Ask Lemmy

While it may not stop the nicotine addiction. It beats the tar and crap actual cigarettes....

I did, not sure it made it easier though. It took away two negatives for smoking for me, it didn't smell bad to others and I could smoke inside.

If anything it made it harder to quit, but they're supposedly much better for you

Check out SmokeFree.gov! It has great free resources that are science based. Quitting smoking is the number thing someone who smokes can do for their health.

The most effective methods to quit smoking include varenicline (aka Chantix), FDA-approved nicotine replacement therapies (gum, patch, lozenge, inhaler, etc), and behavioral therapy. Combining all of these therapies in a clinical trials results in the most people quitting.

No vape is FDA-approved as a cessation therapy, because no company has applied. There have been some small academic run trials, which tend to show a decrease in smoking, but continued nicotine addiction. Probably because vapes have much higher nicotine content than FDA-approved therapies. While vapes expose people to a lot less carcinogens than smoke, there are some carcinogens and nicotine itself is harmful to vascular and mental health. So if the evidence-based methods don't work, completely switching to vaping would be less harmful.

Yup.

An older friend who smoke and drank a ton switched to vapes, and methodically lowered the nicotine content every two-there weeks for months, then stopper nicotine and vaped the flavours but as there was no more nicotine, the habit wasn't addicting and he just forgot about it more or less.

Now he's been alone free for years, and reduced his drinking as well. Looks fucking healthy now.

100% yes. It made a big difference for me. I didn't even want to stop smoking I just did.

Depends on what part of it you're addicted to.

I just want nicotine. I don't care out of what.

Some people want the feel, sensation and flavor of a cigarette.

I just want my fix so I can carry on with my day.

That's kinda the line between moving to a vape or not.

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.

20 years ago I quit smoking with chewing tobacco aka dip. That shit is WAY better than cigarettes. Dip was even harder to quit. Then I went back to off and on cigarettes for 18 years. I have not had one in a year and a half and have no intention or desire to ever start that shit up again. Welbutrin is also pretty helpful for this. My best friend did mostly quit by switching to vape though, so I think it can work. I'm pretty sure it's also just as bad for you though?

My mom did. She smoked cigarettes since the 80s and quit in 2012 with vape. She never smoked a single cigarette after that

Yup.

I smoked a pack a day for roughly 30 years. My night time breathing was getting ugly and my wife would sometimes get woken up by the sound of my wheezing.

Every method of quitting failed me except vaping. I started as most do with a high nicotine vape juice that tasted like tobacco, but after about a month I swapped and started going lower and lower nicotine and change the flavor from tobacco to a custardy type.

2 months of that got me off the cigs. Two more months got me down to zero nicotine. Two or three more months after that I was done.

I have been off cigs for 7 years.

My breathing no longer feels wet or difficult at night. And My yearly health tests all come back the same as a non-smoker.

Nope. I smoked for over 30 years. Took up vaping to quit and all I did was vape more than I ever smoked.

For me, what worked was… I had to go back to smoking regular cigarettes, then use Wellbutrin as a smoking cessation. Took about a month and a half-

I’ve been smoke free for over two years.

I got a few people around me who are trying to find a good reusable vape. Those seem to have disappeared which makes it harder to self regulate.

If anyone has a hood recommendation I am all ears.

I personally know multiple people who did

someone = yes

everyone = no

I did but it took me a long time, years and years, with occasional dips back into smoking.

Now though it's nearly been 2 years no vape or anything and at least three years of no nicotine.

I went up and down in nicotine levels, I used big huge cloud throwing fog machines and little tiny disposables.

I eventually settled on a unit with a built in rechargeable battery and pods with replaceable coils (geekvape aegis)

I don't think vaping will naturally result in quitting, it I do think it's the most effective harm reducer out there and as a tool has many ways to help reduce use over time.

High nicotine disposables (elf bars, juul) I would stay away from if you can though since the nicotine concentration is so high that it can deepen the addiction.

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 wish I could vape. This is gonna sound stupid, bc it is, but I’m a chronic asthmatic who has smoked for about 20 years now. Been intubated twice for asthma. And yet I still can’t put the damn cigarettes down. I’ve tried patches, gum, hypnotism, medication, you name it.

Vaping was the only thing that was helping when I switched but believe it or not, it was bothering me way more than a cigarette. Immediate throat scratchiness and shortness of breath. That doesn’t happen with smokes though. I’ve tried all sorts of vapes too. All with the same result.

Smoking is probably gonna be what takes me out and it sucks that I feel totally powerless. I will say though, that the book “The Easy Way to Stop Smoking” by Allen Carr got me off cigs for about 3 months. Then my grandpa died and it all spiraled back from there.

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

Yeah pretty much everyone I know that picked up a vape

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.

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

Yes.

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

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.

To stop smoking I will smoke something else. A better logic would be, I'll use something that can have a reduced nicotine content.

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

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.

11 years without a cigarette, still vape though.