Reply To: Looking for suggestions to stop vaping
Daniel WynnI started smoking when I was 13 years old. I´m now nearly 36. For the vast vast majority of that time, I have been a 20+ a day smoker.
I did stop for 4 years at one time, using Allen Carr's The Easyway to stop smoking. If you're a regular cigarette smoker, I´d thoroughly recommend that. It has something like a 98% success rate.
I also have the PSTEC Stop Smoking product. I tried to use it. The issue with it is that it is very specifically centred around cigarettes. I have stopped smoking tabacco (and also cannabis, which I essentially smoked my whole adult life too) for around 9 weeks now.
In some ways, it's a great improvement – obviously not smoking weed is a massively positive thing.. and yes, I know there are medical benefits, but overall I do not think it's a beneficial thing, certainly not for me. I can fairly solidly attribute many of the deeper issues I have now on the compounded negative effects of many years with constant THC-effected thinking, as well as all the other life choices I made around when, where, and who it was comfortable to smoke around, etc. Also laziness.
The real underlying issue has been all the REAL issues that I had used it to self-medicate with. And PSTEC is helping massively with those of course.
So, to get to the point: I want to stop vaping. Completely. I want no more nicotine in my life. It's awful. I know I´m addicted to it. I understand the mechanisms of it very well, and addiction in general. I have no illusions that I enjoy the anxiety it brings me, but I´m just straight addicted, and when I've tried to stop in the last couple of months, my other as yet unresolved issues now have no other self-medication to manage them. The walls I´ve built up over the years are being taken down, and I am noticing that, while on general things are improving massively, on the flip side, if I get down, it's a much bigger drop, and I only have food, alcohol, and vaping to “help”.
I know they don't help. It's all interconnected with so many other things, which I´m trying to work on, and doing quite well mostly.
But I just have this addiction, and it controls me. Takes up my time. I just want to stop. So I´m hoping perhaps the community might be able to help me with some suggestions for a plan of action. I have pretty much all of the PSTEC goodies which are not specialised tools. Again, I do have the stop smoking product, but it is specifically talking about cigarettes, and vaping workings in a different way. And honestly, I feel it is a bigger demon. I never woke up in the night wanting to smoke before (well, maybe once or twice in 20 years) – with vaping, it happens fairly frequently.
I am open and welcome all suggestions, although anything around the concept of “gradually reducing the nicotine amount” doesn't make sense for me. Ideally I am hoping that just by writing a bit about it here, some of you wonderful people might be more easily able to pick out some things to work on from reading my words.
Some thoughts / beliefs about it …. I vape because I´m addicted to nicotine, that's factual.
– I like the excuse to get away sometimes, to have time to myself. I often only have time for myself when I´m vaping.
– It used to be a social thing, like “I smoke so I have an instant connection with people, it's a conversation starter” that kind of thing, although now, honestly, I avoid others as much as I can
– There's definitely a connection to “the cool factor”, which I do not actually believe for a second, and I feel it less so about vaping than actual smoking, but it ties in with like a “bad boy” image, which I think I used for a long time as a cover for being different/weird/fucked up… yes, I read that too… clearly I still have that belief going. I also wonder if it is related to self worth – I really don't look after myself very well, I don't have time.
There's probably enough there to get the ball rolling. Thanks to anyone willing to help me out
Hi James
Good move on quitting. I also smoked weed regularly. I quit weed a long time ago, then i switched ciggies for vaping a good few years back. Then i quit vaping. I can't say exactly how long its been now, but I'm thinking it must be coming up to a year now.
Firstly, i get what you mean. Its geared towards smoking in particular. Thing is, its all really the same thing. If vaping didn't exist you would say you are addicted to cigarettes right? Even though you are addicted to vaping now, you were once addicted to smoking. And, if the option of vaping was taken away from you, smoking would seem more accessible in your mind.
I actually found that when i cleared my vaping habbit, smoking seemed somehow more relevant to me. I then cleared my hang up around smoking. Memories started arising of when i first started, so i cleared them out too. Its all linked. I would recommend clearing any excitement around vape gear. That was a big one for me. I really liked getting new mods, and tanks , juice etc.
I found that when i cleared out my addiction bad habits would arise, i kept biting my lips. Bitting my fingernails to nothing lol. My mind felt a little overwhelmed and i felt exposed, and at times i wasn't thinking straight. The best thing is, without that crutch of smoking/vaping i HAD to feel. So i managed to clear issues i had otherwise suppressed/avoided with vaping.
All in all, its more beneficial then you could realise to give up, especially with tools like pstec. I would say take your time with it, just begin clearing issues around wanting to vape. Have your set up in front of you, and run the click track on wanting to vape. Any associations you might have around certain times you vape.
I would clear the feeling of no control. Being at the mercy of vaping, and the dependency you have around it.
Also what's it going to be like without it? No more excuse to get away or escape certain situation, how would that feel? Click track it.
Maybe positive on.
“Vaping isn't cool now I'm cool without it now”
“I'm just a straight up cool geezer without that vape now”
You don't necessarily have to reduce nicotine. Just dependency on vaping/smoking itself.
Let us know how your getting on!!