Ask Lemmy

Yes. I switched to vaping after smoking a pack a day for ten years. Then in about a year I was able to winnow my usage down and quit vaping too.

I had tried many times to quit before that. Have not smoked in 13 years now and after about 8 years I stopped liking the smell.

Yes. Switched to vaping and was vaping for multiple years before quitting completely. Biggest thing was the "safety" of always being able to have my fix without an actual smoke. The "never again" mentality made it so hard to ditch the cancer stick but the vape was always like "it's ok, you can just have a little puff whenever you feel like it". Slowly down the nicotine content. Puff less. Even less. At some point I just forgot. Still have the vape. Still have the liquid, albeit it's dark red now and looks radioactive so utterly unusable. But point is that the vape eventually faded into irrelevance in a way that cigarettes never could.

I don't personally know one person who did. They just moved onto doing both

Yes. It is a shame that vapes are disregarded as therapeutics. They are fantastic in that regard.
Not to say that the fruit flavoured garbage aimed at children is okay; it is not and should be dealt with. However, we should simultaneously not let the tobacco industry deter the medically valid use of vapes for use as an aid with smoking cessation

I did, but I would mix my own fluid; every couple of batches I would half the nicotine content. Eventually it was near-negligible, and perhaps two weeks after that I was doneski

I quit smoking using a vape and then quit vaping.

I found that it was easier to quit smoking using a vape because I kept the same motion. I needed a powerful one to feel a similar hit.

And I found it easier to stop vaping than to stop smoking because I could mix liquids to have any desired nicotine content, allowing me to reduce it very gradually. A lot of people simply replace smoking with vaping but that's still an improvement.

Most people I know that used to smoke now vape instead.

The main reason is not that vapes are great, but that cigarettes cost about £15 a pack.

Vaped for about 7 years after quitting smoking. Switched to 0 nicotine vape fluid and then finally got tired of vaping and just sort of stopped.

Yes.

Wife and I switched to vaping, then that eventually dropped off to nothing.

If they want to quit it can be a useful tool that I have seen work for many. If they don't an e-cig isn't going to change anything.

I did. Been a decade since I had a cigarette.

I quit not only because of vaping and tobacco-less nicotine pouches, but because I wanted it. If you are buying it for a family member, you can't make them quit... Hopefully they are wanting to, because you can't make that decision for them. Just like any other addict.

11 years without a cigarette, still vape though.

Yep. I moved from smoking to vaping. It became a bit of a hobby but I quit that too after a few years just by lowering the nicotine bit by bit and ended up just not using it when the habit was no longer fuelled by addiction.

Vaping is safer than cigarettes, it's still bad and we don't know how bad it is long term but it is safer than smoking. It's better to just stop completely using a stop smoking service to get alternative nicotine products if that's available. If the person doesn't want to stop then you're unlikely to be able to make them however a vape might be able to replace it with something better. Other products to look at are patches, gum, lozenges and inhalators which can be useful in quitting.

In summary smoking and vaping are both bad but smoking is worse. Better off just quitting if possible, if not go for the vape.

Going cold turkey is supposedly not as delicious as it sounds, but it’s probably the best way.

I'm not a smoker/vaper so my opinion doesn't really matter here. But from a sober perspective, I believe that switching to vaping CAN be good, as long as you're willing to follow the rules diligently.

The biggest problem I can see going down would be that vaping can be more addictive because you can put more nicotine in it. So if you plan on getting one for a family member, make sure they are actually willing to quit. Because there is a possibility that you can make the addiction worse if they have the opportunity to put even more nicotine in their system.

Once again, this is from an outside perspective, if I'm in the wrong vapers, please let me know.

I quit some 20 years ago without using vape (did it exist back then? Not sure) or any medication. That day, after careful consideration I made up my mind and never looked back.

And not just because of my health (it was a very important factor) but also because I had realized how much money I was throwing away. Thousands each year.

Vaping is about as effective as a quitting aid as other nicotine replacement methods but with an as yet undefined long term risk profile.

Buy them some gum or patches instead.