No Stupid Questions

I managed to quit smoking by vaping about 6 years ago. For the most part a cigarette is a cigarette, but I was buying juice so I could control the level of nicotine. Started at 12, then to 6, 3 and finally 1.5 strength. Took about a year.

When I was at 1.5 I had a real bad chest cold so I put it down, never picked it back up. Vaping really helped me because I could quit without withdrawal of any kind. I worry about the prefilled convenience store pods because it doesn't seem like you get that level of control to ween yourself off the nicotine.

It helps most in the sense that it's not at all as unhealthy. Anything you hear to the contrary is simply scaremongering and terrible advice. Almost half of smokers die from smoking related illness where I live. The negative health effects and oxidative damage from pyrolysis and from vapourizing a liquid are simply not comparable.

They are "supposed" to make quit burning tobacco. That's where the harm is.
Nicotine alone does not cause cancer.

I quit smoking with them but it was more about harm reduction for me. They're obviously less healthy than not using it at all, but everyone I know who quit smoking using an ecig has their own anecdotes about how they felt better after switching. I used to get bronchitis flare ups every flu season but that hasn't happened since I switched. I don't cough up crud all the time, I can climb stairs without getting winded, and I smell like fruit instead of cigarette butts which I'm sure everyone else appreciates. My nic level is also so low now I'm basically just vaping flavored vegetable glycerin.

It worked for me. Although I didn't intend to hang up my nicotine addiction when I switched to a vape. I stuck with it because I didnt smell bad and i could get what felt like a clean buzz. Then I got into making big clouds that tasted good. Then the juul came out along with salt nic which allowed me to get my throat hit and more intense buzz. After awhile I started to really notice my dependency and started to get annoyed and sick of it. Tried quitting cold turkey from 50mg. Didnt work. Went back to vaping 3mg for while and eventually got a 0mg bottle along with my 3mg to dilute and eventually stuck with 0mg and ive been vape free for about 4 months now. I know its not long but it definitely made it easier for me.

I guess the moral my my story is how you use an addictive substance is up to you, just remeber the results that can come from it. The process of quitting is different for everyone. But most importantly its your mentality. The various nicotine options, my mental preparedness, and my plan is what allowed me to finally quit. If your looking to quit I genuinely wish you the best of luck. Thanks for reading.

They did for me. Smoked 20 years, vaped 3 years at increasingly lower nicotine levels, then quit. That was several years ago

Sigh. I got a vape to help me quit then realized all the reasons I wanted to quit were now gone. So there's basically no chance I'm quitting now. Awesome.

I actually did quit using them. But it wasn’t a case of switching from cigs to vapes and then just quitting a few weeks later.

I smoked for over 30 years and then moved over to vaping. I then vaped for about 7 years before finally managing to quit. That was 557 days ago now.

I will say coming off the vapes did seem easier than coming off cigarettes which I’d never managed to do previously,

Whether the vapes actually helped me quit I can’t say for sure but when I was on them I didn’t stink of smoke and I’m sure they are probably more healthy than actual cigarettes and they’re much cheaper so I look at the time vaping as a positive comparatively speaking.

I understand e-cigarettes are supposed to help you quit

They're not.

An e-cigarette is just like a normal cigarette, but you're not inhaling burned paper. If you were inhaling addictive substances with normal cigarettes, nothing is stopping you from doing the same with an e-cig.

Do they work? In the sense that they "burn" (in quotes) substances and let you inhale them, then yes. That is their purpose.

It depends whether you want to stop or not, it's as simple as that.

E-cigarettes can be a great way to quit smoking, if that's what you want. If you just switch to an E-cigarette and expect to magically stop smoking, you're in for disappointment. Nicotine cessation is entirely psychological.

It's a little bit like that Lap band surgery. You still have to want to lose weight after, otherwise you will blow it open and it will do nothing.

If anyone actually wants to quit smoking I highly suggest the book "Easy way to stop smoking" by Alan Carr.

You mean are they just as addictive? Yeah. Its just as big of a scam as cigarettes and a monumental waste of money.

Why do people care so much if I have a vice? Why is everyone up my ass on this? I like nicotine, I'm sure your friend does too. They do not need more of a reason.

I've many people have trouble transitioning from cigarettes to vape only and they usually just give up. They never really make that mental push where you say to yourself "I'm not going to buy another pack of cigarettes and rely on the vape".

The next step if you accomplish the first is to gradually reduce nicotine over time. I started at 12 and was at 6 within a few months. Then I vaped pretty heavily at 3 or 1 mg for a lot of years. Finally, after about 8 years of vaping(and not smoking one cigarette) I decided to just vape fluid without nicotine. That led me to forgetting about vaping almost all of the time.

Of course people can do it much quicker than I did but I didn't really care much about the vaping as long as I was off of cigarettes.

They help you stop smoking. In my experience they don't help you quit nicotine, they just manufactured all the joy out of it.

I smoked for a long time, switched completely to vaping several years ago and still do it. I started at nicotine level 24mg - supposedly the equivalent of a Camel or Marlboro - decreased gradually to where I'm now at the lowest nicotine level widely available in pre-made juices, 3mg.

Remember that nicotine at these doses is not harmful, nor is it a carcinogenic. What it is, is addictive, and the documented harm from the cigarette as a nicotine delivery system comes from the combustion.

With that in mind, I admit that I'm still comfortable with vaping after several years, my health has improved dramatically since then.
I can breathe much better, easier. Now I don't catch every single throat infection and flu of the season, and if I do catch one, it's now usually so mild that I don't even need medication to sleep with a clear nose.

What keeps me on edge is the pervasive anti-vaping sentiment, caused by the anarchic environment of the fledging vaping industry at the beginning, many nicotine delivery systems packaged EXACTLY like candy. A greedy gold rush attitude poisoned the well at the outset.
As an analogy, think Bitcoin and crypto.

They don't do shit for me. I could vape an entire cart and still want a cigarette just as much, if not more, than before I used the e-cig. The nicotine gum did a better job of curbing my cravings for a cigarette. So did Prozac; but that was given to me for depression and also gave me ED, so I mean... You wanna quit smoking or you want a working penis? You can choose 1. 😖