Your Vapers Army Captain
My Vape Story
Hello! Thank you for taking an interest in my story. Please bear with me, I’m kind of long-winded. 🙂
Let me start off by telling you about myself. I’m 28 years old, and a lifelong resident of Texas. I have three precious dogs that I have trained to perfection, and they are my very best friends. I believe in music like some people believe in fairytales, and I am a cannabis user for medicinal reasons. Being a Texas resident, where cannabis is not yet legal for medicinal purposes, this can be slightly irritating (as I’m sure you can imagine). Thankfully, my psychiatrist approves of my usage.
My father smoked cigarettes until I was sixteen, and the day he decided to quit for the last time was on a Sunday that he began to have chest pains during church. I always swore that I would never smoke cigarettes, but stress drove me to pick up the habit when I was a few months shy of nineteen. Right around that same time, I was clinically diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
I smoked about a pack per day for eight years, and tried to quit cold-turkey more times than I can count. Never once did I ever consider trying NRT (nicotine replacement therapy) because I knew the failure/relapse rate was incredibly high, and I couldn’t afford to risk wasting the money on something doomed to fail from day one. My primary care doctor had previously recommended Chantix, and looking back now, I kind of wish I had thumped him in the nose for suggesting it to me (considering the black-box warning), and I’m glad I chose to not take it.
12 March 2014 was the day I got my first setup, a single Ego-650 battery and two Evod-style tanks, along with two flavors. Mind you, neither were a tobacco flavor; they were actually Skittles Candy and Dragon’s Apple. Now that my taste buds have repaired themselves after all those years of smoking cigarettes, I find those two particular e-liquids from that company to be disgusting!
I instantly knew that I would never again want another cigarette. Within a matter of days, I could breathe so much easier. After just two weeks, my crippling asthma and sleep apnea were completely gone! Switching from smoking cigarettes to vaping literally saved my life.
A couple of months passed, and I purchased a more advanced battery secondhand from another local vaper I met in an online community. I’ve since upgraded my “Vape gear” a few times, and my e-liquid collection is MUCH larger than the two flavors with which I started. Not a single one of them is a tobacco flavor; my favorites are fruity cereals and sweet baked desserts.
Since switching, I have dropped my nicotine intake by 75%. I started with 12mg/ml, and now use 3mg/ml. I do not plan to go any lower, as nicotine itself is naturally present in the human body (as well as in tomatoes, potatoes, and green peppers). It is nothing more than a stimulant on par with caffeine, and not proven to be addictive outside of cigarette smoke. Many studies have also shown nicotine to be beneficial to people with memory problems.
None of my vaping accessories or e-liquids were created by any Big Tobacco company. The world of vaping is a community of small businesses run by real people with real faces and real families who are finally getting the opportunity to live the American Dream, while being able to contribute to saving one smoker at a time.
As I’m sure you can tell, I have an immense passion for life and for vaping. Vaping gave me a second chance at life, and has given me a delightful hobby. I have also found home in a second family online, full of genuine people from all around the world who share the same passion for life and vaping as I do. We vapers may come across as an angry mob sometimes, but we are angry because our choice to live healthier is being stolen from us. Vapers just want to be heard.
My freedom to choose what I do with my health and my body is being threatened by people who are interested in nothing but money, and those people are lying to the public and putting millions of lives at risk. I find this sickening and very disheartening. The reason I advocate for vaping on Twitter is because I want as many people as possible to know that VAPING DOES SAVE LIVES, and I AM PROOF.
Thank you for taking the time to read my Vape story. If there is anything else you’d like to know, please feel free to ask. I’m an open book!!