You can get Propylene Glycol or vegetable glycerin and vape that.

It's apparently a thing, "nicotine free" vaping

Thanks for the confirmation!

That’s how I did it and what I recommend to my friends (who vape constantly). It’s two habits you have to beat, why not do them one at a time?

...vaping is fucking obnoxious for non smokers...

As a former smoker and non-smoker for a long time now, I disagree.

...clouds of awful smelling residue...

IME, most of the time it smells far better than cigarette smoke.

...and plastic shit everywhere.

Litterbugs are gonna litter, man. I know this because I live in a place with a very high concentration of them. Is the litterbug done with his drink, takeout, or other item that came in some disposable packaging? Is the trash can that's clearly visible from his current location more than two feet away? Then that packaging ends up directly on the sidewalk or tossed into the street.

Worse than that are litterbugs who are also dog owners. Their creed is "Pick up my dog's dogshit and put it in a trashcan? Hell no, fuck that, and fuck you!".

Whoa there.

Breathing air with more than ~12ug/m^3 of small particles is considered less than ideally healthy. (This is where PM2.5 comes from.)

Go check out the mass of fine particles per puff:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK507187/#_sec_000047_

This is so many orders of magnitude above the “good” AQI threshold that it’s almost comical.

Now, sure, different particles have different health characteristics, but the stuff coming out of a vape isn’t water, and you’d better hope that it is many orders of magnitude less damaging than the fine particles that are found in the environment if you actually want to believe that your lungs are prepared to handle it.

(Okay, it’s obviously orders of magnitude less damaging than, say, wildfire smoke or brake dust or restaurant kitchen exhaust on a per-microgram basis, but the question is how many orders of magnitude less dangerous.)

P.S. I strongly suspect that there is one common dry aerosol that is genuinely harmless in moderate amounts: sodium chloride from sea spray. It’s highly soluble and found all over inside your body. I’m not sure to what extent air quality impact studies try to separate out the AQI impact from sea spray from everything else.

Here's a company with a product meant specifically for this. [0]

[0]: https://tryfum.com

That's how I quit cigarettes - got 0% liquids in a few flavours, hard-quit the smokes and puffed like crazy on a vape to assuage the habit. After around 3 months I noticed I'd stopped caring about the vapes so much and just put them down.

Worked well for me, might not work so well for others.

Personally I thought that was the whole deal with vapes, use them as a tool to beat the addiction to 'real' tobacco products, but it looks like the world proved me wrong on that one.

Indeed they are, and you should also minimize exposure to the fumes from cars/trucks/powerplants and try to improve indoor ventilation.

I don't generally suck on the tailpipe of my car like a cigarette or vape.

What are you fucking twelve? Just put the cigarette down.

This has effectively been a product for many years, 22nd Century Group sells very low nicotine tobacco smoking cessation products.

The unhealthy part of smoking is the smoke, not the nicotine.

That has already been a thing that has existed.

I once successfully quit smoking by buying a pack of cigarettes made with tobacco that had been cleansed of its nicotine. I bought them one evening on the way home from work.

That first night was rough because nicotine withdraw be like that. The second day was still not great, but it was easier. By the third day, I'd had enough. On about the fourth day, I threw the rest away because they were just tiresome.

They were lousy. They tasted terrible compared to my usual brand. And smoking them did nothing to quench my addiction-driven craving for nicotine -- the reward for my brain and my body simply wasn't being delivered.

And it worked.

---

My theory for the method of operation goes something like this:

My brain was used to pushing the button and receiving candy, and it needed that candy (or at least it thought that it did).

But this was disruptive of that: The button was still there and I could push it freely. But no matter how many times I pushed it, no candy was received. This went on just long enough that I no longer felt compelled to need candy (because nicotine addiction had enough time to fade out).

We used to smoke clove cigarettes. They would crackle with oil when you inhaled.

Herbal cigarettes have been a thing forever. They are common on film and TV sets when actors need to smoke for a part but don't want the nicotine.

That was hilarious but I hate how hard The Onion has to compete with reality now.

Sure and maybe also cover why you wont add pure nicotine to your heroin instead of subjecting yourself and others to documented cancer risk from cigarette smoke.

Heroin does nothing for nicotine addiction, heroine addicts typically smoke as well.

Well, if smoking cigarettes is easier to quit, then it might be better overall for some people to take up cigarettes a few months and quit, than to keep vaping for the rest of their lives.

Not saying it's the best way to stop, quitting cigarettes has been proven to be very diffult. But GP branding those people as stupid is a bit harsh imo.

You must be young.

They appear to think that cigarettes smell bad, yet their nicotine infusused fruit salad/cotton candy monstrosity is fine.

People used to smoke everywhere. Bars, restaurants, tiny offices without ventilation, cars, busses, aircraft, underground railway, literally everywhere.

When it became common knowledge that second hand smoke is bad restrictions came into place.

Smoking on public transit (and literally everywhere else too) was totally normal and common up until the 90s when regulations started to trickle in. When I was in elementary school teachers smoked in the teacher's lounge and would talk about when they used to be able to smoke in the classroom. My grandma would take about smoking while at work, and she worked as a seamstress.

Yeah, so I have smoked for 80% of the last 30 years… usually between 1/2-1 pack/day. I’ve been cutting back by switching to vape, knowing that it only has nicotine and not the MAOI and other substances. Right before Labour Day weekend I ran out and decided to try going the weekend. It’s been 20 days now and I am starting to feel like the effects of the MAOI are starting to wear off. I still have nicotine cravings, but it’s once I firmly feel like the MAOI withdrawal is gone (probably another week or two) I plan to start breaking the habit with patches and maybe gum.

Step by step, I feel like it might actually stick for real this time. Every time I started up again in the past was contextual (eg a break up, out for drinks with friends, have a half drunk smoke and I’m hooked again). No longer have any smoker friends, no longer have significant drama in my life, hoping it’ll work out.

maois are what make tobacco more than just nicotine (in terms of both benefit potential and addiction potential). maios were the first ever anti depressant, cigarettes are therefore a valid anti depressant too. cigs are also correlated with testosterone. maybe there's an ulterior reason they are demonized?

Bonus virtue-signaling points for "plant-based alternative", although I had a different plant in mind when I read that phrase.

It literally is The Onion, from their print paper last year: https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/1gz53b0/the_easiest_...

What is?

And carcinogenic

it also stops being unpleasant once your brain has associated it deeply with the dopamine

if anything, the strong smell and taste sensations makes it even more addictive

There was a rumour/some basic statistics that smokers were at more risk in bad cases of Covid but nevertheless were proportionally less likely to have heavy Covid.

