“Hi Aaron, I am starting my class on substance addiction Thursday and as I wrote before will be sharing a little of your video and responses on nicotine addiction with them. I was hoping you could answer a few of questions: After three weeks 1) are you finding the e-cigarettes as satisfying as a regular cigarette; 2) have you noticed any physical or cognitive changes since switching to e-cigs; and 3) how would you compare this attempt with past attempts (especially if you used patches, gum or cold turkey). Hope your doing well with this–and thank you for letting me use this “experiment” for my class. (Posted by Moogy)”
Moogy,
I have a video I worked on yesterday and the sound was to f’n quiet! Sucks because I answered most of these questions on there. I am going to remake it later today and see if I can post it. Just in case I don’t get to it quick enough I’ll answer em for you here.
1. Yes and actually more satisfying. The flavors are amazing! Now that my taste buds have started changing and cleaning out I can really taste the flavors. The flavors I didn’t like at first (the darker brown ones, like chocolate, nutella, some vanillas etc) I am totally enjoying now. It’s also satisfying to sit in bed watch a movie or read and vape when I want. Not having to go down the stairs, outside in the cold and smoke a cig and come back in bed feeling all cold and dirty and stinky. The worst is when you shower and are all nice and clean and smoke and just know in your mind that you stink like an ashtray. That doesn’t happen anymore.
2. I feel a lot better! My breathing feels great. I no longer get winded doing things like running up stairs, working out or any intense activity. I also feel a lot better in the morning when I wake up and not clogged up or congested. I’ve always had a funky digestive system and smoking always made that worse and that has gotten a lot better (gross I know but hey you want the truth I assume) Mentally I feel great also. You don’t realize the amount of stress a smoker goes through on a daily basis. When we can’t smoke (due to work, bars, houses, cars etc) we freak the fuck out. Almost like a junkie worried about when he can get his next fix. Now that I can basically vape anywhere, anytime, I don’t stress if I’m on a flight for 3 hours, in a movie, sitting in a smoke-free car etc. Plus most of my friends and people I hang out with don’t mind me vaping around them. They totally think it’s amazing that I can smoke and not stink up the place or be worried about second hand smoke. Not to mention they are all so proud of me they almost encourage me to vape when needed. It’s also funny because when I with friends at bars and stuff they are like “dude you going to vape”. Everyone wants me to be the spokes person for vaping and push the limits hahaha. I have in bars but not like a douche. If there is an issue and they say “you can’t do that” I don’t put up a fight. From what I hear some people can be a douche and put up a fight like “fuck yes I can bla bla bla”. That doesn’t help. Anyway that was a little off track. Bottom line is I feel amazing.
3. It has worked 100% for me for over three weeks now without looking back. My last cig was on 3/4/11. The first week I was tempted to have one and “try it out and see the difference”. A little because I kind of wanted a real smoke but more than that I really wanted to be educated about the difference and do it for my readers/YouTube viewers but realized that it’s not worth the risk of getting back on butts. Us smokers know what cigs are like. We have all quit for a time here and there and going back always sucks. They taste nasty, are gross and we hate em. Yet we love em. And I really fuckin’ loved em. I think since I basically am smoking that I don’t have that urge to smoke. If that makes sense. Cold turkey sucks if you are not mentally strong enough. It’s crazy mentally I can do a 50 mile bike ride for charity (as a smoker) with no training at all and get over the mental hurdles of that but quitting smoking for a day would drive me bat shit crazy!?!?!?! It’s not just the nicotine either. I have cut it down to about to less than a quarter of the intake I had when I was a smoker and some days I vape nic free most of the day. Now the reason I even use nic is because it gives what is called “throat hit” that is better than without it but not for the “addiction” part of it. Patches and gums are the same basically. You are getting your little nic fix but there is more to smoking then just the nic. There is the mental part, the enjoyment, the relaxation part of it (which is a myth really. The reason we feel relaxed is because when we aren’t smoking we are stressed. Non-smokers don’t have that stress or understand, but that’s a post for another time). This hits me with my nic if I want it, and the pleasure of smoking without actually the bad parts of it. I’m not going to sit here and say that vaping is healthy and there might not be adverse side effects because who the fuck knows, but what I do know is that there are not 4 trillion chemicals, tar, carcinogens, yellowing of the teeth and fingers, smell, burning risks etc and that is worth it to me. Plus from what I have read it seems to be VERY safe and a healthy alternative. Of course I’m sure not vaping is more healthy but if I’m getting a little water vapor and a little nic and feel great what is the down side really?!?!
Hope this helps!!!
And to the loyal readers of WinkyFace I’m sure you are all pissed off this place is getting so fuckin serious and all about e-cigs but to me this is a serious issue and I want to help as many people as I can. I have already helped about a dozen people on the track of quitting/vaping so go fuck yourself if you don’t like it you selfish bastards! I get more replies, emails, posts, txts, and calls on this subject than anything else I have ever posted here. If you want your posts back get involved you lazy fucks!!! 
Just reading old posts – I quit a month and a day before you! (2/3/11) Couldn’t tolerate patch, gum was nice but just didn’t cut it, finally found that, for me, the lozenges did it! Strangely enough, there are still occasional times when I find I’m almost reaching for a pack (maybe because my husband still smokes??) – not for the nicotine, just the habit of something to do with my finger. But I have to say now, knowing what I went through trying to quit, it would take an awful lot for me to actually light one up again! Congratulations!