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.
Welcome to our community!
You are the THIRD person to come to us recently who is addicted to vaping nicotine. WOW! I am glad you are interested in becoming free! It's the best feeling in the world. I think vaping might be a bit more difficult to get past because you can do it most anywhere, anytime. I don't know that much about them - but could you reduce the amount of nicotine contained in it over time - or just first go to zero and get past the nicotine withdrawal and THEN work on all the associations and triggers? The recommendations I will give you will be for quitting smoking, so just sub the Juul or vaping for all the smoking references! If you are using a flavor, you might try to find a substitute of a like flavor to use in between Juul sessions. Set your quit date and when it arrives, you need to throw out ALL your supplies - the Juul and the cartridges. Yes, you will be wasting $$$, but you won't be wasting the time in your life you might be losing by continuing it.
The important thing you can do right now is to educate yourself on what nicotine does to your body and mind. To that end, I highly recommend Allen Carr's “The Easy Way to Stop Smoking.” This is an easy and entertaining read. You can search for it online or at your local library. If you do nothing else to get ready for your quit, please do give this a read. You should also do the tracking and separation exercises recommended here on the site.
You should also read the posts here and perhaps go to the pages of folks who you think might be helpful. You might visit whyquit.com, quitsmoking.com and livewell.com for the good information contained there. @https://excommunity.becomeanex.org/groups/best-of-ex has lots of blogs written by members of this site with their experiences and guidance. Here is a video to inform you further about nicotine addiction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpWMgPHn0Lo&feature=youtu.be.
The idea is to change up your routines so the smoking associations are reduced. Drink your coffee with your OTHER hand in a place different from when you smoked. Maybe switch to tea for a bit. If you always had that first smoke with your coffee, try putting your tennies on right out of bed, going for a quick walk, then taking your shower and THEN your coffee! Rearrange the furniture in the areas you used to smoke so the view is different. Buy your gas at a different station. Take a different route to work. Take a quick walk at break time where the smokers AREN'T.
You need to distract yourself through any craves. You can take a bite out of a lemon (yup - rind and all), put your head in the freezer and take a deep breath of cold air, do a few jumping jacks, go for a brisk walk or march in place, play a computer game. Keep a cold bottle of water with you from which to sip. Don't let that smoking thought rattle around in your brain unchallenged. Sometimes you need to quit a minute or an hour at a time. You will need to be disciplined in the early days to distract yourself when a crave hits. Get busy! Here is a link to a list of things to do instead of smoke if you need some fresh ideas:
https://excommunity.becomeanex.org/blogs/Youngatheart.7.4.12-blog/2013/02/25/100-things-to-do-instead-of-smoke
The conversation in your head in response to the "I want a cigarette" thought needs to be, "Well, since I have decided not to do that anymore, what shall I do instead for the three minutes this crave will last?" Then DO it. You will need to put some effort into this in the early days, but it gets easier and easier to do.
Stay close to us here and ask questions when you have them and for support when you need it. We will be with you every step of the way!
Nancy