Anyone tried e-cigarettes...?

[Master Ray]

OK, I know this has nothing to do with NMA, but the best, most balanced and reasonable comments I ever see on the Internet are right here on this forum, so I'm throwing it out to you lovely lot...

I've been a smoker for a couple of decades but I want to quit.  Not because I'm one of those self-hating smokers... I bloody love smoking but the incredible expense and the fact that I'm coughing so much that its getting scary has made me think that its time to call it a day...

E-cigs seem to be the way forward for me... patches or drugs won't work because I love the whole inhale / exhale / tickle in the throat thing...

Any advice / debates / horror stories would be most welcome...

Cheers, MR. 
 

[dilla]

Hi Master Ray,
I've smoked since I was 13(heavily since I was 18)and I'm now 50.I stopped in 2001 for 18 months but started again the day I found my dad dead on his kitchen floor from a heart attack.(He was a heavy smoker for 30 years but managed to quit for the last 8 years of his life).I just needed that bit of comfort,and I was away again.Twelve years on and I still smoke like a trooper.Illogical or what?It's got to the stage where I convince myself that the damage has already been done and we've all gotta go sometime.
But that's not helping you.
When I quit,I did the patches but always felt like a fag.It was always worse in the pub,but what I found really helped was to ask someone who was smoking to lend me his fag and I'd sniff the hot end.May seem strange but the smoke going up my nostrils was revolting(as opposed to coming out)
Never tried e-cigs so can't comment but they've gotta be worth a try.Good luck mate.
If you're in Buckley,Bilston or Brighton, I'll be the one spending most of my time outside having a fag,(except when a certain band are playing)Now if I could watch 'em 24/7 I'd be cured.
Just thought,the other thing I found handy was to find something new to do with your hands so you can't smoke.I started tying fishing flies,but I suspect anything "arty" like pottery,oregami etc may help.
Once again,good luck.Dilla

[Shush]

After 24 years or so, I stopped last year. I did the patch thing, and got through the 4 months of that without much trouble. After the patches, my nicotine cravings were really getting me down. I tried snuff, which once you have trained your nose not to sneeze every time was quite good, apart from when you blow your nose sometime later and it looks like you have just wiped your arse.

Then I tried the e-cigarette. The first guilt free draw as I got the back of the throat hit was bliss. I now use e-cigs all the time in place of smoking.

Which brand / type of device to use would take some explaining. I have tried several different combinations. Many are just like drawing fresh air. If you try one and think the same, it is important to note, you can get the liquids / cartridges in several different strengths from very strong, down to zero nicotine for those using them a physiological aid to help them stop smoking. Also, many different flavours. A lot will depend on whether you want to use them all the time and quit tobacco, or whether you want to half n half it as many do. I have friends who use them in the pub to cut down nipping outside, but still smoke as well.

Even though I refill my own cartridges, it is not as cheap as some may think. I used to smoke roll-ups which cost me around £!5  a week. I am paying around about the same now on e-fags.

Health wise, IMO, making the switch in your 40s is still well worth it. Your problem with smoking tobacco is you are using smoke to delivery your nicotine.  This leaves tar in your lungs. The build of tar is the problem as we all know. If you stop smoking, the build up of tar will have completely cleared out of your lungs in around 15 years.  With the e-cig, you are using vapour to deliver your nicotine which leaves no tar.

Downsides, being dependant on your kit. Leave it at work, in the pub, whatever, your in for a frustrating time till you get it back. Its not as if you can nip to the shop and get some more. Everything I get is mail order. Also, if you like to leave one in your kisser while you are typing posts on this forum, its a good idea to have a front tooth missing as these suckers are heavy, and the missing tooth makes a perfect purchase for them. -- just ask the main man !!!

[Master Ray]

Such a couple of great answers!

Dilla, so sorry to hear about that.  What an awful situation to find yourself in, my heart goes out to you.  You said you'd never tried e-cigs?  Might be worth a look... been on-line and the overwhelming opinion seems to be that e-cigs are a real help.  Of course, it does require some willpower... you have to WANT to give up the old cancersticks.  If that ain't the case, I don't think it will happen.  But if that's your choice, then fair enough, my respect to you...

