I quit smoking today

[trippinprincezz13]

My boyfriend and I quit a little over a year ago - the occasional "real" cigarette at a concerts or such, but it's rare. I went cold turkey, but will occasionally hit his vaporizer if the mood strikes me. He'd started with the South Beach Smoke e-cigs, but they just weren't doing it for him. Tried out nicotine patches but he had already been trying pare things down and it was a bit too much and he was sometimes getting nightmares. Went to check out a vape shop nearby that looked like it had been in the process of opening for a while, went in and the guy was packing up and getting ready to leave for a "new business venture" in Florida and pretty much told him to fill up a bag of batteries and tanks for free. They were kind of generic cheapish ones that would eventually stop charging, but they definitely did the trick.  Upgraded to a more durable/reliable set and has been going strong and he'd been at not-quite-but-almost a pack a day. Tends to stick with plain or tabacco flavored liquid.

We went camping at a festival this weekend and bought 2 packs (versus the half-carton we might have normally purchased/gone through over the 4 days). We ended up smoking/splitting just 2 cigarettes the whole time and didn't even finish them. At least on my end, they had just gone back to tasting awful. And the vape carried him just fine as it has over the past year.

Everyone's different, but I would definitely recommend it to anyone trying to quit.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

cutting down doesn't seem to work for me as the less i smoke the more i like it. 

Isn't this a win/win? Smoke less, enjoy it more?

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

FWIW I know both of the researchers who are frequently cited for their research in e-cig safety, and they are emphatic that even though there are health risks with e-cigs they are absolutely vastly dwarfed by the known dangers of smoking real cigarettes.

[rong]

cutting down doesn't seem to work for me as the less i smoke the more i like it. 

Isn't this a win/win? Smoke less, enjoy it more?

From the perspective of someone who doesn't want to quit, yes.  But for me it means if I try to cut down before quitting, it makes actually quitting much harder

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

cutting down doesn't seem to work for me as the less i smoke the more i like it. 

Isn't this a win/win? Smoke less, enjoy it more?

From the perspective of someone who doesn't want to quit, yes.  But for me it means if I try to cut down before quitting, it makes actually quitting much harder

Your logic. It is terrible. It is actually kind of amazing how terrible it is. I am impressed.

[rong]

I'm am speaking from experience.

Imagine you eat 20 donuts a day.  You don't really like them much and want to stop eating them but for some reason its really hard to stop.

So instead of quitting, you decide to just limit yourself to 1 or 2 donuts per day.  They now become the highlight of your day and you can't really focus on anything because you spend all day thinking about how fucking good that donut is gonna be after you get off work.

As soon as you finish eating it you become remorseful because you have finished your last donut for the day.  You start going to bed earlier and earlier because it brings tomorrow sooner and with tomorrow cones another donut. 

You keep this up for maybe a week or two and decide that you are just torturing yourself by limiting your donurt intake and realize you should have just quit them all together.  Except now donuts aren't something you don't care for much, now YOU FUCKING LOVE THEM.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I'm am speaking from experience.

Imagine you eat 20 donuts a day.  You don't really like them much and want to stop eating them but for some reason its really hard to stop.

So instead of quitting, you decide to just limit yourself to 1 or 2 donuts per day.  They now become the highlight of your day and you can't really focus on anything because you spend all day thinking about how fucking good that donut is gonna be after you get off work.

As soon as you finish eating it you become remorseful because you have finished your last donut for the day.  You start going to bed earlier and earlier because it brings tomorrow sooner and with tomorrow cones another donut. 

You keep this up for maybe a week or two and decide that you are just torturing yourself by limiting your donurt intake and realize you should have just quit them all together.  Except now donuts aren't something you don't care for much, now YOU FUCKING LOVE THEM.

Yeah, except imagine now that you are two weeks away from finishing a degree in neuropsychology, and are aware that this is a response to a physical addiction that has resulted in a steep downregulation of your donut-sugar receptors, and that the only way to upregulate them again so that other things also can give you the sensation of sweetness is to put fewer donuts into your body. And then imagine that you are aware that the logic behind not cutting back because it makes you enjoy your donuts more is completely driven not by logic, but by addiction, and that by NOT ACTUALLY QUITTING RIGHT NOW, ie. the fact that you are still smoking, you are completely negating the alleged benefit of not cutting back.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I'm not saying that the addiction isn't real, I'm just saying that the logic behind not cutting back is hilarious.

[rong]

i think you just like to pick on me

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

i think you just like to pick on me

Not specifically. I like to pick on bad ideas, because they are easy to identify regardless of who holds them. I am cursed with a terrible memory for people and things people do, which means that unless someone really, REALLY stands out as a major asshole, for example RWHN, I can't effectively carry a grudge or single someone out for long-term bullying. I blame it on the epilepsy, but it's also possible that I just don't care enough.

[Doktor Howl]

FWIW I know both of the researchers who are frequently cited for their research in e-cig safety, and they are emphatic that even though there are health risks with e-cigs they are absolutely vastly dwarfed by the known dangers of smoking real cigarettes.

According to my doctor, vaporizers are linked to cardiopulmonary disease, but with about 3% the incidence rate of cigarettes.

[rong]

Maybe a stupid question - but are vaporizers and e-cigs the same thing?

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Perhaps you are confusing me with Alty, who actually just likes picking on you because he thinks you're awful and dumb?

[Doktor Howl]

Maybe a stupid question - but are vaporizers and e-cigs the same thing?

Nope, but they're similar enough not to matter for health purposes, except that you can get unflavored vaporizer fluid, which means you know what you're inhaling.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

FWIW I know both of the researchers who are frequently cited for their research in e-cig safety, and they are emphatic that even though there are health risks with e-cigs they are absolutely vastly dwarfed by the known dangers of smoking real cigarettes.

According to my doctor, vaporizers are linked to cardiopulmonary disease, but with about 3% the incidence rate of cigarettes.

Well, there is so far exactly zero conclusive research indicating that, but there is some preliminary research indicating an increased risk of atherosclerosis. Nicotine itself is a pretty toxic substance (and not in a "ZOMG TOXINS!" way) so I wouldn't be surprised if there are some deleterious effects from vaping. Definitely still much better than cigarettes, though.