In some respects no thing is harmless, and I stress the reduction aspect. The 'best' or only 'candidates' for vaping are current smokers. I use/enjoy nicotine not against my better judgement, some would call that denial , lol.

I'm on day 4 of no cigarettes/nicotine or substitutes. It's going to stick this time I'm making sure of that. And I feel more calm about it than I did on my first attempt.. it just feels right, like the last thorn of addiction is being removed.

There are of course other addictive behaviors I must be careful about.. mainly eating too much sugar at this point. Weight loss was my favorite part of quitting drinking and I'm not willing to gain it back.

Anyway in all honesty the thing I don't like about vaping or other substitutes is that to me I feel like it would be easier to justify having a real cigarette at some point.. like "I'm already doing this what's the harm in just one". Of course I know that's not the case for many many people though.

I really tried with no substitutes. I think that's the best way to go. It got me off the nicotine. I can't vape. It gives me horrid anxiety. I must be allergic to it or something. Even zero nicotine caused anxiety. I'm going to try to reduce these green tea cigarettes in a couple of weeks when I know all the nicotine is out of my system. I'm smoking about half of what I was smoking. It would be so nice to be free from all of it.

Quitting smoking was the best decision I ever made. It wasn't easy but keeping busy and yelling at myself "NOT AN OPTION" each time I craved, got me through it.

I am cheering you on, MG, and promise you that in time, you won't want a cigarette and the urges will disappear. Cross my heart. For me it took about 6 months, cold turkey and not so much as a puff.

Go MG! :c014:

Pick something you would like to treat yourself to but won't because you think it's a bit too expensive then for every time you don't buy a pack of smokes put the money in a jar.... watch it grow and before you know it, you ll have the money for that new tablet or that fabulous (and expensive) jacket.

https://s31.postimg.cc/fi4ifai2z/money.jpg

I knocked off the cigarettes about 15 years ago. The whole idea, like with booze, was to give up for good.

The withdrawals/cravings were really bad but died down over the course of a few weeks. Then something began happening which I didn’t connect to the smoking until several years later. I became angry, short tempered, irritable. It was serious enough for me to talk to the doc about it. He diagnosed clinical depression, and offered what doctors offer. No use to me.

It cleared up after about three years then one day a friend told me of a similar experience. She quit smoking and went through three years of hell too.

So what was really going on? Once the physical addiction was dealt with I was left with the reason I smoked. It was to deal with stress, like a safety valve, if I felt pressurized, a cigarette would relieve the pressure.

When there was no safety valve, the pressure built until I exploded, figuratively speaking. Much like alcohol had been my solution to life, cigarettes had been my solution to anger, and when I stopped, it all came out.

Coincidentally, relief from the diagnosed depression came at about the same time I became more active in AA. I had been having a little holiday there too.

This is the method my father used to quit smoking almost 40 years ago. One day he got sick (flu or something) and just didn't feel like smoking. He was a 3+ pack a day smoker (Benson and Hedges) at the time. After that he just socked away the money he would have spent on smokes and it was a little "mad money" for him. He continued doing this for probably 10 years. Eventually he was in a financial position that it wasn't that big of a deal to have the extra cigarette money, but by then it was a pretty ingrained habit, He hasn't picked up a smoke since that day

MG,

I’m glad you found Allen Carr’s book helpful. His alcohol book is what gave me the kick to finally put that poison down. Once I made the connection that alcohol did nothing positive for me, I was done.