First day, jittery and anxious

[katjstone]

Hi all! My name is Tracy, this is my first day vaping, I'm really loving it, but wondering if I' m doing it wrong, or if this is normal. I normally smoke around 1.5-2 packs of Marlboro lights a day and have been smoking around 20 years. I purchased the 8mg carts, and now I'm wondering if I should have went with the 16? I realize I'm going to be a little stressed out at first...any tips on getting through these first few days easily?
Also, seeing a lot of you are diying it. Seems like a lot of trouble, is it fairly easy to learn? Is it less expensive, or taste better? Just curious. Is there a newbie list or something for diying?

[Spliner]

It really depends on how you do with the 8mg carts.. but to be honest, even the 16's weren't enough for me at first. To curve my addiction to 2 packs of Kools a day I had to switch up to 24mg juice for the first couple of months. Keep in mind, even with the higher nicotine content e-liquid, there are chemicals in cigarettes that are not in e-liquid. For instance, long long ago, cigarette companys added MAOI's to their products to INCREASE the euphoric effect (IE: addiction factor) to cigarettes. That unfortunately isn't publicised as much as the nicotine is. Add MAOI's (also addictive) to an already addictive substance (nicotine) and you get a double whammy. Ever wonder why people get angry/upset/etc. when trying to quit analog cigarettes cold turkey? MAOI's have the same effect that anti-depressants have on your system. Fortunately a week is usually long enough to curve the MAOI addiction for most people, and maybe a couple of weeks for others. All I am trying to say is it's going to take dedication to not go back to analogs, but higher nicotine content will help. If you have carts now at 8mg, try buying some 16mg or 24mg liquid and refilling them to maximize your savings on the lower nic carts you've already purchased.

Spliner

[bubbajoe72]

You'll probably want to up your nic level on your next purchase to get over the cravings. Drink plenty of water and vape as much as you want those first few days. If you get a craving for an analog, vape.

Refilling cartridges and DIY'ing are the most cost effective but mostly people do it for the fun of mixing up different flavors. There are various threads on DIY'ing as well as precautions and what you need to be aware of when dealing with high levels of nicotine. I probably wouldn't recommend getting into DIY'ing just yet if your just starting out. Refill a few cartridges, get used to working with eliquids first then work your way into DIY'ing by mixing different flavored juices to come up with a new flavor, adding VG to your juices for more vapor, etc.

[katjstone]

Thanks so much for the tips. To do the refills, do I just need to purchase the liquid on this site? Do I need a syringe or something? Is there instructions on how to refill them, or am I making thi stoo hard, lol.
Its only been 3-4 hours since my last analog. I'm doing ok, but I'm having to pretty much constantly vape to keep the cravings down.

[Old Hippie]

It's all good..I was a 2pack a day Camel smoker.. I started with 16 and now do 8 only.. Ya might have to vape a lot more than you smoked in the beginning.. The jitters will ease.. Just relax and enjoy.. Alotta people DIY but I'm too lazy and don't have the time.. But as a beginner ya might wanna get the basics down first and then plaay lol ..you will get to a point when a real cig makes ya sick.. Trust me I know lol there are tons of smart people in here to help ya.. Spliner and Bubba are good examples.. Myself well I'm just nuts..butnim here for support if ya need it:)) Peace

[bubbajoe72]

It is probably easiest to just get the juices from Volcano. Depending on your equipment, you don't necessarily need anything else. If you use cartridges, you can drip directly into the inner reservoir (for Volcano carts, you'll need a paperclip to push up to the top). If you're using cartos/clearos, you'll need to get the refill kit.

You don't necessarily need a syringe if you're just working with cartridges but it can make it easier. The most handy tool that a vapor could have is a paper clip. Tweezers and syringes you can pick up when you need them.

[geekdgirl]

First off...hang in there...most people struggle with the cravings at first and most people vape more than they smoked (at least initially, some always).

Second...everything sounds hard and overwhelming at first...it won't be, just go slow, ask questions, watch the videos in the video thread and allow us to coach you if you have problems...there's a pretty knowledgeable group here and everyone's willing to help out.

Third...refilling carts is the easiest...no worries at all there...you will need to grab bottles of juice (here or at another vendor) and then you'll drip into the inner part of the cartridge...so, now it's about deciding which juice to buy...which to me is way harder than the other stuff LOL

[katjstone]

Alright just ordered me some 16 mg liquid. I'm doing better if I keep it by me and puff every so often. How do you tell when the cartridge is out? I changed it out this last time, because it started tasting different, but wasn't sure.
And thanks everyone. I' m really excited that I've made it almost 8 hours with no cigs! Haven't done that in years!

[Artist Boy]

you will notice a drop in Vapor production sand the flavor will drop off when the cart starts to run low.

You can always pop the cart off and, using a paper clip compress the filler to see if the juice is all used up or not. Depending on which model you have The volcano you can pop the inner cart out with is clear and you can see how much juice is left in it. The magma carts cant but if you compress the filler you can see if there is any juice left in there.

[bubbajoe72]

Taste and vapor production are the best indicators of when the atty isn't getting any juice without having to take it apart.

When it starts to change, do a "thermometer flick" (be careful to hold it by where the cartridge and battery meet, not just the cartridge - i've flung a few batteries that way ) to get more juice to the atty. Also, after you've been vaping on the cartridge a while, hold it LED side down to let gravity pull juice to the atty. If none of this no longer works, then your cart has probably run dry and you can take it apart and top it off with more juice.