Vape-ginity

[Clownbaby]

I echo what others have said about addiction replacements, but from a pragmatic standpoint I'd take anything short term to get me off alcohol if I was drinking as heavily as that. So in that regard I don't think you're being stupid.

Thank you.

[Clownbaby]

@Clownbaby we don't think you're stupid at all, we're just concerned for you.  Lots of us have wrestled with this shit for years, I got a big fright about 6 months ago when my legs started swelling up again, so I would feel like a cunt if I didn't try to warn you - in strong terms - about heading down this path.  Anyway, good luck with it, grats for getting off the booze.

Thank you, yeah I just got horrendously embarrassed when I saw the response to my post, I wasn't expecting it to pop off like it did, and worried that I came across as ignorant and naive, I thought I'd add some more context as to why the fuck I'd go from one unhealthy thing to another. I feel a bit strange publicly mentioning my drinking struggles because only my small group of friends in the physical world know about it (I have a friend who's struggling at the moment themselves.) Being a "functioning" drinker, who seems to have no problem stopping when my mind is less anxious, a lot of people I know would have no idea just how cripplingly hungover I was sometimes while still sticking to plans and making it to work on time.

What has been annoying me about drinking is the fact that I KNOW I don't simply have an addiction to alcohol, because I don't feel specific cravings for drink itself, just the need to shut my head up. If my head is alright and I'm not obsessing/anxious, I don't want to drink at all, and feel great without it. Maybe I could do with further investigating the possibility that I have OCD. 90% sure something isn't right with me, but I haven't had a diagnosis.

[jamiefairlie]

Addiction is often more of an emotional/psychological dependence rather purely physical. That's why it's so hard to quit if you haven't sorted out the underlying issues.

[bgmnts]

Yeah it sounds psychological and that could possibly be explored and helped with therapy (IM NOT AN EXPERT).

Good luck with it.

I actually understand it myself as I am almost every moment of the day bombarded with thoughts and feelings that are overwhelming and self destructive, to the point where sleep can sometimes take 2 hours of lying with my eyes closed in a pitch black room. I wouldn't consider myself OCD or anything I am just highly attuned to suffering and my own internal world. I may revisit CBT myself. I've tried drink but it makes it worse. I reckon weed edibles would be a good way to go (waiting for someone to tell me it's actually the worst thing ever!).

[shiftwork2]

I saw Tim Booth once in a bar in Surrey.  I instantly knew he was sound and legit because he was sat down.

[Noodle Lizard]

I'm a terrible chain-vapist. I work from home, so it's just all day every day.

It was the Juul that got me off cigarettes, of which I'd been a pack-a-day smoker for 10+ years, but once they got fucked over with the flavours and insane price hikes I switched onto refillables. I'm currently on a Vaporesso Zero, but I've also ridden with Novos and Caliburns. I'd say it's less immediately damaging to my health and aroma than cigarettes, but significantly more addictive. I'd like to give up, but it's not on the cards.

[Ferris]

Started smoking cigs as an idiot teenager, maybe 15 or so. Knocked it on the head for good in my mid/late 20s but god knows how much damage it's done me in that time and I am still, deep down, dying for a smoke. Even then, quitting the cigs I had a lot going for me that I bet most people don't (wife hated it for a start).

Wish I'd never tried, it was a fucking stupid teenager decision that I have forgiven myself for but it took a long time to get there.

The idea that someone might idly give it (or vaping, the 2024 version) a try for just for fun/boredom is mind boggling to me. Don't try it, cos it's shit.

I sound like a boring old bastard I know, but I wouldn't bother posting if I didn't mean it. Honestly, give it a miss. Get into origami or something.

[madhair60]

a CaB poster who will remain nameless but is Kittens has addicted me to nicotine over the weekend so I am now a  vaper and my life is ruined. I will use it as an excuse to go on long walks

[Butchers Blind]

a CaB poster who will remain nameless but is Kittens has addicted me to nicotine over the weekend so I am now a  vaper and my life is ruined. I will use it as an excuse to go on long walks

Brave

[Endicott]

Kittens has never walked anywhere in his life. This smells a bit fishy (do they do that flavour?)

[madhair60]

i have decided to no longer vape and have thrown my vapes over a wall (into a primary school playground)

[Ray Travez]

90% sure something isn't right with me, but I haven't had a diagnosis.

