Post by annie on Feb 9, 2018 5:54:10 GMT 10
I started vaping back in October, 2012. I had been visiting friends in country NSW and one of them had a VIP cigs cigalike she'd just started using. I had seen an electronic cigarette in a tobacconist store in Kingsgrove a few months earlier, and I was keen to purchase, but the guy working there wasn't very forthcoming with information about how they worked or even the price, so I hadn't bought one at that stage. I was taken enough with those first cigalike puffs to go online when I got home and order a starter kit. It arrived in a couple of days, and I started replacing cigarettes with the cigalike. It took me 5 days to quit completely. I think on the 5th day, I had about 10 cigarettes left in my packet, and I just smoked the lot in one go. I couldn't throw them out.. but I wanted to be done with them. I didn't plan to quit when I got my cigalike, but by the second day of using them, I knew I could quit smoking. I'd been a heavy smoker (50 a day when I quit) since I was 13 or so.. well over 30 years since I started smoking. Those first few weeks were spent worrying about going out and not having enough little cigalike batteries to cover more than a few hours of vaping. Early November I found AVF, and got a fantastic amount of help with where to get longer lasting batteries and better gear, and enjoyed the banter and the friendships and even some of the heated debates over the years. I'm imagining this place will have just as many great characters.. including a lot of the same ones!
I can honestly say that I have not had a single cigarette since I first quit. There have been several very stressful times in my life since then, and I recall thinking after one of the most intense periods of stress in my life 'you didn't even think of buying a pack of smokes!'. I don't miss smoking. I really don't give it a second thought. I haven't even added up what I've saved, although I was horrified to see how much the prices have gone up. Over $1 a stick. It makes me so mad. There are people all over Australia buying smokes before they buy their kids new school shoes.
I worked for the Steamers for a year or so before I left Sydney to return to the South Island (Tassie), and I learned a lot about the issues people have when they're first getting started quitting, and I learned that a lot of people dual use for lengthy periods, and some continue to have a smoke now and again, but I find it hard to understand why. After 5 years, I'm still not game to have a smoke. I know how addictive it was for me.
I started with cartos and 18mg/ml liquids. For the last year or four(?), it's been isticks and mini Nauts. I like an icy minty eucalyptusy mix I make myself. I haven't used nicotine in a while now, and sometimes I look at my vape and wonder why I'm still doing it. While there's nothing addictive in my vape, the habit is still very strong for me. I have no thoughts of easing myself out of vaping - I enjoy it too much. I'm still not confident that if I couldn't vape, I wouldn't go back to smoking.. even though that seems almost insane. Luckily for me, the stuff I need for vaping is easily available, and since I'm not reliant on nicotine, if they make that harder to access, it won't make any difference to me. I had one old mate a couple of years ago who quit without nicotine in his vape, but by using patches with his vape. He used the patches for 6 months, reducing as he went, and he's still vaping, without nicotine. So that's possible. Only one I've ever known personally to do it that way. He was very determined and had some very serious health problems which were probably a huge motivation. He's doing much better with his health now. I tried to get my Uncle sorted for vaping... he doesn't smoke much, but he's been hooked on the gum for years, and it's pretty much ruined his teeth. No luck with him. It's hard to understand why it doesn't work for some people when I found it so easy as a relatively very heavy smoker.
Over the years I've tried to help a lot of people quit smoking. I used to give away a lot of stuff, but I found it usually ended up in the dresser drawer and not get used, so these days, I help people navigate the web and make their own purchases. I think it makes a difference to have invested some of your own hard earned cash at the beginning.. seems to be more motivating than just giving hand outs. A hand up, instead, I think.
The last few years have seen a lot of significant life changes for me. I spent a year living down in Queenstown on the West Coast of Tassie.. lot of new vapers down that way now
It's a mining town and pretty much everyone there smokes. Back in the relatively big smoke of Launceston now, enjoying time with my family and in my second year of a degree in dementia care. I have 5 adult children and not one of them smokes. In fact, there are now no smokers in my life at all. A decade ago, everyone I knew smoked!
