I started smoking when I was 13 years old. Eventually I was smoking almost two packs a day. I decided that I wanted to try to quit smoking when I was about 26. I tried cold turkey which did not work at all. I went to my doctor and he prescribed Wellbutrin to help me quit. The medicine made me feel strange and I hated it. I tried the nicotine patches but they irritated my skin and made it very hard to sleep at night. The next thing my doctor tried was Chantix. That stuff made me feel like I was losing my mind. I had terrible night terrors when I actually could fall asleep. During the day my moods were high then low and I just wasn’t myself at all. I don’t do well with most medicines anyway. I had just about given up on trying to quit because it seemed like I failed at whatever I tried. After four years of trying to quit and failing, I had a friend suggest using nicotine liquid in a vaporizer. I’m a skeptic so I researched it before trying. All of the ingredients have been approved by the FDA separately and some have been used in asthma inhalers since the 1950s. I figured I would give it a try and see what happened. The first week I used both cigarettes and my e-cigarette. The second week I threw away the rest of my carton of cigarettes and have not picked them up again. I feel great. I don’t cough or wheeze. I can breathe easier which has allowed me to start exercising. My sense of smell is back, which is great for bakeries, not so much for skunks. But I can smell, and taste again. You don’t realize how much cigarette smoke affects everything about you until you can quit. My skin looks better, I don’t smell like an ashtray, my teeth aren’t yellow, the list goes on and on. I know that the tobacco companies are losing money because of the e-cigarette revolution. I also know they will pull all of the strings they can to ensure that they make the money they are accustomed to. I know that there are many others who feel the same way I do. E-cigarettes have helped me lose the shackles of my cigarette addiction. I don’t get sick like I used to, I save money, and I feel better.