Shush, great advice as ever... in fact, thats the deciding vote for me, I'll be off to my local e-cig emporium tommorow (been researching online, think I know where to go...) one last question, mate, what do pubs think of this new development?  I can honestly say I've never seen anyone puffing on an e-cig EVER in a pub setting... despite the fact that they're completely legal to imbibe in any public place... your opinion? 

[Darkness]

A couple of my mates gave up smoking by using e-cigs/crack pipes (lots of flavours to get addicted to).One has relapsed and kids his wife (who also gave up by using e-cigs) that he's still given up, at work he smokes roll ups and blames the tobacco smell on work mates who smoke.
To me though it's just exchanging one addiction for another.
I saw 2 old ladies today at a bus stop both puffing away like their lives depended on their crack pipes, I mean e-cigs.
Made me smile...
Good luck with giving up.

[Johnz]

I started smoking when I was 13 and was a typical smoker (around 20 cigarettes a day) for about 25 twenty years. Like every smoker, I was convinced that those around me who quit just didn't get quite the same out of smoking as I did. It was easy for them but it wouldn't be for me. I quit 8 years ago and haven't had a cigarette since and more importantly never even think about it anymore.

In my experience patches, cutting down etc never worked. You're addicted to nicotine and as long as you keep putting nicotine into your system you will stay addicted. Just like any other drug. I read a book by Alan Carr that really worked for me. I normally hate self-help books because I find them really patronising but this one really worked for me. Mostly because it strips you of the illusion that you enjoy smoking. You don't. Once you understand that, giving up is actually not that hard because you're not really 'giving up' anything. Thinking that it's really hard is part of the problem. The phrase that got me thinking was this one: Smoking is like wearing shoes that are too tight only to be able to feel the relief of taking them off for ten minutes every hour'. That's all it is. Having a cigarette does not make you feel better it makes you feel normal again. It makes you feel the way a non-smoker feels all the time. So rather than having a cigarette making you feel good, not having one is making you feel bad. Your mind tricks you into believing that you're actually enjoying it which you're not. They're awful things that taste horrible. You're just addicted to them.

I can drink alcohol, coffee eat lots of food, be around smokers and never think of having a cigarette. I remember it being a bit hard for the first couple of weeks but then it just went away.

Anyway, I hope you get something out of my psych-rambling. It worked for me and I have never looked back.

[Shush]

The Pub situation depends entirely on what the Landlord has chosen to decide. You can be chuffing away on your e-cig all night long, only a for a member of staff to suddenly say as they see you as they walk past, that it is not allowed in that pub.

I suppose it is the same for restaurants, or anywhere else.

That said, when told not to use them, it is very easy to use them without being seen, just exhale under the table. They do not set of any smoke detectors, because it aint smoke.

P/M me if you need more advice, brands, web site to recommend. I would post some here, but Viv told me off last time I posted someones commercial site, so now I tread carefully

[Master Ray]

Hey guys, as the bloke who started this thread, I thought I'd update you (and sorry, Shush, I DID get your PM but then, um, forgot about it... sorry...  )

I've been on the e-ciggies for about six days now... and it's really working for me.  For the first three days, I was going at it both barrels... mixing 'proper' smokes with the e-cig... but even then I was smoking five or six fags as oppose to the usual 15 - 20 a day... sucking on the e-cig really took the edge off.

And now I can proudly say that I haven't had a real cigarette in three days... it's been a couple of decades since I could last say that! 

And the funny thing is that I don't miss them. Not one bit.  In fact, there's a half-finished pack of L+B on top of my fridge, which I keep walking past... nope, not tempting me!

So, the summary is that if you like smoking, then have at it! But if you want to give up, then e-cigs are the way forward...

God, I hope I don't turn into one of those smug ex-smokers who insist on forcing their opinions on people... 

 

[Bunny]

Ive been using ecigs since January. Havent smoked a fag in all that time so Id say they work. You'll cane them at first but then you settle down and use them as you need. Definately better than corporate products ( seperate argument about proposals to ban them there!). Cheaper, cleaner and much more taste!!

[fabio]

After 26 years smoking I was trying to quit. First I tried e-cigs but wasnt a good experience because I "had" to have a real one everytime I smoked eci, then I started patches and nicotine gum together for 4 months and I could quit. 1 year and 5 months now.