Giving up, with the help of E-Cigarettes

MikeTV

I guess I'm not looking for a "good experience" in quite the same way as others. I'm not doing it for it's own sake - I'm doing it to intake nicotine. In that respect, the over-the-counter stuff is succeeding, for me. And it's been a very easy transition.
Cheers. The capsules I'm using at the moment do last longer than the Tesco's ones, but it's too soon to tell how many cigs that translates to. I should know in a couple of weeks. I'll be very surprised if they last that long.

IronGiant

10 myths about stop smoking treatments - Live Well - NHS Choices

No.2 nicotine doesn't cause cancer

and No.8 nicotine raises blood pressure and heart rate


are pertinent to comments made on this thread.

HTH.

Edit: I should probably point out those aren't the myths, those are the facts

MikeTV

Of course, we have to remember this is advice from a government agency, designed for the greater good (no doubt), rather than hard scientific facts. It's a bit like the old "five-a-day" advice - there isn't much science to back it up, even if it is good general advice.

For example, the statement: "Nicotine replacement therapy gets nicotine into your body without the dangerous poisons". Nicotine itself is a dangerous poison - it will kill you in sufficient quantities - and that's scientifically known. But NRT will not give you sufficient quantities to be harmful, and so it is not poisonous - because toxicity is about dosage. But if they were to qualify it all with the actual scientific facts, it would probably cause more confusion, and the main message would get lost.

Anyway I'm taking "No.2" with a pinch of salt, on the basis that *no proven link* doesn't constitute *a proof* of there not being a link. There have been studies to suggest there is one. But undoubtedly smoking is a far greater risk.

out for justice

If it wasn't for that thread, I'd most likely still be smoking about 15-20 Silk Cuts a day. As a result, I quit over a year ago and haven't looked back. I tried quitting many times up until that point using a variety of different methods, none of which worked. IMHO, electronic cigarettes are, by far, the easiest way to give up smoking.

There is definitely a learning curve but it's worth it. Best way to start off in the e-cig world is with an eGo starter kit from any of the places mentioned in that thread or earlier in this one. The eGo kit (with clearomisers) is cheap, easy to use and widely available. Many people I know have given up smoking using the eGo and are still using them today. From then onwards, it's up to you where to go with it.

Good advice - can't go wrong with that setup.

I started at 18mg strength a year ago and now I am down to 8-6mg. I will give up completely at some point but, at present,  I'm enjoying it far too much.

Not a fan of that Allen Carr book. The facts could be summed up on one page TBH (they probably are).

The e-cigarettes give you your nicotine hit but they also give you the action of inhaling and exhaling vapour. Plus the throat hit and taste of whatever liquid you use. In my case, I like to use tobacco flavour. Real tobacco actually tastes disgusting (as Alan Carr mentions about 30 times in his book) so the flavoured liquid you can buy isn't exactly the same otherwise you wouldn't like it.

My e-cigarette gave out on me about a month ago when I was out on a **** up. I was fairly drunk at this point and bought a pack of Silk Cut. I managed about three puffs before putting it out - Tasted vile to me. I have that same pack of cigarettes sitting in a draw at home ever since to test myself.

I strongly recommend e-cigarettes to anyone who is looking to quit smoking. You will still be addicted to the nicotine but the health benifits are worth it - See IronGiants post above.

IronGiant

Agreed

NewfieDrool

Me too but at the moment I'm sat here with a nice strong cuppa and a huge cigar

oska

As above, I fancied a change from smoking. Not necessarily wanting to give up totally. Smoking was making me feel ill, cough and smell. Thought I'd give the Ecigs a go and bought a pack off the internet, soon realised that the cigalikes were not all that although they did the job and I didn't feel the need for a real one.

Bought another kit and was on 18mg nicotine. Enjoyed that a whole lot more but found I vape a lot more than I smoked. Now down to 15mg and will slowly go down more. I do enjoy the whole hand to mouth and exhale business so I'm not even sure if I want to just stop altogether. Time will tell.

out for justice

That's outrageous!

MikeTV

I can see why you might feel like that. But for me, it taught me things about the addiction that were new to me, which frankly, surprised me. And that's after being quite resistant to even reading it at all - thinking that nobody could tell me something that I didn't already know about cigarettes, and expecting it to be a long lecture about how bad they are - which of course, we already know being smokers.

It gave me the motivation and belief I could quit fairly easily, rather than simply distilling facts. It threw me a bit by downplaying the difficulty of the initial nicotine withdrawal, which I believe is why it didn't work for me, but I'll probably read it again, before quitting the e-cigs. It clearly works for some people, if not everyone.

MikeTV

It an attempt to be a bit more methodical about this, I am going to start counting drags to ensure it's always seven, and counting "smokes" - to keep it at around 15 per day. Maybe I'll do that for a week or two, before cutting down.