Denial and/or a Transitional Phase

I think it's interesting in a cynical sort of way to read about how forum members rationalize their reasons for vaping in so many similar ways we as (former) smokers did.

A few years ago I successfully managed to stop smoking after about 25 years by using Allen Carr's 'Easy Way.' In his book, everything seemed to make so much sense with all of the examples he gave about the fact that we don't enjoy smoking, even though we say we do.

In one such instance he mentions that 'we' are never proud of how many cigarettes we actually smoke and the number is always lower than reality.

We might in fact smoke more than a packet a day, but when anyone asks we always say that we smoke less than a packet.

By comparison we are doing the same thing on the forum when we talk about nicotine levels. It seems that everyone has an agenda to lessen the nicotine level from 18 to 12 to 6 60 zero. I am a perfect example, where I started at 18 mg then quickly went to 12 for a few months and now I'm on 6mg nic. If I was vaping zero nic would I want to vape now that the nicotine addiction had 'evaporated.'?

Now there's a conundrum.

Are we in a transitional state of mind where vaping is a step towards becoming non-smoker / non-inhaler? We are all champions in our own minds to have been able to kick the weed and we should rightfully be proud of that achievement, but where do we 'you' go from here?

Or, where do we go after reaching zero nic?


Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas, BTW

 

That's a good question and I hope you can forgive me for answering it in a rather long winded reply.

I a lot of ways I agree with you. Yes I used to downgrade the level of my addiction to analogues, but a long time ago, 5-10 years I would guess, I stopped doing this. NOT because I was proud of my smoking addinction but because I didn't care anymore what anyone thought of me for smoking as much as I did. I had far more important things to deal with than other people and their "prejudices"

I see one major difference in your analogy to vaping though. I would assume that many are proud to be vaping precisely because they are not smoking any longer. At least that is how it appears to be to me when I read the tone of many peoples threads on here.

I think the vaping adgenda is also strongly linked to the smoking addiction. Every smoker, whether they admit it or not, wants to give up smoking. I know that some steadfastly refuse to agree with that but that is my belief. Many smokers, not feeling able to give up cold turkey or with things like Nic patches or gum, believe the only way to quit is to either cut the nic levels in their analogues or reduce the number of smokes they are consuming. And so when vaping is tried and adopted as a nicotine delivery system instead, they do use vaping as a transition to keep the oral fixation of smoking going. Then they are able to keep the nicotine AND the habit going without the actual smoking. This CAN be a very easy transition to vaping and kicking the analogues for many people.

That does not, however, break the previous beliefs about giving up and the lowering of nicotine is psychologically linked to the act of quiting. Therefore in many minds people have not yet quit fully because of the nic levels they are vaping. I think that this wears off after a period of time, personal to the individual, and then there is a decision to be made about whether to continue with nicotine, cut it completely and continue vaping or get off the need for nicotine and the oral fixation and stop vaping as well. That would probably be decided on the basis of still being treated as a smoker, as far as where you can vape without trouble, unknown future health concerns and, primarily, financial concerns.

So yes, it is a transition from smoking to vaping to nic free and maybe vaping free.

Where will I go from here? What will I do if I manage to reach zero nic vaping? I don't know and to be perfectly honest I really don't care. For now I am perfectly content with where I am and the huge reduction in potential present and future health risks. Will that change in the furture, either near or far? I don't know. What I do know with absolutely no doubt, question's, queries, if's, ands, but's or why's is this. I DON"T SMOKE ANYMORE!!!!!! YEEEEEHAAAAAA!!!!

And I couldn't be happier.

But that is just my opinion. And I have only just started vaping, so I could be talking completely out of my ass.

 

First I have to ask smoking what? fruitlover. I have been smoking pipe for many years before smoking cigarettes. When I came to live in Thailand I had giving up smoking the pipe and changed to cigarettes, mainly because i could not get any decent tobacco here and also getting a decent pipe, was impossible.

When I was smoking the pipe, I really enjoyed it. I had different pipes for different occasions. My evening pipe was a big calabash pipe. I spend some money on pipes, and finally got the creme de la creme a real Dunhill pipe, wich just was a fantastic pipe. Sometimes i would buy a yearpipe from one og the great pipe manufacturers. And i spend money on cleaning and maintenance of my pipes.

