Quitting Smoking With Vaping: How I Quit Cigarettes With A Vaporizer

This is how I quit smoking cigarettes by using a vaporizer instead. Why did I do it? For the obvious health benefits. Having done it, there’s no question in my mind about it: vaping is better than smoking. Not to say that it’s “healthier,” but rather that it’s simply less harmful. Combustion exposes smokers to more carcinogens than vaporization does to vapers (a name for those who vape). Or at least, this is the prevailing logic in my mind and I stand by it for now. While the scientific debate has continued for some time now, and continues to do so today, it’s obvious to me, someone who used to smoke, that vaping is far superior to smoking as it clearly causes less damage. At least, that’s my stance after having been a pack-a-day or so smoker for over a decade. In the latter part of that period, that’s when the health concerns really started to manifest – turning into less of concerns and more of a dire reality for me. And that’s when I ultimately turned to vaping as a last ditch effort of sorts to finally kick the habit of smoking for good – even if it was ultimately in favor of yet another vice. Though, to me, it was obviously a good decision given that I literally feel worlds better. My health has returned. My lung capacity feels dramatically improved. And overall, I just feel that much better. So here’s my story. Maybe it’ll work for you, maybe it won’t – who could really say? But I know this much, it worked for me and here’s how it went down.

Part 1 – The Struggle Is Real

Right off the bat, I found myself in an almost immediate struggle to make the transition from cigarettes to e-cigs. I did alright one day, but come night, I started to eat a tremendous amount and found myself tossing and turning with a combination of what I assume was the pain from overeating and the discomfort associated with the withdrawal. It was awful. Tired as I was, I could hardly sleep. I woke up with a feeling of discomfort in my stomach and throat, it seemed as if I had heartburn. And as the day progressed, I just couldn’t shake the feeling of heartburn. It was as if I had eaten spaghetti the night before, a food which, I assume due to the acidity of the sauce, often leaves me with heartburn. I tried to counter it by drinking water and consuming an over the counter calcium carbonate based product that most people know simply as Tums. It didn’t work, or at least it didn’t work well enough that I noticed any significant improvement in how I felt. I caved. I smoked some cigarettes. I just couldn’t do it. I was feeling awful and didn’t know what to do. Smoking cigarettes only made things worse, but I continued anyways. It was the addiction telling me what to do. I think in retrospect the not smoking definitely led to the overeating in one way or another and that led to the unsettling feeling in my stomach and throat. The totality of it though, was that I needed to quit smoking cigarettes and just wasn’t able to pull it off. Not yet anyways.

But there was some good that came of all this. I realized that I had made it through a day and a night without cigarettes, just dragging on my e-cig. I cheated a few times here and there, but for the most part, I had stuck with it – until the next day, that is. I knew I wanted to give this another serious try, at least one more before I called it quits and threw in the towel on my latest attempt to quit smoking. But I really needed this. My health demanded it. I was ready. So within the next few days, I gave it another shot. Prepared with some fresh e-cigs, I was ready to go.

Part 2 – Taking Another Stab At It

Here I went. All or nothing. I was ready to quit. I had purchased some new one-time-use (throwaway) e-cigs in different flavors, mint/menthol and cherry to be specific, and I didn’t have much on my agenda. So here it was, the perfect chance to try and quit – or at least, to finally make the transition from smoke to vapor. I started the day off poorly, I think I actually had a couple of cigarettes just floating around so I puffed them down early in the morning when I first arose. Not long after they were gone, my demand for nicotine and something to inhale became too great and I grabbed an e-cig and started puffing away. It felt better. I coughed a bit at first. I’ve noticed that when I first start puffing on an e-cig after having smoked for so long, my lungs don’t seem to react well. They throw a little fit. But soon after, they begin to accept it. They become accustomed to it in a way that they have the smoke from cigarettes – something that once repulsed them. It doesn’t take long, just a bit of puffing on it, of really drawing it in, and you get to where your body is fine with it. Your mind is fine with it. And then you notice: it’s better, and not just a little bit better, it’s a lot better.

Night rolls around, I’ve been puffing on an e-cig all day with the exception of the cigs I smoked shortly after I woke up. I’ve made it this far, why not keep going? Or at least, that’s what I’m thinking. I’m proud. It’s only been a short while, yet I’m already doing better than I’ve done in what seems like ages. I’ve managed to keep my smoking to a minimum. Just a couple of cigarettes? That’s pretty far from the 20 a full pack of cigarettes holds, which is approximately how many I’m accustomed to smoking each day at this point. So I’ve done well. If not by the measure of others, then at least by my own measure. And to me, that’s important. It means the world to me. I’m impressing myself, the one whose judgement I care most about. Why? Because I know myself best and when I’ve managed to impress myself, a real feat has been achieved. Onto the next day.

