John Praizi

I'd say the switch I'm dying to make is demonstrably this or that much safer, but then the mods will just delete my post again and accuse me of promoting this or that practice. I've come to hate smoking during the last couple of months. Human lungs were not evolved to inhale anything other than clean air. I hate what's become of my life. That's why I've drastically cut down (I couldn't sleep properly the first two days) and why I will eventually beat this cursed habit. Be positive fellas and don't hammer me like I'm the CEO of Big Tobacco because, believe me, I'm not.

Bloody right I am! And again I'm not saying vaping is 100% safe, just that it's significantly safer than smoking, and that the significance, demonstrated by national and international health organizations, cannot be brushed aside with arguments like "who knows what we'll discover about vaping 2000 years from now!". Yes smoking was considered harmless by many in the past, but the consideration was not medically examined, unlike vaping. Countries simply didn't posses the tools or statistics to figure out what was harmful and what wasn't, at least not as much as they do today.

I'm sorry did you read what I wrote? Did I say it's not smoking that destroys your lungs? I said clearly that it wasn't the nicotine, but the other (countless) toxic chemicals in tobacco smoke that harm your lungs. You can burn tea leaves, inhale their smoke and expect to end up with pretty much the same diseases that come from smoking tobacco, and for the same reason; combustion. It's an established fact that smoking-related illnesses have very little to do with nicotine.

It's 95% safer than smoking. These numbers come from the NHS (their online website), and if it's good enough for the NHS, it's good enough for me. I'm not hell bent on smoking or vaping (I don't even vape), but in my attempt to quit smoking I'm trying to be realistic, and finding a replacement for nicotine (vaping in this case) seems like a realistic choice. But that's not why I'm here. I'm only here to know whether people who (significantly) cut back go through the same physical withdrawal symptoms as people who quit. Somehow, and judging by the black and white, all or nothing approach I see from the members, I doubt I'll get an honest answer. I'm not advocating "cutting back" as a permanent solution to the smoking problem. No one's that stupid and even one puff of smoke a day can create long-term problems. I'm only arguing that a drastic change of the amount of smoke intake can, over a long period, lead to the same withdrawal symptoms as quitting (withdrawal symptoms, not the full health benefits, which isn't the same).

Well it is winter and I tend to be paranoid and blame all my ills on smoking. Mostly I've been wrong (like when I had Covid-19 and thought it was a smoke-induced disease that finally got to me), but I'm not gonna wait till I'm actually right (and there will be a point when I'm actually gonna be right). Let's not kid ourselves, smoking 3 cigarettes a day and 30 are not the same and never can be the same. I know enthusiastic ex-smokers tend to disregard this fact and draw a black and white picture to crown their victory over smoking, but all or nothing doesn't help. Nicotine may be addictive and unhealthy, but it's not what destroys your lungs and organs when you smoke, even though it's what you crave the most. That's why national health services around the world have something called nicotine replacement therapy, and it works better than cold turkey. Vaping is used as a NRT. That's not to say vaping is safe, but even some foods might carry more risk than vaping, and comparing the effects of low-temperature vaporized liquids on your lungs to that of tar, carbon monoxide and other toxic chemicals produced by tobacco combustion (or any other kind of combustion for that matter) is simply mad and unwarranted.

Three to four weeks? That's exactly how long it took for the mucus to kick in after I drastically cut down. I wonder if anyone else here has been through the same thing. Are you sure the cilia don't regenerate, even in part, when the lungs "catch a break" from all-day smoking over long periods (weeks and months)? I'm not here to promote vaping, I don't even vape, but I was just saying, the NHS over here (like most or all national health services) says it's 95% safer than smoking.

Hi there fellas, This is my first post here and I do wanna say I'm glad I found this place. So many things which are otherwise confusing can become crystal clear when there's a supportive community with the relevant experience. I just hope that my time here reflects positively on my smoking habit. The reason I'm posting this thread is, like the title says, post-cessation symptoms. This isn't to say I've given up the habit of smoking yet, but I am doing my best to cut down before eventually switching to vaping because, let's be honest, the cold turkey, all or nothing approach doesn't work for most people, which brings me to my topic and the kind of smoking practice I'm hooked on and why I'm looking to get off it. I'm a Dokha smoker, a one-hit but high nicotine tobacco which has recently become a trend in the UK. Instead of smoking a whole cigarette to get your nicotine fix with all the tar, carbon monoxide and bad stink involved, you'd take a couple of draws from this ultra-high nicotine (and in all likeliness, high tar) tobacco and it would be hours (like 4 or 5) before you take another hit. It was supposed to be an alternative (by no means safe) to all-day smoking. But around 5 months ago when I lost my job due to Covid-19, I found myself taking a puff every hour. I'd smoke whenever I was about to switch from one task to another, go to the bathroom or come out of it, before sleeping and upon waking up. It was bad. The craziest part was waking up in the middle of the night just to get the nicotine fix. Like I said, it was crazy and nothing good can come out of it. Things changed when, around 7 or 9 weeks ago, I got fed up with myself and realized how dependent I'd become, how much brown mucus I was spitting out (not that much but still alarming) and how thick my saliva had become. I knew smoking (at this rate, at least) wasn't something I could sustain without wrecking havoc on my health, so I decided to finally cut down and go back to intermittent smoking, like back in the old days when I started the whole thing. It wasn't easy, and the "I want this RIGHT now" voice in my head was strong (at times it didn't let me sleep), but I did it. Initially I'd spend at least 4 hours of my day not smoking, until eventually I'd spend most of my day not smoking (I'd smoke in the morning, then abstain for 6 hours, take a hit and then abstain for another 3 hours). I knew I'd come far when, this morning, I was able to resist that "morning hit/fix" and went for 8 hours without event thinking of my Dokha pipe. This was a milestone (the first time in 5 months I didn't smoke immediately upon waking up) and I have every intention if keeping it up. But like all things in life, progress isn't linear and there's always something to upset you. Yes, I've been able to cut back significantly, but instead of rewarding me with better health, my body decided to respond in a different way; more mucus and a new cough! Not that I didn't have the brown mucus from time to time even before I cut down, but this time it was consistent and a lot more. It's no surprise to me that many heavy smokers who decide to quite go through a period of "cleansing", where the lungs start to flush out all the poison from tobacco smoke (mucus, coughing and even flu-like symptoms for many). I just didn't know it happened to people who cut down as well. Or does it? I mean I really hope all this is just my lungs seizing on this opportunity of being smoke-free for most of the day for the first time in months to do their job which otherwise they couldn't!