Quitting smoking - e-cigs???

[beestie]

I've been a smoker for (too) many years and have just bought my first so-called e-cigs. Does anyone else have any experience with these?

First impressions - fantastic! I am probably more addicted to the 'habit' than the nicotine, and have spent years sneaking into the garden for a fag and suffering abuse from wife and children, not to mention the health problems.

These e-cigs produce a 'smoke' (actually a vapour) that gives you a sort of smoky 'hit' when you inhale, and they contain nicotine which helps any craving, with the same sort of resistance you would get by dragging on a normal cigarette. The only minor drawback is the weight and the hardness of the filter. But as a cigarette replacement, you can't get much better. Certainly beats gum or patches!

Strangely, though, there is a message which says 'not a smoking cessation product'. WHAT???
I intend to wean myself off the nicotine gradually (you can do that with different 'strengths', just like gum or patches) and also 'smoke' different flavours, if you must. To me, they seem like the perfect smoking cessation product! I haven't had a proper cig for 3 days, and don't really want one as they provide just about everything a normal smoke does but with no harmful chemicals or smoke. A damn sight fewer than fags, anyway.

Has anyone seen a recent UK 'blog' or something about these? All I can find are thinly veiled sites trying to sell particular brands. I simply can't understand why they are not 'smoking cessation products'.

Anyone out there have any views/experience/help they'd like to share? And no, I don't consider the next step to be 'virtual whisky', 'virtual beer' or any other virtual vice

 

[Mike a]

2010 I gave up normal cigarettes for a week by using an E-cig with permission from one of the nurses.
2011 I used patches for 3 weeks leading up to the op then spent 4 days without using anything whilst I was in the hospital.

Both times as soon as I got home I caved in and started smoking again. Wife bending my ear every day now to give up so I'll be using the patches again for as long as it takes as the E-cig didn't cure the hand to mouth habit which I think is half the problem.

 

[beestie]

Interesting...I'm trying the nicotine wean first, and hoping I'll look enough of an ***** puffing on an e-cig that the hand to mouth bit will come naturally.

 

[The Cumbrian]

Both my brother and best mate have given up smoking by using vaping (which I understand is the correct name for it). Both have had no craving for a cigarette from the moment they picked up the e- cigarette.

However neither is trying to wean themselves off nicotine, just avoiding the other harmful products in smoke.

Both have shown health improvements from stopping (about 6 and 8 months) respectively).

From my brothers point of view he is delighted that the pub we use allows him to use it indoors as it isn't smoking and leaves no smell.

My sister in law says he spends more on vaping than he did on smoking, but he is a bit of a gadget freak and has a number of ecigarettes and lots (and I mean lots) of different flavours.

Personally I feel he vapes more often than he smoked a cigarette, partly because he was a rollup man and all he has to do is pick up the ecigarette.

To summarise from my second hand experience.

It does get you off the fags.

It does seem healthier

I suspect it will be as hard to break the habit as it would with conventional cigarettes.

Some (note some) establishments allow you to use them indoors, others feel it will cause protests from smokers, so you need to ask first.

EDIT: I should have said they both tried the cheaper ones which look like cigarettes and found them useless.

 

[Poly Hive]

The only person that can stop smoking is the smoker. You can tell them until you are blue in the face but unless they want to quit they will fail.

I succeed with hypnosis. Thirty a day to zero in an hour.

Best money I ever spent.

PH

 

[mexbigshow]

just read the labels on some of the e cigs because some contain the same ingredients as anti freeze which can't be that good to inhale

 

[psafloyd]

2010 I gave up normal cigarettes for a week by using an E-cig with permission from one of the nurses.
2011 I used patches for 3 weeks leading up to the op then spent 4 days without using anything whilst I was in the hospital.

Both times as soon as I got home I caved in and started smoking again. Wife bending my ear every day now to give up so I'll be using the patches again for as long as it takes as the E-cig didn't cure the hand to mouth habit which I think is half the problem.

Mike,

Try the nasal spray. Works very quickly and it can sting, so a bit of aversion therapy, too. So, you may delay doing it for a few minutes and then get past the cravings for that time, which may put it back for another hour. I did it using this nearly eight years ago.

