Cracked it My Way

[nsd_user663_37244]

Well I am still using my e-cig which many will consider not quitting at all but I am now over a month gone without touching a " real " cigarette.

How is it going ? Absolute doddle the simple facts are e-cigs are between 98 and 99% safer according to medical research done in USA. I congratulate all of those who are nicotine free but for me after so many failures which only seemed to lead to greater and greater self doubt this is a revelation. I am absolutely convinced I will never light another cigarette in my life Why ? Simply because I don't need to , and more importantly I don't want to. My message would be if you really can't get off the fags unassisted then do whatever it takes and whatever works for you to get away from the SMOKE that is what contains the 4000 + additional chemicals that you are inhaling.

Whatever anyone else believes I am SMOKE free and staying that way

[AngryBear]

Barrie, each to his own, it's a great start. All I would say is beware of running out of cartridges; a friend of mine started smoking last week again after about 6 weeks with an e-cig. When he couldn't get a cartridge at short notice, he soon sparked up a real one as an ironic substitute for his substitute (!), and that was that, he's back on a pack a day.

Hope all remains well and in the end you dump the e-cig too....

[Unah]

Nothing wrong with an e-cig. I've been quit over a year and dug mine out last week because I've got a lot of stress at the moment. It was either that or buy a pack. I have zero nicotine cartridges as I don't want to get hooked on nicotine again.

As Angrybear says, make sure you don't run out of cartridges. It doesn't matter what we use to quit as long as we don't smoke a real cigarette.

BTW, I didn't find it difficult to give up the e-cig.

[nsd_user663_22435]

I second what Una said....I've given up with the Ecig & found this the easiest out of my numerous quits because of it. I, too, am on the zero nicotine one & hardly ever touch it but, as Una does, I fall back on it when under stress (mainly I just hold it, very rarely puff on it) & I feel it stops me reaching for the real thing (& god knows, I have had a shed load of stress lately but not succumbed!) keep it going

[nsd_user663_37244]

Thanks all I would really recommend this for anyone struggling to get off the real coffin nails only because it is the only thing that has worked for me.

I am not using the cartridge ones I am on the refillable liquid ones. Which also save you an absolute fortune compared with real cigs. This isn't intended as an advert more of a last resort but if you can go cold turkey and make it stick then thats the way to go in my opinion.

The big difference for me is I am instead of :eek: this time.

[nsd_user663_22435]

The big difference for me is I am instead of :eek: this time.

I'm with you there...I had a sticky couple of weeks with mood swings around the 3rd to the 5th weeks...after that, it's been pretty much ok. Just keep reminding yourself that you're doing brilliantly

[nsd_user663_52323]

Glad you think it is a doodle. When ever I thought it was a doodle I was back smoking after 3 months. This quit I never ever thought like that. The best mind set I have ever had.

[nsd_user663_37244]

Sorry Buttons perhaps I did'nt explain. I have not given up nicotine I am using an e-cig with nicotine juice that's why it is a doddle:).

What I have given up is smoking and I can confidently say I will never light another cigarette. Will I get of the nicotine ? maybe some time in the future maybe not to tell you the truth I am not that bothered either way and this is the reason :-

Is Nicotine itself harmful to health?

We all know that smoking is bad for you with all the carcinogenics and other nasty chemicals in tobacco smoke.

But is the nicotine itself harmful to health in any way?

Thanks!

Short answer. No. Nicotine is almost completely harmless in most people, and in many ways it is very much like caffeine.

Long answer. It does not cause cancer but it has a few mildly negative effects in some people. It has some good effects, some bad effects, and some very bad effects, very much like caffeine, but overall, it's pretty safe in that it won't kill you. People might try to scare you by saying that nicotine is a natural pesticide, but so is caffeine. In the amounts they are taken, these drugs don't affect the human nervous system in such a way as to cause death, like they do in insects. The cardinal rule of toxicology is that the dose makes the poison. If you drink a glass of water in an hour, you will have no ill effects. If you drink a hundred glasses of water in an hour, you will probably die. One caffeine tablet might keep you awake. Twenty might land you in hospital. Fifty might kill you. Same applies for Tylenol, Pepsi and nicotine. 1 mg of nicotine is mostly harmless. 10 mg will make a person very sick. 100 mg will almost certainly kill.

THE BAD

Nicotine increases your heart rate by a few beats per minute, which does little more than give a slight energy boost, but in a small number of people with weak hearts it might be harmful, but on the same level as a cup of coffee might be harmful for them. There is some evidence that nicotine might also be slightly harmful to the circulatory system in other ways. It isn't very good for undeveloped brains, so it's particularly bad to smoke during pregnancy. In addition, short term effects of nicotine are unpredictable in people who are not used it and vary from person to person. These include a racing heart, dizziness, feeling faint, heaviness in the limbs and powerful tingling sensations and nausea. These can be both pleasant or quite unpleasant but they do not cause harm and subside as a person becomes tolerant. Some people experience pleasure instead of nausea and it is for them that nicotine is most addictive.

THE VERY BAD

Unlike caffeine, which is only slightly addictive, nicotine is extremely addictive when inhaled via smoking, and somewhat addictive, though much less so, when taken orally or via patches. The reason for this is that when it is inhaled, it gets to the brain very quickly and in high quantities, causing it to release significant amounts of dopamine, which the brain registers as pleasure, even as the novice smoker dizzily stumbles about feeling like they're going to throw up. When taken orally or via patches, the dose is usually much smaller and it reaches the brain far more gradually so the pleasure response is minimal, reducing addiction potential. That's why you don't see many people hooked on nicotine lozenges. Both caffeine and nicotine have very unpleasant withdrawal symptoms. For nicotine, the withdrawal can involve impulsiveness and inability to control one's temper and emotions, blurred vision, headache, crawling sensations, extreme appetite, depression, tiredness and, of course, severe craving. Suddenly stopping using large amounts of caffeine can cause tiredness and give you very severe headaches that last for days, but because caffeine does not stimulate the brain's reward circuity and effect a release of dopamine, it does not cause severe cravings like nicotine does and it makes it much easier to taper it gently and avoid withdrawal altogether.

THE GOOD

Nicotine has a few mild effects some people might consider to be positive. We all know smokers put on weight when they quit, and that's because nicotine and a few other chemicals in cigarette smoke kept them thinner than they otherwise would be. Nicotine forces the body to release stored glucose into the bloodstream, boosting energy and preventing the sugar from being converted into fat. This also cheats the body into thinking you've eaten something sweet, which reduces appetite and craving for sugary foods, though all the reasons why appetite is reduced are not fully understood. It also acts directly on fat cells, increasing lipolysis (the breakdown of fat), and it increases metabolism by as much as 6000 calories a month. Caffeine has some, but not all, of the same effects, and to a much lesser degree, so people don't generally put on much weight if they give up coffee, or they may even lose some, given that many coffees nowadays have as many calories as a hamburger. Caffeine is just a stimulant, but nicotine is different. Nicotine has both stimulant and depressant effects, so it can both stimulate and calm, depending on the situation. Much like caffeine, nicotine also improves mood, memory and concentration, and just like caffeine, it also protects the brain from certain types damage (reduction in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's risk), but again, nicotine's effects are significantly more powerful than that of caffeine.

So, nicotine is a lot like caffeine, with a few other effects, though it doesn't keep you awake quite as much. Both drugs are mostly harmless, but nicotine is far, far more addictive.

So I am doing myself 98% to 99% less harm than I did Smoking and that is a win for me