Tobacco I would by at some fine shops in Copenhagen, and there where some really fine blended tobacco's out there. You could also make your own blend by choosing the different tobacco's mixed it with a bit of vanilla or something else a little brandy maybe and create your completely own blend. It was then given a number, so next time you came you just have to say the number in order to get the same blend again. And it really also was a matter of taste to smoke this fine tobacco's.

I actually find the same qualities now waping. I have bought some fine vaping devices, where my Itaste 134 is like my Cabash pipe before, and some of the other pipes i had now are called ego twist and the like. My yearpipe, is now the Itaste VTR. So for me there is not the big difference between smoking the pipe or vaping. I behave like before.

There are lot's of different liquids out there, so many different tastes, and I really enjoy trying different ones, like i enjoyed different tobacco's before. Yes I also had a little hint about health and yes I also try to get my nicotine down. I vape liquids with 6-12 mg and hope to get it down to 0-6 mg. One reason for the latter is that i must admit that the liquid taste is better with less nicotine. I tried to vape the same liquid with 12mg and then with 6mg, and the one with 6mg simply taste better.

I have no intention stopping with vaping. I really enjoyed sitting with my peace pipe and coffee in the morning, as I now like to sit with my peace vaping device and my coffee in the morning, and welcome another day, and I enjoy the time during the day where I can sit and have a nice relaxing vape. Even there is just a little to none nicotine in it, the act of vaping is just so peaceful anti stressing as it is, in the same way that I could cool down from stress when I relaxed with a pipe.

 

Good thread here and basically I agree with everyone. I've only been vaping now for 6 days and I barely think about tobacco cigs anymore. While I was smoking cigs I always had this dreadfull feeling that I was slowly killing myself and that I would have to quit one day. always later later. Vaping has given me a quick out and I feel that I have my life back--

I was a slave of cigs -always planning where I could smoke--basically controlling my life-you know how that goes. I enjoy the vaping but at the same time I don't want to become a slave to it-- can a balance be reached?

So that I can have my special times to enjoy a special vape--as Dieter with his coffee.

Time will tell but the dreadfull feeling of being killed by tobacco is gone-- The rest is icing on the cake. How harmful is vaping?? That is the big question for me.

 

To take your last question asiaexpat "How harmful is vaping?? That is the big question for me.", I yesterday put a link to site with research in the field of e-cigarettes in another thread. But i would like to put in in this one too. It answers a lot of questions about vaping, and the doctors and scientist are all independent, so the information they give, is a lot more trustworthy, than so many other so called information.

Home

I hope this will answer your question as well as others with the same question.

 

I also tried the Allen Carr easy way method a few years ago ... there were 3 of us (old school friends) who quit together and it all went well ... for about 6 months in my case, and then back off the wagon. One of my other friends fell off as well after a year, but the last one is still smoke free 4+ years later (and subsequently turned into an anti-smoker grrr).

The easy way book and dvd DID make a lot of sense though, and I've been hating myself the last couple of years since that failed attempt as now I was smoking while consciously aware of the trap I was in...

Enter vaping ...

I have just STARTED vaping at 6/11 mg nicotine strength ... and have absolutely no cravings for extra analogs to make up for some kind of 'nicotine deficiency' in my intake. In fact my only stronger juice (Torque56) at 18mg nic is sitting here largely unvaped. As far as I'm concerned this is a huge benefit from day 1 of vaping! Personally I feel like I could vape away on some 0mg juice later down the line without too many problems ... as long as I get to keep my 'habit' and rituals I'm happy!

As to how safe e-cigs are ... Yeah that will be interesting to see! Though the important point I guess is that I feel more confident of actually still being ALIVE to read the results at the time that research into the long term effects of vaping have been conducted, as opposed to if I was on the analogs! I think that's the main rationale smokers have with the 'safety' of ecigs ... cigarettes are just such damn prolific global killers, and we all know that while smoking them, that you can't help but lower your health risks by substituting them out for vaping ... even if vaping turns out to be 'dangerous' itself!!

 

Personally I don't intend going anywhere. Nicotene has some advantages, and really not much against it from what I know, though I'll investigate it more later. But even if I do go to 0 nic I really can't see why I'd stop vaping unless I don't enjoy it.

I'm sure there are some downsides and negative effects. But every single thing you do; eating, drinking water, sex, breathing our polluted air have those. Life IMHO should be a balance between enjoyment and health/safety. No point in a long healthy life with little to no enjoyment is there. As long as I enjoy it 0 nic or not, I'll probably vape.

 

Couldnt agree more!