do i need to clean my aerotank?

[jackcustard]

May 24, 2014 23:00:01 GMT babs said:

Hi @alopezg1 I am one of the lucky ones that didn't even try to give up smoking it happened naturally I smoked and vaped for a couple of days but found I preferred vaping. I do however use at least a dozen different flavours which I constantly switch around. I think from reading through your posts you are putting yourself under too much pressure. Also the WTA juice may in fact be making it less enjoyable as it's restricting your choice of flavours. I was at least a 20 a day smoker often going up to 40 for more than 50 years. I tried all the nrt choices and they never worked for more than a couple of months and I felt I was missing the cigarettes while I was on them. I have never vaped a tobacco flavoured juice as it doesn't appeal to me I use mainly fruits occasionally with menthol. I started on 18mg strength which I haven't even attempted to cut down on. I would suggest that you try to relax about it and if you really feel the need for a cigarette to have one. Once you are more relaxed I think the enjoyment from vaping will become more satisfying for you. As things stand with you at the moment you are enjoying nothing and it will become a never ending circle of guilt which will only make you ill.

Exactly what I was.trying to say. 

Needed a woman's touch.

[BrenD]

That did sound a bit depressing when I read it back, it wasn't meant to be and I really didn't want to make you feel dreadful, but it was depressing. I guess I was just sharing my experiences, but you already know you aren't the only person to be struggling with this.

The quit was in inverted commas because although I made it to the five year point of not smoking every day, ten or so a month rather than ten or so a day is really cutting down rather than quitting. Drastically, but still not quitting. But I don't think I could go back to smoking, even if vaping was somehow taken away from me. The nicotine withdrawal would suck something rotten, but everything about smoking is just about alien to me now, from holding something that small and lighting it to the different technique of using it. It wouldn't feel right and I wouldn't get the enjoyment I get from vaping. Not that I ever want to find out if that is actually the case, but it certainly feels that way.

But as you say, there are people on the forum who were much heavier smokers than I used to be and vaping has done the trick for them as it can do for you.

I don't know anything about the juice you have been using, but have you been rotating flavours at all, or just sticking to one? Most people around here seem to use multiple flavours in a day, but I don't feel the need to chop and change quite as much. I have enough clearos lying around to allow me to do so, but it feels like too much hassle. But after about two solid days of vaping the same juice, things become that little bit more enjoyable again when I do switch.

Perhaps the answer might be something as simple as taking advantage of your returning senses of taste and smell and changing things up a little more often?

[Deleted]

May 24, 2014 22:59:52 GMT misst said:

Ahh right. Me too. How long since your meds were reviewed? Is your doc aware of this latest attempt to quit smoking? Could be that you could do with upping the dosage or changing the meds as your body acclimatises to not smoking. 9 weeks is long enough for your body to feel those effects. Then as you go along you can lower the meds again.

The meds i am on have little to no effect on the withdrawal symptoms . I have recently increased the dosage but do not want to go higher as i do not like the side effects that go along with higher doses. The meds are actually a bit like smoking in that they don't seem to do anything for me until i try to come off them and then i have to go back on them. I don't if they have any actual benefit in themselves . I was put on them when i was young and have never been able to come off them and have had the dosage increased to quite high but never felt any better for it. It is actually very similar to smoking in that i just keep taking them so that i don't have to go through the withdrawal

[Deleted]

i gave up a long time ago on actually getting worthwhile advice from a doctor regarding my mental health

[chykensa]

I've just read this thread @alopezg1 and here are my thoughts. I should add before I start that I have no knowledge or understanding of depression, so I can't comment in any meaningful way about that aspect of your current situation.
You have managed to go for 9 weeks without smoking tobacco. That is a major achievement, and your body is already recovering from the cr@p that you have ingested over all the years that you smoked. You mentioned the MAOIs that are indeed in tobacco to kid your brain into thinking that you are enjoying the tobacco as well as the nicotine. I takes about 6 months before the effects of these chemicals begin to lessen, so it's way to early to give up on that side of things; give your body the chance to completely rid itself of the nasty compounds contained within tobacco.
I think I know now when my body finally accepted the fact that there were no more MAOIs coming its way any time soon. Last March I had a purple patch both mentally and physically, and bearing in mind I gave up tobacco in September 2012, that would be about right. I have had 4 fags since I gave up, and I didn't enjoy them at all. I'm not making any criticism here, just a statement of fact.
I must agree with those above who say that a) you must not beat yourself up about having the odd cigarette. I have vaping friends who dual fuel quite often, and you should remember to be positive about the number of fags you haven't smoked, not the few that you do: b) you seem to be very down about the fags v. vaping thing; I wonder if your GP could give you more help here, as it seems to be that you are between a rock and a hard place as far as smoking is concerned. Can't live with it, can't live without it.
I wonder if funds allow you should consider a mod which packs a bit more punch, something with a larger battery and VV and VW. This would give you a new toy to play with and would give a substantially better vape. Anything to breath a bit of life into your enjoyment of vaping.
I hope that some of this has helped, but please keep us posted, and we'll help where we can.
I'm around for a bit; waiting for my daughter to get home from work!
Andy

[jackcustard]

But you are willing to take advice from an internet forum, with people whom you have never met?

What is it about vaping that isn't doing it for you? What is it about cigarettes that does?

If its because cigs are.simple and easy then get a cig a like and give it a try.

[chykensa]

Busy thread, with loads of comments while I was typing.
1) change your GP - sounds as though you don't have much faith in your current one. Your choice, not theirs.
2) change your juices to refresh your palate.
3) from a bystanders perspective, if you've been on the same meds since you were quite young, surely they must be up for review now!
4) whereabouts in the country are you? - maybe a meet up with a fellow vaper would re-enthuse you?
5) concentrate on your freediving - if smoking prohibits you from doing that to keep you on the rails, there's a mental lever to play around with.

