Talk to me about cutting down on nicotine

[SteveF]

ummm....I'm still on 9mg after 14 months and that is dripping 50-60w with a single clapton or tanks at 80-120w TC.
I've been down as low as 4.5 or 6mg for daily use and I can't be doing with chain vaping. A few puffs and I'm sorted for ages.

Being a baccy smoker, I've never had to hang onto a tailor-made puffing away until it was finished so picking up and putting down a stronger vape has never been an issue. Its not like a 40+ a day cigarette habit because most of the time my roll-ups had gone out and I was relighting.

[car147]

Sept 3, 2016 16:55:44 GMT SteveF said:

ummm....I'm still on 9mg after 14 months and that is dripping 50-60w with a single clapton or tanks at 80-120w TC.
I've been down as low as 4.5 or 6mg for daily use and I can't be doing with chain vaping. A few puffs and I'm sorted for ages.

Being a baccy smoker, I've never had to hang onto a tailor-made puffing away until it was finished so picking up and putting down a stronger vape has never been an issue. Its not like a 40+ a day cigarette habit because most of the time my roll-ups had gone out and I was relighting.

No problem stevef , everyone's different. Your doing what makes you happy and keeps you off the fags! We only reduced more to see if we could than trying to get rid of nicotine, hence we have no plans to give up the nic hit, despite it being tiny.

[djs]

Sept 3, 2016 14:08:41 GMT Greg said:

I cut the nicotine altogether, once I got down to 6mg I reduced by 1mg every month or so until I was at zero. I never noticed any adverse effects or cravings whatsoever.

This is my plan once I get near to halfway through the theoretical 7.4 litres of DIY liquid I have stored for the Zombies.

Regardless, I'm going from 6mg to 4.5mg on the 1st October... and down to 3mg on 1/1/2017.

[SteveF]

Sept 3, 2016 17:11:03 GMT car147 said:

Sept 3, 2016 16:55:44 GMT SteveF said:

ummm....I'm still on 9mg after 14 months and that is dripping 50-60w with a single clapton or tanks at 80-120w TC.
I've been down as low as 4.5 or 6mg for daily use and I can't be doing with chain vaping. A few puffs and I'm sorted for ages.

Being a baccy smoker, I've never had to hang onto a tailor-made puffing away until it was finished so picking up and putting down a stronger vape has never been an issue. Its not like a 40+ a day cigarette habit because most of the time my roll-ups had gone out and I was relighting.

No problem stevef , everyone's different. Your doing what makes you happy and keeps you off the fags! We only reduced more to see if we could than trying to get rid of nicotine, hence we have no plans to give up the nic hit, despite it being tiny.

it is what it is, as you say I'm not smoking
I probably would be on 6 by now, things haven't been easy recently. Caring pretty much 24/7 for my father for the last 4 months and with added stress now that he is in hospital makes me thank the stars that I don't smoke anymore.

[car147]

Sept 3, 2016 18:03:38 GMT SteveF said:

Sept 3, 2016 17:11:03 GMT car147 said:

No problem stevef , everyone's different. Your doing what makes you happy and keeps you off the fags! We only reduced more to see if we could than trying to get rid of nicotine, hence we have no plans to give up the nic hit, despite it being tiny.

it is what it is, as you say I'm not smoking
I probably would be on 6 by now, things haven't been easy recently. Caring pretty much 24/7 for my father for the last 4 months and with added stress now that he is in hospital makes me thank the stars that I don't smoke anymore.

Your doing bloody well then mate, stress is the very thing that always had me running back to the fags, hope all goes well with your Dad.

