Smoking Cessation product: electronic cigarette

[gryeyes]

I am a smoker. I LIKE smoking. I do not like the mess, the smell that lingers in my clothing, curtains (I smoke in the house), the ashes in my computer keyboard, nor the coughing - especially in the mornings - and the wheezing I can hear in my lungs at night. I've only been smoking since I was 40 years old. Yup, started that late. I'll be 57 at the end of this month. I've quit smoking about four times, once for 10 months. Each time I started again, I smoked more. Was up to a pack a day, sometimes one or two cigarettes more than a pack a day.

I don't like how much it costs, either.

Anyway, at the State Fair, in one of the Exhibition Hall booths, I encountered one company's electronic cigarettes. OMG. (That's the brand!

) Anyway, the things deliver nicotine in a vapor/mist, without burning. The idea is to reduce the intake slowly - over a period of weeks - until one isn't imbibing ANY nicotine-laden vapor any more.

I've been using this system for over a week now. I like it a lot and have not had a single real cigarette since I started with it. It has kept me happy (I am a total bear when in withdrawal) and I can breathe much better already. Because it is a "cessation" product, I am having one little problem with it: you cannot chain-smoke with it. Make that "chain vapor" or whatever. The control device in the e-cig will not let you puff and puff and puff with pleasure; after a couple deep draughts on it, it will not deliver the vapor again for a full minute.

Because I LIKE to smoke, as well as being addicted to the nicotine, I do miss that long, deep draw of mentholated smoke into my lungs, two or three times in a row. Or the ability to smoke a cigarette pretty fast on a break....

It's NOT worth going back to smoking cigarettes. But at this point, I think I'm using up the cartridges of nicotine stuff more quickly than I "should" be using them. (The cartridges are supposed to be about one pack's worth of nicotine, which means each should last me a day. Cartridges are less than half the price of a pack of smokes, here in California.)

Anybody else have experience with e-cigs that would like to chime in on this thread with me???

 

[cpegram]

I have not but have been thinking about using it so i am interested

 

[itsachicken]

I've looked in to a couple of different types of e-cigs, but none of them were advertised as cessation products. I'm like you, I really enjoy smoking. It's getting too expensive though and our city is supposed to be going smoke free soon. Hmmm, do I quit smoking or hanging out in bars? To me, there's just something unnatural about a bar without the smoky haze.

Anyway, I guess it wouldn't be much of a stop smoking aid if it let you have all the nicotine you wanted without addressing the "habit" as well. Do you really feel as if you've taken a drag with an e-cig?

 

[gryeyes]

Here's some information about the particular product I'm using: http://www.reordersmokefree.com/default.asp?PageID=134395

You can take a long drag and it's quite satisfying, yes. You just can't do more than two long drags without waiting a minute - a real, 60 second minute, not just what you THINK a minute lasts! - to take another.

I am REALLY impressed with the fact that I am not suffering withdrawal symptoms. It makes me smile that the end of the cig lights up with a red glow as I am drawing on it...

A couple of other odd things: because the "cigarette" is solid (the body is the lithium battery case) and the atomizer fits into the end of the case, then the "filter" end is the actual nicotine & flavor cartridge, it doesn't balance in your fingers like cigarettes do. I end up smoking like I'm ... lessee... in the military, hiding the cigarette in my hand so the glow isn't visible to the enemy.

Holding it between thumb, forefinger and middle finger, instead of balancing it between the forefinger and middle finger with an open palm towards my face.

And, the cigarette never smokes down to a butt.

No stubbing it out.

I bought a special cigarette case for it, because it's odd to carry that one cigarette around without a pack in which to keep/store it. (Ordered it online, haven't gotten it yet. Nice looking one, with carved dragon image. Had to do quite a bit of searching for what I wanted, though.... )

Ummm... and the first smoke of the day DOES give you that "oooh, this is good" stop the twitchies sensation, but without the warmth of the smoke. The vapor is body temp, not hot. No lung searing effects. Which is good, I guess.

 

[Goose and Fig]

Hmmmm- I'm very interested. I have been able to quit through pregnancies & nursing, but always end up still "weepy" even after a year- so much so that family told me I should "just smoke!".

And the weight gain- that's a whole seperate issue

How come when you quit you gain weight, and you don't lose it if you start again?