I am 52 years old and started smoking cigarettes when I was in junior high school. I smoked 1?« to 2 packs of cigarettes a day for about 38 years. By the time I was in my mid twenties, I realized I was hooked. Over the years, I tried to quit many times and many different ways. I tried to quit cold turkey a couple of times. I also tried hypnosis, nicotine patches, Chantix, and Zyban. The longest I ever made it was about a month with Chantix, but the side effects caused me to stop taking it and go back to smoking. In 2009 I tried e-cigarettes. At that time, the technology was pretty bad, and I couldn??t seem to get them to work reliably. In January of 2012, I decided to try again. Boy, things had changed. The Mistic brand e-cigs I got from Wal-Mart worked pretty darn good. For the next three weeks I used e-cigs and also smoked regular cigarettes. Then one day I was just plain too lazy to go to the store to buy more cigarettes when I ran out. That was February 11, 2012, and I haven??t smoked a tobacco cigarette since. A couple of months after I quit smoking I discovered bigger e-cigs online. They work a lot better, last a lot longer, and taste better. Also, refilling my own e-cig cartridges with bottled e-liquid is much cheaper than buying prefilled cartridges. I now use regular eGo batteries, eVod clearomizers, and 18 mg/ml e-liquid. I feel so much better since I quit smoking. I don??t wake up in the morning (or in the middle of the night) coughing my head off. I used to go into a coughing fit every time I laughed really hard. I don??t make that wheezing noise when I breathe anymore, and I don??t get winded walking up a flight of stairs. Moreover, I don??t continuously expose my family, friends, and strangers to second-hand smoke. Also, I don??t stink like tobacco anymore, and neither do my house or truck. I used to always find burn holes on my clothing and on the furniture, but no more. I believe that my smoking addiction was(is) more than just an addiction to nicotine. It gives me something to do with my hands. I??m addicted to the act of smoking. I enjoy raising an e-cig to my mouth, and inhaling vapor down my throat. I also enjoy blowing out a big cloud of vapor. If something were to happen, so that I couldn??t get e-cigarettes anymore, or the price went up dramatically, I would probably go back to smoking. I enjoy it too much to just totally quit without an alternative.
