Ask Lemmy

Yeah, I switched to vaping for a few years, slowly tapered my nicotine, and quit. Been about 5 years since I smoked.

If you mean "replaced cigarettes with a vape," I did

I quit by vaping.

I smoked for 15 or 16 years. I tried vaping one time, around 13 or 14 years in, but it didn't do it for me. After a few more years of smoking, i tried a sub ohm vape, which used a low nic salt content. It made massive clouds which whilst making me feel like a twat, actually helped to fuel the illusion that i was smoking. The feel on my throat was similar to the cigarettes i was used to, and overall, it felt like smoking, so i managed to stick to it and not smoke at the same time.

The kicker was that the low salt meant that initially i was vaping more often, but as time went on i was finding that i was having less time to vape so i was t getting as much nicotine. Eventually, after maybe 6 months to a year, i found that one day, i went all day at work without vaping once. And when i realised i just decided... i dont need it, so i left the vape at home the next day.

Its been over a year and a half now, and i dont think about them anymore.

I am really fucking happy.

I did but it wasn't easy and required a lot of self control.

I started with a 6mg fluid in an 80 watt device, using a bottle of 0mg fluid I titrated down to 4.5mg, then 3mg, then 1.5mg,.75mg and so on until there were only trace amounts of nicotine left.

At this point I switched entirely to the 0mg fluid for a few days until it no longer felt like a compulsion to reach for it, the addiction having been suppressed.

No they just made my nicotine addiction worse.

The gum worked, though. Started with the 4mg dose, dropped down to two; by the time I worked my way down to an 8th of a piece of a time, I thought to myself, "wait, do I really need to be doing this?" and that was it.

Haven't craved nicotine since 2018.

My personal experience was I ended up vaping inside and smoking outside. Started feeling real shitty.

Edit: I should add I did eventually quit and what helped me was 1) really wanting to quit and 2) tea tree oil toothpicks to pop in my mouth any time I wanted a cig. Munched on those for a good 6 months or so.

It’s not the entirety of the beast but a lot of addiction is related to ritual and comfort so any way to subvert the substance out of the same ritual helps (not saying I’m not still addicted to other things but I did at least shake nicotine)

Yep, my wife. Smoked since childhood, tried many times to quit, finally managed using a vape. I started with a strong enough mix to match the daily nicotine intake, we left it like that for almost a year, then I started lowering it by 10% every month. Once we got to 20% is started dropping by 5% and then just 1% from 5% down. That said, the process being so gradual made it smooth and less disruptive.

I did, but I also wanted to quit. No one quits a substance they don't want to quit.

Yes.

I flip flopped until I found a good vape. Then one day I lit a cigarette but wanted the vape afterwards.

That was my last cigarette

I did, but I did stick with it for years before dropping the vape too. There was a transition period where my smoking dropped in frequency before I was totally done, so it wasn't immediate for me, but all my friends smoked around that time so that didn't exactly help. I was nicotine free for a few years after that until recently when I picked up the synthetic pouches under some extra stress. Do with that what you will. Its not a perfect solution, but I do think the vape was very helpful in quitting cigarettes because of the similar sensation that I never got from the gum or patches. Harm reduction tends to be more effective than elimination right off the bat.

Edit: it might be worth noting I do still use a dry herb vape for cannabis and occasionally smoke that, but the noticeable consequences are much less than they were from smoking tobacco or even vaping nicotine/pg/vg. Someday I'll completely drop the nicotine pouches too, but overall I feel pretty decent about where I'm at.

I did. I smoked from 1988 until 2010'ish and also chewed tobacco from '01 - '10 as well.

A friend had Strawberry Rhubarb vape so I tried it, loved it, then converted to vape. I slowly decreased the nicotine amount until it was 0-nic and then from there I started becoming more strict like no vaping at work, no vaping while driving until it got to the point where I just didn't vape. Then I got bronchitis.

I got better and then began exercising more. I plateaued and saw a doctor. COPD.

Now I'm just depressed all the time because I apparently have Anhedonia to boot.

