Are Electric Cigarettes Just A Crutch For The Weak?

[Henrietta]

I've gave up smoking several times and switched to an e cig but every time I'm in a position where the e cig breaks ot can't get e juice etc. I find that I revert back to smoking normal cigs as with the e cigs you still have that smoking motion/psychology as in a device that you draw through your mouth and gain nicotine from whilst seeing your exhaled "Smoke"

Now many I know say "Yeah I enjoy the flavours of e juice " or some other thing to justify their e cig vaping but is the truth that we that vape are the weak "Middle link" between hardcore smokers and hardcore quitters?

What's your views on this and like me do you find yourself going back to smoking when you have a problem with the e cig and can't vape?

[woofgang]

why have you got normal cigs to hand?

[Henrietta]

Friends always forget lighters, baccy or cigs so are kept until they return or are given to other friends usually. It's a weird circle ensuring nicotine is always here.

[Baldric]

Your choice, be a smoker or a non-smoker,

[woofgang]

If you really want to give up, I would start warning friends that left behind smokiania will be binned instantly :)
With respect though, it does seem to me that you don't really want to give up?

[Postdog]

The biggest mistake is substituting smoking for something that resembles smoking. You will NEVER give up that way.

[Henrietta]

Baldric I want to be a non smoker and non drinker but sadly my brain has grown accustomed to call these "Pleasures" so hard as it's a lifestyle and not just the poisons that they really are.

Woofgang the cigs I can deal with as the e cig covers that base but the alcohol is another beast completely.

I enjoy the lifestyle and the feeling that drink gives me but am worried of the damage.

When is someone going to invent "E alcohol"? :)

[Henrietta]

That's what I'm saying postdog. Maybe I just have to cold turkey it soon as my lungs felt good before smoking but immediately after smoking for 2 days I'm huffing and puffing up hills and feel poisoned.

Have to give it another go BEFORE new years.

[Henrietta]

Oh well off to the shops for more "Poison sticks"

Thanks all. :(

[BRIGHT SPARK]

'I gave up smoking several times'...how does that work?

[SlackAlice]

I vape and haven't smoked a tobacco product since January 2014. Nearly 90% of the liquids I vape are free of nicotine and I'm slowly reducing to no nicotine.

On the occasion the e-cig has not been working (flat battery etc) I have not had the urge to smoke a cigarette. One decision helped me out was to not have any tobacco products in the house, it does help. It was also decided to not allow anyone in the house to smoke although they could use the garden or summerhouse.

You do need to make a few rules and change some habits, but in my case I needed them to break a habit of some 50yrs duration.

If that makes me weak willed then so be it, but for me it's working. I tried giving up before by going 'cold turkey' but it never lasted.

[Old_Geezer]

My view is that it is a poor product, based on two things. a) It doesn't get one out of the habit of taking time out to suck on a stick and get a fix, and b) It has been a very long time coming for non-smokers to finally be free of smokers lighting up around them (finally managing to get that barred on health grounds) and now someone has jumped on the bandwagon and found a way to circumnavigate the ban by replicating the same thing with vapours; as if that meant it was ok to inflict what is essentially the same experience on others once more. There are plenty of better ways to give up. If one needs to cut down, patches have been around for some time.

[trt]

I use e-cigs and find them really good.
I dont know which ones you use, but I use the ones that look like a cig, not the big ones that gives off lots of vapour.

Considering the amount I used to smoke, I have saved a lot of money, but as the others have said, you dont sound as if you really want to give up!

[trt]

OG,
patches never worked for me, I missed the feeling of inhaling and holding one in my fingers, but for some they work.

[SlackAlice]

OG,

Patches do work, but not for me. I used to get an allergic reaction and was running of places to stick them whilst the reaction wore off on places I had stuck them.

[ladybirder]

My daughter has been on ecigs for two and a half years now. She never runs out as she has a few all lined up with batteries charged or charging. As I have said on here before you are just reinforcing the habit by lifting the ecig in between your fingers to your mouth and puffing. And you're still smoking, just a different product. I did it cold turkey 30 years ago after a few failed attempts. I wish she would do the same.

[Old_Geezer]

I think getting past the missed feeling of inhaling and holding one in one's fingers is probably the aim, one that isn't being tackled. I suspect some folk are just not likely to be able to give up though. Too many years becoming reliant ?

[Postdog]

I too did cold turkey....ish.

I gave up after 30 plus years using stoptober two years ago. I just did different things to take my mind of it, and if I needed nicotine, I used a mouth spray or gum. I used them as a crutch rather than a substitute, and after six weeks I needed neither.

[woofgang]

from experience, I am not an alcoholic but have had periods when I drank too much. The way to stop it is to stop. And before you say you can't, if you are not actually an alcoholic and addicted then the answer is yes you can.

[jno]

nothing especially awful about being a middle link; don't beat yourself up about it. I don't get the indignation about replacing smoking with something that just involves sucking on a stick - so what?

People have been trying to give up smoking for years. Some can do it straight away. Some take ages. Some fail. Decide first which you want to be, then figure out how to work towards it.

Crutches are very useful; ask anyone with a broken leg. Use them if you need them.

[whiskeryron]

I've said this to so many people now so I will repeat. The best way to stop smoking is FRIGHT. I had reached the point way back when I could hardly walk & had to have an angioplasty performed on my right femoral artery, this involved passing a wire from my groin down the artery & opening a balloon to allow the blood to pass through a blockage to enable the calf muscle to get sufficient oxygen to work properly. I was informed by the surgeon that should I cotinue to smoke there was a fair chance that either one or in the worst scenario both legs could be lost by amputation. This info believe me was enough to make me stop smoking straight away. That was in 1992 & I have been clear of tobacco ever since, so PLEASE you smokers heed my warning.