But not in America? I mean, we have our little smoker subculture with at least some semblance of etiquette and shibboleths, and the protocols for bumming a cig (ideally, ask to buy one instead, whereupon the other party should just give you one, unless they're nearly out), and so on. We had ashtrays at the ends of the aisles in the grocery store, and restaurant hostesses asking us "smoking or non?" and bringing us ashtrays. People at work grumbling about smokers getting extra breaks all the time, and the smokers for their part having to hike to the smoking area (or enclosure, even). Common memories of the strange experience of being sent to the corner store at a one-digit age to buy a pack for someone. I'm sure that's not all there is to it but I can't think of anything else at the moment. Anyway, what are we missing? I think I sound a little bit defensive about whether America has a significant smoking culture, but I'm just curious.

for what its worth, I was amazed when I moved from the UK to denmark that young people smoked in denmark. For me it was a thing for old people, mostly due to the price I suspect. It just wasn't cool - although vaping has changed both of these since I left, by my understanding

I went to a Black Keys concert in 2007 or so that was sponsored by Camel cigarettes and they were giving out free packs of their newest variety at the door.

A lifelong chain smoker will smoke a cigarette in 1-2 minutes and light up another. 3-5 minutes is a relaxed casual smoke. Cigarettes were modified a decade or so ago to ensure that they go out quickly if not actively smoked. It's not even possible anymore to keep a cigarette burning for long enough for it to take 10 minutes.

This is all pedantic. The point is that you can chain smoke quite a lot if you're dedicated. I've never met anyone who smoked more than two packs a day regularly or maybe three on a crazy night out of drinking and smoking. 4-5 is crazy.

had one lung removed, and the other was probably close to worthless from smoking

Mid to late 70s? Their last years were nothing but medical issues (from the smoking, plus excessive drinking) and poor health. Certainly kept me from starting to smoke.

I know smokers who lived into their 90s, and non-smokers who died much younger

I hate this anecdata. I do know these too.

But statistics don't lie. The odd outlier is not relevant. How many times can you roll the dice and win the saving throw? Smoking kills, and when it doesn't it destroys well-being.

Even without the health issues smokers becoming absolute pricks because they didn't get their fix. Or how much imposing their cloud of ash is invasive, even in open air. Did you know that parents going outside to smoke in front of the door thinking of their child is mostly a feel-good thing? The minimal distance to not impact the child is 10m from outside walls, and that's not counting the nicotine and ash that permeates the skin and clothing, which gets ingested in the next hug or three, leading to significant amounts of nicotine being found in children hair.

I know, I've been there, I've been that guy. Stressing out because I had only two left in the pack on a Sunday. Rushing to buy a pack before the shop closes like my life depended on it. Snapping out when the effect wears off. Leaving the table at restaurants to get my fix. Barely able to get through an entire movie at the cinema, and as soon as credits roll, get out and immediately swallow an entire cigarette in under a minute.

Now that I'm out of it I can see the absolutely disrespectful behaviour, and in a way I understand because I've been there, I've been the addict that can't see how I harm not just me but others too. I've been the addict that keeps the blindfold of denial so that I could continue satisfying my craving.

And now life is _so much_ better without it. Much better energy, focus, willpower, and freedom.

There is _nothing_ positive about smoking. It's death in a tube, plain and simple.

The data is pretty clear. The existence of outliers does not change this.

Well, I mean, context:

Her husband introduced her to smoking, offering cigarettes[5]: 4–21 after meals, but she did not smoke outside these post-meal occasions.

Having a cigarette after meals is less than ideal of course, but it's not like it's a pack-a-day habit.

My sister-in-law was so upset when we ran a 10K together, I beat her by 5 or 6 minutes, and when she found me at the finish line I was having a smoke.

Genetic lottery for sure. I’m still quitting but it’s not really because of acute or chronic health problems, mostly cost and being tired of stinking all the time.

There is no human on earth that can smoke continuously the entire day for very long

Out of curiosity how old are you? I remember plenty of places in my younger days where it was commonplace for people to light up their next cig off of their current one pretty much nonstop

I'm sure some people acclimate to it but if you give it a try I think you'll find first your throat will get burned, then you'll start to cough more and more, and eventually you'll throw up. And I think GP was suggesting that, beyond acclimating, there's also other demands on your time and you usually can't smoke through them all.

as a medication alternative there's saffron, which also helps (not as good)

I did, I mostly agree. They certainly don’t paint nicotine as the loathsome, terrifying substance everyone believes it to be. It’s a mildly addictive stimulant just a bit more toxic than caffeine.

I've come to a similar conclusion.

On one hand, yes, nicotine in many ways does deserve the reputation it's received. Then again, a lot of the blame should go more towards smoking rather than nicotine the substance.

Nicotine is highly addictive, but as you mentioned, the delivery method plays a huge role in its addictive potential, and most people don't realize this. The chances that you'll become addicted to patches is incredibly low. If they were that addictive, then they'd likely be way more effective in helping people quit smoking; in reality, it's somewhere between 10 and 20 percent of patch users who successfully end up quitting smoking that way. Even with the highest dose patches, the addiction potential is still relatively low because the patches release the nicotine over a very long period of time and make it difficult or impossible to associate the use of the substance with a ritualistic activity like lighting and puffing on a cigarette.

And yeah, it's not a subject you can really bring up with anyone besides recreational drug users. Very few will be receptive to the idea that nicotine has legitimate uses and can be used without getting addicted.

Thank you for checking the source. Celebrating that is more important than me being right so kudos.

If we're going by anecdote I know way more people who quit caffeine than nicotine.

It might be addicting, but it's still overcomable, since 2002 there's more former smokers in the US than active smokers. 66% of all Americans who have ever smoked have successfully quit.

Nicotine isn't just 'extra effective caffeine.'

The research seems to indicate it's a cancer accelerant -- it doesn't cause cancer directly, but it promotes the growth and spread of existing tumors.

Studies suggest it does this through several pathways including:

(a) preventing cancer cells from self-destructing (b) making tumor cells divide more quickly (c) stimulating the growth of new blood vessels in and around tumors, helping them grow; and (d) helping cancer cells metastasize more easily by increasing mobility via epithelial-mesenchymal transition.

It also lowers the effectiveness of chemo and radiotherapy.

