Are ya ready kids?!
I started smoking cigarettes at 16, long before nicotine vapes existed. It doesn't matter the format, the tobacco industry has been marketing to youth since its inception.
I smoked for 17 years, a little over a pack a day at the end, and what made me finally quit was the realization I'd been smoking longer than not smoking.
I still think about it every day. Sometimes I have dreams about smoking cigarettes. Nicotine is fucking wack.
Funny, if you showed someone this 40 years ago they'd probably say stuff like "what is that you're holding?", "what's nicotine?", and "go smoke a cigarette about it"
I wonder if there's any good ways to quit a vape addiction? Taper off or cold turkey? Any literature on this.
For anyone supporting the use of vapes over ignition based nicotine delivery systems like cigs, we know, it's healthier. And although vapes remove alot of the carcinogenicity of nicotine products, nicotine still isn't very healthy and can give one cardiovascular problems/hardened arteries over long term use, not to mention shit like increasing chance for developing glaucoma. There also need to be more regulations over stuff like coils. Alot of disposables or pod based vape pens put out alot metallic particulate matter like nickel, zinc, and copper.
Not literature, just an anecdote from someone experienced with both ignition based and vaped nicotine;
I find a combination of both tapering off and cold turkey to be best. When I know I'm coming to a stop, I'll eek out what I have left and then commit to going cold turkey. The first three days of no nicotine always suck the most, but after that, every day is just slightly easier, until you eventually get to the point where you realise you're not really missing it.
Once you've been addicted to nicotine, you never really stop wanting it, but after a while you become ok with the idea of not needing it. The only reason I gave up was because I realised I was essentially paying a subscription to feel normal, it wasn't even pleasurable anymore.
My best advice is never try it, but to each there own, I'd never tell anyone what should or shouldn't go in to their body.
I don't have experience with nicotine, but coming off other substances tapering has worked best for me.
You can try switching to nic pouches like zyn/velo. They're just powder nicotine from a lab I don't think they're tobacco based at all. For me vaping was also a physical addiction, whenever I'm driving or on the toilet or gaming I kept feeling the need to vape. So I dealt with the routine/physical aspect first and then the nicotine.
I was doing really well for about a month but I bought a vape for a night out and it lasted 2 weeks so I gotta taper off again with the pouches.
Nicotine is as addictive as caffeine is, your %100 correct that you had a physical addiction to the habit of vaping. But nicotine from a lab (synthetic) or tobacco derived isn't really bad for you. It's why snus and nasal snuff have a lot of studies that show neither have any real side effects compared to smoking (and that's smoking anything). Taper off is best approach, since you can get all the way to 0mg, and even then as you said physically it can still be a challenge to quit.
Personal anecdote but free base nic 3mg/ml was low enough I quit without withdrawal symptoms. Salt nic, what's in most of the pods, hits harder than standard smokes for me and I had withdrawal symptoms when switching to freebase.
I smoked for about 15 years. I quit by breaking the habit s associated with smoking: I used nicotine pouches for a year.
then went could turkey
I still keep a tin of them in my desk drawer. I don't use them.
I will use nicotine recreationally, but it's not a habit any more.
I think the literature says tapering is more likely to be successful, but I think it depends on the type of person you are, and your reasons for quitting.
I agree. It probably depends on the person. If I'm going to quit a vice, I have to do it cold turkey because I have trouble tapering.