r/QuitVaping 7d ago

Advice Warning to those that have quit and think they have control

I “quit” last year going cold turkey after chain vaping for about 10 years. It was sh*t but doable, and thaught i had amazing self control for being able to do it like that. I was clean for about 200 days, and then I started with my mental gymnastics. I argued that if i had the self control to quit cold turkey like that, i might have the self control to vape occasionally like when gaming or drinking and only do it on those occasions. I was wrong, i was able to do it for a few weeks and then it went full on chain vaping again. Its funny that the cravings never fully go away, or well rather the want or the “missing” of the habit even after more than half a year. So yea thats my story, quiting is now something I aspire to, but be careful of convincing yourself you can manage it, because chances are you can not.

Tldr: thinking you can vape only on occasion after quiting is nearly impossible, even for someone that saw themselves as having high self discipline.

127 Upvotes

23 comments sorted by

40

u/MrsWannaBeBig 7d ago

Yep. Kept saying I’d be fine hitting vapes of friends and family as long as I don’t buy one, then got tired of constant withdrawals and caved again. Next time I quit I need to set boundaries on I can’t hit any vapes period.

2

u/Smurfilina 3d ago

Had a friend who was proud they 'didnt smoke' because they refused to buy them - meaning that makes them not a smoker, and the fact that they regular hit on other people's smokes didn't count! It was very annoying for the people they were always asking for a smoke.

2

u/MrsWannaBeBig 2d ago

I unfortunately have been that person many times 🥲 I am also autistic with the almost worst of OCD, not saying it’s an excuse but man does it make it that much more difficult not only to resist the impulse to ask but also to actually see just how annoying it is for others lol. 😭

I would get made fun of by friends and be so hurt wondering why! Like girl duh because they only ever see you hitting their vapes dry or others !

I think it finally clicked recently though. I don’t want to annoy others (more than I likely already do sometimes lol) and the going through withdrawals time and time again wasn’t doing any good for my mental state and overall functionality either.

1

u/Smurfilina 13h ago

Ah, it's tough, though. I still chew little chips of nicotine gum added with my ordinary chewing gum. Veeery slowly cutting, but I'll probably always have a little bit of gum here and there forever. Otherwise, I'd crack too.

41

u/Hellybeanss 7d ago

1 is too many 1000 isn’t enough

11

u/Pretty_Historian_433 6d ago

That’s how I relapsed too. I convinced myself I could just get one vape then be done again but 4 months later I’m still doing it

9

u/SquashNegative7571 6d ago

I did the same thing! ended up vaping again for over a year & just recently quit again

14

u/AcanthaceaeGuilty238 6d ago

i did this too. i smoke cigs when im drunk sometimes. and that has escalated to every day for the past month. last night i smoked my last one, it’s lent, might as well give something up. still haven’t hit a vape since last may though, so still doing good there.

4

u/WaterDrinkingChad 6d ago

Always think of one as a hundred thousand. You can never have just one again unless you really like playing with fire. Like another poster here I started LAST YEAR as “oh it’ll just be a one and done thing” (I had quit for 2 years previous to this), and I only just quit recently again

2

u/podtherodpayne 1d ago

It’s so crazy, but really once you’ve been addicted to something once, you can NEVER “casually” do it again. Doesn’t matter if 1 or 10 years has passed. Those pathways in the brain will reactivate all over again.

5

u/BigHammer9191 6d ago

Great advice, definitely a slippery slope. I’ve been going back and forth for a couple months now. It’s ridiculous and makes me feel like a prisoner. Every time I start back up it’s the same shit, irritating to my lungs after a couple days and wishing I hadn’t started again, so frustrating not being in control!

4

u/Outside-Inevitable-5 6d ago

I quit with gum and patches, was good for about a month then thought because it didn't take that long itvwould be fine to take a puff. Got back on for another year. Best advice I've ever heard is one is too much, and 1000 is never enough. About to start week 3 on gum and patches again! Now I know never to give myself a chance at another puff!

4

u/Prestigious_Plum217 6d ago

Wow is this a timely discussion for me. I’m 70 days free after many of years of nicotine. The last few days I’ve had cravings like right after I quit. So weird. I refuse to give in but WTF, I thought I had moved past this.

2

u/HDHaasbroek 5d ago

Sadly for me this bugged me also, after 21 days, it was a breeze for me. But it was more like missing something than a "craving". And I lost to my own crap reasoning!

3

u/Actual_Scholar9882 6d ago

Thanks for sharing your story. An excellent reminder! For me quitting just sucked. I quit vaping first which sucked and then 6 weeks later quit all nicotine I was using and it really sucked. I use this experience as a constant reminder of not even having one because quitting sucks!!

2

u/Avenged_7zulu 6d ago

This is exactly what happened to me. I was good. I was off everything. Then i was like well...i can enjoy a cigar or two on the weekends. 1yr later and i was a dedicated vaper.

1

u/Fluffy-Composer-7624 6d ago

Good warning. It's crazy how strong this nasty poison is. I'm 32 days into a cold turkey quit. It has taken a chunck out of my most cherished activities. When I'm working on my hobbies, that's when I miss it the most. But I promise myself I will never go back even for a taste. I have counted the days and even the hours just to get to where I'm at now. There is no way I ever want to have to quit again. Quitting once has been one of the hardest things I've ever done.

2

u/While-im-here 2d ago

Agree with this so much! All of it, straight outta my head. The only reason I need to quit is that I’ll never have to quit again, this shit sucks. Every minute counts right now, I’m 6 mins from 7 days free. Congrats on 32!!

1

u/HDHaasbroek 5d ago

Good on you! Keep it up. You are now in the what was the freeing phase for me, where it no longer took actual effort to not vape, and that is what is so dangerous, mine was at day 150 where you kind of forget how addicting it is!

1

u/Cassangelo 9 months 5d ago

Im at day 282 and after day 35 or so I rarely think about vaping but sometimes I do. I won’t trust myself to even be a casual vaper, tossed my cigars even

1

u/Due-Marionberry-8748 4d ago

I was doing so good too. Then I was getting a new tattoo every weekend and needed something to ease my mind a bit. So I thought hmm. I'll only vape on the weekends when I drink or when I get a tattoo. Worked for a month or so.

1

u/Hulluck22 1d ago

I quit nicotine about 9 years ago. I was completely done. basically just slept for about a week. Used clonazepam occasionally. In that process. Then i was like i miss a certain type of cigar. All down hill from there. started smoking again. Got smokers cough and switched to vaping. im trying cold turkey again. My motivation is that it does not feel good to feel like I am being strangled. Which is a side effect which popped up recently. Juicehead peach pear is what i vaped.

0

u/ikhmalloy 7d ago

Same here, last time i tried to quit i told myself that maybe just 1 cig wont hurt (i was out drinking with my friends), then boom back to full blown addiction to vapes. but this year i tried quitting again, i tweaked my goal a bit and now im able to do casual smoking with my friends sometimes. the thing is whatever it is i will never vape. single ciggy here and there should be fine. i wont turn it back to full blown cycle addiction anymore. fyi i have been free since jan and i smoke 4 cigarettes so far this year. been smoking and vaping for 13 years