I started smoking when I was 12 years old and smoked for 35 years. I smoked 2-3 packs a day for most of that time. I tried many times to stop smoking, because I have a child who had learned how harmful smoking is in school, and did not want to see her mother die from smoking. I also did not want to expose her and other loved ones to second hand smoke. Also, before I even became pregnant with her, smoking had become an annoying habit that I didn’t enjoy anymore. Over the years, I tried numerous times to quit. I tried cold turkey, and for many years, I quit every single morning when I woke up, which never lasted more than a few hours. The longest I ever went was a couple of months in which there was absolutely no stress in my life, but, life being life, stress arose and I started smoking again. I cannot take Wellbutrin, which i discovered by trying to take it for another condition, so I never tried that to quit smoking, but I have tried everything else. Chantix twice, patches and gum and lozenges several times. Hypnosis twice. I have also been in therapy for several decades, but no matter what I’ve tried, I have not been able to quit. I do not consider myself a weak person, having overcome many hardships in my life. But the addiction to the habit and the chemicals in cigarettes was not one I could overcome until I started using electronic cigarettes. I thought that I would die with a cigarette in my hand. In June of 2012, my mother died a very agonizing death from COPD. I watched her struggle to breathe, like a tiny bird gasping. I watched her give up and refuse the bipap mask and eventually die of suffocation. It was the most horrible thing I’d ever seen. That same month, my daughter and I did some research, and we both started using the Blu electronic cigarettes, and then quickly switched to using ego style batteries and tanks. I set my quit date to be 1 week from the time I started vaping, but, by day 6, cigarettes tasted awful, and I could no longer smoke them. That was June 27, 2012, and I have not had a cigarette since. I started out with 6mg nicotine, but decided to go ahead and use 24mg to make sure that the withdrawals I would experience would ONLY be from the other chemicals in cigarettes, and not from the nicotine itself. I experienced very little withdrawals, and that only lasted a week. I am not sure if I would have been able to do this if the amount of nicotine I was allowed to use was regulated at too low a dose. I also am not sure if this would have been a success without the choice of many flavors. It was surprising to me to find that, after smoking for 35 years, that I actually do not like the taste of tobacco. The fruit and vanilla flavors helped me quit smoking, and actually helped with making the cigarettes taste awful to me, and got me off of them faster than I had planned. Since I quit, many things have changed. I no longer wake up before having enough sleep because I can’t breathe. I can sleep 8-10 hours just fine without having to get up and simply breathe. My smoker’s cough went away after 2 weeks. It is completely gone. My hair and skin, which were extremely dry due to menopause and chemotherapy are much improved. The hangovers from my chemotherapy medication have almost disappeared. Everything in my house and car are cleaner and everything doesn’t stink anymore. The problem with my gums, which I have battled for years has almost completely cleared up. All of my doctors and my dentist and dental hygienist are thrilled with my success and the improvement of my health. I am listed in my medical records as an ex-smoker. I also no longer limit myself from activities that do not allow smoking, because I can go for a longer time without the craving for the chemicals in cigarettes. The craving for nicotine itself is not nearly as strong. I don’t know if I will ever stop vaping, but I have lowered my nicotine level from 24mg to 18 with no problems or cravings at all. Next month, I plan to go down to 12, and from there to 6, and then to 0. But I do not know if I will ever overcome the oral fixation or ƒ??hand to mouthƒ? habit, and it is good to know that I can continue to do that if I need to, without ingesting any harmful chemicals. There should be no limit on the time allowed to use nicotine replacement therapies to consider smoking cessation a success. The use of nicotine itself should be studied for long-term use so that that information can be made available to the public, so we can choose this method of smoking cessation if we wish as informed consumers. Electronic cigarettes are my miracle!