[Darkginger]

SteveF - hope your Dad's OK - I'm a carer for mine, too, which is why I'm in the UK most of the time even though I live in Ireland - it can be tough, and stressful, as you say - but am glad I'm able to do it (and also glad I have a very tolerant husband who stays at home looking after the dogs and cats whilst I'm away). Being here with Dad all the time (he has mixed dementia and prostate cancer) can be pretty mind-numbing, and I fell into the trap of using both cigarettes and alcohol to 'entertain' myself when bored and housebound, but have managed to quit both now (well, the misuse of both - I still enjoy one or two evenings with a drink per week!). I suppose that's why I want to quit the nicotine, too - it's like a renovation project on my own body - gives me something I can actually control Thanks to all who've replied, you've given me things to think about - I'll probably stick with the 3mg for now, and maybe work on reducing it further after Christmas.

[SteveF]

Sept 3, 2016 23:49:38 GMT Darkginger said:

SteveF - hope your Dad's OK - I'm a carer for mine, too, which is why I'm in the UK most of the time even though I live in Ireland - it can be tough, and stressful, as you say - but am glad I'm able to do it (and also glad I have a very tolerant husband who stays at home looking after the dogs and cats whilst I'm away). Being here with Dad all the time (he has mixed dementia and prostate cancer) can be pretty mind-numbing, and I fell into the trap of using both cigarettes and alcohol to 'entertain' myself when bored and housebound, but have managed to quit both now (well, the misuse of both - I still enjoy one or two evenings with a drink per week!). I suppose that's why I want to quit the nicotine, too - it's like a renovation project on my own body - gives me something I can actually control Thanks to all who've replied, you've given me things to think about - I'll probably stick with the 3mg for now, and maybe work on reducing it further after Christmas.

thankyou Darkginger, as you well know we are far from alone in our situation. Father is not good at the moment, parkinsons with rapid onset of chronic vascular dementia, TIAs, hallucinations, delirium . A care home looks imminent rather than an option.
No problem with alcohol, I manage to ramble on quite sober too. Even when I do have a bourbon at hand it is very sad, ruined, mixed with a pint of lemonade and ice-cubes.

Vaping it's the breaking of habit, the hand to mouth routine of smoking. It took 8-9 months to do that even though I stopped smoking instantly. I can go out without my vape, but vaping without nicotine is a different matter.
Nicotine reduction, I've had a few tries, generally got bored of vaping by doing it. All too soon imo, the loss of flavour from the increase of puffs ect.
I did the body and health makeover last year, lost 3 stone,gave up smoking, I run 3 miles every day and feel better than I have for years.
If 3mg is your comfort zone and zero your target target go for it. I'll be there in a few years when my stock of nicotine runs low.

[VapingBad]

I would say don't worry about it, nic use is not a problem IMO. But while people are cutting their nic level as they use higher power and more efficient devices I doubt they are using much less nic. That has been my experience when I lower the mg I use more mg, I have a spreadsheet covering my liquid use since Nov 2013 and my daily nic use has been between 85 and 110 mg per day, ATM it's avg of 96 mg over the last 6 weeks (using 5 mg liquid ATM) .

I did successfully cut down to zero nic, it was very easy as I did it in very small step, but life and being a die hard smoker caused a couple of 40 Marlbro Red binges so I'm happy to live with the nic usage. That is no reason that others can't cut out nic successfully, it may be me I had given up smoking for over a year 3 times before vaping.

[car147]

I think you hit the nail on the head there VapingBad, we both noticed we Vape a lot more since dropping to 1mg.

[DaveJ]

Sept 3, 2016 9:57:42 GMT Darkginger said:

A bit of a weird one this (maybe, maybe it's common!) - but I've now been vaping exclusively for almost 9 weeks - from a 30 Superkings a day habit. I started on 18mg juices, then went down to 10 or 12 after a couple of weeks, then 6, and am now happily vaping on 3mg, with no cravings.

As others have said before me, that's some quick cut back you've achieved there. Well done.

I know everyone is different, but I was still "missing something" for well over a year after swapping to vaping. I'd caution against trying to cut out the nic too quickly. As some have said before me, if you do try nic free, have nic setups on standby *just in case*. It might be, as it was for me, that those around you are better able to tell if you need your nic or not!