How to Stop Smoking Electric Cigarettes

Stop smoking aides such as the electric cigarette are good methods to use to help kick the tobacco cigarette habit. In some cases, though, they become as much of a habit as tobacco cigarette smoking. Because many electric cigarette cartridges contain nicotine, they are still addictive. Nicotine is a strong drug that reacts with the brain's mechanisms to create a powerful addiction. Just like with tobacco cigarettes, smokers who chose the electric cigarette may need help to quit. Using many of the same methods that tobacco cigarette smokers use will break the addiction to electric cigarettes as well.

Instructions

• 1

  Understand what electric cigarettes are. Know the makeup of the liquid smoke in the cartridges is addictive if they contain nicotine. The jury is still out on the safety of electric cigarettes, but replacing one addiction for another doesn't make sense. Just as any other smoking cessation aid, electric cigarettes are easy to use as a replacement crutch.

• 2

  Learn all you can about the effects of nicotine on the brain. It is true that nicotine does not cause cancer. That fact allows people to justify using products that deliver nicotine as if it were safe. Nicotine is a powerful drug. It is nature's natural insecticide. It is the tobacco plant's way of keeping other insects away. Oddly enough, it also mirrors hundreds of key brain chemicals in the human brain. Nicotine unlocks these brain controls and takes hold of several key body functions. The American Cancer Society says that nicotine is as addictive as cocaine or heroin. Knowing how your brain and your body physically react to nicotine helps defeat the cravings and addiction.

• 3

  Switch to cartridges that contain no nicotine. Using a non-nicotine cartridge gives you the time to adjust to no drugs while still providing the oral and physical gratification.

• 4

  Drink lots of fruit juice to keep your blood sugar levels up. Reduction, and then absence, of nicotine drastically reduces blood sugar levels and leaves you feeling tired, moody and shaky. Low blood sugar also gives you headaches. Keep your sugar levels up in a healthy way to avoid many of the desperate withdrawal symptoms.

• 5

  Stop using the electric cigarette and chew sugar-free gum whenever a craving strikes. Write down your reasons for quitting. They are easy to forget in the middle of a craving. Find a good support group that understands and is firm. Having others who know what it is to go through nicotine withdrawal will give you the power to continue.