Thread: Electric Cigarettes - Fact or Fantasy?

I/we will admit we weren't actually trying to give up as such. As the OH has just said, there's the occasional 'special ciggie', like after a meal, which actually matters. The rest is addiction, and the incredible annoyance of hotels declaring themselves TOTALLY non-smoking, instead of having a corridor of 'smoking rooms' where we don't upset the over-emotional.

I think I can cope with being addicted to a fix of Nicotine every 30 minutes or so ... it's all the other stuff associated with it that makes me a wee bit worried. I'm an OAP, you know, and I'm certainly noticing shortness of breath when walking up hills, and that sort of thing. So there's a wee general health issue for me ... and don't say "take more exercise": I have 2 dodgy knees and a dodgy back from playing Rugby. But I do walk the 15 minutes into Town for shopping and posting Bears!

There may be other side issues to the electric substitute ... whatever, I'm officially old anyway, and I'm going to die [just like the rest of you]. I'd just like to be able to annoy people for a bit longer.

I read Allen Carr's (no relation to the comedian) Easy Way to Stop Smoking last February and I havn't smoked again since. Didn't use any kind of NRT at all. I highly recommend it, it cost me £8 from asda and it's saved me a couple of thousand so far.

If anyone's interested you can find the website here.

Hello, vaguely interesting new member of ARRSE. Thank you for marketing your product, and kindly fork orf. Spammers and random marketeers get short shrift here.

I packed up smoking in 96 after about 36 years (on 50 a day when I packed up,driving job),got ambushed by my GP,and Pharmacist,ended up with 24 hr patches,which I wore from about 0600 - 2100. A friend gave me this advice,for 7 days write down in a little note book,when and where you had your ciggy,at the end of the 7 days you will see that it tends to be situational i.e.

Breakfast,tea/coffee,toast,ciggy. cup of coffee,have a ciggy. Have lunch,have a ciggy. afternoon cup of coffee,have a ciggy. Evening meal,cup/glass of whatever,have a ciggy,a pattern soon emerges,that in certain situations,you reach for a ciggy,not because you need one,but because you're programmed to have one (Pavlovs dogs?).

Buy what ever you're going to try,have one last ciggy on the first morning (early),throw packet away. If you can't avoid the situation where you would normally light up,have a drink of water,pubs used to be a problem but not anymore,if you sit down with a cuppa,and normally have a ciggy,don't sit down,drink some water,go for a walk around the block,remember Nicotine clears the body in about 3 weeks,after that it's memory.

I used all of these little tricks,over a 3 month period,during which my Father died,and it covered Christmas and,New Year,it isn't easy but,it ain't hard either.

The first year after you pack up,you will find you get colds,feel like shit from time to time but,it will be the best thing you have ever done.

I stopped 12 years ago last June. I stopped cold turkey and still have cigars in the house, never finished them or destroyed them, just thought fuck it, stay there. I was smoking 15 half Coronas a day and inhaling it all, I could drag a fag down in three puffs without even tasting it. Like someone else said, it's not easy, but I calculate that I would have smoked away nearly £50k had I not stopped. Yep fifty thousand quid in smoke and lungs like the BP oil spill.

Originally Posted by RoofRat

Breakfast,tea/coffee,toast,ciggy. cup of coffee,have a ciggy. Have lunch,have a ciggy. afternoon cup of coffee,have a ciggy. Evening meal,cup/glass of whatever,have a ciggy,a pattern soon emerges,that in certain situations,you reach for a ciggy,not because you need one,but because you're programmed to have one (Pavlovs dogs?).

Yup ... routines, and believe me it's even worse when you are 'comfortably retired' and every day is exactly the same [broadly speaking].

However, I'm trying to talk about the 'weak people' who can't do cold turkey, but can perhaps break out of a rhythm. I've just had a quick puff there ... not a full FIVE SHILLING ciggie, just a puff.

Complete quitting may come later, but that's not the issue I'm trying to address. Nicotine isn't going to kill me ... but I'm 65 already, so whatever has been done to my body is already there. It's the tar and the carcinogens I'd like to get rid of at STARTEX. This seems [on very short acquaintance] to be a fairly easy way for me to live a bit longer ... and look like a Crap poof as I'm puffing on my plastic ciggie

I gave up 01/05/10 with champix, after many attempts over the years I can only sing the tablets praise I never even fancied a fag, my wife still smokes and it doesn't bother me in the slightest Jarrod if you want to give up try them.