 

[Tom Bick]

I wish you lot could talk to my three nieces on how difficult it is to stop I bang my head against the wall in utter despair as they have all started to smoke at such an early age and inwardly very angry at my sisters as in my opinion have not done enough to stop it.

We have far to much cancer in our family directly linked to this disgusting habit and when it will raise its head again it will be to late they will be addicted and as they will watch the life drained from someone close to them they will think a cigarette will calm the nerves.

 

[alanf]

I was told that labels such as 'not a smoking cessation product' is a legal precaution. That is, e cigarettes are not approved as medical treatments so cannot be sold as such while nicotine patches and gums are. The wording sounds as if aimed at the US market.

Have you noticed most of the flags you see sold for jubilees and sports supporters are marked 'not a toy'? Similar logic, they clearly are toys even if aimed at a wide age range but fewer regulations.

 

[merylvingien]

Stopped smoking real cigs second week in January and went over to e cigs, was a bit weird for the first week, different taste. But haven't had a real cig since.
Coughed a load of brown crap up for a month or so but feel much better now.

I recommend the e cigs, great invention.

 

[The Cumbrian]

just read the labels on some of the e cigs because some contain the same ingredients as anti freeze which can't be that good to inhale

It says it is a Glycol but not Ethylene Glycol. I agree I had the same attitude as you particularly being a life long smoker. However my brother who has far more chemistry knowledge than my nil has been looking into it and two things seem to come out. First if it is harmful it isn't as bad as smoke and secondly some reports even claim it to have a beneficial effect.

Personally as a life long avoider of smoke I prefer to put nothing other than nice clean air in my lungs.

 

[ShaneR]

After 32ish yrs smoking I finally managed to quit last year with the help of patches, previaously I failed on many occasions but on this occasion I psyched myself so much and got my head into the right mindset and become so obsessed, failing this time wasn't an option, I have now not touched a fag in 9 months and never crave them either.

As PH says if the smoker isn't ready then you will fail.

 

[mexbigshow]

After 32ish yrs smoking I finally managed to quit last year with the help of patches, previaously I failed on many occasions but on this occasion I psyched myself so much and got my head into the right mindset and become so obsessed, failing this time wasn't an option, I have now not touched a fag in 9 months and never crave them either.

As PH says if the smoker isn't ready then you will fail.

i think your right about the mindset, i gave up smoking 6 or 7 years ago i went cold turkey because i was fed up of the smell, the taste and especially the amount of money i was spending on fags so i got it into my head that i had to stop all together not cut down because i've seen every1 cut down and never follow through on giving up, i missed the habit of having them in my hand more than the actual smoking and i ended up drinking my pints quicker just because my hand had nothing to do, my dad did the same too and he'd been smoking about 30 odd years he'd tried cuttin down and never stopped so the last time he just quit all together and never looked back.

 

[VEG]

I just gave up when my daughter was born didnt use anything apart from will power any one can give up smoking if they want it bad enough.

 

[dpearce4]

I gave up using Zyban provided on percription from my doctor. you start taking the tablets for 2weeks while still smoking having set a date to stop. you then stop on that day and continue to take the zyban for a further 6weeks. if you lapse during the 6weeks you wont get the nicotine hit as the brain receptors have been blocked by the zyban.

you dont realise that for the 2weeks you take them while smoking you are actually being weaned off the nicotine and by the time you stop all your stopping is the habit of actually smoking as you have already gone through the nicotine withdrawl. it worked for me gave up after 25years 40 a day and have not smoked for 7years.

there are other products like zyban available all on perscripton they are well worth looking at if you really want to give up.

 

[beestie]

I'm now into my second week, and haven't touched a traditional cigarette yet, the first time this has happened having tried gum, patches and cold turkey. I was beginning to think a lobotomy would be the only way out (or hypnotism). A bit stressful when the batteries run out, but that's down to poor organisation.

I take the points about mindset, but that is often where I fell down in time. I have found that with these e-cigs you don't have to be as 'ready' as you do with cold turkey. We'll see....