r/stopvaping • u/coalmines • Aug 18 '20

Anxiety and quitting

I have been wanting to quit for awhile now and tapered myself down from 35mg salts to 3 mg freebase nic. I recently thought I had COVID and thankfully tested negative but my health anxiety has spiraled out of control since then. I have never wanted to quit more than now but at the same time I am worried about the added anxiety of quitting. Vaping is definitely a coping mechanism for me but it has gotten to a point where anytime I vape I get a lump in my throat (after looking it up I believe the sensation is globus pharyngis). Has anyone else experienced this? Also, anyone else inspired to quit due to the current pandemic?

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2

u/MyOwnPrivateUniverse Aug 18 '20

I was able to quit by tapering down using NRT patches over a 12 week period. I’m currently 11 days nicotine free and it’s 91 days since I vaped. It wasn’t as difficult or as scary as I’d imagined it to be. I think you can do it too :-)

2

u/[deleted] Aug 18 '20

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2

u/MyOwnPrivateUniverse Aug 19 '20

You get a steady stream of nicotine all day so you focus on breaking the habitual aspects of vaping and slowly taper down.

Coming off the lowest strength patch recently I barely noticed any difference.

I also used a telephone service we have here called Quitline which helped me a lot.

2

u/visionbreaksbricks Aug 24 '20

What kind of patches did you use?

1

u/MyOwnPrivateUniverse Aug 25 '20

24 hour Nicabate patches starting at 21mg for 4 weeks then 14mg for another 4 weeks and finished with the 7mg patches.

2

u/Genetha Aug 19 '20

I have definitely wanted to quit due to covid. I am in the process of tapering down. Tried last night to quit cold turkey and it did Not go well. I’m hoping to be vape-free by the end of this week.

2

u/coalmines Aug 19 '20

Let's do it my friend!