How I Quit Smoking

Hi,

I was a smoker for years. Every morning I'd get up, go to my local deli and buy a 25 gram pouch of Port Royal Rum and Wine.

I'd finish that pouch at before going to bed, day in, day out.

My cough was so bad that my housemates sleeping on the other end of the house would come out and tell me to shut up at midnight. Every day. My lungs sounded like a cement mixer. I gained weight, I didn't exercise, every morning I'd cough up a few hundred grams of phlegm.

I tried very hard to quit several times. Every time without fail I'd get incredible withdrawals and get back on it with a vengeance, often smoking more than a pouch a day for a week after I started again.

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Then I discovered vaping. I started and effortlessly never had a cigarette ever again. My lungs improved dramatically. I lost over 40kg because my lungs were good enough to exercise again. I save over $400 a week because I'm not paying the tax office exorbitant amounts.

I'm still not able to kick nicotine - maybe I have an addictive personality, maybe I'm just weak willed. Whatever the reason, I'm still vaping 2 years on.

Unlike when I was smoking, I am now a criminal. The AMA has decided to ignore international best practice and embrace pseudo-science.

Their reasons are unclear to me - perhaps they want GP referrals (they are effectively a doctors union after all), perhaps they want their friends in government to continue reaping billions in tobacco excise - whatever the reason, I am now a criminal for dramatically improving my health.

The prohibition doesn't affect me - I have a gallon of 10% nicotine that should last me ~20 years, but I can't help feel for the millions who are now condemned to cancer, poor lung health and misery.

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Ostensibly the AMA is worried about children taking up vaping as a gateway to smoking, something I oppose strongly.

Yet I'd quite happily accept a 10 year mandatory minimum prison sentence for anyone found selling vapes to minors. Would petrol station attendants still sell them to children with the possibility of a 10 year sentence? I doubt that. They don't sell them cocaine after all.

The UK health regulator is rather furious about all this. They are worried about smokers (like me) continuing to smoke because of pseudo-science around vaping. I can't help but agree.

I am of the opinion that nobody should have to be a criminal to improve their health. What do you think? Have we taken nanny statism too far, or should I quit vaping and in time inevitably go back to smoking, ruining both my health and finances? It would definitely help the government improve their revenue. Should they profit off my poor health/death?

Who are we as a country?

 

Nicotine gums worked for me. That was a long time ago. I still smoke cigars, but not on daily bases, and no inhaling.

Never tried vaping, but i know several people who quit cigarettes' by vaping. They reduced the nicotine intake gradually to zero and then quit vaping too.

 

I quit with vaping, reduce the nicotine in the vapes until vapped no nicotine

if one can't smoke in moderation, they have to quit, the longest people to have lived were smokers, but not excessive smokers

just like the sun, a little is good, too much is a bad thing

I know many that got addicted to the nicotine gum too, it happens

 

I tried the gum before I tried vaping, it kind of worked but was so spicy I couldn't tolerate it. It tingles your throat something mad.

I've tapered but always go back to 6mg/ml.

One of the big advantages of vaping is that it satiates most of the psychological aspects of smoking - going to the smoking area, having something in your hand, inhaling, etc.

Congratulations on completely quitting.

 

those same reasons are why anti-smokers hate it, they don't care if healthier or not, they just think it looks like smoking

when really it's just the same as breathing in the fumes at a bakery, or a fog machine at a concert, amusement park, etc...

remember the reason they gave for banning on planes, it looks too much like smoking and will make smokers want to smoke - when the realty is, smokers would see it and try it, and maybe quit smoking... which you think would have made the anti-smokers happy

 

Vaping saved my husband. He was on track to get emphysema as a smoker, like the rest of his family...coughing and hacking so much he would faint. Out of breath.... trying to quit over and over....14 years of vaping and he has no health issues....though he is trying to quit that now as well.

The government and intrusive advocates here in US are spreading untruths (vaping is just as bad as smoking) and trying utilize it as a money funnel for politicians...wanting to put excessive taxes on it and make it harder as an option for those who could put years on their lives....

 

You don't want to be dependent on anything, and nicotine has several disadvantages (aside from the method of administration)

Good on your husband for giving up smoking. I wish him luck with giving up vaping too.

 

this could be why smokers have the record for longest living... that is if one doesn't smoke to excess, which has it's own dangers and as smoking is addictive to many, many can not do in moderation

https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/01.hyp.37.2.194

"Some epidemiological studies have reported lower blood pressure (BP) in smokers than in nonsmokers. This finding is regarded as a paradox, because nicotine has potent sympathomimetic effects, which affects BP levels and heart rate."

the reality is, it can be good or bad, the dose of the stressors makes the poison

 

Well since you are on that subject...I did some research on why quiting led to depression in some people and found studies that show nicotine can help prevent or improve neurological conditions like Parkinson and Alzheimers....of course that isn't especially promoted information...
https://www.parkinsons.org.uk/nicotine-good-bad-and-ugly#:~:text=Nicotine can protect brain cells,movement) and trouble with memory.