Watching with sincere interest

[Deleted]

May 24, 2014 23:10:43 GMT chykensa said:

I've just read this thread @alopezg1 and here are my thoughts. I should add before I start that I have no knowledge or understanding of depression, so I can't comment in any meaningful way about that aspect of your current situation.
You have managed to go for 9 weeks without smoking tobacco. That is a major achievement, and your body is already recovering from the cr@p that you have ingested over all the years that you smoked. You mentioned the MAOIs that are indeed in tobacco to kid your brain into thinking that you are enjoying the tobacco as well as the nicotine. I takes about 6 months before the effects of these chemicals begin to lessen, so it's way to early to give up on that side of things; give your body the chance to completely rid itself of the nasty compounds contained within tobacco.
I think I know now when my body finally accepted the fact that there were no more MAOIs coming its way any time soon. Last March I had a purple patch both mentally and physically, and bearing in mind I gave up tobacco in September 2012, that would be about right. I have had 4 fags since I gave up, and I didn't enjoy them at all. I'm not making any criticism here, just a statement of fact.
I must agree with those above who say that a) you must not beat yourself up about having the odd cigarette. I have vaping friends who dual fuel quite often, and you should remember to be positive about the number of fags you haven't smoked, not the few that you do: b) you seem to be very down about the fags v. vaping thing; I wonder if your GP could give you more help here, as it seems to be that you are between a rock and a hard place as far as smoking is concerned. Can't live with it, can't live without it.
I wonder if funds allow you should consider a mod which packs a bit more punch, something with a larger battery and VV and VW. This would give you a new toy to play with and would give a substantially better vape. Anything to breath a bit of life into your enjoyment of vaping.
I hope that some of this has helped, but please keep us posted, and we'll help where we can.
I'm around for a bit; waiting for my daughter to get home from work!
Andy

Thankyou Chykensa

I do actually feel a lot better after all this ranting..... i am sorry if i have seemed bad tempered to anyone, just feeling a bit desperate . This happened a maybe three weeks ago and i had a talk with my Mum and felt like a weight had been lifted. I think i do have other difficulties that may make this more challenging, a tendency to get fixated on things. The truth is though i think i would be a lot happier eventually if i could get away from smoking cigarettes and feel comfortable doing so. As for the MAOIS i think that it is just despicable that they get away with that kind of thing ...... i suppose that is what is 'missing' from the vaping that i am noticing. The WTA  helped a bit but now doesn't seem to . I have snus which i know definitley does help sometimes, maybe i need to get back into using that as well as vaping . Thanks everyone and sorry

[Deleted]

but then maybe the snus will not help with getting away from tobacco compounds.... probably not

[Deleted]

I am in Falmouth Cornwall Chykensa

[misst]

May 24, 2014 23:10:08 GMT @alopezg1 said:

i gave up a long time ago on actually getting worthwhile advice from a doctor regarding my mental health

I hear you with that one!!

This is why I took a different route with my mental health care and went into therapy. That's what made the difference for me. Actually, it's been a combination of the two that's worked best for me, different proportions at different times. Also I would say that it needs to be the RIGHT meds at the right time.  There's an awful lot of trial and error involved with finding the right one for you at a given time tho.

I do hear you about keeping up with meds just to avoid the withdrawal too. I find myself in much the same position there so can sympathise.

[chykensa]

@alopezg1 - don't know why you are apologising, that's what we are here for, help and support!
Every day that you can go without re-introducing those chemicals into your system is a step closer to being free from them. Try different juices and if you can a different mod, as I mentioned above. Most of all, rant away here - what are the chances that you'll ever recognise us in the street, and us you!?
Now relaxing with some CaraLemThol (no prizes for guessing what's in that!), hope you are relaxing too

[BrenD]

May 24, 2014 23:27:09 GMT @alopezg1 said:

I am in Falmouth Cornwall Chykensa

My safe place.  Or one of them, Polzeath being the other.  When things get really crappy I jump on the train and take myself off to Falmouth for the day, almost always does the trick.

[Mikey@Vaporized]

I think some kind ot complementary therapy would help you by the sounds of things. Despite all of your vaping, smoking and neither of them working, go book yourself in for a massage! If you enjoy neither smoking or vaping then take your mind off of them with something that is enjoyable book a treatment weekly and give yourself something to look forward to.
When you are stressed and/or depressed, your physical structure is holding on to all those emotions. If they aren't dealt with, or if you hold on to them they have to go somewhere. A good therapist will work to locate where this tension is stored and work it out for you.
As a therapist myself I honestly think you could give this a shot and find it may work. Just don't go to a salon, you will get a nice pamper there but maybe not the kind of therapy I am talking about. There are therapists out there like myself who are trained to the level of a healthcare professional. Someone will be able to help you manage this Have a look online for reputable therapists in your area, you've nothing to lose
And most importantly, remember to breathe deeply, keep your chin as high as you can hold it. You aren't alone in this. Sending you thoughts of healing and happiness x

[Deleted]

May 24, 2014 23:28:49 GMT chykensa said:

@alopezg1 - don't know why you are apologising, that's what we are here for, help and support!
Every day that you can go without re-introducing those chemicals into your system is a step closer to being free from them. Try different juices and if you can a different mod, as I mentioned above. Most of all, rant away here - what are the chances that you'll ever recognise us in the street, and us you!?
Now relaxing with some CaraLemThol (no prizes for guessing what's in that!), hope you are relaxing too

Yes thanks chykensa i do feel better now after all that.... i do think investing in some wider varieties of juices would help. I only have a tobacco and menthol and haven't deviated from that for some time.