Admittedly, most of these are animal/lab studies, in part because it's hard to design a good study in humans since so many patients also use/used cigarettes and vapes, which confounds the results. Still, there's enough evidence out there to be cautious.

I still wear them now, but I've quit them before. It took about a year. Same steps as the 6 week steps, just drawn out further.

They tell you not to cut them, because that cuts into their profits. It's a sticker. The amount of nicotine you get is directly proportional to the surface area. A step 3 patch is exactly 1/3 the size of a step 1. This makes it extremely easy to control the exact amount to tapper off.

The hard part most people don't get is the addiction is only about 50% physical to the nicotine. Your brain craves the habit regardless of the chemical. Habits suck. People seek help to stop chewing their fingernails. I still go for walks with the regularity of smoking. I can feel it. It builds up. I need to go for a walk. Same as going for a cigarette before.

I smoked for roughly 30 years and was not in very good shape when I gave up eight years ago - that improved rather a lot.

The problem is that nicotine is not the only addictive substance involved. If it was then you could chew gum, wear patches or whatever and off you go. There is an extremely complicated set of chemicals involved in fag smoke. There is also the habit effect and other complications.

In the end I think that boring old will power is the only way and any trick or tool or whatever that you can deploy to bolster that is how you give up.

My initial plan was to vape but I soon found that unsatisfying and it looked to me like trying to substitute one habit with another.

Once I started stopping, I didn't want to stop! It was extremely hard but I always reminded myself that I had got so far and that that time would be wasted if I had to start again. I followed doubled up time periods - one day, two days, 1/2 a week, a week, a fortnight, a month, two months ("cripes, this might work") and so on.

A mental tool I developed was a couple of mantras: "I don't want to smell" and "I don't want to die". Whenever I felt the cravings I repeated those to myself and I have no idea why but it did work for a while at a time. Gradually the need tailed off (say around two years)

I remember having quite vivid dreams where I would "crack" and start smoking again. I had to do quite a lot of mental verification to prove to myself that it was just a dream. At one point I even smelt my clothes to prove to myself it was all a dream.

We are all different and there is no right or wrong way to quit. One thing we can all agree on is it is hard, very hard but not impossible. Pick a strategy that might work for you and be prepared to change it but please do have a go. It really is worth it.

Hey, another person with addiction-intolerant ADHD! I have run into so few people who encountered and noted it. Most people can’t just treat a compulsion by curtailing it through willpower, though I still don’t comprehend why. Ironic that the willpower disorder wins the day versus the baseline.

ADHD people get hooked to smoking quite easily. Nicotine's a stimulant after all.

I've had similar thoughts! I grew up around a heavy smoker. My dad told me to never smoke and I never have. But I randomly tried a nicotine lozenge in my 40s and found it such a "lightbulb on" moment that I've been using pouches for a few years now and my executive functioning still feels better for it (though not as much now as in the first two years, alas).

This has not been my experience. Obviously there's no way I can disprove a placebo effect, but I don't find myself to be particularly prone to placebo effects or magical thinking. The vast majority of the time,, I don't notice much effect if at all from the "amazing" psychoactives, nootropics, pharmaceuticals, supplements, etc., short of full blown psychedelics and stimulants. Perhaps I'm prone to the nocebo effect. Then again, if I nearly always have the nocebo effect, it would seem odd to me that suddenly I would have the placebo effect with patches. Is it like adderall? No, but I would be stunned if researchers performed a double-blind study of patches on me as the sole subject and couldn't find a measurable difference in my behavior in terms of task persistence.

No evidence that nicotine is a stimulant? What?

Wait, where are disposable vapes allowed, but not refillable vapes/traditional e-cigs? Plenty of places are banning disposable vapes on an e-waste basis, but never heard of the opposite.

Honestly, the mental aspect of addiction is what makes it difficult. Anyone can get through a couple of weeks feeling like shit, especially if you have support. But for years and years, you can be addicted to something that never even entered your body.

i know this sounds dumb on the surface, but assuming you have other restrictions in your life it works.

Vaping tastes great, can be done indoors, doesn’t need an ash tray, and others around you are mildly annoyed vs visibly upset. Cigarettes are the direct opposite of all of those. The added friction could put someone over the hump.

It's just because cigars (and presumably pipes?) are puffed, not inhaled. You absorb nicotine through the mucus membrane in your mouth (not as much), and otherwise enjoy the flavor. The practice with cigarettes is to inhale into your lungs. You could technically puff a cigarette I guess.

People make a big deal out additives and accelerants, but the carcinogens are 99% from smoke, burning plant matter. In that respect, pure tobacco isn't meaningfully safer. That said if you "puff", that's probably safer, though still risky (mouth cancer, and you're still going to inhale some amount of smoke).

A common assumption. A filter filters out harmful stuff right?

Except they don't:

https://exposetobacco.org/wp-content/uploads/Cigarette-Filte...

There have been calls in the Netherlands (perhaps even at the EU level) to ban filtered cigarettes, for the simple reason that they are misleading and offer no protection, but are harmful to the environment because of the non-degradable micro-plastics.

So, journalism ethics have totally disappeared because someone complains on the internet? Grow up…

I literally saw a meme image saying this last year. Crazy to see it become reality.

I'm pretty sure it wasn't entirely uncommon in Norway (and probably also Sweden) to quit cigarettes by switching to snus (tobacco between your lip/gum).

Try pipe tobacco in a corncob (beginner level, easy/forgiving) or briar (more advanced, takes packing & coal management technique) pipe. Way less costly than cigarettes, in more ways than the wallet!

In early 2025, a Dutch newspaper was also writing about young adults struggling with vaping addiction, and how some switch to smoking as a better alternative.

https://www.volkskrant.nl/volkskrant-magazine/als-deze-moede... (https://archive.ph/O7dpL)

A perfect, ouroboros of addiction

I quit smoking by using Swedish snus until I got used to not smoking and then just tapered off the snus. This was after smoking 2 packs a day for 10+ years.

A significant factor in vapes not overtaking cigarettes is the tobacco lobby; they pay to play in legislature to ban vapes and associated paraphernalia in many US states, as well as create their own vape products to play both sides of the market. It's difficult to use vapes to quit smoking cigarettes when vape juice and single use vapes get banned, yet cigarettes remain legal.

I will second this, having enjoyed similar success. The idea is that you start taking it, smoke normally the first day or two, then stop (if I understand the mechanism correctly the drug uses the nicotine to guide it to the correct receptors at the outset and subsequently the molecules self-attach to each other). You take it 4 or 6 weeks - I think 4, but it was 16 years ago so I forget. Contrary to what some imagine, there's no long-term dose. Within the first few days your cravings evaporate, by the end of the course smelling someone else's cigarette evokes a mild feeling of nausea. It's the only approach that never resulted in a relapse of some kind for me.

