Like most people on this tread, I too started smoking at age 15. I also smoked a 1-2 packs a day as time went on, more when I was drinking beer on other things.36 years of that nasty stickes. I have tryed every thing that the FDA had appoved to help people stop smoking.The patch gums, hipnotices. I try the the pill Chantex. and that was realy had , My wife told to start smoking or she could not handle the side affectes. ( it was bad stuff ) It was not untill my doctor sent me to a cancer center to do blood work. There the found white & red blood count was up or down ( forget now) . But that scared the hell out of me.The only thing that was out at the time was cigarette like vape. Just didnāt think that would work. I had to go to florida where my mom had hip surgary, and you know moms. hated to see me killing my shelf. She had a freind that Quit smoking with a vape pin. So when we went to a big flea market , I stoped at one of the booth and starded talking to the people there , and they informed me all about Vaping. so i thought for 30 buck with small started kit, I would Have to try. Wow with the flavors nic , it was a game changer. They said that a 10ml bottle of 18mg was = to a carton the $ signs was in my head. That was 4 years ago. Thank to Vaping I came home 3 weeks later a non cigarette smoker. My wife was just floored that I was able to but the butts down. So I got her a starter kit she love it also. When I got back I had a appointment with the cancer center, did blood wook, and the white and red blood count was down to normal. The doctor ask me what had change in my life, and I told him that I had stopped smoking and started vaping. He was Like what is vaping.Now I think he is giving other people that was still smoking the info that I had told him . Iām down to 2mg of nic. now THANKS TO VAPING.
Ok guys, gals, there are many of you who have not opened up and told us your story. Your story could potentially inspire others to quit smoking cigarettes too. Please take the time to tell your story both for yourself, and for othersā¦
[quote=āringling, post:22, topic:43929ā]
Please take the time to tell your story
[/quote]Alright then 
I started smoking at the age of 9, alway rolled my own. I would steal tobacco from my stepfather and when he switched to cigars I stole those. Sometimes I had a pack of my own. I remember using newspaper to roll up if I had no rolling paper.
I smoked 44 years. The last of those years I had drastically cut my smoking to about 5 or 6 a day and when somewhere else where smoking was not allowed I had no problem not smoking at all.
I was told about e-cigs but had no intention to stop smoking because I liked my smoke and I wasnāt concerned about any health issues since my intake was very little. The reason I cut down was because I have chronic hyperventilation and when I smoked a lot I had trouble breathing at night. The one thing I dreaded was choking, I like my air 
2-9-2015 I bought a cigalike on a whim. I had one roll up that day and one the next and even compared with the crappy ciagalike it tasted like ass. That was my last one. I have rapidly proceeded from cigalike to ego to RBA and never looked back. The smell of cigarette smoke makes me sick. My breathing has improved and the Raynauds disease that Iāve been suffering from for over 20 years is not as severe as it was when I smoked. All in all Iām a happy camper with my vape.
I cannot say that Iāve saved money not smoking, Iāve spend a hell of a lot of money on mods, tanks, PG/VG, flavours and nicotine, but I have an enormous stash that will last me a very long time and most of all Iām enjoying myself.
This is what my hands and feet would look like when I still smoked
I still suffer from it, but not as bad as this anymore.
Ok, ok @ringling I get itā¦ 
I started smoking when I was 16 to spite an ex-boyfriend. Worst. Reason. Ever. Like most stupid teenagers and addicts, I had myself convinced it was temporary and I could quit whenever I wanted. Until I tried and realized it wasnāt that simple. Over the years I managed to quit a couple times, but it never really stuck. I tried lots of things: cold turkey, meds, gum, hard candy, chewing straws, therapy, hypnosis, and even subbing with things like pipe smoking or snus. Nothing stuck for more than 6 months. I just loved smoking too much. It was my best friend and the one steady thing in a life that was in constant turmoil. I always knew when things were rough I could go out and smoke. I never got to that point where I hated smoking. I had moments when I knew it was stupid and it made me feel like a jerk that I couldnāt kick it, but I kept crawling back.
In 2009 I saw an ad for Blu electronic cigarettes. Being a tech junkie, I immediately began researching. For about two months I read everything I could: what the best models were, what kind of flavors I could get, what the drawbacks were, etc. In September, I bought myself my first kit, a 901, and some liquid so I could refill my cartridges myself. I didnāt really intend on quitting smoking, I just wanted it for those times when I didnāt feel like going outside. For the first day I did both, the next day I smoked a couple cigarettes but mostly vaped, and by the third day I didnāt even want a cigarette. I couldnāt believe it. I tried smoking a couple weeks later and was immediately disgusted and and felt sick. For Christmas, I moved up to a KR-808 kit with cartomizers. The cartomizers and batteries felt like they lasted forever. I stuck around forums and chat rooms talking about mods like putting nylon mesh in your cartridges instead of the polyfill because it wicked better and didnāt burn. People were talking about building box mods and new stuff coming out. I heard people were making their own juice, but I wasnāt really interested. I was happy with my setup and the juice my vendor made.
