5 Things to Seriously Consider before Using E-cigarettes

16/6/2014

Written by Julie Silfverberg

ooops! My assumptions

As I was driving my car the other day and listening to the news. I was surprised by a news item stating e-cigarettes help people quit smoking. A large number of experts had agreed this was the case. Why was I surprised? Well this was something I had to think about, because as I thought about my unconscious gut response I realised I had some assumptions around when people choose to stop smoking. My assumptions are a desire to:

Improve health
Be free of nicotine
Be free of the planning and finding time to smoke
Save money – perhaps
Let go of the habit
Be proud to be able to choose to quit

And the strongest of these is probably the habit.

Then I slowly realised what the experts were saying “no smoke” therefore helps you quit “smoking”. Then I thought what smart marketing!

Then on to the 5 things to seriously consider:

There is liquid nicotine in e-cigarettes. This is the way they differ from cigarettes. With cigarettes the nicotine is delivered through burning the tobacco and making it inhalable. Whereas with e-cigarettes the liquid nicotine is heatedd by a battery and delivered through vaporisation. However something you might not know is liquid nicotine is highly toxic and very small doses of liquid nicotine can kill. Just a small teaspoon is enough to poison a child and sadly these poisoning are on the rise.
Where does nicotine come from? Tobacco companies realised governments are making it more and more difficult to smoke cigarettes. In the now distant past it was fashionable, even seen as being sophisticated but that was before we learnt about the downside of smoking. So tobacco revenues were falling and something needed to be innovated to maintain the revenue stream. Voila, electronic cigarettes.
Are there associated health risks? Because e-cigarettes are still so new there has not been enough time for historical data to be built up. But already some research is showing unhealthy changes to lungs and airways with diminished lung capacity. These changes are similar to those observed from tobacco smoke.
One of the reasons I said it was smart marketing at the beginning of this post is because these products maintain the habit element of inhaling nicotine. Of taking something out of your pocket or bag, putting it in your mouth and sucking on it. By maintaining the habit element of smoking, which is often almost unconscious makes it less easy to give up smoking and become a non-smoker and free from nicotine
Finally a cigarette is a finite length where as the only thing to stop you sucking on the e-equivalent is if the battery or the liquid nicotine runs out, so you can end up ingesting a lot more nicotine than you thought.

I know, you know what you want to achieve and these are simply my thoughts. If you really want to quit the nicotine habit just consider these thoughts and decide for yourself. After all you are the only one who can.

3 Comments

Paul Allen link

23/6/2014 06:12:59 am

Hi Julie,
Great post with some great (and scary) points.
I've learned some very valuable lessons from 2 previous failed attempts of 9 and 3 months respectively, both of which were cold turkey.
Like every other smoker I was always very aware of the reasons why I should not smoke and for a long time I wanted to stop, so I questioned myself on why I could not.
I realised that I was not allowing myself to go through the torment and effort of trying. That the quick fixes I was giving myself which were followed by excusable guilt were simply disguised as enjoyment. Of course those cigarettes were enjoyable, anything that satisfies a craving cannot be but enjoyable.
I then sat and wrote all the reasons why I should not smoke on one side of a sheet, we all know the list. On the other side was me, with selfishness and greed. That was over 8 months ago and I haven't smoked since.
Keep up the good work.
Kindest regards
Paul

Julie

23/6/2014 07:45:42 am

Hi Paul,

Well done on becoming a non-smoker.

Isn't it funny when you begin to dig deep and uncover some of the unconscious ways you support your habit how easy it can be to change. Good job.

Thanks for your comment.

All the best
Julie

John O' Keeffe

23/6/2014 07:35:24 pm

Hi Julie,

Thanks for letting people know why they shouldn't necessarily think of e-cigarettes as safe or healthy.

Giving up cigarettes was the best thing I ever did and you're doing a great thing by helping people to quit, and now making them see why they shouldn't start.

Best regards,

John

Author

Julie Silfverberg has been interested in how the mind works for almost as long as she can remember. She has been working with hypnosis and NLP as a methodology since the 1990s and teaching other to use hypnosis since 2005.

Hypnosis and NLP show how powerful the mind is and how it can be easier to change than you ever thought possible. Just experience it for yourself and decide what it can do for you.