Help with stopping vaping anyone??

[TheGodOfSmallPotatoes]

I smoked for ten years, not many a day maybe 5. I managed to wean myself off them to a vape (refillable not disposable) and have been vaping ever since but I feel like now is the time to try and stop.

Apart from the obvious health benefits and feeling like a twat vaping in public, I hate the dependency on it. We are going on a long haul holiday next year and my dad doesn’t know I vape 😂 so I would like to kick it before then.

I’ve started by setting certain times a day when I can vape, I’m going much longer in between now and I’m planning on reducing the nicotine gradually when filling up but is there anything else that would help? Patches? Gum? I wonder if that would just be transferring the addiction onto something else and I would really like the freedom. Any tips gladly received!

I could always stop smoking easily, from a few days to years at a time. Idly bought a refillable vape and used it on and off for a year or two. Bought a disposable vape and oh my god I rue that day, I have been horribly addicted ever since, to the extent of a chest infection this year. Am so bloody embarrassed.

I’m here for solidarity! I quit smoking 20 years ago and foolishly started vaping last year. I started with disposables and then moved onto a refillable one. It’s by far the worst, most addictive habit I’ve ever formed and I hate it. I’m on holiday at the moment (currently sat outside by the pool with a coffee and my vape..). I’ve decided I’m quitting at the end of the holiday, I have the Allen Carr book which I haven’t started yet, but the vape is not coming home with me!!

Good luck to everyone else who’s quitting - we can do this!

Solidarity you shall have! I need to get off this thing!

What strength of juice are you using?

If you're addicted to the nicotine try reducing that first. You can even go down to nicotine free.

I’m using 6mg at the moment

Definitely going to reduce nicotine every time I fill up. Have 11 months to do it in 😂

Ok, so I’ve just finished reading the book and now I’m determined to do this!! So much in that book made sense. I’m still on holiday (head home tomorrow) so by the time I’m home most of the nicotine will be out of my system… I'm feeling very positive that I can do this!!

this is what i have done, i am now vaping 0% but its now more a habit than the need for nicotine, Im going to singapore in 4 weeks so need to be completely off it by then which i will be

Are you allowed to bring nicotine replacement aids into Singapore, or buy it there?

you can buy nicotine replacement products there, im not sure if you can take them in

Just wondering how anyone is getting on with quitting.

I’ve managed to reduced my nicotine to half of what I was using before and I’m spacing out vapes longer. Still choking for a vape at times though 😭

I’ve bought the Allen carr book but haven’t started it yet as reading is my major hobby and there is always something more interesting to read!

Just updating for anyone who may still be interested or need some help/support.

I continued with decreasing my nicotine in my shortfall liquid every top up until I had decreased it to a quarter bottle of 18mg nicotine in my shortfall bottle then I caught some sort of bug where my throat was killing me and I kept coughing so no vaping or very little was done for a few days. I’ve now been three days vape free but I really want one! I’m trying so hard. Surely I haven’t been consuming much nicotine?

anyway sending good luck to all who are struggling

Yes I gave up after taking a bug too. Throat was like sandpaper. Vaping does v nasty things to your respiratory tract - think you can feel it in your mouth too, lack of saliva.
Are you using tablets etc? I only managed to quit cold turkey, but very hard as you say. But if you've been nicotine free, ie no NRT, for three days I'd say you are breaking the back of it, hang on in there! Four days is meant to break the physical addiction.

I’m using nothing, just cold turkey and trying to use distraction 😂

well done for quitting! I’m soo jealous but honestly I can’t tell you how helpful your comment was. Four days breaks the physical addiction! Amazing

Just found this thread. I’m one of the total knobheads who started vaping despite never being a smoker. I never like the taste of cigarettes but one go on a disposable vape and I decided I liked not only the taste but the instant buzz.
I have a rule that I don’t take it out of the house with me. So I go without it on work days 9-5 and if I’m out of the house with family. But as soon as I get in I want it. And when I’ve had a drink I’m constantly using it. When I’m wfh I use it way more just because it’s there. It’s habit really because I don’t think I’m hopelessly addicted if I can go without it for 8 hours most days?
Anyway im planning to cut the nicotine content like some of you guys have. I’m using the 20mg ones at the moment which is very high.
I’ve also been having some weird aches in my chest which may or may not be linked to vaping but it’s really made me think that if I got serious health issues from it I’d be so angry and embarrassed with myself.
Solidarity, it’s really not easy. For me it’s become another little source of joy (much like a glass of wine in the evening which I’m also trying to cut back on!) but it’s clearly bad for us.

Tbh I still miss it too and have to keep reminding myself of all the negatives - dependency, running out late at night, running to the shops, charging the thing, cost, yukky mouth, tiredness (more energy when nicotine free), longterm effects unknown. But it is much harder than quitting smoking, where the benefits are more immediate.

Lots of sweets, ordinary gum and those little tins of mints @TheGodOfSmallPotatoes. And for some reason I found holding a Vicks inhaler in my hand and taking the odd sniff of it helpful! Something to fidget with.

I wonder what everyone’s motivations are for quitting? Cost? Inconvenience? For me it is purely the worry about health issues. I relentlessly google vaping and the health issues it can cause. Day after day there seems to be articles popping up on social media about how it’s worse than smoking. Every ache or illness I get I wonder if it’s linked to vaping. I do get quite bad health anxiety in general (which sounds ridiculous from someone who started vaping by choice not as a stop smoking aid) and the lack of long term studies does worry me.
Dh who also vapes lives by the ‘the nhs wouldn’t recommend it if it wasn’t safe’ motto but I don’t think with all the other stuff coming to light that can really be true.
It’s just really hard to know you have to stop something when you enjoy it.