So I'm gambling with 20% of my take home in hopes one of these strategies has a huge payout so my wife and kid can be taken care of when I'm gone, which will likely be under a decade.

I switched to vape, not necessarily to drop nicotine, but so i could smoke in company vehicles. I haven't stopped vaping for a few years now.

I'm in no way saying the habit is healthy or nice, but there's still a net positive to switching even if you don't end up stopping.

It's cheaper overall. A little over a pack a day is basically $10/day. I probably spend $60 on juice and $10 for coils in a month, and that's a high estimate. One coil can last a few months sometimes, other times they're duds. The initial cost is what can look expensive. $100 for a good rig, but it can last years if you get the right one. (I save money by using a rig that takes 18650 batteries and scavenge them from dead electronics - they're everywhere, power tool batteries, hoverboards, etc. Otherwise it's an extra $10 every 6 months)

It also doesn't dry me out like cigarettes. Cigarettes used to cause my sinuses to bleed in the morning and just clog my sinuses through the day. Vape keeps me a little more hydrated it feels like, like even the cough is more fluid and comes right up. No more dry coughing at all.

Don't even get me started with the smell.

It's worth mentioning too, there's a difference between the nic salts and the juice. The salts are where you can experience OD and even seizures.

I have quit smoking after switching to vaping. To be more specific I'm a cannabis ex-smoker who switched to dry herb vaping where you heat raw flower or concentrates up until the cannabinoid oils vaporize but not so hot that things combust into flame. Before I switched I was having issues with coughing up black tar mucus flem and some wheeze in the lungs. No more of those problems, and I can actually taste the terps and subtle flavors now.

Took me years, but yes.

This was back in the day when you could easily source stuff to mix your own juice though. I was vaping 3ml and I stepped down 0.5ml every month until I was vaping just flavor. At that point I'd carry my vape around but use it WAY less. Eventually I'd get sick of bringing it with me and just stopped using it.

Then I'd cave again, and restart the process.

Took me a few years, but my vapes are gone and I only smoke when I'm shithoused and around a bunch of smokers, which is a maybe once every couple years event now?

I'm not sure how it would work these days. Everything is packaged, can you even mix your own nic content? Fucking big tobacco fucked up the market.

Even just switching to vaping full time is better than smoking, so get your family member one and hope for the best.

My friend started smoking after quiting because he started vaping... So there's always that.

Yes, I know someone who did, but they ODed on the nicotine cartridges via vaping and not reading the dosages carefully. They quit entirely after that.

Worked for a close friend of mine, he went from a pack a day to vaping, and was then able to lower the concentration of nicotine gradually over time. He still vapes, but no nicotine, and he never went back to cigarettes.

The TL;DR on this one is "if someone wants to quit being addicted to nicotine a vape is a decent way to stop." If they don't want to, they'll just switch to the vape instead of smoking.

So they have to want to quit in order to get any benefit.

My spouse and I both did.

I was a pack per day smoker for 15-20 years. Switched to vaping as it was becoming so popular. Stepped down the nicotine over the course of a few years until I finally just got tired of going and buying 1mg juice and stopped. Haven't had a vape in about 2 years and a cigarette in about about 5.

I still get a craving now and then but it passes. Cigarettes usually just smell like a disgusting ashtray and I'm glad I don't smoke anymore.

edit: we both actively wanted to quit and I'm so happy it worked for us

I think you have to want to quit smoking for it to work like that. I've found that because vaping is more accessible than smoking, someone's vaping consumption can be far higher than what they were smoking. It can be quite easy to sort of absent mindedly vape in a way that's harder to do when smoking.

But I do know people who have used vaping in this way. Someone I knew had tried to quit smoking before but they couldn't go from one cigarette per day (and they needed to quit fully, or their smoking would inevitably increase during times of stress). When smoking, I guess you could roll a smaller cigarette, but this friend tried that and it didn't work. Vaping allowed them to finally kick the habit for good because their vape allowed them to taper down the nicotine content per puff of the vape

Not fully but I just don’t carry a pack anymore. Vaping is much better in my personal experience