Have I really stopped smoking?

[lobeydosser]

I have "given up" smoking many times over the past 20 years and all of them worked for a time, indeed the last time was for 18 months.
But I couldn't stay stopped. Always something eventually happened that made me crave a fag and always it was och I just have a couple, or I'll just finish this packet and then stop again.
It never worked and invariably I would end up smoking more than I was when I had stopped before.
It was almost as if I had never stopped and the addiction had got worse even when I wasn't smoking.
In the 4 and a bit months since I switched to e-cigs, I have not seen any appreciable difference in the amounts or strengths that I am vaping.
I have toyed with ideas along the lines of cutting back to say 18mg strengths but these are just ideas and I have not yet pursued them. Maybe never will.

However it is very interesting that so many of you are thinking along similar lines to myself.

I cringe when I read letters from folks that are using e-cigs as a path to stop smoking altogether. Using them to give up Nicotine is one thing, but using e-cigs to break the smoking habit must be about the hardest way to stop smoking that I can think of.
A bit like trying to give up a Herion Addiction by injecting Methadone instead of drinking it.

Oh well, time for my Menthol (and nicotine) kick before bed.

Nighty night.

[moonraker]

You HAVE stopped smoking but found another way of putting nicotine into your blood stream no one is addicted to smoking we are addicted to nicotine .
try rolling some leaves in the garden we all have loads

[ciar]

In the 5+ months i have been vaping i have had 2 ciggies, both times when I was completely trollied and my vivi had ran out of juice or was basically down to the dregs, had those ciggies, didn't proceed to go buy more didn't ask for more either, they are completely different.. vaping is not smoking for me. in all honesty the only thing I worry about is the fact they didn't taste awful, but i was that drunk i probably never noticed in all honesty i wouldn't dare try one sober!

[kibbster]

I just have to sniff my fingers (lol) or smell a smokers breath to remind myself what is and what was.
At the moment that's good enough to keep me on the straight and narrow.
Long may it stay that way

I also don't consider myself a smoker whilst I'm not smoking, which I'm not.

[lobeydosser]

I suppose asking this question to people that are still addicted to nicotine is going to bring some very biased answers, but still, all things considered, the results were pretty much predicted.
Of the 20 different people who answered, 7 considered themselves still smokers, 11 considered themselves non smokers and 2 cannot make up their minds one way or the other.
So over one third of us still think of ourselves as smokers.

We bang on about the health benefits of getting our nicotine through the vapour of glycols rather than through the vapour of combustion, but to all but the dedicated vapourist, there is very little difference between one and the other and to the general public we are all classed in the same group.

Really the only thing that surprises me about vaping is the fact that some companies actually do differentiate between smoking and vaping and allow vaping yet continue to ban smoking.
I think that this will change in the future when it becomes known that not all nicotine is ingested into the body when vaped, but that a considerable percentage is released back into the air on the exhale.
In other words, in a confined space, vaping could be as dangerous to others as tobacco smoke is. Just because you cannot see it or smell it, doesn't mean that it is not there.

There is, at the moment, too little known about vaping, both towards ourselves and to others around us and until research is done and the facts brought to light, the future of vaping in this country and in the rest of the world will remain very much on a knife edge.

[Gordy]

Nov 30, 2012 13:05:24 GMT lobeydosser said:

We bang on about the health benefits of getting our nicotine through the vapour of glycols rather than through the vapour of combustion, but to all but the dedicated vapourist, there is very little difference between one and the other and to the general public we are all classed in the same group.

the health benefit is still there regardless of how it is perceived by the general public

Really the only thing that surprises me about vaping is the fact that some companies actually do differentiate between smoking and vaping and allow vaping yet continue to ban smoking.
I think that this will change in the future when it becomes known that not all nicotine is ingested into the body when vaped, but that a considerable percentage is released back into the air on the exhale.
In other words, in a confined space, vaping could be as dangerous to others as tobacco smoke is. Just because you cannot see it or smell it, doesn't mean that it is not there.

sure granted nicotine is a poison but in the doses we exhale are minuscule and will not harm anyone

There is, at the moment, too little known about vaping, both towards ourselves and to others around us and until research is done and the facts brought to light, the future of vaping in this country and in the rest of the world will remain very much on a knife edge.

what is known is the long term use of nicotine from smoking. where it is found that the nicotine isnt the chemical doing the damage but the carcinogens and carbon monoxide

Vaping or use of electronic cigarettes is becoming ever more popular and will exponentially continue as more of the smoking public become aware and educated to the benefits

[Ratfinkz]

If I'm correct the exhale of e cigs is one of the things that HAS been thoroughly tested and proven to be 100% harmless.

[kibbster]

Nov 30, 2012 13:05:24 GMT lobeydosser said:

I suppose asking this question to people that are still addicted to nicotine is going to bring some very biased answers, but still, all things considered, the results were pretty much predicted.
Of the 20 different people who answered, 7 considered themselves still smokers, 11 considered themselves non smokers and 2 cannot make up their minds one way or the other.
So over one third of us still think of ourselves as smokers.

We bang on about the health benefits of getting our nicotine through the vapour of glycols rather than through the vapour of combustion, but to all but the dedicated vapourist, there is very little difference between one and the other and to the general public we are all classed in the same group.