Hi again! Well done on your 3 days! That's a hell of a lot longer than I can go... I struggle with 3 bloody hours.

Being completely honest, my addiction to the vape has gone wildly out of control. I would imagine I'm one of the worst vapers there is.

It started on a work night out- the top fell off my rechargeable vape. I was forced into buying an emergency disposable one. Well...once I tried one of them I was hopelessly forever converted. They're way more addictive, way more convenient and very easy to 'stealth' vape in toilets etc due to the lack of plumes of vapour.

I tried to go back to a rechargeable and it tasted grim in comparison to the disposables.

My dependence on it is getting worse and worse. I go through on average 1 per day, sometimes 2. It's now creeped into my pocket at work and I'm stealth vaping every hour in the toilet (I know how shameful that is ) and then I get really paranoid ill get caught one of these days.

I get uptight if I can't do it for an hour or so.

I'm ashamed of how bad it's gotten. Sometimes ill puff on it if I go to the toilet in the night...

It's costing me £200+ per month.

I want to give up due to all of the above. But I'm so addicted I don't know where to start. I've also always had "issues" with my image/weight and I'm frightened I'll start eating more if I stop and then I'll end up with another problem! Sigh.

So, yeh solidarity. I've probably made you feel better by admitting the shocking scale of how bad my addiction is ! 🥴

That does sound tough @Halloumiheavenbut is easily done. My first disposable was a 2000 puff one and it lasted me over a month. Now I get the 6000 puff ones and they last me about 2 weeks if that. I don’t know how accurate the puff calculations are but that’s a lot of puffs a day!
Do you get any side effects from vaping? I managed to cut back on alcohol purely because of how rough I felt the morning after drinking. I still miss drinking but the driving force that’s kept me going is feeling so much better the next day from not drinking. But if you don’t see any immediate benefits from quitting something it makes it even harder!

I hear you.

That's the problem with me giving up also - I enjoy it. I want to give up, but I don't want to stop vaping (if that makes sense 😂) with smoking there was so much more to drive it- the potential of cancers, COPD, ugly wrinkly skin, yellow teeth, the bloody stench ! The bad breath. Buying all the chewing gum and perfume to disguise it. Eurgh! What a rigmarole! But with vaping you feel like you're 'getting away with it'

My main motivation for wanting to stop is it's starting to dominate my life to a degree, to the point I'm reliant on it and constantly hanging out of my kitchen door and potentially avoiding quality time with my family as I'm always distracted by getting up to vape. It makes me feel shitty about myself. The cost is staggering too.

I do worry that we'll pay for this in the next couple of decades and it'll be discovered that long term used is linked to certain cancers etc and other health conditions. Very easy to gloss over it though isn't it.

The cost is staggering for me with the disposables.

I've also started to notice some brown stains between gaps on my teeth , it could be tea and coffee/ diet coke, but perhaps I'm in denial and it's all the nicotine from the constant vaping. I think to some extent I do know it's likely a contributor.

Thanks for replying 😃

Yes, I do get dry mouth, dry cough and occasional palpitations. I also get very tired and I'm sure the ridiculous amount of nicotine is causing some of that.

But apart from that- nothing major, as you say it doesn't boost the 'give up' momentum.

I also gave up alcohol! Well, I say, gave up, I very rarely drink. I've had one night where I've drank since Christmas day. But as you've also said, there's a real 'punishment' for drinking with the hangover. I actually gave up due to crippling 'mental' side effects the day after. The 'beer fear' was on another level, I'd literally feel suicidal and it got worse and worse, and I thought 'good god, I don't ever want to feel like this again!' so I'll only ever drink a couple of drinks on a special occasion and that's it. I don't really miss it.

I don't think the large disposables get a good name @gerimander. A guy in a vape shop was very disapproving when I asked if they sold them, he told me they were technically illegal (?) Unless the law has changed since.

You should definitely notice your energy levels improve after quitting - I used to vape in bed late at night and feel like death in the morning, I woke up tired, had bone-crushing all-day tiredness at times, and I've no doubt this was vaping-related. My gut feeling is that vaping has a negative effect on oxygen saturation and blood flow. I am waking early, naturally again.

Did Allen Carr actually write a book about stopping vaping himself though?

I've got the book. I was bitterly disappointed - the reason is, I had the Allen Carr one on giving up drinking and the vape one was exactly the same with just the word Vape in place of the word alcohol. It literally was a cut and paste job - I could have saved myself a few quid. Once I knew it was completely impersonal - I stopped reading it.

People rave about the Allen Carr books, but personally I didn't find them that great. It's just hypnosis via reading (or an attempt at )

I think that quitting by reducing the time you vape is destined to failure as you’re treating vaping as a special pleasure to be rationed. You need to start to despise vaping and this is where the Allen Carr book works. It’s true that it’s an attempt at hypnosis and that it’s repetitive but I think it does work. I quit vaping in January (so I’m not out of the woods yet) by reading his How To Quit Smoking book and replacing the word ‘cigarette’ with ‘vape’ in my head as I was reading. Cheaper than buying the cut and paste version and feeling annoyed! Good luck everyone, we can do this.