, it's the routine and the ritual. I have guys that I work with who still smoke cigarettes and joining them with my vaping rig just doesn't feel the same at all. So, invariably I end up smoking cigarettes with them as well. Vaping takes care of the nicotine but it hasn't completely sorted out the psychology for me.

Anyone have any advice?

 

Addiction to nicotine can be tough. I guess, the one would be: do it gradually. I mean, gradually decrease your nicotine part. That would be right.

 

My best advice is to 1. expect nothing 2. remember that you could have never been a smoker in the first place and 3. keep cigarettes much further away than your vape. Ideally, don't even buy cigarettes until you totally need to.

The thing is that once you pass that initial craving, the craving kind of dies and the vaping does the trick. It's like, if you're really hungry, you'll eat a banana, but if not, you reach for the junk food because it's that quick fix. Cigs are the same, just about getting yourself to a point where you stop wanting them

 

I've only been vaping for a couple of months after smoking for nearly 20 years, so I'll admit that I also do sometimes have the odd cigarette aswell, but that's nothing to be ashamed about.

It takes time to fully make that transition and even cutting down like I have from 20 a day to around 2 is a big step for me.

 

Hi Rob,

I am 42 and have been smoking since I was 16 and I have been struggling with quitting by vaping off and on for about 8 years.

You have probably heard some of the testimonials from people who were able to stop smoking as soon as they started vaping. While that is great for them, it leaves the rest of us who still struggle with quitting wondering what we are doing wrong. I just wanted to let you know that you are not doing anything wrong; the struggle is different for everyone. Every time you choose to vape instead of smoke is one less cigarette that you are smoking. Focus on the victory of one less cigarette every time you make the decision to vape rather than smoke. If you guilt-trip yourself every time you smoke, it might make you want to smoke more.

From what I have learned by talking to folks at my local bricks and mortar vape stores, part of the problem may be muscle memory. One of the things that I was advised to do is to keep one unlit cigarette on me. When I feel the urge to smoke, I was told to take a hit off of my rig and then stick unlit cigarette in my mouth. When I start dragging off of the unlit cigarette, I was told to grab it with my left hand and hold it like it is lit while using my right hand to take a hit off of my rig. If you normally use your left hand to smoke, then you will want to hold your rig in your left hand and the unlit cigarette in your right hand. The idea is to recondition your brain and muscles so that using your rig becomes natural to you and holding the cigarette feels unnatural to you.

This has worked pretty well for me. I notice that when I do have a cigarette, I am holding it in my left hand and it does not feel natural. When I go to hold it in my right hand, I can't because I am still holding the rig with my right hand. Doing this also keeps me from lighting up out of habit.

Another thing... I know that some people will say not to keep a pack of cigarettes around. I actually need to keep a pack around the house, or in my purse. If I don't, then I am constantly thinking about the fact that I don't have a pack of cigarettes with me; which just makes me want to smoke more and I eventually break down, buy a pack, smoke like a train, and then I'm back to "square one." I'm like a kid with a teddy bear when it comes to having that pack of smokes with me; I know that it's there if/when I need it, but I'm choosing not to break it out.

I am not an expert on vaping or quitting smoking because everybody is different. If my advice helps, great! If it doesn't, then keep trying different things until you find what works for you.

 

I would suggest that you don't try to quit in one go. Try vaping for one or two times during the day when you would have smoked in the past, and then build it up from there. It is much better than just going cold turkey, because it is a habit as you say, and you will miss it too much to be successful, particularly if you're a long term smoker. So it is much easier to do it gradually, and the nicotine that's in the e-cig should help you to be able to cut down without getting too many actual physical withdrawal symptoms.

 

I'm glad to hear that I am not the only one that is going through this.
I found it strange that I was taking in nicotine but still wanted cigarettes. I think it's because of the other addictive substance the put into them.

 

I made the decision to quit smoking on a weekend, since I'm off. That way, less stress, no driving, no working. Just lay around and vape when needed. I'm still transitioning over. I have dropped from half a pack a day to 1 in the morning, and 1 at bed. It's been hard. I just want to eat. I'm craving a taste of something so bad. So I chew gum now, and plan to kick them completely in the next few days.


You can definitely try it the way I did. It helped being away from things that make me want to smoke. As far as vaping with your friends, I used to be that person 3 weeks ago. But just 3 days ago, I had someone tell me I look healthier and asked me if I got my teeth whitened. That moment, I knew I made a good choice.

 

It's tough to give up something, especially if you've done it for a long time. I know that I still think about smoking cigarettes even though I actually haven't since starting vaping. Still, I'm not 100% sure that I'm "done" with cigarettes. I think there may come a day when I just may want one and I'm not sure what I'll do. I don't feel as if there's a transition, though. It's more of just putting something to the side for now that I may or may not pick back up -- even though I don't want to do it right now.

 

There are all kinds of habits around smoking cigarettes and each one you can break will make the cravings easier. I struggled with breaks at work also and I found I couldn't go on a vape break while the smokers were on a smoke break. I started drinking a ton of tea, any time I would normally go for a cigarette break, I went and made a cup of tea instead. You probably have other triggers too like after a meal... if you can start to build new habits for your different trigger times, it helps a ton!

 

Yeah man, that jaw clenching, brain twister craving is the worst, it's like your organs are getting sucked into a black hole somewhere.

The good news is, if you can just keep spacing the cigs out, it gets so much easier. You start to switch the craving to the vape, it satisfies you, a cig here and there is all you need and then the vape is all you need and the process is WAY easier for dropping nicotine levels since you can just switch juice back and forth to get used to different nic levels.

 

Cigarettes really are the perfect delivery system for nicotine, thats why its so hard to quit them completely. It took me about a month from my first vape until I finally stopped smoking cigarettes altogether. During that month I found that the craving for cigarettes I had gradually became replaced with a craving for my vape. I found having something to do with my mouth helped quite a lot, whether it was chewing gum or just putting a pen, a normal writing pen, into my mouth. That helped a lot during my working day, although I did get the odd strange look from work colleagues.

 

Have you ever thought it be more of a ritual with smoking with your friends? You have been doing it with them for years and breaking that ritual habit will take some time. Your nicotine fix is already taken care of, but the act of getting together and bonding by smoking is what I think is hard to break. It will take time man. In fact you might want to try and break away form them and vape on your own. That way you break from that habit as well.

 

You have taken the right decision by quitting smoking but I would suggest you not to relapse. Live a social life with your friends but don't smoke with them. Just don't relapse and carry on vaping. Be a proud vaper.

 

You will eventually get the hang of it. don't lose hope.

 

If you are transitioning from smoking to vaping, I would recommend taking it step by step and not over doing it. You would need to take is slow and easy as if you stopped all of a sudden, you would be crawling back due to the nicotine loss all of a sudden.

 

Hey there mate, welcome to the forums, hopefully you enjoy your stay.
If you're trying to quit smoking you gotta work harder man, I know it is not that easy but you gotta try to control your impulses and yo uwill see it will become easier for yourself, jsut try harder and be positive, Welcome again!

 

Impulse control is good for so many things, seconded. If you beat smoking over time, it will teach you quite a bit about breaking addictions in general. They work in certain ways, follow patterns, are connected to different events, etc. Vaping is just kind of this way to make it easier that doubles as a hobby.

 

Just stick with it. It's not going to happen overnight, be patient with yourself and realize the vaping is very different than the smoking. The thing is to curb the nicotine addictions. Wehn you're in a position where you would normally smoke, double up on your vape. Load your bloodstream up with some nicotine. Your body and mind will start to get the message and it'll be easier to cope with.