I started smoking cigarettes when I was a freshman in Highschool 1972, I thought it was cool and felt pressure from my peers that already smoked. By the time I was out of highschool I was totally addicted, smoking a pack a day. I went for the next years just smoking, not thinking anything about it. In 1984 started working in a pharmacy, where I worked for 21 years and started seeing people with smoking related health problems,seeing this bothered me but I kept saying this wont happen to me. At that time we smoked in the pharmacy.When the first of the NRTs came out I was certified in smoke cessation, and helped people on their journey to quit. I saw many that would quit for a short period of time and go back to smoking, then atime later would try again, fail and return to smoking. A very large amount of people I got started with NRTs failed and went back to smoking. It had put a bug in my ear to think about trying the whole quitting journey. Having seen the very high failure rate with NRTs I decided to try wellbutron, I craved more for cigarettes, and was very allergic to it. I had to stop. Having not stopped smoking for even a day. I tryed going cold turkey, but the addiction was just way to powerful even when the nicotine was out of my system my cravings for the cigarette were still very powerful and I failed. After all that even the thought of quitting would trigger a panic attack. Let me explain my craving, its not the physical addiction to the nicotine I had the problem with, it was the overwhelming, all consuming, feeling in my brain that would cause panic attacks even with the thought of quitting, the constent voice in my brain telling me to get a cigarette and it took over my life.I couldnt function normally. Over time I tryed all the NRTs, the patches caused me to crave more for cigarettes, lozenges had its own set of side effects, but I did get the farthest with using them, I went 6 months without a cigarette, but I still had a horrible craving for the cigarette and no matter what I did it wouldn’t go away, even with a lozenges in my mouth I would crave a cigarette. I found I couldnt function at all, the littlest things in life became hard to do, I was clumbsy, cranky, and depressed. I had a car accident ( my fault) that is all it took to send to buy a pack of cigarettes. None of the NRTs worked. The craving was always there and upfront in my mind all the time. And I found everytime I tryed quiting I would end up smoking more when I went back to cigarettes. So I gave up on quitting. I had heard about e-cigarettes but I didnt know anything about them and figured it was just another NRT type product that wouldnt work. Fast forward a few years, 2012, I was in a corner gas station and saw a display of Mistic e-cigs. I got wondering if they worked, this was the real first time I had saw one. But really kinda put it aside in my mind. Then not to long later saw a display in walmart. I started wondering again if they work or not, my health was getting pretty bad, I had a constant cough, thick mucus all the time, having a hard time breathing many times a day. I couldnt make it up a flight of stairs without getting totally out of breath, or the walk to the mail box id be huffing and puffing. I was having worse problems with circulation to my feet and hands. I was starting to be allergy triggered more and more often. I really was getting scared for my health and I knew from working in the pharmacy what all this was.My fiance also was smoking and had been for 26 years was having breathing problems also. We were so discouraged from our failed attempts that we never thougth we would beable to stop smoking. So while in walmart we decided to try the mistic e-cigarette, this was November 2012, we went about a week using them and still smoking some but we were using the e-cigarette more than smoking. But the taste ( tobacco) was pretty gross tasting but we stuck with them. At a point before Christmas we were back to smoking. We started to research e-cigarettes because we were not happy with the mistic, we ordered a better battery and flavored juices from a company off the internet which we started on Jan. 2 2013. I quit cigarettes the day I started the new e-cigarettes and have not had one since. I thought I would need to have tobacco flavor, but I found I hated the tobacco tastes and did everything I could to cover the taste with chocolate flavored e-juice. The first month was I think the most difficult. I had an adjustment period the first days from the amount of nicotine I was getting from about 25-30 cigarettes a day to the 18mg/ml in the e-juice. I went threw some withdraw symptoms the first 2 days were the worse till the new nicotine levels evened out in my system which took about 7 days. I was still craving cigarettes, but I used the e-cigarette threw the cravings. They