Over the years, I've been pretty passionate about the politics and realised it is not a way to win friends and influence people, so I'm not really all that interested in that aspect of vaping now. Although I still feel it's very sad that so many Australians are being prevented from easy access to vaping as an alternative to smoking, and I hope to see that change. We're a diverse bunch, and you won't really find 2 vapers with exactly the same opinion on how things should be organised in the future.. just maybe that it should be someone else's job, and that they should do it exactly the way they want it done.. which is impossible, of course. I have had the privilege of making some very good friends through vaping, and I know it has saved my life, so it's good to be here and keep up with what's happening. My isticks are getting very old now, but they still work.. I dread the day when they fail and I have to find an alternative. I'm very happy with my set up, but vaping gear changes so quickly, and I'm pretty clueless about which way to go next.
I can honestly say that I have not had a single cigarette since I first quit. There have been several very stressful times in my life since then, and I recall thinking after one of the most intense periods of stress in my life 'you didn't even think of buying a pack of smokes!'. I don't miss smoking. I really don't give it a second thought. I haven't even added up what I've saved, although I was horrified to see how much the prices have gone up. Over $1 a stick. It makes me so mad. There are people all over Australia buying smokes before they buy their kids new school shoes.
I worked for the Steamers for a year or so before I left Sydney to return to the South Island (Tassie), and I learned a lot about the issues people have when they're first getting started quitting, and I learned that a lot of people dual use for lengthy periods, and some continue to have a smoke now and again, but I find it hard to understand why. After 5 years, I'm still not game to have a smoke. I know how addictive it was for me.
I started with cartos and 18mg/ml liquids. For the last year or four(?), it's been isticks and mini Nauts. I like an icy minty eucalyptusy mix I make myself. I haven't used nicotine in a while now, and sometimes I look at my vape and wonder why I'm still doing it. While there's nothing addictive in my vape, the habit is still very strong for me. I have no thoughts of easing myself out of vaping - I enjoy it too much. I'm still not confident that if I couldn't vape, I wouldn't go back to smoking.. even though that seems almost insane. Luckily for me, the stuff I need for vaping is easily available, and since I'm not reliant on nicotine, if they make that harder to access, it won't make any difference to me. I had one old mate a couple of years ago who quit without nicotine in his vape, but by using patches with his vape. He used the patches for 6 months, reducing as he went, and he's still vaping, without nicotine. So that's possible. Only one I've ever known personally to do it that way. He was very determined and had some very serious health problems which were probably a huge motivation. He's doing much better with his health now. I tried to get my Uncle sorted for vaping... he doesn't smoke much, but he's been hooked on the gum for years, and it's pretty much ruined his teeth. No luck with him. It's hard to understand why it doesn't work for some people when I found it so easy as a relatively very heavy smoker.
Over the years I've tried to help a lot of people quit smoking. I used to give away a lot of stuff, but I found it usually ended up in the dresser drawer and not get used, so these days, I help people navigate the web and make their own purchases. I think it makes a difference to have invested some of your own hard earned cash at the beginning.. seems to be more motivating than just giving hand outs. A hand up, instead, I think.
The last few years have seen a lot of significant life changes for me. I spent a year living down in Queenstown on the West Coast of Tassie.. lot of new vapers down that way now
It's a mining town and pretty much everyone there smokes. Back in the relatively big smoke of Launceston now, enjoying time with my family and in my second year of a degree in dementia care. I have 5 adult children and not one of them smokes. In fact, there are now no smokers in my life at all. A decade ago, everyone I knew smoked!Over the years, I've been pretty passionate about the politics and realised it is not a way to win friends and influence people, so I'm not really all that interested in that aspect of vaping now. Although I still feel it's very sad that so many Australians are being prevented from easy access to vaping as an alternative to smoking, and I hope to see that change. We're a diverse bunch, and you won't really find 2 vapers with exactly the same opinion on how things should be organised in the future.. just maybe that it should be someone else's job, and that they should do it exactly the way they want it done.. which is impossible, of course. I have had the privilege of making some very good friends through vaping, and I know it has saved my life, so it's good to be here and keep up with what's happening. My isticks are getting very old now, but they still work.. I dread the day when they fail and I have to find an alternative. I'm very happy with my set up, but vaping gear changes so quickly, and I'm pretty clueless about which way to go next.
