I smoked for about 15 years when I was young, starting in my teens. I say about because it’s hard to say when I quit being a casual smoker and got hooked. I developed a pack a day habit, though I smoked more if life was stressful — up to two packs a day. I spent the last five years of that 15 years trying to quit, before successfully dropping cigarettes (cold turkey). I smoked a few times a year after that, usually at parties, for about 20 years. Then I started smoking regularly again (4 to 8 cigarettes a day) and continued with brief times of quitting (a few days to a couple of weeks) for another 15 years. I started using e-cigs (GreenSmoke stick type) in April, 2011. I continued to smoke cigarettes at times for three weeks while I discovered what products, what nicotine strength, and what flavors of e-cigarettes worked for me. After discovering products with larger batteries, CE2 cartridges, and a few flavors I liked, I never smoked again. Well, actually I tried a cigarette after using e-cigs for about a year, and I didn’t like it. E-cigs taste so much better and they don’t stink up my clothes and the room! I use only a few flavors (English toffee, Earl Grey tea, Coconut), which I dilute with an unflavored nicotine solution that I make myself with supplies I get on the Internet. I buy 100mg/ml nicotine in PG and dilute it to 20 mg/ml in a 50/50 PG/VG solution. I dilute the flavors because I find strong flavors kind of cloying, though I love the taste of the diluted ones. Diluting the flavors with homemade unflavored nicotine solution also makes e-cigarettes very inexpensive to vape. I vape about 2 ml per day of 20mg/ml nicotine, though it’s hard to say how much nicotine I’m actually getting. It’s enough to do the job, though. There was a period of adjustment when I started vaping, because cigarettes have a lot more active chemicals than just nicotine in them, and I missed them some. Now, I don’t miss cigarettes at all. The reason I started using e-cigs was because I had developed a chronic cough, which concerned me, plus I could feel my body was kind of toxic from smoking. After a month using e-cigs, the cough cleared up and my health has been good since. Nicotine in itself seems without problems for me. I had tried using NRT (both patches and gum at different times) before discovering e-cigs. The patches and gum were very unsatisfying. The gum tastes unpleasant, I couldn’t get the dosage right using patches, and for some reason the patches left me feeling kind of spacey. I was never able to stay with the gum or patches for more than a couple of weeks. I’ve always loved the sensation and ritual of smoking and watching the smoke curl in the air. E-cigs give me that sensation and ritual without discernible harm and I love watching the vapor curl in the air as much as I loved watching the smoke. The reason I started smoking after having quit for 20 years was a practical one. Like I said before, I smoked once in a while at parties (a few times a year) during the time I was no longer a steady smoker. After one party, I kept the pack and smoked while I was working. To my surprise, my productivity was noticeably enhanced. That discovery was truly a mixed blessing. I’m one of group comprising about 5% of the population for whom caffeine does nothing — no receptors, I guess. Nicotine is like coffee for me. Nicotine improves alertness, concentration, and short-term and working memory. No one ever talks about the benefits of nicotine, probably for good reasons, but the benefits are very real for me. I’m very grateful to have e-cigs, so I can experience those benefits without harming my health.