I smoked a pack a day for over 15 years. I tried EVERY which way to quit: cold turkey, patches, gums, lozenges, hypnosis, Chantix. Chantix came the closest to working, but only while I was on it, once the prescription was done, I needed to smoke again. And I could start right up again with one bummed cigarette. It was an endless cycle. I found I was using NRT’s to not quit in the end, but to use for when I wouldn’t be able to smoke for hours – like on an international flight. No one wanted to quit more than I did. It was affecting my health – I was diagnosed with high blood pressure, I had no energy to exercise and I was gaining weight, my lungs were starting to hurt and I was beginning to wheeze with more and more regularity. It was affecting my social life – I went from being around everyone who smoked to having to stand outside by myself while my friends hung out inside, as more and more of my cohorts began to quit. Trying to date was near impossible for even if I was everything that someone else wanted in a partner, the simple fact that I smoked would be enough to make them walk away, and I was resistant to dating a smoker as I didn’t want any excuse to keep smoking myself. I was a considerate smoker; never throwing my butts on the ground, smoking away from others, trying to blow the smoke away so that it hung less in my clothes and hair, but I know I always had a reek and non-smokers didn’t care if I wasn’t exposing them, they loved to live in the moral high ground and constantly felt a need to remind me how bad it was. Not just irritating but also a great way to distance oneself. Also, my job entailed that I go to numerous hospitals in a day. Not only did I know I was a hypocrite for still smoking – having firsthand knowledge of how bad it is for you, but more and more medical facilities are banning not only smoking on their properties, but they are penalizing employees even if they only smell like smoke. I had to pay more for health insurance because I smoked. (Something I actually agreed with, but was costing me more than my pack-a-day expense). I could come up with more reasons why I wanted to quit, but there was just no good reason to stay smoking, except that I was fully addicted and nothing, NOTHING helped me quit. Until I tried e-cigarettes. I use the ones with a clear chamber that has to be refilled with liquid. I chose not to use the cigarette-like ones as they don’t have much flavor variety and I didn’t want to be confronted by people thinking I was actually smoking. I like the varied flavors – mostly the sharper ones like black licorice or sarsaparilla, but also enjoy tobacco and menthol tobacco, and cherry/berry flavors. I find it helps to switch between flavors as they can loose their tastiness with repeated use. I smoked about three days after starting with my first e-cig and haven’t gone back. Recently I bummed a regular cigarette just to try it, and I had a near-violent repulsive reaction to it. I had been quit from smoking longer before, and the first few puffs of a cigarette weren’t pleasant, but it didn’t take long to get back into it. After the e-cig, I couldn’t get past even the first puff. I don’t even want to smell smoke. One reason that was making it hard to quit was knowing that I would never be able to smoke again, or I would be right back to it. Any efforts to stop would be for naught. With my e-cig, I have weaned myself from 15mg down to 5mg in 3 months, and after the past additional 2 months, I can see myself going down to 0mg. I think it is the act of smoking that I was also addicted to. I’ve lessened my nicotine addiction, now I can lessen the emotional and ritual addictions as well. E-cigs take away EVERYTHING even smokers hate about smoking. The cost, the smell, the ash, butts, social isolation and stigma, the risk they pose to other people, wheezing, less stamina… are all things that e-cigs practically eliminate or at least reduce to tolerable levels. E-cigs came into my life at a critical time. I don’t know if I could have stopped tobacco use without them.