There are side effects; it can cause stomach bleeding if you don't carefully take it with meals, so if your breakfast is just a cup of coffee you'll need to adjust to consuming food; and it's associated with intensely vivid dreams which can disrupt your sleep. I experienced both but did not find it that bad, I blame myself for playing a bit fast and loose with the mealtime warnings. idk what it costs now but I paid $400 for the full course out of pocket, probably like $750 today with inflation. So, less than 6 months of moderate cigarette use.

It doesn't fix the psychological desire for a 'smoke break'; for about 6 months I chewed gum (ordinary gum, not nicotine) to get past the mental habit of wanting to consume something. Some people reported using a fidget toy to give their hands something to do. My theory is that if you have a severe smoking addition it is probably because nicotine slotted neatly into some pre-existing somatic need, so once you get past the cravings stage it's worth exploring why smoking or vaping became such a big deal for you in the first place.

Yes, there are some potential side effects, some of them very serious like suicidal ideation. The friend of mine who took it discussed that possibility in depth with his psychologist.

Worth keeping in mind as a generality that drugs disclose all their side effects even when those side effects are very rare or temporary.

It gave my grandmother strokes. She never smoked again, and was still around, but never quite the same. She told me once, "I miss smoking every day. I loved it so much."

I had a family member who became suicidal on Chantix. I was wanting to quit at the same time so when given the option I went with Zyban (bupropion hydrochloride) and had quit by the second week.

What was really incredible though was right from the start I felt fantastic, like I spent all day in a flow state.

The doctor stopped the prescription after (I think) 8 weeks and I didn't start smoking again. Many years later I learned it is prescribed for ADHD and also as an antidepressant.

I don't think OP advice is wrong as a general advice though. I've also smoked very sporadically and never got really hooked (as opposed to my whole family), but plenty of regular smokers started with that first one. It's better to not take any chances.

Yeah, same for me—the first dozen or so sucked.

And then one day they were awesome and relaxing.

No need to be drama queen. I am also 40+, had for sure 10-20 cigarettes in my teenage years to try it and on social ocassions with friends, never saw the appeal, found the taste disgusting (and remember being dizzy) and don't remember my 1st cigarette at all. For the record I dislike as well taste of beer or coffee, got used to wine, which I drink only when visiting father or him visiting me, so totally like twice a year (though it's then multiday affair). It's same with alcohol addiction, drank fairly enough during teenage years, then pretty much stopped completely during 20s (only rarely with colleagues), then around 30 while in China was drinking daily for lunch and dinner 40+ % spirit (baijiu) for months with colleagues, then completely stopped overnight after finding better (but less laid-back) job.

Now recreational marijuana (ideally through bong) is way way more appealing than dumb tobacco cigarettes which do nothing, had it during my teenage years and also during my 20s on different ocassions with colleagues/friends (one of them used it during cancer treatment) and I can see myself having some even now in 40s if I could buy it legally.

I had maybe 10 cigarettes lifetime. Haven’t had one in a decade.

Though it took my dad a bit longer, he managed to quit for good when I was a kid. Still died of lung disease at 80, but I have to think it would likely have been much sooner if he'd never quit. Anyway, watching him struggle with it when I was young definitely make me repulsed by cigarettes (and most other addictive substances) such that I've certainly never been tempted to try them.

Good for him.

Yeah, sometimes the whiff of cigarette smoke from a passing stranger puts a small, guilty smile on my face.

I don't know if that last line was meant to be funny, but it gave me a good laugh. We should all be so "lucky!"

Having a motivation, even minor, helps a lot.

For me, it was the requirement to be nicotine free for a few months around a surgery.

I went the patch route and it was a somewhat difficult 3 months, but it has been a blessing not have to clear-out my through every morning or anxiously anticipating stuff like a long flight or train ride.

I also got the "oh shit, I relapsed" dreams for about a year after I quit.

Sadly true, I think. My grandparents gave up smoking at the same time after grandad contracted emphysema. They were the generation that believed smoking was good for them and smoked for 50+ years. My grandma was shocked that she had physical withdrawal symptoms, something she associated with "druggies". But it went away after two weeks. After that my grandma never thought of smoking again and actually became repulsed by smoke. But my grandad never got over it, he craved a cigarette every day for the rest of his life.

What makes you think I'm not?

Impulse control?

I am very prone to (mostly digital) addictions, but on nicotine, despite having been smoking 7 years, I’ve quit cold turkey without trouble, and since then, I can absolutely just borrow one to a friend, maybe 2 or 3 times per year, without any withdrawal symptoms. It does not have any effect. I don’t understand anything about that :|

Probably the same way normies view us who spend time reading and commenting to semi-hostile strangers on the internet.

You likely have no idea just how lucky you are.

Because it is not pleasurable at all?

There wouldn't be a trillion-dollar market for tobacco if it was "not pleasurable at all". Your personal experience isn't universal, man.

It takes a lot of concious and painful work in order to force your body into accepting that.

Of course it does! But guess what? It feels sooo goood that people get addicted to it!

Your experience is very atypical.

If you grew up in a house with smokers, you would not find the smell unusual.

Only the first 2-3 in your life are any kind of challenge to get through, after that it's smooth sailing, unfortunately. For most people.

Count yourself lucky I guess.

Honestly? I think it's just a mindset.

I have never been addicted to nicotine so can't compare but it's quite easy to quit caffeine, I'll get headaches for a few days and then it's gone. But then what? Caffeine makes it easy to concentrate and work, enables me to get anything done at all. Other drugs that do that are illegal. Maybe one day, when I'm no longer working, I'll quit it for good. Not yet.

What have you done to replace the receptor-clearing capability nicotine has that likely “addicted” you in the first place?

(Feeling okay is addictive.)

thats how we all get started. its a social thing, your in or your out. sucks. but its what it is.

I vaped for around a year and each attempt to quit ended in failure.

The first attempt, quite early on, I hadn't realised how dependent I'd become and thought it would be easy. Sure, I enjoyed vaping, but I didn't "have" to do it. Give it a couple days and I'll be back to normal. Predictably that went poorly.

Various other attempts I'd now look back on as thinking I could outsmart addiction and try to ease out of it, when in reality it was little more than procrastination.

