Thursday 1 June 2017

Reefer madness


This may or may not make you smile.

You might remember that I stopped smoking tobacco recently and took up vaping. For the last week or so, I have been noticing that the batteries don't last anything like as long as they did when I first started, and I have taken to carrying a spare one with me when I go to work.

Yesterday I took some extra fluid with me as well, because the day before I had enough power but nothing to use it on.

I noticed that I was using the thing more and more throughout the day until it began to feel like fresh air. I also noticed that I was becoming more irritated by people and things as well as finding it difficult to concentrate on work.

Then last night I looked at the nicotine level on the cut-price fluid that I bought the week before. I had started off on 18 milligrams and inadvertently cut down to 4 without realising it when I bought the last stuff without checking the strength.

One thing this has taught me is that up until now I have not fully understood the nature of my addiction. When feeling normal is unpleasant, you know you are an addict.


23 comments:

  1. I don't understand all this. When I stopped smoking (after about 50 years), I stopped over night. I had no withdrawal symptoms, and I'd smoked non-tipped Gauloises!

    ReplyDelete
  2. After a couple of bottles, that's how.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Your irritability with me reached quite a peak when you first gave up.

      Delete
  3. There seems to be a lot of addicts of one type and another in the blogging world...

    ReplyDelete
  4. When I started reading this, thanks to your title, I thought you were going to say you had started vaping marijuana.

    If you did, I'll bet you wouldn't be irritable for long! ha.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have a friend who gives it to his father who has Alzheimer's. For two hours he is lucid and back in the room again.

      Delete
  5. I did not know there was nicotine involved in vaping. Thought it was just going through the motions of smoking. My husband was so cranky when he'd quit smoking, we'd suggest he start again. It took throat cancer to make him give it up.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There are some people who just use them as dummies, but I want the nicotine.

      Delete
  6. What an interesting fact about the blow and Alzheimer's, I must remember that.
    Briony
    x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Make sure you remember it before you forget it. Better, get your solicitor to write it down for your carer.

      Delete
  7. Oh Tom I am such an innocent. I mistook the 'v' for an 'r' and for a moment wondered just who I was blogging with!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I must be the innocent - I don't know what you mean, Weave!

      Delete
    2. Ah. I now see. Yes, I am a serial vapist.

      Delete
  8. I smoked a lot(!) till 30, stopped over (New Years Eve)-night; did not miss much, but also didn't feel better (and spent the money on other things).
    Last Christmas son offered me a cigarillo - mmh, liked it - he: "One does not inhale, Mama!" when he saw that I did..
    Miss only the cigarettes when I am behind a man who smokes Gitanes or Reval or Gauloises (all my preferred brands).
    Though I do understand that you changed now: but these E-cigarettes look totally un-sexy, Tom! (Sorry).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They are totally unsexy. I bought two to support H.I. - one for her and one for me. I really don't miss tobacco but it has become clear that I would miss nicotine. If I found a source of the genuine Turkish cigarettes which I used to smoke, I would still be smoking.

      Delete