started slowly getting better. I tryed not to substute food for cigarettes like I had other times I had tryed to quit, in the past I had gained large amounts of weight. I found my hunger was stronger, but would just eat at the right times of the day and it got better also. Side effects were and some of these were from oral nicotine because I had them with the lozenges to, sore mouth,gums, hickups,cankor sore. Headaches, nerviousness, anger, brain fog would be from the adjustment period of nicotine withdraw, I had the same with quiting before. They went away after the first 7 days. BO,smelly feet,not feeling well over all, I believe was having to do with detoxing all the thousands of chemicals out of my body. From day one to the end of the first month my mind craved the cigarette, my mind even would play tricks on me to get me to smoke, telling me that the e-cigarette would not work, at one point in my minds eye I saw dancing cigarettes, my mind did everything it could to get me to start smoking again. Threw all of this I vaped threw it, telling my self this is it, this is the only way its going to get its nicotine. I had to be more stubborn with my self as my brain fought back. Little by little the feeling started going away, the brain stopped fighting. On Febuary 14, 2013 I had my AH moment. We had gone out for valentines to town 1 1/2 hours from home, and my battery died 1 hour into the trip. I did have a panic attack, but the first thing I thought of was to buy a disposible e-cigarette, not a pack of cigarettes. I was in store that sold cigarettes to find a disposible ecig but they didnt have any, at no time did I think of even buying a pack even when they were right infront of me. I mangaged to get threw the rest of the day and night using my fiances e-cig. but that is when I realized I had broken the cigarette mental addiction. It has been all up hill since then, I have not wanting for a cigarette, I dont get triggered anymore at all. I can stand next to people smoking and not get triggered at all, this would not have happened with the NRTs. I had many many triggers and I can do all of those activitys now without being triggered. My second Ah moment was standing in a grocery store line with a person that smelled like smoke, I breathed it in, I even tryed to trigger my self by breathing her smell of smoke in deeply, but there was nothing, no trigger, not even a trigger for my e-cigarette.The effect from the smell was inert. The first time in 40 years I no longer have a craving, I dont even crave nicotine, the only way I know I havent had enought is I get cranky, and nervious. But there is no craving because the craving for the cigarette is gone. The true craving that your mind tells you is the cigarette not the nicotine. After the first month I started vaping less and less juice naturally, the need lessened by its self. I went from needing to vape about 3ml a day now im at 1 to 1 1/2 ml aday. My health at 4 months is so much better, I can breath better, the cough is gone ( at 17 days in) the thick choking mucus is gone totally,slowly its all getting better, but I know from smoking for 40 years its going to take years to have lungs repair totally. I have more energy,the nicotine keeps me from having the foggy brain, infact my memory is better, focus is over all better. I feel comfortable and havent had anymore panic attacks having to do with cigarettes. My over all mental health is good. I dont have the depression I would get from quiting smoking like I did before. I have left using tobacco flavors back the first month, I find I gag with the taste of tobacco now, I use many different flavors, Big red gum is one of my favorites, summers breeze ( fruit combo) licorice, grape, pomagranate are just some that I use. I find I like to switch up my flavors during the day. I have also graduated to a larger ego style mah battery that last charge wise longer. I use what is called cartomizer/tank that I fill myself. My e-cig of choice doesnt even look like a cigarette. I believe deep in my heart that if I hadnt found e-cigarettes I would and my fiance would still be smoking and would have continued to smoke, we would have probably died smoking. Nothing else worked for us the way e-cigarettes have worked. I feel very strongly about what e-cigarettes can do for the future, how it is helping many many people free themselves from smoking. I believe this inovation is the way of the future. I can say this with confidence having worked in the pharmacy and with my own experience, that nothing else works like the e-cigarette. At this point I plan on staying with nicotine, but in the future I can see working down off nicotine and just having the e-cig as a support tool to reinforce the retraining of my brain. As of right now I belive there is no going back to smoking at all.