Bangkok Smoking Kid

Vaping is a great product for quitting nicotine. It should definitely be more accepted as such, and not just be seen as an alternative to smoking.

I tried to quit smoking with vaping 3 times before it worked and it was due to a multitude of reasons.

1. Cheap vaping kits. They leak, are hard to change the coils and to fill up with liquid. On my current attempt, I got a proper set (40eu) and made sure it fills up by unscrewing the top and not the whole top bit. It stops leaking, its easier to fill up and its less of a chore.

I think that was the main reason as with cheap kits, they would leak, be hard to maintenance and it was such a hassle that picking up a cigarette and lighting it up was much easier.

2. Flavours, as you mentioned finding a flavour you like and sticking to it is key. I tried many and found just the right flavour level that suits me and it was a huge break through for me.

I started on 12mg nicotine level, lowered to 6mg after 4 weeks, and 6 months later I'm on 3mg and feel so much better. My next step is to go no nicotine vape then kick it entirely.

Before I started smoking (relatively late in life), I didn't really grasp that smoking is non-trivially immediately psychoactive.

Like I thought it was something that you did just to do, and then it quietly wormed some sort of hook into your brain that made you feel bad if you stopped, but the whole thing happened entirely "subconsciously".

Maybe I was just especially retarded, and most people properly understand this.

I grew up in a household where chips, soda, and ice cream were dinner. I've been at points in my life where easily 70% of my daily calories were sugar. My body hurt and I felt like shit, but those moments where I took that first bite of ice cream in an hour were bliss.

Quitting it was fucking painful. I was tired, irritable, and had this constant feeling in the back of my throat of just needing some sweets. I managed to go a whole year without any sweets at all an finally forgot the feeling and managed to lose a bunch of weight, then someone gave me a box of chocolate and I've been trying to quit (and failing) for two years. Whenever I make some progress on quitting, someone offers me some sweets and the cycle starts all over again.

Just looking at the obesity problem in the world, I think loads of people are suffering from an equally debilitating addiction, but they're not targeted by ad campaigns asking them to quit, and they've never tried to do so. People who've tried to lose weight will often say it's incredibly tough, and a lot of experiences seem to align with what smokers describe.

The worst thing about nicotine is how it alters reality so much. It’s like a science fiction mind control nightmare. From the outside I see people standing in the cold with a burning bit of crap in their mouth. To them it is among the most important thing in their lives.

It is why I think we should ban commercial sale of nicotine completely, whether through smoking or vaping. I’m not directing this at you personally, but I’m sick of hearing mind hacked smokers complaining about how hard it is to quit and how good their lives were standing in the cold with a burning piece of crap in their mouth. You want to grow your own tobacco and smoke it, be my guest. But letting someone make money from hacking your brain permanently? That is madness. If the brain was a software product you would urgently patch the nicotine receptor as a critical vulnerability.

The tl;dr is that, for a lot of different reasons that aren't your fault, you've become convinced that quitting smoking is a lot harder than it actually is. If you have any feeling like you would like to quit (or that you think its gross) then go grab the PDF and give it a shot.

I dropped the habit two years ago and have never had a slight urge to try again. The text is a little cringeworthy, but if you can look past it you will see the benefits

There's truth to the joke "quitting is easy, I've done it many times". It's not the quitting part you have to worry about.

I know it will sound too obvious but my thought when I read the above is that the best time to reach people about the dangers of smoking is before they start smoking.

I am not so sure that smokers are aware of the risks of smoking, especially when they first start smoking. A big one a smoking friend told me that he could tell himself was decreased lung capacity. I don't know if this is scientifically proven (anecdotal evidence) but he says he used to swim longer when he was younger (and didn't smoke).

Just spitballing: How do you feel about a ban on buying tobacco related products without a license/prescription? Like you can buy cigarettes and such only if you have a document that says you need it?

If so, doesn't that mean it's something we should probably ban as a society and provide transitional support to help wean people off of it more gracefully? Even if tobacco itself remains an accessible substance, getting rid of pre-rolled cigarettes would probably annoy a large portion of the population into quitting.

I've never been a smoker so I can't really relate, but sugar is addictive as hell and quite terrible for you as well. I try and minimize deserty things and get really annoyed when something I'd like (like a nice dry cracker or a marinated piece of meat) is needlessly slathered in sugar. I, personally, want regulations that would push prepared food back into the realm of healthy because, even if the taste suffers a little, it'll let me relax a bit when trying to consume food healthy while also feeling the time stresses of a full time job & commute.

This choice, like many choices involving vices or other intentional deviations from happiness vs wellbeing, are too often assumed to be made in ignorance. This same misunderstanding also happens when one political persuasion attempts to rationalize the choices of another.

Addiction makes you crave something in an irrational way.

Logic and thinking are not the proper tools to make you stop the craving.

Look at the 12 steps program of AA, there are no "thinking" or "logic" steps.

Recovering from addiction, as well as getting addicted, are mostly social and biological processes.

You might want to read about the Rat Park experiment, here's a quick link: https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/substance-use-disorder/what...

If you are a positive reinforcement type of person, keep a "money and time I didn't spend on cigarettes" and "days of life saved to spend with my kids" counter as a reinforcement every time you log in.

When one accepts that the rational choice is to continue smoking, then it is much easier to deal with the emotions that come with quitting.

That being said, I am a huge fan of nicotine. Gum, patches, vape, snus, are all great. If you want to explore your subconscious then a nicotine patch before bedtime is diving straight into the deep end.

1- every day I'm not smoking has a positive impact on my health. Even if it's a few days

2- I had to make it as easy to quit as it is to restart smoking. Because restarting smoking is too easy and there is nothing I can do about it

3- my environment can make it more easy or more difficult for me to stop. So I had to be ready to stop when the conditions were ideal. For instance, my partner was a smoker too, which made it more difficult for me stop. So when she finally decided to quit smoking, I was able to immediately stop too. We encouraged each other and succeeded together

One redditor told of the time that, when he was a kid, he decided to be goofy and “dress like Uncle”, which naturally included humorously puffing on his pretend “pipe”.

That uncle then had a come-to-Jesus moment and finally quit, from the sight of his nephew seeing him that way.

This is only true at the very beginning of a smoker's habit.

I know a lot of smokers. Exactly zero of them are "willing" to trade the cost for the benefit, for any meaningful definition of "willing".

Addiction is hard. Many addicts rationalize, but few truly "choose".

The cost doesn't come until much later (sometimes never). Most smokers secretly hope they'll never have to pay the piper. For the majority of smokers, they are probably full of regret when the bill finally comes due and cuts their life 20 years short (and/or makes the last few years utter misery).

https://www.forbes.com/sites/danielfisher/2013/12/12/study-f...

so the only solution is to make the product cost so much that the immediate cost becomes the concern or just outright ban it. The US issue is too many states rely on the tax and penalty revenue associated with the products they may be loathe to give it up.

> And calls to the hotline went up 62% in 1 month.

Yes it's addictive, but the first step towards quiting is accepting, or rather convincing yourself, that you need to quit now!

This ad is a step towards that, making people realize that they need to quit.

Once that threshold is crossed, rest follows at it's own pace.

Not exclusively in my experience. Sometimes it's about enjoyment, as is the case with many vices. For many, the consequences are known, and the trade off is consciously chosen (and maybe hedged, e.g. with lowered frequency).