Quitting my Juul proving harder than quitting cigarettes

[altusadmin]

Hi all,

I'm here because I'm trying to give up my Juul habit. I am a former smoker, had been blessedly quit for years, but used a Juul on a lark and it is proving more difficult than my final smoking quit 7 years ago. I realize that many on these threads may use Juul as nicotine-replacement, which I support (it's certainly better than smoking). But my goal is simply to get off nicotine again, for health reasons (no idea what my near-constant Juul inhalation will do someday) and cost (money could be so much better spent). 

Just wondering if anyone here is trying to give up Juul / vaping habit and finding it as wildly difficult as I am. 

Thanks all. 

[CommunityAdmin]

kyliecharles‌ Your post made me think of a post I saw on Reddit.com recently where a person bought their significant other a e-cigarette to help them quit smoking combustible cigarettes and ended up trying it.  They never smoked themselves at all prior to that but are now addicted to vaping as well. Crazy how people have become addicted to vaping who never smoked previously.

Thanks for sharing your story!

Mark
EX Community Manager

[VAPEASDEADLY]

Not Juul, brand was Vuse/Vibe  ..  I am 12 days off. One big skin crawling 5 day cold turkey withdrawal. Feeling as if i am on the down hill side of the worst. for me the vape was a multi-fold addiction, with the obvious chemical addiction. But also the stealth aspect made lying about it to family the norm rather than the exception.

Nicotine in any form. keeps the chemical addiction active. While I think we try to delude ourselves with "safe" alternatives, the fact is alternatives with nicotine in them is not stopping or quitting. it's side shifting the addiction to make it perhaps a bit more palatible.
I started my quit our of fear the nicotine has done to my appetite to the point of weight loss.
I was having a hard time thinking about eating is how bad it got for me.
I began eating, sleeping and thinking again.
A couple days ago, fog which seems to be enveloping the nic brain, is starting to lift. Albeit slowly.
Juul and Vibe deprive us of oxygen, no different than Marlboro, These companies sell the stuff knowing damned well it's no less harmful, it only changes the type of harm it causes.
For me, it nearly cost me my sanity. Still at time I question every cell of my body about sanity.

[AnnetteMM]

 it's side shifting the addiction

What an awesome phrase! It's a great way of looking at it.

[kyliecharles]

Congratulations on 12 days!   I am barely 24 hours in from finishing my last Juul pod and throwing everything away at a gas station.    I don't feel physically bad yet, but I know it's coming because this isn't my first time trying to quit.   I also tried to cut back so that I could minimize withdrawal, but that never seemed to work either, so it's cold turkey for me too.    I have the opposite fear regarding eating.   The Juul curbed my appetite so much that I effortlessly lost weight that wouldn't budge for years.   I'm terrified of gaining it back.   

Good luck to you and I'm so glad to hear that you are already seeing the benefits of quitting.   I can completely relate to the brain fog.   And this morning as I type, my hands are not shaking from one too many hits of the Juul before breakfast.   

[VAPEASDEADLY]

Kylie,

My wife asked me if I worry about gaining back the weight, and based on the fact i went from 280lbs to right around 200lb pounds while vaping i too have that concern. the longer term aspects of the nicotine was appetite suppression to near starvation (because it (nicotine) was making me physically nauseous at the end.  I think maintaining weight is something that will become easier as my thought processes improve with more time.

[altusadmin]

Hope that you're staying strong. Totally cold turkey was tough for me - I'm going to try the stepped-down approach next time (getting pods with reduced nic content, down to zero). I hope that you don't have too much of a problem with the weight gain. 

[BugsNBats14]

Best wishes.

It gets easier.

Now 81 days for me.

On Sat, Mar 23, 2019, 2:45 PM altusadmin <communityadmin@becomeanex.org>

[altusadmin]

I hope you're still off it. I just started my quit again (14 hours in). 

The lying to my family was the worst part of it for me too. Lying to my wife, going to the bathroom to vape. It was just...pathetic and sad.

[kyliecharles]

altusadmin,  

I don't know if you remember me, but we both tried to quit the Juul in March and I'm guessing we both failed.   I went 3 weeks without it and then went on vacation and started all over again.   I haven't been on this site since I slipped up and I decided a few weeks ago that I was going to quit (again).   It's so ironic that we are both back here right around the same time.   Maybe we can do this together this time.  I've spent the last few weeks identifying my triggers (one of which was that I hit my Juul in the bathroom to hide it from my husband).  I was able to gradually cut back, and I decided that I would not buy any more pods.  So, I didn't technically have a quit date planned, it was just when I ran out of pods.   So, that did help me reduce how often I juuled, simply because I didn't want it to run out    We went to a concert last night and I finished my last Juul pod, so it's been 14 hours without it.    How are you doing?

Good luck!

Robin

[altusadmin]

I do remember you, Kylie. It does appear we're having a similar time with it! Let's definitely support one another. 

Congrats on your first 14 hours! That's really great.

I used hypnosis, which had limited effect. Part of the help is just the fact that I spent money and that raises the "stakes" of not going right back to Juul. I'm not 4 days clean (since Thursday afternoon). Next week I'm going on vacation with my family - wife and two kids, plus lots of other extended family. I think that will be a tough time, but I'm using lots of Cinnamon gum to fight the cravings. 

I'm also taking HUGE breaths each time the Juul urge comes on strong. It helps (a bit). 

This morning was the first time my brain actually turned against me and started justifying to me why it'd be OK to go back to Juul. It was creepy, but I could feel how good it would be to give in again. Fortunately, I fought it off and now I'm one day closer to being free of those sick urges (that is what they are - an addiction is a sickness). 

Hope Kylie and all others are doing well.