 

Congratulations on your progress; just about everyone I know that's tried to quit smoking hasn't progressed to where you are so you must be doing something right.

Since I only smoked briefly, I had less difficulty with withdrawals than a heavy, long term smoker but I've experienced withdrawals from other things but not cigarets.

I'm afraid that I also don't know much about vaping but if it brings you more pleasure in life than pain and is not hurting you, by all means, keep it up.

I think that most rational people resent the degree to which we live in such a meddlesome Nanny State.

Good luck and take good care of both your physical and mental health.

 

Interesting topic. I gave up ciggies but tried several times before I finally did it. Champix worked a few times but was decommissioned ironically due to being a carcinogen, apparently.

Anyway, nicotine gum eventually worked a treat for me but only after I dropped from 30 a day to 15.

I wanted to try vaping but seemed like too much of a hassle sourcing liquid nicotine. It’s obvious the government rakes in a mint on the back of smokers so doubt they’ll be in a hurry to support healthier options, much like their attitudes towards pokie taxes.

 

~ Nicotine is very addictive for many. Drug counselors / addiction therapists put nicotine/tobacco addiction on the same level as heroin.
Stay strong ...

 

About as addictive as it gets. You don't die from an acute overdose of nicotine (unless you chug 10% pure nicotine), so people don't consider it on the same level despite it killing many orders or magnitude more people when consumed through decades of cigarette use.

As someone who has done every drug except heroin, meth and PCP, let me tell you - it's ****ing addictive.

 

Gave up all drugs at age 22.

Www.TM.org

 

I had a stroke at 36, that's how I quit. The stroke must have affected that part of the brain that craved nicotine. I've not had a smoke in 18 years and the smell of a ciggie repulses me.

When I was serving in the army, whilst flying around the world all of the smokers were climbing the walls, at that time I was a smoker and my cravings were sorted via nicotine gum.

 

Have you ever heard of popcorn lung? It is unique to people vaping. There are no long-term studies on vaping yet.

I still smoke a pack a day. I quit cold turkey for about 18 months about 5 years ago but pick cigarettes back up like a dummy one day.

It has been my opinion and my personal experience that you can quit doing whatever you want to do by knowing that that thing is a physical object and it has only the control that you choose to give it.

I have quit some substances over the years for good that people have said the only way to quit is to go to rehab. I did not do that.

There are a few particular substances that I would never touch again in my life no matter how much you pay me.

When I decide I am good and ready tobacco will be that way for me too. If vaping works for you then more power to you but I don't want to trade one addiction for another

 

Jesus, and I thought my kidney stone at 39 was bad. I was drinking a gallon of sweet tea everyday for about 3 months that summer.

 

popcorn lung is unique to people breathing in the fumes of popcorn cooked with seed oils to replace real butter (microwave popcorn)

I suppose if a vape had seed oils (thc smokes are oil based), that could be true

but would not be true of nicotine vapes as not oil based, at least not that I have seen, stay away from oil based vapes and diacetyl specifically

we also had vitamin E oil in thc vapes and that was bad, very bad, personally I would stay away from the oil based thc vapes

https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/causes-of-cancer/does-vaping-cause-popcorn-lung
"

• E-cigarettes don’t cause the lung condition known as popcorn lung
  
• There have been no confirmed cases of popcorn lung reported in people who use e-cigarettes
  
• E-cigarettes are one of the tools that can help people who smoke to stop

"

the confusion comes from them not saying 'oil based' vaping and not distinguishing there is a huge difference

"Vitamin E Acetate as a Plausible Cause of Acute Vaping-related Illness"

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6952050/

 

The bottom line is vaping is relatively new so there is no long-term studies as to its possible consequences.

I think it's far too early to declare that it's a healthy alternative to cigarettes

 

agree, and unregulated, which means if buying online from some random people, don't know what's really in the "juice"

it seems pretty safe for basic e-cigs so far from what we have seen and the numbers doing it

and it's really like someone that works around fog machines all their life, have they had any medical issues with their lungs as same thing

 

But don't forget that 9 out of 10 doctors used to recommend Camel cigarettes.

 

and the longest people to have lived were smokers... there are benefits to smoking... also risks

indoor air quality is also a risk...

 

I'm in my early 40s and I've been smoking a pack a day more or less ( except for that roughly a year and a half that I quit) since I was 12.

Pretty sure I haven't done myself any big favors as far as longevity is concerned.

 

yeah, that seems a bit much for the benefits, the people that lived the longest were more moderate smokers, a pack or two a week

and of course continuing to smoke when the lungs are injured (flu, etc), just like not exercising when a muscle is injured or avoiding the sun when sunburned

the body likes many moderate stressors as long as it is given time to heal in between and the damage is not too great

 

My grandma smoked two and sometimes three packs a day well into her 80s.

I think I was about 8 years old when I saw her flick out about a half a cigarette into the yard off the porch one day and I went over there and picked it up and monkey see monkey do.

But yes.... I'm sure moderate smoking is much better than heavy