Then, disaster. I left my ex shortly after and moved across the country with my sister who smoked. Access to cigarettes was greater than access to batteries and juice so I picked up smoking again. I stuck with vaping, though, and did both a lot of the time. After starting smoking again, vaping to quit became a lot harder. The equipment I had just wasnāt cutting it anymore.
Lots of life happened and I wound up living with a friend who smoked. In Nov 2011 I got my first eGo setup. I stuck with cartomizers and used the little 650 batteries with the cone. I liked the atomizers, but they just never felt like they lasted long enough. Then I got bigger batteries and was really happy. I still smoked, especially socially, but it was much less and I was on the road to quitting again. August 2012, after spending the summer with my sister, I came home and decided I was done smoking. I havenāt touched a cigarette since. In Feb 2013 I found bottom coil clearomizers. No more cartos, all I had to do was change the coil. I thought Iād reached Vaporvana. I used eGos, VW eGos, and eGo twist batteries with the BCCs and was pretty happy. I switched to a Protank right before I got my first box mod (my Dovpo TC-50) and sub-ohm tank (Kanger Subtank Mini). Now I have an aromamizer on my Dovpo and a crown on my eVic VTC mini. Iām loving it.
I started making my own liquid in Jan 2014 after realizing I was allergic to the Hangsen liquid Iād been buying. It started as an effort to avoid buying retail liquid to save money and to try and clone the Coconut Rum liquid my vendor made but quit selling. I started with about 6 flavors and a little bottle of nicotine and PG. I never thought Iād get to the point where Iād buy flavors by the dozens and Nic, PG, and VG by the liters. Have I truly reached Vaporvana, yet? I doubt it. But Iām thrilled with the journey. And I still havenāt gotten that Coconut Rum just rightā¦
Since everyone else has chimed in I will post my story here too.
I smoked a pack and a half a day. Sometimes two. I started when I was 16. I quit when I was 39 when I almost died from Double Pneumonia. I had Pneumonia 4 times in 5 years, all of which landed me in the hospital for an extended stay. The last time I went to the hospital I lit a cigarette shortly after leaving my home. I took one drag and threw the lighter and the brand new pack of Marlboro Reds out of the window. It was one of the few times in my life I have littered and I excused myself for doing so. Upon arriving at the hospital I was immediately checked into a room. After 20 minutes or so I was being transported via ambulance to Methodist Hospital in Indy.
I was put in a room and hooked up to all the usual hoses and monitors. Within an hour I was falling asleep. I donāt know how long I was out, but I will never forget being woke up by about 4 nurses with worried looks on their faces. They were unplugging me and moving me to ICU. They said my heart rate was over 200 BPM. Afib I think they said it was. It was at that time, I was the most fearful of what may happen as I had ever been.
A week in ICU, and another week in the hospital and I was all better. I went home and I knew I would never smoke again. It was as if my brain had been completely rewired. I donāt really know how to explain it. Life was good it seemed until a week or so later, and my wife was trying to cook something on the stove. It was a hot, humid Summer day. I guess the humidity got to me along with the smoke. I started gasping for air. It was as if the air I was taking in contained no oxygen at all. I could breath, but I felt completely out of breath. I told my wife to call 911 as I ran out the back door.
She thought I was joking. I sat outside for 10 minutes fearing for my life. I was surely turning blue. I felt so helpless and I really thought that was the end. But the fresh air outside slowly improved my breathing. I went back into the house shortly after, complaining to my wife for not believing me and I went straight to the bathroom and got the Nebulizer and set myself up with a dose of Albuterol. All was better. That happened a dozen or so more times the first year. It slowly got better and I havenāt had a spell like that for a few years now.
I am now 45. I went 5 and a half years without a cigarette. Not even a drag. I still sat outside with the smokers. I let people smoke in my car with the window down. And I never once felt the desire to light up until last year. Life, and everything I was dealing with had me not caring any more. I wanted to start smoking again. And I went a few weeks fighting the desire. I missed smoking, because I also smoked cigars on occasion. I loved it. But thankfully a new friend I met at my new job was a vaper. He was moving up to a new mod and tank so I asked if I could buy his old one. I started vaping in June of 2015.
I have since tried a few cigarettes, just because I knew it wouldnāt affect me. And it didnāt. I actually didnāt like them at all. Vaping tastes so much better, and the flavors are so endless. Itās better than any cigarette or cigar I ever smoked. But thanks to vaping, I know I can now enjoy a nice cigar and not have any fear of becoming a smoker again. I can now be perfectly free with my love of smoking, but in a much healthier way. That being said, I still havenāt smoked a cigar. But the day will come that I wonāt have to pass up a nice Cuban and a bourbon for fear of the tobacco taking control of my life again.
My best friend smoked for 20+years, last Christmas day, as a gift, I gave him a E-cig (Joyetech eVic-VTC Mini Kit) and E-juice (6ml nicotine) bought from Vapesourcing. To my surprised, he smoked this E-cig for only one week, then quitted smoking (both E-cig and Cigarattes). Interestingā¦ I think, itās not the gift worked. Itās his mind worked.
I quit on 8/1/15 after 25 (mostly) uninterrupted years of smoking.