I slept that night and surprisingly, it didn’t go all that bad. It wasn’t the most wonderful night’s rest, but I felt alright. Much better than I did a few days prior when I overate following a pretty good attempt at sticking to the vapor. When I woke up, I kept at it. I vaped all day but then, as night rolled around, something unexpected happened: I ran out of e-cigs. I really hadn’t purchased enough, nor had I expected to consume more than one per day, which as it turned out – was exactly what I was doing. I called my friend, a neighbor that’s almost always there for me when I need him. As it turned out, he was willing to help me out and bum me a cigarette. It was enough to get me by. I smoked it. Things were temporarily alright. Although, immediately, I could feel how much worse it was to smoke. My mouth, throat, everything was inflamed and I myself couldn’t help but feel some shame. Ashamed of my moment of weakness. How could I have failed to get more e-cigs in advance? I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that part of me just didn’t think I could pull it off and be that the case, I just grabbed a few in the hopes that things would pan out but otherwise, I wouldn’t be wasting my money investing in another product that I’d never use. After all, this wasn’t actually the first time I’d tried to give e-cigs a try in a bid to quit smoking. It was, however, the most serious attempt to date and yet somehow I’d still failed to acquire an adequate amount of vaping supplies beforehand. This in part led to my moment of weakness. But it wasn’t down and out for the count. It was just one punch, one mistake. There was still time to recover and to regain what ground I had lost. So I replenished my supplies and prepared for the next round.

Part 3 – Third Time’s The Charm

While I could count it differently, I prefer to consider this final attempt to be my third attempt. I had tried and failed, tried and failed, and yet here I was – ready to go one more. I had done well and I could see that there was potential. I just needed to stick with it. It would work. So perseverance kicked in, something that I had learned a lot of over the course of my life. Anywhere I succeeded, which was often the case, I found that it usually didn’t come without some failure first. You fail until you succeed, that was something that I knew to be true. More than idea, something that had been etched in me through experience. Life had taught me that if I wanted something, the only way to get it was to try. To put forth effort until you achieved whatever it was you were after. You wouldn’t always win, but you almost certainly never won by never trying. So here I was, ready to try some more. Whatever it took, I was ready. With more e-cigs purchased, I got back to my mission.

I spent a lot of time just vaping. I even sat in the same spots I would normally sit in and smoke. It was comforting in a way. At first, I couldn’t look at the ashtray without immediately having thoughts along the lines of, “I need a cigarette.” But they would pass and as time passed, as the days passed, I became less and less aware of the urge to smoke a cigarette – the vape would suffice. I knew it to be true and as time unraveled, it only became more true. I was there. I reached a point at which the vape was what I thought about, not the cigarette. While I’d prefer to use nothing, this, for the time being, proved to be more than enough. I had escaped. I was free, or at least free enough to feel free, to feel healthy. This was good. Life was good. I had made progress and the results of my labor were more than satisfactory. I had managed to shake an ailment, a self imposed ailment, that I had long dreamt of shedding. It was an embarrassment as much as it was a health concern. There is no pride in such actions (smoking). It is only stupid and shameful.

Part 4 – The Final Chapter

This is the part where I tell you where I’m at now. Currently, I do still think of cigarettes on occasion but nowhere near as often as I once did. I don’t smoke them anymore and instead stick my vapes. I feel better. Dramatically better at that. And I credit it to the fact that I’m no longer smoking. Eventually, I would like to cut back on how much I vape, but until then, I’m actually quite content as the vapor doesn’t bother me anywhere near as much as the smoke did. I don’t feel weighed down by it or anything. I can actually go for a hike and while hiking, if I feel like it, I can take a drag of an e-cig and not even worry about it. Whereas before, I would do the same with a cig and find that it really made me want to take a break from hiking and rest because my lungs were suddenly kicking into overdrive. If I could go back in time, I’d have never started smoking in the first place but seeing as I can’t, I’m actually just pretty happy that I was able to shake it when so many are unable. To those still trying to quit, my advice is to just keep trying. Do not give up. If you fail, that’s okay, just keep on trying. And best of luck to you. You’ll need it because the path can and most likely will be a difficult one but so long as you try, your chances of quitting are infinitely better than your chances of quitting if you don’t. So put in that effort and get ready for a ride. If you need any tips, advice, or just want to sound in with your own thoughts on the matter, drop some words in the comments section below. I look forward to hearing from you all and thank you for reading my story.

This written piece was inspired in part by a short story about the transition from smoker to vaper that can be found on the Wattpad website.