I would second everything RoofRat said, with the caveat have your last cigarette the night before, I gave up last year before a work related relapse, on attempt no. 2 at the moment: I used patches for 10 days and after that no worries: routines and habits are the killer mind especially I find when I'm writing, which I now spend most of my day doing, so instead of a walk for 10 mins every time I have an urge for a fag I do 10 Press Ups, Sits Ups or Pull Ups (alternating them). The wee burst of endorphins helps with the cravings and your fitness.

Good luck Blue

What cbgramc said but regarding Zyban, WE planned to give up on her 40th, she lasted a day, I still dont smoke and dont mind that she does, I do rollys for her now while she's learning. Never having tried Champix I can't knock it, but Zyban worked for me. NHS do one months supply for one prescription charge, job done.

Disclaimer, if you dont want to give up, you wont.


Editted to add, two years next January for me.

Originally Posted by arrsemeister

If I recall correctly these were going to be banned by the EU... Nothing serious, probably companies lobbying to get others on to their NRT or perhaps the fag companies.

I believe that you are correct. Something to do with the lack of consistency in nicotine dosage from puff to puff IIRC.

Originally Posted by Agent_47

I read Allen Carr's (no relation to the comedian) Easy Way to Stop Smoking last February and I havn't smoked again since. Didn't use any kind of NRT at all. I highly recommend it, it cost me £8 from asda and it's saved me a couple of thousand so far.

If anyone's interested you can find the website here.

Ii did an Allen Carr session here in HK - brilliant, can't rate it highly enough. I did it and stopped there and then - and no lingering desperation for a fag afterwards.

Originally Posted by blue-sophist

it seems likely I will live longer

Shame.
Have you tried smoking your cars exhaust pipe?

I attempted to give up last year after returning from Afghan where I ended up smoking the local lung bleeders due to poor logistics. Had tried patched in the past but took 'em off when I wanted a fag. Would've been better putting them over me eyes.

Decided, fuck it, I'll try Champix. Went to MO and started the course. Was fine for the first 2 weeks and when the fags stopped was ok for about a further 10 days. Then it started. I became the most miserable, bad tempered arse that you could imagine. This went on for about a month, with the long haired CO begging with me to start again (and she's always been a non-smoker). So I did. Didn't start with fags though and to this day still think they're heaving. Just have the occasional Cafe Creme (not inhaled) and it squares me right away.

Just be careful with champix.

I'd tried just about everything, patches (crap) lozenges and gum (worked for about a year), willpower (worked for about six months) - and I noticed an Ad for Cigarex in the back of the Scum newspaper a short while ago. Of course, all the reviews from customers were brilliant - after all, who'll include bad reviews on a product they're trying to flog you? And so I decided to have a butchers on Amazon for two reasons - one being the more 'independent and honest reviews', and the other being that I was bound to find it cheaper there (good old Amazon - Professionals box set in HMV £150, Amazon £29.99)

There was the odd bad comment here and there, but most of which were things like "It didn't work", "Waited weeks for it to turn up" - but these were very few and far between.

Anyway, I decided to buy the Health E Cigarette starter kit by SwapSmoking for a tidy £9.99 (free P&P) which included all the necessaries and ten high-strength cartridges. After 15-20 a day, I instantly converted to the E-Cig with no withdrawal problems at all. In no time at all, I decided this was the answer to the smoking problem, and so I immediately ordered 50 replacement cartridges, from gy3.co.uk for £17.99 which is about the equivalent of 250-400 cigarettes.

Since then I have come through two major tests, one of which being a 600-mile trip up T' North and back in the car with just the E-Cig - and the other being a full-on Leo Sayer, which consisted of a curry lunch in the Mess followed by a night on the tiles. During all of which I had no urge whatsoever to revert back to the Dark Side.

I cannot praise these things highly enough BMG. My OH gave up a few years ago and it couldn't have been very pleasant for her all this time with me stinking of stale tabs, but it's been a few weeks now and as long as they keep making these things (and don't let some lefty hair-brained plan screw it up by banning them) then I'm confident I'll never 'smoke' again. Of course, a 10 hour flight to the Stan will seem a little more comfortable now too, along with any other place smoking is prohibited. Vaping is the way forward.

One thing I will say however, the atomisers only last between 1-3 months, and most batteries will degrade after about 300 charges - so it's always good to have a set of 'spares' to hand. Each cartridge it seems, will last between 5-7 normal cigs (unlike the 7-10 the manufacturers claim), but even then the whole thing will work out about 5 times cheaper than regular smoking overall.

Simply Brilliant.

I agree Champix is far from perfect, but just feel that the Cigs, gum, lozenges, patches or what ever are not curing the addiction simply feeding it from another angle, my wife smoked in my car yesterday and I have to say i nearly asked her to put it out as it stank, then I caught myself on with a little giggle to myself.