Hi everyone, 

I know vaping is still heavily debated. For anyone thinking about giving it a try, I just wanted to share some tips that really helped me out while using it to quit smoking.

I started vaping for the purpose of quitting altogether eventually four months ago after smoking for fourteen years. As of now, it has been nine days since I last used my vaping device and I do not feel the urge to smoke or vape at all!

These are the three things I did when starting out with vaping that helped me greatly in quitting altogether:

1: I started with a nicotine strengths that did not immediately satisfy my cravings

In my case, being a pack a day smoker, it was 6mg. The guy in the store recommended 12mg but I was set on going with half. The frustrating thing was that I now had to vape for a minute or so before I realized that my urge for nicotine was gone, instead of having the instant gratification of a cigarette. 

2: I did not use any flavors

When I bought my device, I tested a few flavors in the shop and they were ok I guess. But what is the point in getting hooked on flavors when I wanted to quit? I knew that my nictotine addiction had nothing to do with the flavor. With vaping, smoking can be broken down into its components (smoke, flavor, throat hit etc.) and the more I could take out of the equation, the better.

3: I took out the fun slowly

Over the course of roughly four months, I vaped between 3 and 5ml daily, starting with 6mg, then going down to 3mg, then 2, 1,5 and finally 1 for a whole month. Every time I reduced the amount of nicotine, I realized that I was using more juice than before. Within a couple of days, I automatically adjusted my usage to about 3ml. When this happened, I knew I could reduce again.

By starting low and going slow, I didn't even realize how vaping became less and less fun on account of the nicotine dose being lowered. Once my 1mg juice was used up, I went with 0mg for two weeks. The first couple of days it was like going for a lower dose, I vaped more even though there was no nicotine left in the tank. 

But after a week or so, something beautiful became more and more clear to me: I did not need to vape. Instead of being helpful, the whole work I had to put into vaping (charging batteries, carrying enough juice etc.) had become an unnecessary burden. So one day I just stopped vaping and nothing happenend. Nothing at all.

I've quit cigarettes cold turkey before and it was much more difficult breaking the habits and enduring the cravings. By vaping, I replaced my smoking rituals with a vapid imitation of them. Thinking back on smoking, I think back on vaping and I realize: What's to miss?

So vaping in this way has been a huge help and I would recommend it to any smoker wanting to try a new way of quitting. I have to say that the initial two weeks were the hardest. But since I knew I was getting my nicotine anyway, I just went on with it. From week three on, it has been more and more easy.

Another takeaway point is that I didn't need to become a regular vaper to use vaping as a cessation method. I've posted my story in a vaping forum and the regular vapers there were very defensive about their habit. I found it best to treat a vaporizer as the medical tool it was conceived as in the first place.