Nordelen began smoking at 14 years old, popping out from school to buy a single and a redheaded match. Singles led to packs of tens, which in turn became packs of tobacco at the local technical college. After successfully quitting, Nordelen experienced the urge to relapse: “Work life starts going to shit and I get all stressed. The urge to light up comes back fairly heavily.”
A promo email dropped just by chance, plugging a cigalike. It worked as an intervention, preventing relapse to the smokes. CE4 atomisers were side-lined for a Nautilus and an iStick, then Nordelen discovered Planet of the Vapes: “A very helpful community with some really good banter.”
Unusually for an online forum, some people go by their real names – people like Keiran Woodward: “I started smoking when I was 16 after I'd joined the Navy, purely because I needed something to spend my money on during my first trip to the NAFFI.”
Warship fags were cheap and encouraged a fifteen-year habit, £16 for 200 to begin with, “The last sleeve I bought before my last ship decommissioned cost £38.” Keiran’s motivation to switch to vaping was prompted by the cost of smoking on civvy street.
“It’s the best decision I've made. I now enjoy vaping enough to not want to smoke. This online community we have at POTV has been absolutely fantastic for me in confirming that the decision I have made to bin the fags is the right one.”
jj87 had been a smoker for fifteen years too, but the birth of a child prompted the urge to quit for good. An old ce4 pen set up combined with cheap Hangsen juice was good enough to get the ball rolling, “until I joined POTV a couple of years ago and discovered a whole world of excellent juice and miles better set-ups.”
“I have no more coughing fits, can taste stuff again and best of all I don't smell like an ashtray.”
Forum user andi mac smoked from 12 all the way through to 29 yrs-old until he quit cold turkey. But, like so many of us, life happened and this only lasted for five months. He ended up on three packs a day for another two years until trying vaping.
Andy typifies many who don’t find a working set-up first time around. Twelve months away from smoking ended with a relapse but, early in 2018, “I ended up in hospital for a week with double pneumonia.”
With the help of vaping and the support from forum members, “I’ve now finally managed to kick the stinkies into touch.”
Resources:
- POTV forum: planetofthevapes.co.uk/forum
- National No-Smoking Day - https://www.todayistheday.co.uk
![Dave Cross avatar](https://images.planetofthevapes.co.uk/101583/picture-19040-1687785177.jpg)
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
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