Oh, I'll start to limit the times I vape. Only between certain hours. Or I'll go outside and do it, make it inconvenient and less appealing. I'll buy flavours I don't enjoy as much and change the association.

For me the only way to stop was to accept the unpleasantness of going cold-turkey. I knew going in that the first 48-72 hours would be brutal but that it would get significantly easier afterwards. There's always a reason to delay but everything I attempted short of actually stopping feels like self-deception.

I combined a couple of methods:

- stop smoking in certain situations (no cigarette at the bus stop, no cigarette after lunch, …)

- allow myself to put out a cigarette halfway when I’m smoking. I lapsed and lit one, but that doesn’t mean I have to finish it.

- try to feel the downsides of the cigarette while smoking. The nicotine high mostly overrides this, but it’s possible to concentrate on the yucky feeling in your mouth, your lungs being burned etc.

- telling myself that I am sure I want to stop smoking at some point in my life so I might as well stop now.

Good job!! Would it have been less miserable if you did it more slowly? With antidepressants and other psychoactive meds the ride tends to be easier when it's drawn out longer.

Good for you, friend! You should feel proud.

Last time I managed to get addicted, the gum was a lifeline. I found it pretty easy to switch to, to be honest, and just told myself it was OK if I was on it forever. After about 4 months of as much gum as I wanted, whenever, I started working down through the dosages, eventually making little Franken-gums by using a pill-cutter and regular gum to split the dosage further.

I didn't find the process especially miserable.

Tabex (laburnum extract), something to boost dopamin for the first weeks and probably the actual will to do so. Quitting was actually easy that way.

Thank you. A similar regiment also works for digital technologies

I actually tried something similar, but failed. I'm curious, how often did you dilute and by how much?

This was my setup: I mixed up 100ml of e-juice in a graduated bottle at whatever strength I was using at the time, somewhere between 15 and 20 mg/ml, can't remember exactly. From that bottle, I would fill a separate 10ml bottle, which I'd use to refill my tank. After refilling the 10ml bottle, I would top up the big bottle with VG/PG back up to 100ml, so diluting by 10%. I was vaping about half a 5ml tank per day at this point, so the 10ml one lasted about 4 days, and I'd top up the tank every morning. The theory being that the stuff in the tank would also get somewhat diluted every time I topped it up, since it would gradually get more of the stuff from the most recent filling of the 10ml bottle.

But somehow I just ended up unconsciously vaping more and with longer puff until I was at one tank per day, and then more than one tank per day.

I never got in to smoking, but even having done ZYNs a handful of times (e.g., with friends on trips, think I bought 2-3 tins maximum), I find myself craving them. Nicotine is insane.

It's an idea I've considered. Quitting cigarettes was much easier than quitting vaping has been. You can vape in your home, most places and at most times. You don't have any concept really of how much you're using. With cigarettes you have to take time, go outside, and you can literally count them making it easier to track your reduction.

I’m with you 100%. We’ll see if the last step goes ok next month after the MAOI is all cleared.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_O%27Teen

I'm not sure the damage from vaping is even close to that of smoking, especially if you smoke a lot. Nevertheless, at some point I decided I was way too attached to it- though I only had a small vape with low nicotine and rather neutral taste as opposed to those things that produce entire cumulonimbi of cherry-flavoured vapour. At least with cigarettes I am acutely aware of the harm, constantly try to keep it in check, and to smoke I need at least to reach an open place.

Btw, one thing that helped me a lot are nicotine patches. I've used them for years and helped me reduce smoking down to ~3 cigs/ day, and even stop it for some period.

For many demographics nicotine by itself poses a clear health risk. Basically that's pregnant women and anyone under 25 whose brains are still developing, according to the CDC. The WHO further states that nicotine use also increases cardiovascular risk, and that's for everyone. This last one was new to me too until a while ago (although fortunately I never take nicotine in any form).

That is what is left if you ignore the big one, which is its addictiveness. By itself that is probably not directly harmful, but the ways of consuming nicotine mostly are. Nicotine pouches carry some health risks, but are obviously not nearly as bad as snus and other crap like that containing tobacco.

It is like I have been standing my whole life, and I just sat down.

I don't think I can find a better quote to describe this feeling.

switched to vaping in 2011, and finally quit that last month. I started on 1.5 “step 1” patches and have tapered down to .5 over the last 6 weeks. Hardest thing I’ve ever done.

How cool is COPD and lung cancer? Vaping at least does not kill you

The pouches are how I got off vaping as well. The vaping is how I quit smoking, but I would never go back to either.

I actually prefer and enjoy the slower nicotine delivery of pouches. If the oral fixation is a problem for anyone, they can just leave the pouch in long after it's dead. They're easy to stop using because there's no chasing a "rush". I think it's a superior product design.

I also go long periods of time without pouches, but I will say 50mg a day is quite a lot. I average about four of the 6mg pouches in a day when I even use them at all.

I tapered off alcohol when the anxiety during hangovers and compulsive overeating started to get out of hand. It was a good run. I'll have the occasional seltzer during holidays or events. That genuinely is just one or two to get a slight buzz. I can't feel any euphoria from it anymore, just mild relaxation that eventually progresses back into stress when I go over my limit. A big help in confirming it wasn't "all in my head" was my smartwatch showing my elevated heart rate, low HRV, and bad sleep. I feel much stronger euphoric feelings from working out now than I ever did from drinking.

In the end, moderation is key as it's ever been. It's a lot easier when the top (or sometimes only) options are not just beer and cigarettes.

and you look cooler too

Did you watch too many Marlboro ads? Smokers look like bozo either way.

yeah it's annoying when people overstate the efficacy of patches. if patches worked as well as cigs, everyone would just buy patches instead (huge market here..don't steal my idea).

It's a very psychological addiction. Obviously willpower and compulsiveness vary depending on the person, but whether you believe it is easy to quit or hard to quit, you are right.

The misery of quitting comes from wanting something you cannot have. The trick to avoiding that misery is to truly not want it. Then the only remaining struggle is a few days of noticeable physical symptoms (like having a mild flu, at worst) and the long struggle of trying to not forget why you don't want to smoke or vape or snus.

Anyone wishing to quit should read Alan Carr's book. Don't worry about whether everything in the book is literally true; the point of the book is not to be a list of pedantically true statements; the point of the book is to get you to quit smoking.

for me, its black n milds.

Cytisine ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cytisine ) doesn't get much attention.

It's extremely effective at reducing nicotine cravings and withdrawal symptoms.