Both of my parents smoked, so, I grew up around it, and, to be honest, romanticized it. Iām still a little embarrassed when I think about how annoyingly epicurean I was about it, too. So much of my identity was tied up in it. I bought myself an expensive antique cigarette case and a nice Zippo when I was 17 and carried them with me for most of my life. I rolled my own, and insisted on very specific brands of papers, charcoal filters, and a blend of tobaccos that could only be bought in ONE shop in my state. I thought I was so smart with all the money I saved, the relative āhealth benefitsā of avoiding āpacksā, and the superior deliciousness of my skillfully-rolled squares. What a dork.
After several attempts to quit in the past, I scaled my cigarette use down to what I deemed a manageable level, and vowed never to bother trying again. It was my husband and my best friend from highschool that turned that around. My husband, who was never a cigarette smoker, was always troubled by my addiction, though he never nagged me about it. He did, however, pick up anā¦ ermā¦ herbal vaporizer early that summer that came with a free cartomizer intended for e-liquid use. He encouraged me to dig up one of my leftover bottles of e-juice that had been sitting, abandoned in a cabinet from an earlier, failed quit attempt and give it a try. It was, admittedly, light-years better than the terrible cig-a-like I had tried previously, but I wasnāt really interested, so I fended him off.
Cut to the last day of July. I was tipsy Facebooking and saw that my best friend from highschool had posted from a restaurant; āAbout to break my three week stretch and have a cigarette. Someone talk me down.ā So, I shot back; āIāll make you a deal. You donāt smoke that cigarette, and I promise this one I just rolled will be the last one I ever have. Letās do it together.ā She took me up on it, much to my horror, and before I knew it, I was running down the battery of my husbandās herbal vaporizer with a carto full of prime steeped Maple French Toast juice. It was so much better than a cig-a-like. Turns out, was a terrible dry herb vaporizer, but, bless it, because it got me back on the path.
Within a few days, I was lurking the ecig subreddits and ordering my first proper setup and bothering the awesome people at my local B&M with a million questions. I did slip up once after about a month. I was convinced I was āmissing somethingā (turned out to be tobacco MAOIs), so I rolled a butt and forced myself to smoke it to the end, even though every puff disgusted me. I was a little freaked out that I no longer had my old reliable friend cigarettes to turn to anymore, but, that was the last time for good. I honestly havenāt missed them at all since, and this is the first time in my life I can say with 100% certainty that I will never, ever go back. I never imagined Iād get here.
Since then, Iāve graduated to coil-building, DIY, and even managed to help a very small handful of other people make the switch, most notably, my dad, a 50+ year P-A-D smoker. My friend, unfortunately, went back to smoking a couple of weeks after our little FB pact. I donāt blame her at all. She dropped a lot of money on a very bad cig-a-like which made her as miserable as mine did years ago. Sheāll come back around, though, on her own time. She knows she can come to me for hardware recommendations, and, thanks to you guys and the fine people of reddit, I can ply her with a wealth of extremely delicious recipes that I can whip up on a moments notice in her nic level of choice.
Iām sorry for writing such a frigginā book, but, my level of enthusiasm for vaping and DIY is utterly out of hand, and my incredible gratitude to THIS AMAZING COMMUNITY knows no bounds. I cannot possibly thank you all enough.
Please do not be sorry for the length of your post. I personally enjoyed your story. Not everyone has the cajones or is willing to spend the time to tell their story and I applaud those who do. Thank you very much for yoursā¦
Heh! Bless you, ringling! 
ā¦and this is what keeps folks off the stinkies, so, donāt ever lose that momentum!
Welcome to ELR! 
yup, my wife still smokes, and believe it or not, its starting to stink more and more, and I smell so GOOD 
Thank you for the warm welcome!
Congratulations and welcome. Love your story. 
Cheers, Pattie, thanks!
I sucked on the deadly sticks for 45 years ! Picked up a cheap atomisor 10months ago and never had the urge from that day to punish my body any more with shoving those smelly heartkillers in my mouth rWhy do the media andgoverment not wake up andjoin this game changing revolution it will save millions of lives and billions of pounds in our health service ?? Keep whackin them clouds my dripdippy friends xx
Oh and I noiw build and drip, new to site but will stick a few recipes up soon xx Bang em out ya drip dips x
9/28/15
Had my last cigarette, after 15 years of smoking, on my way to the local vape shop to buy my first device. Iāve gone from 3mg nic to 1mg since then as well.
Maybe smoking is the subject but tobacco is the root. I quit chewing 2 cans of Copenhagen a day for a kanger pro tank 3 and flavor west cinnamon roll at 25%. Things have changed since then but I have yet to try Copenhagen again. Although I find that my palette to generally be more skewed than others.
Chewing tobacco is every bit as bad for you as smoking. Congrats on kickin the dip!
I agree completely. I did have a friend that died from mouth cancer caused by the use of chewing tobacco. It is a painful and quite frankly nasty death since the cancer eats beyond your mouth and gums. Itās just a terrible way to die. I too congratulate @maxxslack on quiting the chewā¦