I’m 36 and started smoking at age 12. I was over a pack a day for most of those years. I switched to vaping about 7 years ago. I have been going through about 1.5 - 2 pods a day (1.9ml 2.4%)… I believe this is equal to about 70+ mg of nicotine per day though my math could be off.
My lungs hurt, my heart palpitates, I can’t climb a flight of stairs without being out of breath. Sometimes I think I am about to have a heart attack yet for some reason I can’t stop puffing that vape, even in the midst of a panic attack caused by heart palpitations.
Switching from combustibles to vape was a big step for me. I was proud/happy to not smell like smoke but I didn’t realize just how much more nicotine I would end up consuming. Switching to vape was not too difficult and after a few years I could honestly say I didn’t want a regular cigarette anymore. I did however become horribly addicted to the vape.
The past few years I have given a lot of thought to quitting but I keep putting it off. It’s a sad and depressing cycle of hating myself for how much damage I am doing to my health, while constantly puffing away on the vape.
It doesn’t help that I have unlimited access to free vapes.
4 days ago I made the decision to quit and I am feeling really motivated. I took a sleeping pill to get me through the first 24 hours, which I think was a good strategy. On day 2 I bought some ‘step 2’ nicotine patches. These patches are 14mg slow release over 24 hours. Instructions say to keep the patch on overnight but I have been taking them off, and waiting as long as I can in the morning to put a new one on.
The patch reduces the severity of the cravings. The cravings still occur, but they are manageable. I have noticed that the cravings come in clusters. I’ll get a real strong craving, that lasts for about two minutes. That initial wave of fear and anxiety tapers off but then comes back 5 minutes later. This happens 4 or 5 times over the course of a half hour or so, then a few hours go by without any craving at all. Day 3 was easier than day 2, day 4 has been easier than day 3.
I am determined to see this through to the end. I see the light at the end of the tunnel. I plan to go another 3 weeks or so, then switch to the 7mg patch.
It’s amazing how significant the impact has been on my lungs. I feel like I have twice the lung capacity compared with how I felt yesterday. My heartbeat is normal, my breathing is normal. It’s weird how quick and significant the changes have been. I really like how it feels to not have a constant nicotine poisoning. This feeling is very much worth the short bursts of crippling withdrawal, and I know it will get easier.
Not sure if anyone will read this, but I’ll try to update in a week or two. I’m also happy to answer any questions.
This is great news! Thank you for sharing your journey. I hope to see your future success posted too!
Nicely done. Making the decision to attempt is the first step and is really hard. Following through is difficult but it is definitely possible.
If you find yourself unable to manage this time around and you fall back to using a vape I have a few pointers that may help you.
First, measure. Figure out exactly what you consume on average over a period of time. That is the baseline. This should be measured in total mg of nicotine per day and should probably be at least a 7 day span, though 30 would be better.
Once you know your starting usage reduce the concentration of your fluid by a small amount, I would recommend 10% or less. This can be done by adding zero nicotine fluid or by adding less nicotine, depending on what works best for you.
Next, watch your usage over the next while, preferably per week for a few weeks. You’ll see the spike in usage to match your old consumption, but that should only last the first two weeks. By the end of two weeks you should have tapered back to the same usage of your vape but 10% less nicotine. If you can repeat it a few times over, dropping 10% of your current total, it will never be too awful.
This is basically how my partner quit and they are absolutely solidly quit. They found it really hard trying a simple cold turkey method but outsourced the concentration to me and I tapered them down over a number of months. By the time we got to a low dose I asked how they felt about their usage and they said they didn’t really feel compelled to use it. I switched them to zero over a week of dilution and they never went back. They quit the vape shortly after and we kept it on hand for about a year in case of problematic craving, but honestly by that point they were agressively done with vaping and they never used it.
Just remember, sometimes going forward doesn’t go smoothly, but neither does learning or growing or scaling a mountain. You try something, it doesn’t work, you learn from it, you try again. You can do it, you can quit it, and you can be free of it.
Stay strong 💪🏻