Moreover, European pharmacy formulations are available "OTC" from Amazon in the USA because its not a recognized drug there

I stopped smoking when my girlfriend got cancer and I switched to vaping. That worked for a year and a half, then my vape fell into mud and I bought a pack of smokes because I had no quick solution and started smoking again.

I'm working on going back to the vape.

I had a lot of trouble quitting. Menthol hemp cigarettes did the trick, smoked nice but no nicotine

All while sparing the rest of us from inhaling your cancer cloud. Win-win for everyone!

it's actually the action of inhaling from a little stick and exhaling visible smoke/vapour that is most addictive. It's quite curious why that is.

Because dragons are cool

Yes, it's funny how everyone here is talking about the chemical addiction only.

That is a thing, but there's also the habits you formed over the years. And they can be worse than the chemical craving.

I've greatly reduced my smoking multiple times for days up to a week. And then I forgot one morning and went back to my usual intake. Once I even stopped smoking for 3 days but forgot the 4th and lit one.

You need a plan for the reflexes you've formed too.

Asocial junkies either way, poisoning the air whereever they go.

I used supplements with N-acetylcysteine (NAC) to quit smoking a few years ago and it was a surprisingly smooth experience.

Decided to go cold turkey and started taking them a few weeks in advance - and even before the planned date I suddenly started losing the urge to smoke.

AFAIK recent research indicates it helps with addiction to multiple other substances including alcohol.

It is simple. Ban them. Otherwise it is genocide.

Where do you all live that smoking or vaping are still a thing?!

The cravings do go away entirely eventually. It took me probably 2-3 years after I quit before the random cravings stopped, I used to want make the smoking motion with my hand and that finally went away as well. It’s a fairly linear drop off I think, you just get them with less and less frequency as time goes on.

This so much. I am still confused how well tabex works and how few people know about it.

Combine with a dopamine booster for the first weeks (or masturbate a lot) and quitting suddenly feels easy.

I bought it online but directly from a Polish or Slovakian pharmacy.

It depends where you are in the world. I bought mine at a pharmacy in Poland on a visit, but I've seen reports of people buying online from Poland, and even people buying it on Amazon. You can check out Reddit as well, as I've seen people sharing websites there.

It's an old drug so can't be patented, so nobody will pay for studies on it, which means no health service will approve it.

I wish authorities would punish smoking in public areas more aggressively. I'm so tired of inhaling smoke or vape clouds when walking the streets or at bus/tram stops. Theoretically you are not supposed to smoke at bus stops, but it isn't enforced (EU/PL). Entering an office building means inhaling poison, unless you can hold your breath, because there is always a crowd of people smoking.

Aggressive laws and enforcement would do wonders, and also encourage potential quitters.

While the book does focus on smoking, and uses some of these physical aspects of cigarettes specifically as arguments, the main thrust of the book is actually a framework that generalizes pretty well to dealing with any addiction. For example, https://easypeasymethod.org/ is a simple rewrite of Carr's book for dealing with porn addiction.

So as long as you have your own reasons for why you want to quit vaping (and if you're picking up the book, you probably already do) it can still be helpful. The books from whyquit.com I mentioned in a sibling comment mention some vaping-specific arguments, and they're framed as quitting nicotine in general, not just smoking specifically.

Another good resource is whyquit.com

They have three books that follow a similar method as Carr's book. All resources available free, in multiple translations:

The original, Never Take Another Puff: https://whyquit.com/joel/index-ebook.html

Freedom From Nicotine, a more modern take, with a lot of data and references: https://whyquit.com/ffn/

Smart Turkey, essentially a condensed, much shorter version of FFN: https://whyquit.com/smart/

Famously, high schoolers and middle schoolers never drink or vape.

For those of you who believe smoking is all or nothing, here's my experience.

Started smoking at age 11 (yeah Im French), gradually increasing to about a pack a day in my 20s. Reduced to about half a pack in my 30s. Did the vaping thing then, trying cold turkey a few times, without success. Then one day, I just didn't want to smoke anymore, stopped completely. (I was already smoking only half cigarettes for a while, cause I didn't like the feeling anymore). I didn't have urges to smoke at all for years, even when going out, getting drunk. Even with all my colleagues would go out for a cigarettes and I had to stay alone in a room.

Nowadays, I am in a situation where maybe once every two months I go to a party and I smoke a few cigarettes. Maybe over a weekend, I'd smoke a pack, then I don't smoke at all for another two months. If there is no party I don't smoke, if there's one, I may. I have zero urges the next days, I don't even think about it.

I think it's a question of age, maybe I don't go to that many parties anymore, maybe I don't feel the need to relax or to take a break anymore. I am 100% remote, live in the countryside, that might help compared to office work in a big city as I used to do.

I am not advising anyone to pick up smoking after years of stopping.

But I am writing this just to say that to me the usual things that people say about addiction weren't true at all:

- It wasn't difficult to stop (that last time, I'd already tried a few times before and failed). For some reason, it just happened that I didn't want to continue. I didn't have a date, I didn't have a "last cigarette then it's over" moment. I just didn't feel like smoking anymore. It also sort of happened gradually, first I didn't want to smoke entire cigarettes anymore, then I would stop smoking after half a cigarette.

- I smoked and vaped several times since, sometimes for several days in a row, sometimes at my house, I never felt I would go back to by a addicted smoker. My wife also does this, I can tell she's having a bit more of a hard time not smoking again, but she manages too, so I am not the only oddball here.

Cytisine. I buy some on Amazon. Works wonders, no cravings but strange dreams.

It's about 30 years ago that I quit smoking but it was a real bugger at the time.

Here's what helped me the most; every time you try to quit it gets a bit easier next time.

So if you try and fail, try again. Then keep trying after that.

So many people try to quit and get disheartened when they're pulled back.

Instead just think of it as another step along the path. You are training yourself to tolerate the itch and to do without nicotine.

Keep in mind 5x the dose is relative to being a pack a day smoker. We're talking 20x if it means smoking 4-5x a day.

Then there is the negative effects of I dunno how many multiples of volume of vape in your throat and lungs, which I assume is non-zero even though I personally believe its 100x better than burning tobacco.

Then there is the question of what that much nicotine does to you mentally, which is equally, if not more important. To put it in perspective, I usually wake up feeling pretty good, with some hopes and dreams of what Ill be doing that day, and Ill take a puff and immediately want to go back to bed for another hour. I cant sit in meetings for more than 5 mins or have conversations with people if it means I cant be vaping. Its like basing your whole life based on whether you get your fix of nicotine or not. Work from office? I don't think so buddy...every ten minutes Id have to go to the bathroom/outside. I seriously wonder where my life would have been if I never picked up this habit.

