Quitting smoking.

Whilst I have and would never judge anyone for smoking and have many friends and family who do smoke, having never personally smoked I find the smell and cost of smoking rather unappealing. As a non-smoker who hates the smell I always thought that I would never date a smoker, as the smell would give any potential partner an air of unattractiveness to me.

So when I met Lee and found out that he was a smoker – one who had smoked for many years and the habit of smoking was strong – I was surprised to see myself overlooking his smoking and not being as bothered by or put off him because of it as I always thought I would be. As I had an instant connection to him and then fell in love with him I didn’t care that he smoked – my love for him blinded me to his habit.

As a person who has never smoked in her whole life I cannot really understand or pass judgement on how easy or hard it is to quit smoking. Whilst I loved Lee regardless of his smoking and accepted him habit and all, and would never dream of giving him an ultimatum to quit or not be with me as it’s up to the person to decide if they want to give up smoking or not; deep down I always hoped one day he would want to kick the habit.

When we started a family Lee's thoughts on smoking changed and he started to consider quitting for the sake of our children and to improve his own health in the hope of being fit and healthy for his family for years to come.

Having smoked for many years since he was a teenager going cold turkey seemed like a daunting prospect so Lee looked at the different options available to help him quit. Whilst he did consider using licensed nicotine replacement therapies such as NRT, gum or skin patches after researching options online and talking to others who had quit smoking cigarettes he decided to try e-cigarettes. In fact a article by the British Heart Foundation to mark No Smoking Day earlier this month highlighted that studies have shown that using an e-cigarette when trying to quit smoking improved the success of doing so by 50% compared to going cold turkey or using a licensed nicotine product.

To help him find the best electronic cigarette to switch to he read e cigarette reviews that helped him pick the best e cig brands to try. Once he had looked at the best e cigs available on the market he found a brand of e cigs that appealed to him and attempted to make the switch from traditional cigarettes to e cigs.

Even though he found e cigarettes strange to begin with he soon found that he had completely given up smoking traditional cigarettes with the experience of quitting them not as stressful or hard as he had thought it would be thanks to switching to e cigs. Whilst e cigs have the added health benefit of not containing tobacco which reduces the health risks of toxins from burning tobacco and second hand vapor is considered safer than second hand smoke (Lee has never smoke either traditional cigarettes or e cigarettes in the house or around the children regardless) he wants to be free of smoking any form of cigarette altogether and hopes that now he has quit smoking traditional cigarettes and transitioned to e cigs he will find it easier to quit smoking altogether when ready to do so to further improve his health and well-being. For him using e-cigs helped him quit smoking traditional cigarettes and he appreciates the benefits of smoking e cigs compared to traditional cigarettes. 

Have you or any of your loved ones any experience of using e-cigarettes to quit smoking?