I mean, the amount you were drinking would seem to indicate that you're not at ease with yourself. It's a lot to put away.

I'm a fan of substitution, swapping one addiction for a less physically damaging or less socially acceptable one. But I'd advise against taking up vaping. It's a pernicious habit. If you can get nicotine through gum, or patches, I think that's a less addictive and less damaging way to get a hit. Culturally, these are seen as smoking/ vaping cessation methods, but I don't see why they can't be used as an end in themselves.

One problem with vaping is the speed of the hit after inhalation, think it's around 7 seconds, that's faster than any drug, including injecting a class A. I think it's this that causes the strong addiction, difficulty quitting. Other methods of getting a nicotine high are less direct, more gentle, and easier to manage.

Vaping fucks your lungs, and therefore your stamina and other stuff- it's not worth it as a trade-off. But nicotine is an enjoyable high, some view it as a nootropic. I don't see why more people don't consider alternative methods. I believe quidding snus (a variant of snuff) is coming more fashionable.

Last year I grew tobacco plants, and successfully smoked a bit of leaf as a one-off. I had an idea to make mapacho- a powdered tobacco one blows up the nostrils for ceremonial purposes- but so far I haven't.

[Ray Travez]

Writing that has made me want to try snus!

Edit- snus is not legal, might have to shelve that for a while.

[perplexingprocrastinator]

I tried a mere pinch of snuff for the first time last year and after explosively sneezing like a mad person I felt both pretty zipped - and also it killed my nicotine cravings for the rest of the day.

I'm really not recommending it, because your mileage may vary and if you get addicted to snuff I have to assume your septum will fall out at some point like habitual cokeheads. But for me, it felt like a uniquely 'one-and-done' means of getting a nicotine hit - and "STAYING hit" - for a good long while after.

But I've been hooked on the bastard vapes and I have a box-of-shame (approx 200 dead disposable vapes) on the shelf, which I don't know where to recycle or dispose of, and like everyone else here I wish I never started and it makes me want to puke. PUKE. It's SO easy to overdo them too - puff, puff, puff... puff puff... puff puff p-OOOOPS, I've turned green and I need to hurl.

If you're looking for other things to take the edge off while quitting drinking, Kratom and Phenibut are both drugs which people have used in that capacity. Unfortunately (or fortunately? Who can say?) neither is legal in this country. (They are available in the US and I believe the Netherlands.) But they can be sourced online with a bit of searching.

Krat is a mild opiate from south-east Asia, a powdered leaf which can be relaxing (even too relaxing). Some varieties can be stimulating, you have to read up just a wee bit. Anyway, some people use it to come off heroin...; Some people then develop a terrible addiction to krat itself. So I say this with appropriate caution. But if you used it with rules about not escalating your daily dosage, it could be very helpful. And like I say, damn that stuff can chill you out. (But yeah - it also can lead to shivery, dripping-nose withdrawals if you get habituated - I've been there - so do go into it with your eyes open).

Phenibut is an extraordinary drug developed for the Soviet Space Program to help their brave cosmonauts Not-Freak-Out while orbiting the Earth in a tin-can. It's an amazing anxiety killer, which also gives you a very deep sleep at the end of the day. It also needs to be treated with great respect - do not escalate your use, and don't ever mix it with alcohol because that turns it essentially into home-made rohypnol (sp?). But again, from what I understand body-builders use it quite frequently as a non-booze relaxant. And me and my partner have used it to great effect when dealing with social anxiety (for example) or a job interview or what-have-you.

Other people might have a cautionary warning against either of these, and like I say, you may find them hard to source. But, just throwing it out there - and

WELL DONE, A THOUSAND TIMES WELL DONE,

on kicking the booze. You can do it, and you are very clever and attractive and everybody thinks you're brilliant. GO FOR IT

[madhair60]

i bought more disposable vapes like a stupid little fucking child

[madhair60]

oh my god how the fuck do i stop.

[Shaxberd]

A nice dose of heroin should sort you right out.

[Jockice]

I've never vaped (apart from one drag on someone else's), rarely drink, don't do naughty  drugs but I do like smoking. Dunno why, it's just my 'thing.' I don't do it regularly though, partly because hardly anyone I know still smokes nowadays (some never have, some have given up) so I can't scrounge one anymore.