We'll see in another 10-20 years I suppose.

I think you read my comments as some self assured statement or argument whereas I was genuinely asking questions.

I dont doubt given an equal amount of vaping to equal amount of smoking, vaping is far healthier. But to what end? Is smoking 1 cigarette a day worse than vaping 2-3ml of 50mg/ml nicotine? How about 3-4?

I think you misread. I am saying vaping 5x the amount of nicotine is far worse mentally. Even if smoking 3-4 a day is worse physically, if I am going to do one or the other, I rather smoke 3-4 a day.

But in general I am saying, even for the quitting smoking/vaping ad campaigns there is not enough emphasis put on how dramatically it reduces your quality of life. Its always about dying of cancer or heart disease and living shorter amount of time 20-40 years down the line. I mean shit in a lot of cases I rather die at 70 than live to 80. Youll feel better EVERY day in a month is a muucch stronger motivation for me.

Addiction is a disease, not a "choice"

And "not ready to quit it at the moment" is such a wildly inappropriate dichotomy I really wonder what experience you have which informs your decision to discuss this topic.

Good dude, good ole days. These modern vapes are all from the same tobacco companies, hence the craziness. Cant fight em? Join em.

Instead of having to sell cigarettes with throat cancer on the label, they get to make all this colorful brands with an even more insane nicotine delivery system with the "health benefit" of quitting smoking...

Dont ever ever try this crap.

Yes, but a market with only 5% is more likely to generate addicts, err, I mean, higher ARR.

Of course it helps you focus. Thats a known fact. Its incredible you can do only few puffs every hour or two. No judgement from me.

... Huh, I had no idea of this. Yeah, limit in Europe is 20mg/ml, and practical limit on what you can buy, at least in Ireland, is 18mg/ml (I suspect this is manufacturers giving themselves a safety margin, but seems to be pretty standard).

Have you tried nic pouches like zyn's instead?

They are also absolutely addictive as fuck, BUT I will say because they come in different strengths I found it relatively straight forward to quit them via tapering.

I was using 20 x 10mg per day and then bought strength 9mg, 6mg, 3mg, 1mg quit.

It was much much easier than trying to cold turkey which I also tried.

I was tempted to just start smoking again, but I found that if I was distracted or my hands were busy I could go without vaping for hours at a time.

It took a few tries, but once I really decided to quit I was able to get past the worst cravings in a few days and now it's been almost a year.

Opposite here. Taken me hundreds of tries to quit smoking (none worked, vaping was the only thing that allowed me to), vaping I sometimes just don’t do, never had that with smoking, where I sometimes switched to menthol so I could keep smoking while sick…

I had a very different experience. I would start smoking again for various personal but uninteresting reasons and found that it was much easier if I went to vaping for a week or two before quitting completely.

Yeah, as an ex-smoker with lots of friends who are still smokers, I don't think this 1 hour limit thing is a thing at all.

I helped a friend quit vaping with the nicotine patches for smoking. I had to do some math because a vape hit is not 1:1 with a cigarette hit, and found that the highest dose of a patch was too low for her to start, and had to start with a few max dose patches.

Those patches aren't cheap, albeit neither is the addiction either, but just like the jump from cigarettes to nicotine gum is a good jump, so is vape to cigarettes sometimes. It was a long and painful journey for my friend even with my help, so I don't envy anyone with it worse than her (or even less of the addiction)

Vaping is equivalent to shooting heroin or doing crack

That’s a feature of the juice the mainstream products come with, not of vaping in general.

If you smoke enough you get over the terrible feeling in your throat and the smell, but those effects are definitely bad enough that they act as a meaningful deterrent to wanting to smoke more.

If I smoke a cigarette now Ill usually regret it cause Ill be thinking about the terrible taste in my mouth the next 20 mins.

Vaping? Its like eating fucking candy with a million different flavors to try when youre bored of one

Nicotine withdrawal seems much less severe after I switched to vaping.

I noticed this too. I was a chain smoker. I became a chain vaper, managing to quit tobacco in the process.

Eventually, I was able to cold turkey vaping in a way I could never manage with tobacco.

It took being sick for about 2 weeks so I couldn't vape. Once I was better, I just didn't do it again, and it was... actually kind of easy.

Similar situations have happened to me over the years when I was on tobacco, but I could never just walk away like I did with vaping.

Maybe part of it was that, with tobacco, you really organize a lot of your day around it. Going to the store, going outside for breaks, driving a little extra so you can fit in a smoke in the car, etc - vaping can really scramble all that up so you have fewer situational triggers.

Most people simply can't chain smoke and they need about an hour break in between smokes.

Major skill issue.

Maybe that's the case for you, but that would make you the exception. In the 80's when and where I grew up, it was very common for adults to estimate cigarette consumption in terms of, "packs per day."

I totally disagree with you here. Cigarettes are by far 100% worse on every level than vaping. Now, I tell people to not do either one, but since you tried to promote vapes over cigarettes here - you did not mention the damage to DNA and the rise in cancer by cigarette smokes. They literally lose many years of their life when smoking. Also, "need an hour break in between smokes", clearly shows that you never saw a chain smoker on a party. They don't need any downtime. They just continue to smoke. Even when coughing.

But also your comment of "pure addiction" is simply wrong, because nicotine is more addictive than what you have in a vape (at the least with regards to level of concentration). I don't know why you think cigarettes would be better anywhere than vaping. It's just wrong. And both should be avoided anyway; people should not fall for the lie that vaping is better, but even less so that cigarettes is better. Why promote damaging substances anyway? Damage to lung cells exist via vaping too. People seem to forget that. They did not even know that asbesto fibers are damaging for a long time.

This is not true.. you can chain smoke for hours if you get used to smoking. Drunk people do it all the time. When your nicotine addiction ramps up enough you'll get cravings to do that always.

cigarettes are self-limiting they literally hurt your throat and lungs

Eh ...

I didn't know many smokers who smoke < 1 pack per day. For those < 1 pack per day, it's mostly b/c they just haven't gotten there yet, but that's where they're headed.

Smokers aren't really going to change their smoking rituals either, just b/c their throat is a little sore or they're short of breath. They just switch to lights and/or menthol, or otherwise find a brand that doesn't punch them in the throat like Marlboro Reds do.

