I've have smoke for at least 15 years and I'm 33. I went away from packaged ones and made my own with a machine from loose tobacco for about 5 years. Worked the last six months down to ultra light from full flavor and bought a reusable electronic with a low dose of nicotine liquid. Some friends have quit but curious if anyone here has kicked the habit this way.
I can't say from experience but my aunt who's been smoking since she was 15 (she's now 53) has tried it all kinds of things to stop smoking but they don't seem to work. Patches, e-cigarettes, etc. That's obviously not the answer you want to read but that's what she told me. Your best bet is following whatever your friends did to quit. Another friend of mine who's trying to quit said that she tried using the e-cigarettes to stop quitting but it just made her want to have a stronger "dose" of the nicotine rather than slowly downgrading each time to a lesser amount. Hope that made some sense.
When you really want to quit, you can quit cold turkey. I know people who did it, never relapsed. The physical withdrawal symptoms last max. 3 weeks. Psychologically speaking, it takes at least a year, and even after a year you can slip. Don't like much E-cigarettes, I'm used to carry a lighter and I like the sound of tobacco burning. Also I find harder to control how much I smoke. On the other hand some flavors have a nice smell/taste. E-cigarettes are not safer, and some brands can be even worse for your health than regular cigs, depending on the chemicals, and the (real) origin of those E-cigs.
Smoking is a habit, as well as a physical addiction. Because you get into the habit of smoking, using an e-cig does not stop this. If your aim is to stop smoking all the shit in a cigarette and cut down nicotine then e-cigs are fine. But if your aim is to quit smoking altogether, then just stopping is the best way. It's hard, but better in the long run.
My mother switched to an e-cig recently. She hasn't smoked an actual cigarette in 10 days - which is the longest she's been without a cigarette in the 5 years since she started again (she quit for 15 years). She takes about 5 or 6 puffs a day, whereas before she was smoking up to 20 a day so it's definitely a step in the right direction. My aunt was diagnosed with cancer (again) - she's a smoker too but was advised to stop, so my mother decided to quit with her. I guess we'll see what happens.
My boyfriend quit after a long time smoking but he uses a vaporizer. I think they're a little different from E-Cigarettes but my boyfriend swears by it and it absolutely helped him stop. It's even given him a new hobby building coils and stuff
It's true, I chucked my final pack away in December and haven't looked back. Felt awful for a week or so but I made it! :eusa_danc
