Attitudes to vaping

[Citrus]

My parents are delighted I'm vaping. My mum bought me my first cig-a-like because it sounded to her like a doable way to quit the coffin nails (I'm 33, by the way, I'm just a mummy's girl). My husband is delighted in theory. He's been nagging me to quit for ages (and, to be fair, been supportive through all my attempts when I've been the venomously biting monster from hell in withdrawal). Actually, on our first date he said he wouldn't kiss me if I smoked. That didn't last long, but he's never been thrilled with it over 6 years together and 3 married.

However, he looked at me tonight when I refilled my clearo, absolutely horrified, and said, "Have you bubbled through all that in the last few hours?!" In context, "all that" was about 1ml of 12mg over the course of the day, so not massive amounts or anything. I need to get this "vaping isn't smoking thing" through his head...and also get him to give me a break, because if I was using patches or whatever he'd be all smiles and praise. I'm more than a little irritated, to be honest. Any tips?

 

[Midnight]

From what I understand it's basically just NRT or nicotine delivery in a different way than regular smoking. The ingredients are harmless in that PG is used in medicines, make-up, pills, inhalers etc. The flavours are food grade anyway. Nicotine in itself is relatively harmless in the small doses that we use in our e-liquids and none of it is exhaled anyway. It's basically just water vapour. Those few ingredients are heated via an atomiser and inhaled/exhaled.
Would he be willing to read up a little about e-cigs? Sometimes when we don't understand something fully we tend to make assumptions that are often a little incorrect.
When I first started vaping I explained to my kids as much as I could and they are right behind me.
It's a shame when we don't feel our friend, family, partners etc are not behind us on something we care about and value.

 

[Fleabag]

My parents also paid for my initial DIY set up (which I bought the day after my eGo starter kit), and I'm older than you (I shan't reveal by how much).

Family and Mr Fleabag all been very supportive and all in favour of vaping (in fact, it's inspired my sister to propose some research into vaping in the university psychology dept in which she works*)

Despite this, when Mum phoned to see how I was today (off sick with a heavy cold), and I said I'd vape some menthol, she responded quite negatively at first, obviously still swayed by its link to smoking - she came round when I pointed out that it's delivering menthol via vapour - which is what she was suggesting (with a bowl).

I do have a colleague who, when discussing our service users who vape (who are now no longer allowed to indoors), was very critical of one chap who chain vapes, implying that this was as bad or worse than his previous smoking habit. I'm not sure she was won over by my argument that side effects of over-indulging tend to self-regulation through lowering nic levels and that regular vaping is, I find, the most effective means of preventing cravings getting to the level that drive us to a cigarette.

*I have taken the liberty of pointing sis in the direction of POTV if she wants some user experiences. I think she's particularly interested in the hidden motives of pharma of demonising vaping and how society/media is manipulated by the politics of it and the politicisation of users.

 

[whipitup]

There is a website run/set up by Gerry Stimpson which will give the unbeliever all the info they need..............cant for the life of me remember the name though!!!

 

[Citrus]

Thanks, guys. Like I said, he's bang alongside it in theory. I think it's sort of a learned response to something that looks like smoking. In the same way, I'm really paranoid about recharging my ego batteries and watch them like a hawk, even though I know they're basically the same as a mobile phone battery, because I associate nicotine intake with fire. I know - durrrr...

It's frustrating, though, because I'm both slightly smug/pleased with myself for giving up the coffin nails, and also excited about my new hobby and want to babble about it! No fun if the person you're babbling to isn't on board :-(

 

[Midnight]

That's why I come here. I don't have anyone to babble on to about vaping, only my kids, and that feels kinda wrong, in a way. I feel like I kind of encouraging them to take it up if I keep going on about how good it is and how much better it is than smoking.
I guess that's a whole new thread...

 

[Citrus]

Well it's certainly nice to have such a welcoming bunch to babble on to!

 

[Tromain]

My wife loves the fact I don't smoke any more, but still has the odd winge about spending money on my ecig(a whopping £8-10 or so per month..god bless DIY+rebuildables) she just sees me chain vapeing and assumes that there is no difference to when I smoked. So I constantly point out that I'm weaning myself off the nic(down to 6mg now), but will never give up vapeing as it helps me relax and I enjoy the taste. The one that really does it for her though is when I work out the (rough)cigarette equivalent of nic that I'm getting and when she realises I'm having somewhere around 4 fags worth of nic per day compared to the 40-50 per day I was smoking.

So could try that route(check the maths first to make sure your vape equiv is less then the real fags first mind.. otherwise the plan blows up in your face! haha)

 

[Tromain]

Oh.. and she gets fed up of me babbling about ecigs and mods and stuff to.. so I just do it here and live vicariously through all the shinies everyone here has. XD

 

[Citrus]

I'm right down from 20 a day to the nic equivalent of 3.8 a day, which boggles my tiny mind. I think what you say is true - they see you cheerfully blowing out great plumes of "smoke" (and I suppose my husband sees it more than he used to, since I smoked outside but I vape in the house) and it seems like you're smoking the same or more despite the numbers.

[Edit: I also have a clearomiser with a lower nicotine juice, because sometimes I just like to puff away and see clouds. Like you, I'm aiming to cut down the nicotine to nothing eventually, but I dunno that I'll ever give up vaping]