Going longer than usual without a smoke, generally means chain smoking 2 or more to catch up

Once addicted, it really takes a lot of hurt to self-limit. That means being literally sick, realistically.

Personally, I found vaping far easier to quit than cigarettes.

Yup. This was my main takeaway from vaping in the 2010s, after I 'quit' smoking.

However, the vast majority of my nicotine usage after quitting was chewing nicotine gum -- for 11 years! It also has the qualities you mention. You can be chewing all the time, anywhere, everywhere, and without any of the vaping restrictions places have.

Nicotine gum isn't for everyone, but if you're one of the people for whom it really takes as an addiction of its own, it's that much more difficult to quit because it's discreet, there's essentially no stigma, and you can do chew absolutely anywhere, doing practically anything.

There is no inherent self limitation from cigarettes beyond the time it takes to smoke a cigarette. I’m not sure who you knew that smoked but I can say for certain that long-time heavy users don’t need an hour break. Quite the opposite. Abusers will hack up a lung after minutes without a cigarette puff and will wake up in the middle of the night to smoke, repeatedly.

This thread (outside your statements) is such a bizarre conversation to me that somehow people have deluded themselves into the argument a cigarette is a better option than putting in work to quit. Heroin could probably help someone stop smoking pot…that doesn’t mean it is a better choice just because “it’s harder to afford when you’re a junkie and therefore takes longer to get a hit than finding a J”.

I get the capability to abuse is easier than a cigarette, no disagreement. It’s probably similar to when smoking was allowed everywhere including on planes and in restaurants. I don’t see how the solution to ease of use, ease of access, and manufacturers adding far too much nicotine is “start smoking a different product with proven worse health consequences, including cancer, rather than vaping too much and possibly having some negative health effects”. These days nearly all major vape companies are owned by tobacco companies. They have a lot of experience in pushing the addictiveness boundaries for significant profit from the past 100+ years, and they are doing it again with vapes.

I say all this as someone who smoked for 15+ years, up to a pack and a half to two packs a day, vaped increasingly more nicotine over 5 years, and quit vaping over the course of a year by mixing 0mg nicotine liquid -- almost every vape liquid manufacturer offers it -- in fractionally increasing ratios each week until I was only vaping zero nicotine. I continued vaping 0mg for years after because I actually enjoy the act of smoking, but I finally just decided not to anymore.

Choosing not to quit and choosing not take any responsibility or steps toward battling your addictions are vastly different from not being capable. Everyone has the capacity to battle their addictions when they choose to, and small counter-examples or lack of success do not negate that premise.

Vaping definitely increased my nicotine addiction, mostly because I could do it indoors all day while working, in the car, at night, etc.

The only limiting factor was the nausea of nicotine overdose, which I remember occasionally from chain smoking indoors.

This simply isn't true at all. A pack+ a day habit isn't uncommon. I'll smoke an entire pack in 4 hours if I'm drinking outside by a campfire.

I really recommend Nicorette inhalers, that's how I quit smoking. Having something to do with the hands really helps I think.

Also just inhaling through an empty tube helps! Make the smoking motion with your hand, inhale and get a nice hit of oxygen.

I found quitting vaping far harder than quitting smokes, there is near zero friction to vaping.

I quit smoking when it was more socially accepted, it's probably much easier to quit now that a pack costs so much and there are so few places you can do it.

Capitalism runs on addiction. Cigarettes showed how profitable it was to have an addictive product. Vaping just follows this tradition. Whether you choose one or the other (or switch back and forth), you're making someone money. The harm it may cause is a you problem.

I'm interested in how addiction is so much more likely in some people than others. For over 20 years I loved to drink all sorts of different things. Once I had kids and hit 40+ it was so unpleasant in the morning so I decided to massively reduce. In the UK drinking is so pervasive. I limited my intake to <=2 drinks per night and never had an issue and would only break that maybe once a year. Recently I decided to reduce it even more. I will have a pint of ale in a pub if I go, but hardly anything else. It really didn't feel that hard.

Again at uni I found lots of people smoked cigs and mj and so I did it too a little bit, but decided after a year or 2 to stop and I've never really done it since. My dad was the same.

I've had the same realisation with certain foods recently and coffee, massively cutting down on sugar, salt and coffee.

Probably my only addiction at the moment is too much scrolling on my phone.

I totally accept this is a huge issue for many people, but no real idea why...

Doesn’t make much sense, though, has anyone looked at the price of cigarettes?

I never smoked but strangely enough, the biggest success stories with regards to smoking, came from people who just ... stopped smoking. And with that I mean completely, cold-turkey.

I understand that this is not possible for everyone, as the brain works differently and some just have a harder push towards addiction by default (but also habit). But the most successful quitters I know of in reallife, more than half a dozen actually, were those who just decided to quit it. In theory lowering down to e. g. vapes and what not may help, but I know some who then just went back to their old habits, and kept on lying to themselves about it. The brain is great at finding excuses, so people may need to try different ways to handle the brain. It is not the cigarette as such nor vape or the addiction as the main problem - it is how the brain works and operates. What is also interesting is that many people do not even realise that, how they self-trick themselves into being addicts. (I am aware that it is very hard to break out of the cycle for many people too; not saying it may be easy for everyone. Often people have additional problems once in addiction, financial ones, physical problems, depression and so forth.)

So we better let some world-wide bureaucracy restrict what we're allowed to do without any evidence, right?

A cigarette puff is much stronger than vaping, maybe restrictions in nicotine concentration are counterproductive because this way you keep sucking without ever getting the hit. Unpleasant? IDK, it's been a very long time since I quit, but I don't remember it as such, only bad when exercising.

Nice side effect of waking you the fuck up when the heat hits you as well.

Thank you for writing this.

Reminds of "The Knick" with Clive Owen. The character quit his cocaine addiction with the help of heroin.

Worked swell...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXlMBJKHc8c

Most people who think they want to quit are still in the "wanting to want to quit" phase. When I truly decided to quit (because of a family health issue), I quit cold turkey and never touched a cigarette again.

This is why Alan Carr’s book is an excellent resource and easy to mention to any smoker. I found his idea around every smoker always wanting to quit fairly true. I wanted to quit smoking since the day I started, but the amount of mental hurdles I was able to put in my own way is exactly what stopped me from giving it a serious attempt.

We just hope that vapes are not that dangerous.

Not a medic, so consult with your doctor, but I quit 15 years ago using cytisinicline.

I was motivated as well but it leveled the playing field - still had to do the work but the work was doable. Take care and fight for your health, it's worth it!