i smoked 2 to 4 packs a day for 24 years. i quit again and again and again. i quit cold turkey. (early on… for 11 months… then i encountered stress and BAM… back again) i quit using sticks of gum. i quit using toothpicks. i quit using straw. i quit using the patch. i quit using nicorette gum. i quit using the patch and gum. i quit using several full strength patches and pieces of gum at a time. i still chain smoked when i got the opening… lighting each cigarette with the last… while sometimes wearing 2 patches and switching up gum pieces every 5 or so minutes. among other things, the common denominator was i was STRESSING myself to quit. counter productive. didn’t work. i did gain weight and stress myself out, though. only thing i’d managed to do was show up positive for bronchitis on every doctor visit for 10 years and increase my intake as desperation took over during each quit. this time i told myself; i don’t want to quit. i just want to smoke inside and have more time for my kids without subjecting them to smoke. that was my only goal. though, if i had a chance to choose vaping over a cigarette during a craving, i would (and did/have been) choose a vape first and see where it leads me. i took the main trigger – the stress – off my shoulders. everything’s been working out fine. my expectations are low. i’m not forcing anything. i’m able to enjoy the pass time and the flavors. in just a few weeks, i went from almost 4 packs per day to nearly nothing at all. i’ve smoked a total of 12 cigarettes that entire time. a couple morning have-to’s, a couple after meal flavor enhancers and a couple i’m too damned stressed out to try anything else right nows. i haven’t so much as touched a cigarette in nearly a month now. it’s been only just over a month and a half since i started vaping. what was important for me was; 1) don’t try to force it. if i had a cig, it was okay… quitting altogether was not the point. more of a hopefully if everything works out long term goal. 2) doing it right the first time. let me explain. i’d been through all those attempts and learned from experience i’m not one of those people that necessarily had to worry about nicotine overdose. i’d done what had sent many people before me to the hospital and it always seemed it wasn’t enough. (assuming of course that the action of smoking was just as important as the nicotine itself. i was just as addicted and trained physically to the action as anything else.) i’d also tried cig-a-likes and ego style devices from a few friends and they’d never done anything but make me want (need) another cigarette. they were disgusting tasting to boot. also – i’ve always had sensitivities to certain things creep up unexpectedly and had serious allergies as a child. i can’t wear jewelry or expose myself to nearly anything long term. knowing all this, i started off with a VV/VW mod, a top coil, a bottom coil and a dripper, good batteries with a decent charger and a variety of juices from MTBaker with differing PG/VG blends and nic levels. I NEEDED to find what was going to work for me fairly quickly if this newfangled thing even had a chance of working. plus, i needed backups for my backups as downtime would only have one outcome. after about a month and a half, i now sleep through the night without waking up periodically gasping for air and drowning in my own phlegm. my energy level seems to be up. i don’t gasp for air after going up stairs like i used to. inclement weather doesn’t seem to block my air passage way with phlegm that i can’t get rid of. my senses of taste and smell already seem to be making a recovery. not always so happy about that one, but i’ll take it over all. best of all, i don’t have suicidal tendencies and nasty side effects associated with some of the NRTs that big tobacco and big pharma push. life is good. i couldn’t have done it without my PV and high VG nic juice.