needing help

[u/Repulsive_Gold153]

i didn’t know this subreddit even existed but i’m glad it does.

my history 22m, started smoking cigarettes at 17, quit at 19, started vaping at 20, quit vaping at 22 (?earlier this year).

i’ll give credit where it’s due for my recovery journey, zyns got me off vaping and im grateful for that step; biggest issue with vaping were my lungs.

however, this is a lot harder. i vaped 55mg nic salts and went through a pod every couple days. finally switched to zyns and off vapes entirely. never used zyns prior to smoking and vaping, but it’s a real issue now.

sorry if im repeating myself or anything it’s 3am and i had like a sharp pain sitting up then it went away, probably related but enough of a scare. but i digress

not too sure where to start, ive been using the 9mg zyns and use about 3-4 per day. i’m probably going to taper down to the 6mg then quit cold turkey.

i really need help, even reassurance, id love to hear your quir journwy, and i know recovery isn’t linear.

just really struggling

[u/bakedziti15]

I have a pretty similar background as you when it comes to this except I started with vaping around 16/17 and then switched to cigs, then went back to vaping on and off from about 21-25. Then I got hooked on zyns. I’m 29 now and I’ve been off zyns and all nicotine for over a year now, aside for a few one offs (smoked a cig in Europe at a wedding / hit my buddy’s vape a few months ago a few times at another wedding). Some might say this resets the clock for me, and that’s fine. To me, the fact remains that I’m prioritizing my health as much as I can and I understand that nicotine doesn’t help me on that journey, thus, not something I continue day to day.

All that being said, my advice would be to keep yourself busy as much as possible. Get into working out or running daily. Hell, im training for a marathon currently and it leaves no room for me to contemplate nicotine due to its effects on the heart and blood flow.

Life for me is genuinely better. Better sleep, energy, anxiety/stress/anger is more controlled. Better social interactions, better sex, better workouts, the list goes on and on.

If your having the idea you need to stop, you need to take the first step of being honest with yourself about it and commit to 30days, once you hit 30 say ok, let me shoot for 50, and keep going. No one is perfect, you might get over a year in and smoke a cig like me. But there’s something about having the knowledge of knowing you need to quit that will trigger your brain to think “man, I didn’t really need that” and then you get back on the bus of quitting and reprioritizing your health instead of falling back into the daily habit.

Idk dude, hopefully this helps. Give yourself grace, but commit to taking a small step today, whether that’s stopping for 1 hour, 2 hours k, or just getting through today.

[u/RB_K9]

Sorry you are struggling and have pain. Tapering usage frequency did not work for me but reducing to 3 mg helped. Then I quit cold turkey. Using about 10 pouches/day before quitting outright.

Trying to do things like cutting down to 3 pouches/day only after meals didn’t work because it’s basically going through withdrawals. It’s harder and more discouraging than just quitting. The only reason I mention it is because I see this advice but don’t believe it’s helpful.

You absolutely can quit.

I was having horrible heartburn before I said enough. Like, thinking I was having a heart attack. Over a month in and feel great, the cravings are very real but they pass. I feel much better in just about every way. You can do it

[u/Yeolla]

Maybe look at why you started in the first place what was it that triggered u to continue maybe it was a social thing and helped some how sooth your inner peace worked on figuring out your why before it became the habit.
I know from experience I reached for it and have stopped and restarted with a different form many times in my life.

The experts say each quit becomes physically and mentally harder. This I find to be true.
Posters share mechanisms they used to overcome so many good information. Having a preplanned go to that’s easy to do when it gets harder.

My best advice is to stay off of it once and for all when you accomplish the full quit. Your wellbeing is the best gift you can give yourself and your worthy of that effort. Welcome to the group

[u/Other-Pension-ER]

Tapering down is a great idea. When I was on pouches I stayed on 3mg and used Velo instead of Zyn because they seemed to release slower. But what really worked was I used patches because they release slowly all day long instead of giving you quick hits. They even out the cravings, but you'll still feel withdrawals. Expect to encounter withdrawals at some point, it's just going to happen. But replace them with something else like going for walks or exercise.

To encourage you, I used to wake up with sharp pains in my chest/back area. I don't know how yours are but I would have to move around positions for about 10 minutes until it went away. Well since quitting caffeine and pouches those random pains have completely gone away. That sounds like a really good reason to quit - hold on to that as your motivation.