Kicking e-cigs

[DavidH83]

Hi all, I'm coming from a different angle to many I feel.

I have been smoking only an e-cig for nearly 3 years now. Two Christmases ago (I'd been on e-cig only for a few months) I had a flat battery on my e-cig while out socializing. A friend gave me one of his regular cigarettes. I lit it and took a puff, to me it was disgusting! It tasted bad and made me feel sick like the first time I tried a cigarette! One thing stands true, I am off cigarettes, I can't stand the smell (it makes me feel sick) I don't want one! This is a success...

I have looked at it as "smoking on my own terms", in the pub, club anywhere. I don't smell of tobacco, I get on well at the gym. It's cheaper than the equivalent in cigarettes. However, I'm still addicted to nicotine! I'm still putting a white stick in my mouth for that hit (all be it with a nice minty flavor).

I have made up my mind to quit. I'm planning on reducing my nicotine intake over the next few weeks. But struggle to know how I'm going to have the self control.

I'm worried about how moody I can get when cutting out Nicotine. I had a flat battery for 24 hours, 6 months ago and wanted to scream.

I guess I have to use the e-cig like an NRT treatment and understand how to reduce the nicotine intake so that when I do stop, I'm not going to relapse or spend a week ot two wanting to scream at everybody and break anything I see (that was a previous quit story).

Any ideas?

Anyone else cutting down on e-cigs?

[jillygirl Administrator Queen Bee]

Hi David, well done on quitting, and although you may feel addicted to the e cig, it is still better than the cigarette with all the poisons it has. The nicotine keeps you addicted but doesnt poison you.

I myself have never used the e cig so wouldnt like to give advice. perhaps having some lozenges or quick mist spray for when times get bad may help.

I am sure other members will be able to help you.

[Briarwood Administrator Ducky]

Hiya David and welcome to quit support

Congratulations on your nearly 3 years quit, well done

That's a different angle alright but I see where you're coming from as I also quit with the ecig. I kept lowering the strength of nicotine and because the menthol flavour is strong and minty, I didn't notice it too much. This might help you wean yourself off the ecig slowly and eventually get down to zero nic without too many problems along the way

Quite a few members have used or are using ecig so I'm pretty sure others will come along and give you some more ideas

Oh btw, there are still days I feel like screaming, just ask the hubby mind you he is still smoking so I reckon that's why x

[Daemon71]

The advantage with quiting an e-cis is that you can just slowly drop the level of nicotine in the juice... this is my plan for the coming year. I have dropped from 2.4% to 1.8% so far......

[DavidH83 3 YEAR WINNER]

Thanks guys,

What speed do you think I should aim/expect to lower the strength?

The e-cig I use has refills in the strengths:

16mg of nicotine per ml - (where I am now)

11mg of nicotine per ml

6mg of nicotine per ml

0mg of nicotine per ml

I presently use the equivalent of roughly 10 cigarettes a day, although if I'm socializing this goes up, similarly other days (often quiet weekends) the level goes down.

Should I aim to drop a strength bracket each week? Every two weeks?

[Pinkiezoom 26 Months Winner]

hi there,

I too quit with the Ecig, and i am in the process of getting myself nicotine free, my advice would be, mix your 16mg with your 11mg 80-20 split for the first day, then the next day or so mix it 50-50 then get to 100% 11mg over maybe a week, I tried just dropping mine and my word i was NOT expecting the struggle i felt, so i just thought, you know what, it isnt a race for me, i will take my time and make this as comfortable as possible for myself, why make it more torture than it has to be, so yes it takes longer to get nic free, but the alternative was probably snapping and buying real fags or doing time for homicide lol!.

I have managed to get from 24mg to 12mg but it has taken me 6 months roughly, and i am about to try the drop to 6mg when i get back from holiday at the end of feb, but this will take me at least 3 weeks to mix it down slowly.

Of course you might not find it so tough, but i was shocked really. But i guess we have got the rest of the rubbish out of our systems now just this bad boy to go

I was thinking of having one ecig with the 12mg in and one with 0mg in and seeing if i could start to substitute the nicotine that way, but i think i will wait until i am down and comfortable on 6mg first lol!

So scared i relapse. x

[DavidH83 3 YEAR WINNER in reply to Pinkiezoom]

Thanks Pinkiezoom, that's very useful.

24mg is a very high dose! Well done on halving that!

Did you have any difficulty when going for the lower dose? One concern is that I'll just smoke more of the lower dose to get the same hit.

[Pinkiezoom 26 Months Winner in reply to DavidH83]

Hi David

I did struggle to cut the nicotine down, no point in lying lol! but i used the ecig with the eliquid so i just mixed it. I would get smoke free first, and then worry about the rest

x

[shantimar]

Hi David

Firstly huge congratulations on an awesome quit

I first quit with an e cig but I had an allergic reaction to the pg content so I didn't do too well on them.

My sisters quit nearly 3 yrs ago, the same as you with the ecig. Now they used a cig alike thing but I used the vape pipe thing. With the cigalike you can't really mix strengths as it comes already loaded so to speak, whereas with the vape pipe you can mix your eliquid flavours and strengths. By reading your post I'm assuming your using a cigalike and although I'm no expert, I think trying to mix strengths will be difficult.

You can always try the vape pipe and experiment with different nicotine strengths and even flavours. It may also help to get a flavour you don't like much and this would mean you would not use it so much. Worked for a friend of mine doing it this way

Hope this helps a bit

xx

[DavidH83 3 YEAR WINNER in reply to shantimar]

Hi shantimar,

Yes I have a "cigalike" model, which I get replacement cartridges for.

I could alternate cartridges swapping them over to change the dosage. But have no inbuilt method for turning it up/down.

The idea of using a flavor I'm not as keen on is an interesting one, thanks for that. I'm aware that I'm quite partial to the minty flavor I have been enjoying for some time.

Unfortunately the only flavor available that I don't like is the "tobacco" flavor. However I'm reluctant to go to this because tobacco is not a nice flavor (who makes a tobacco flavored cake), we learn to "like" the tobacco taste as a result of associating it with our fix. I know that psychologically I have split my association of my fix with that taste, which helps me remain disinterested in all tobacco.

The flavor suggestion might well be very useful to others for whom a flavor is available which they aren't partial to.