I do occasionally buy a packet myself (don't like roll-ups, wouldn't be able to make one if I did).but they can last me for ages and I keep it fairly low key. I'm not exactly a secret smoker (if someone asks me I'll tell them) but tend to do it when I'm alone. Probably some psychological thing going on there.

It's idiotic, but then lots of people do things I don't understand either. But my view is that everyone's going to go somehow sometime and I've known people who have died young after leading healthy lives. My best platonic female friend,who is a few years younger than me, has cancer at the moment and she's literally never smoked, drank or taken illegal drugs in her life. She's a 'good' Muslim. And a fat lot of good that's done her.

Not sure exactly what I'm saying here except that there's a lot of sheer luck involved in people's health (tell me about it!) so if someone wants to do unhealthy things as a way of battling depression or whatever who am I to stop them? As long as they leave me alone I'm fine with it.

[Ambient Sheep]

Started smoking cigs as an idiot teenager, maybe 15 or so. Knocked it on the head for good in my mid/late 20s but god knows how much damage it's done me in that time...

If it's any consolation, I once read that if you stop smoking by the time you're 40, within five years it's as if you'd never smoked at all.

It's always worth stopping, no matter what your age, but apparently the longer you leave it after 40, the longer it takes for your body to be as if you'd never smoked at all; and after a certain age (50? 55? 60? I forget) your body will never quite regain its pristine-ness... but still better than carrying on smoking.

[madhair60]

i threw all my vapes out and now feel like shit but i assuming with only about two weeks of vaping in me it shouldn't be especially awful

RIGHT???

[The Bumlord]

People can slag off vaping all they want but those people haven't sucked on a Crystal Bar Fruit Gum flavour

[gib]

i threw all my vapes out and now feel like shit but i assuming with only about two weeks of vaping in me it shouldn't be especially awful

RIGHT???

depends, did you inhale

[Cloud]

You can get nicotine-free ones.  They still might be bad for you in other ways (it seems to depend who you ask, you get everything from "you inhale scents when you go into the kitchen mate" to "it'll age you to the skin of a 200 year old in 5 minutes and then you'll die horribly") but that's what I did to satisfy my curiosity as a non-smoker.  Didn't get addicted, and I can see how it'd be vaguely pleasant as just *something* to fill a void with.  But yeah best not to at all.

Using nicotine would put my dental implant at risk and my arse is still sore from having that done so no thank you to that.

[JaDanketies]

Nicotine is a fucking nightmare but it might be easier to quit than booze and there's no doubt that vaping is less likely to do you a damage than serious alcoholism. However my last punishing nicotine addiction was to those little pouches instead. And yeah I do agree that launching yourself into a new addiction can be a good way to quit an existing one. And there are a load of products that can make withdrawals easier for nicotine. In fact I quit vaping with 0mg vape juice. This isn't so much the case for booze.

Godspeed!

[jobotic]

If it's any consolation, I once read that if you stop smoking by the time you're 40, within five years it's as if you'd never smoked at all.

It's always worth stopping, no matter what your age, but apparently the longer you leave it after 40, the longer it takes for your body to be as if you'd never smoked at all; and after a certain age (50? 55? 60? I forget) your body will never quite regain its pristine-ness... but still better than carrying on smoking.

Looks like I picked the wrong week age to quite smoking. 4 years ago aged 47 after thirty years on the cigs. Wonder if I am any healthier than four years ago? Don't feel it.

[Ambient Sheep]

Odd, you really should do!

[earl_sleek]

Using nicotine would put my dental implant at risk and my arse is still sore from having that done so no thank you to that.

Why did you get a dental implant in your arse?

[Cloud]

Why did you get a dental implant in your arse?

Alluding to the bending over when it came to the bill!

[Dex Sawash]

They made the no nicotine ones illegal here. Or maybe it was just the Fun Flavo(u)r ones

[Jerzy Bondov]

I'm getting into the Chewing Tobacco. Constantly working on a nice big wad. Chomp chomp chomp. Dribble running down my chin. I just buy a big pack of Golden Virginia and pour it in my gob. When I have finished my chewing I simply swallow it for Easy Clean Up. Feel like God him or her self.