Quitting Vaping

Ok, so this year I started vaping, the disposable type, on nights out, because i could do it anywhere without being discovered, i searched for that morning high everyday, which at it's worst point turned into vaping an Elfbar disposable vape a day. There was a lot of stress in my life at this time and vaping I thought got me through it. I'm well away from that now, but still addicted to the nicotine. Now i'm suffering from shakes, heart palpitations and increased anxiety / panic attacks. Has anyone managed to quit these? If so how?

Today I've contacted my doctor for an appointment to discuss, maybe i need some CBT.

I managed to quit for 4 days a week ago, and last night I swore that i'd give up. I've not vaped for 14 1/2 hours as I type this.

One question I have is I know that disposable vapes are full of nasty shit other than nicotine, am I better of going cold turkey as I currently have, or would nicotine gum / patches be helpful at all?

Any help is greatly received.

Jazzy

Firstly, well done.

No experience of vaping, but having quit smoking many, many, times before managing to "quit for good" I would say there is no right answer.

One of the first times I seriously quit I found patches really helpful. This was when you could still smoke indoors so it helped me to not smoke on nights out, take the edge of and break the habit. Most importantly the habit of buying a "pack for the night", then having some left over to smoke the next day... and hey presto you're still smoking.

So I would say if there is a ritualistic element to your addiction (there always was for me - zipo, tapping, holding packets, rolling, etc.) then not worrying about the physical addiction while dealing with the habit is helpful.

However, if this isn't much of a factor I believe you're best cutting it out completely. It is also useful to work out what the events / patterns are that lead up to you vaping. Mitigating those is a useful way to prevent relapse.

^ this.

The best way to quit nicotine is the way that works for you. I used to be a heavy smoker and tried and failed to quit so many times. NRT never really worked for me. In the end, cold turkey with a fair bit of mental preparation was what got me over the line. Everybody is different with this one.

I wonder if the Alan Carr approach has been updated for vaping?

Appears it has https://www.allencarr.com/easyway-stop-vaping/

When I went out before, I'd buy a pack for the night, but that was it, it could be months before the next time i went out and had a cigarette, i didn't want to smoke at home or work. Vapes allow you to get round all the reasons like taste / smell that cigarettes cause.

I'm constantly feel like i'm about to have a heart attack, which I can only assume is the nicotine craving / impact of the nasty shit of vapes etc.

Vapes allow you to

You've listed a set of conditions that put you off smoking outside of social events. They are not objective truths. You need to work out equivalents for vaping.

I'd leverage the awful feeling you have at the moment. You can't realistically continue a happy and productive life feeling like you're going to have a heart attack.

The event that helped me stop was a 4 day wedding and road trip where I smoked so much that at the end I simply could not smoke anymore after that. It coincided with meeting my OH who didn't like smoking and coming up to a personal milestone after which I'd always maintained I'd stop.

Thanks that's really helpful, I think what I am indeed currently leveraging is the fact I don't want to feel like I currently do, ever again. It's horrible.