Really the only thing that surprises me about vaping is the fact that some companies actually do differentiate between smoking and vaping and allow vaping yet continue to ban smoking.
I think that this will change in the future when it becomes known that not all nicotine is ingested into the body when vaped, but that a considerable percentage is released back into the air on the exhale.
In other words, in a confined space, vaping could be as dangerous to others as tobacco smoke is. Just because you cannot see it or smell it, doesn't mean that it is not there.

There is, at the moment, too little known about vaping, both towards ourselves and to others around us and until research is done and the facts brought to light, the future of vaping in this country and in the rest of the world will remain very much on a knife edge.

Just to differ with one thing you've said.
Nicotine is a drug and a very addictive one at that, but the inhalation of nicotine isn't thought to be dangerous or any more dangerous than drinking a cup of coffee.
Ingesting pure nicotine on the other hand is very dangerous, but no one has died from first or secondhand nicotine inhalation.

It's the 4000 chemicals and the other 70 or so cancer causing chemicals in smoke that kills not the drug.

The by product of combustion Carbon Monoxide also doesn't help your lungs, even if your body loves it... it does damage over time.

None of the above apart from Nicotine are associated with vaping.

Vaping can be considered safe as far as is known, none of the chemicals vaped are known to cause cancer, the long term affects aren't 100% known but from 60 years of asthma inhalers and smoke machines that share the same chemicals and inhalation no known long term ill effects.

If I grow three heads from vaping then so be it.

The truth is there is nothing in the world that has ever been invented that kills as many people worldwide as smoking.

I'm 100% sure that vaping couldn't kill anyway near that many unless they started replacing our juice with cyanide

[lobeydosser]

<<< Vaping or use of electronic cigarettes is becoming ever more popular and will exponentially continue as more of the smoking public become aware and educated to the benefits >>>

Perhaps Gordy, but is the general public all that interested in what we are doing. Do they really feel that they need to be educated?
Those members of the general public that do not and have never smoked have enough on their plates just trying to survive these days without worrying about a minority that have found another way to inhale nicotine.
All they know is that the general concensus of opinion is that smoking is bad both for the user and those in the vicinity of the user and how we do it and the technical differences is of no concern to them.

We leap onto and broadcast and every snippet of information about e-cigs that is released onto Joe Public as if it was somehow another victory for the vaping brigade, whereas, in reality, very few members of the public ever see these articles, let alone bother to read them or feel educated by them.

Yes, I have no doubt that in the future the general public will become aware of e-cigs and the fact that they are different from traditional cigarettes, but please, don't let us kid ourselves that that same general public will class them any differently to what they are used to and perhaps have been brow-beaten into thinking regarding smoking and cigarettes.

I am not trying to knock vaping in any way. I have decided that, for me, vaping is the way forward and I have no intention of ever going back to cigarettes.
But I still consider myself a smoker and, by deffinition, would not attempt to use my e-cig anywhere that traditional smoking is banned, even if I could. Well not openly anyways.

[Blownupdolly]

I agree with Gordy and Kibbster. I always thought it was the many other poisons that caused the problems.

[lobeydosser]

Nov 30, 2012 13:44:30 GMT Ratfinkz said:

If I'm correct the exhale of e cigs is one of the things that HAS been thoroughly tested and proven to be 100% harmless.

I think this depends on which research paper you read.

[Blownupdolly]

Lobey, I will vape anywhere that allows me to. I always ask first and if needed explain what it is as vey few people DO know about it.
I have to admit though, I get a kind of warped pleasure when I start doing it and people stare as they have no idea what i am doing but then, i have always had a rebellious nature!

[mybad]

Theirs something about vaping that is not quite as innocent as it seems to me, the first thing most people would associate the word vapor with is steam coming out of a kettle, of which it is just that, steam, also this steam is heated within a container without direct contact to the heat source , whereas vaping as we know it is a liquid substance that is heated to give off a vapour, now this vapour is produced by direct heat although not a flame it may as well be, now if you spill a few drops of oil on a hot electric hoven ring, what is it you see coming off it, is it smoke or vapour ? because this is exactly what an E cig is doing.

[esmecullen]

Nov 29, 2012 18:08:02 GMT ChillerVapes said:

Anyone who thinks they could easily light up a fag after at least a month of constant vaping I challenge you to try it. You will soon think "what the hell was I thinking?!"

I actually did last month chiller................. I felt awful.......... dizzy sick and thought I would pass out and that was from a "low tar" cigarette. I dont think I could smoke one ever again

I think that there was a discussion about this a few months ago, but I would say that I have stopped smoking........... my Rhumey & GP agree with me, okay I am still getting nicotine, but as has bene said.......... its in a safer way

[Blownupdolly]

Nov 30, 2012 14:14:38 GMT mybad said:

Theirs something about vaping that is not quite as innocent as it seems to me, the first thing most people would associate the word vapor with is steam coming out of a kettle, of which it is just that, steam, also this steam is heated within a container without direct contact to the heat source , whereas vaping as we know it is a liquid substance that is heated to give off a vapour, now this vapour is produced by direct heat although not a flame it may as well be, now if you spill a few drops of oil on a hot electric hoven ring, what is it you see coming off it, is it smoke or vapour ? because this is exactly what an E cig is doing.

I would say a lot of what is burnt off oil is also water as it must have it in it, or am i just talking from my rear end? Of course there would be other stuff too, but also our juices are oily too aren't they?