Our Stories
Planet of the Vapes forum members share their success stories of how vaping helped them to quit smoking tobacco 1/5
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by Dave Cross
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Planet of the Vapes was created in 2012 with the sole intention of giving vapers a welcoming place to share stories, ask questions and offer support to smokers looking to try quitting through switching to vaping. Over the last six years we’ve see such success with smokers being able to transition away from tobacco-related harm that we decided to catalogue our tales of achievement.
Junglist, one of the owners of Planet of the Vapes, tells his tale: “I had just turned 40, I had been smoking since I was 13 and smoked about 10 roll ups a day. I had a bad smoker's cough and frequent tight chest, I had two young daughters and I felt guilty that I still smoked - but despite quit attempts with patches and cold turkey I kept coming back to smoking.”
It’s an experience familiar to many, and so is what was to come…
“A friend told me about vaping and Planet of the Vapes and sent me a simple set up - a few tanks, a pen style battery and a few eliquids. Giving up was fairly easy, I had cravings for cigarettes still but the fact that I didn't have to sneak away for a smoke or smell of cigarettes gave me a massive confidence boost and being able to switch flavours when the cravings were at their worst helped me through. Being able to talk about vaping on POTV was a massive help as well and a good distraction from thoughts of smoking. Within a couple of weeks I didn't want to smoke at all. I am still overjoyed that I don't smoke anymore, I thought I was going to be a smoker until the day I died.”
“I quit smoking in April 2014 thanks to vaping.”
Thanks to vaping, Chris K managed to quit in 2013: “I'd tried vaping in 2009/2010 but the devices available back then just weren't enough to keep me off the cigarettes so went back to smoking.”
“I started smoking at 14 years old and turned 28 in 2013 when I stopped the cigarettes altogether. From 14 to 26 I didn't really notice much impact on my health, I felt fine but slowly noticed my fitness drop and picked up a nasty cough at 27/28. Final push for me was my partner who didn't smoke and encouraged me to give vaping another try. Best decision I made.”
One of the reasons vaping also works is the community support vapers offer each other, as Chris continues: “I discovered POTV when I wanted to get some recipes for new ELiquid. Assumed I'd just lurk about but ended up getting involved to such a degree, I've made many friends on here and met many in the real world. POTV has become invaluable to me for both information and a great social experience.”
Forum member Ectovaper smoked from the age of 18, up to three packs a week with more at the weekend. He finally quit through vaping in May 2015, and explains how being able to tailor a vape to individual preference played a part: “I had actually starting vaping on and off for a few years but only really stopped completely in 2015 when I switched from Stock Coils to Rebuildables. My other half who I had just started dating told me she did not want to be with someone that smoked and therefore I decided to quit completely and stick with vaping.”
“Since then I feel so much better because of it and cannot touch a cigarette. I discovered POTV after searching for a vaping forum that was currently active and was mainly based in the UK that I could chat to other people about my experiences and possibly pass on knowledge to other ex-smokers.”
Big Cloud quit smoking this October by switching to vaping. “I had a horrific smokers cough, was wheezing all the time, and was stinking of fag smoke. I tried various ways of quitting beforehand - patches (NiQuitin etc) - they did nothing. I still smoked even with the patches on. I went to the doctors and tried Champix on more than one occasion, but it made me feel sick. I even went to a clinical trial at Guildford University and that didn’t work either.”
Big Cloud’s experience demonstrates just how difficult it can be for long-term smokers to quit using the traditional approaches.
“My friend suggested I try vaping as this was how he quit. He let me have a go on his vape and I liked it. It took me a few more weeks and I thought id give it a go, so he showed me a few vape shops. I went in and got a starter kit for my birthday kindly paid for by my missus, Thanks Babe :).”
“I have now been cigarette-free for just over 2 months and honestly I don’t even think about fags. I think with me it’s a case of having the hand actions and blowing out the vapour, in fact it’s been so easy wish I’d tried it years ago. I love the flavours you can get with the eliquids and it also helps that you can choose your strength of nicotine. I started off on 18mg and now half the time I forget to add the nicotine to the eliquid. GOD BLESS VAPING and PLANET OF THE VAPES!”
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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