A Relationship with Nicotine (part 2) – eLiquid and flavor

I found myself quoting the fictional Roger Sterling this evening after dripping a favorite liquid that I’d put aside for a while – “Ah, that’s where you’ve been.”  On my desk, in my bag, surrounded by four or five different flavors.  I didn’t forget about you (Lucky Pear), I just branched out for a while and explored other options, but we’re back together for the next 15 milliliters or so.

Over the past seven months I’ve been creating new memories associated with new flavors.  Lucky Pear was an all day vape during a romantic honeymoon in Key West.  The flavor alone is delicious, but the experience now recalls love, warm sea air, sunshine, and cozy accommodations partially surrounded by crystal blue water.  Although nothing will replace the recall I experience from the scent of a burning cigarette, I have new, more powerful memories that are becoming more important.

So, maybe this is less of a piece about nicotine, but rather the diminishing role it plays in my enjoyment of electronic cigarettes.

I’m finding that I vape less and less as time goes on.  To be clear, this isn’t a result of consciously limiting my use or lowering the nicotine content.  On the contrary, it’s quite by accident.  As I said in a previous post, I’m becoming less of a slave to a drug and more of a consumer.  I’m not going to go as far as making some pseudo medical claim like “I can quit when I want”, but if the bottom dropped out of this whole e-cig thing tomorrow I know I’m in a much better position now than I was seven months ago.

I’ve come to a more clear understanding of the role that flavors are playing in my success with vaping.  The fact that there are hundreds of vendors out there producing and selling thousands of different flavors means that vaping will never get boring.  When I lose interest in one liquid I can easily move on to the next.  All the while avoiding the temptation to return to cigarettes (Just a note about relapse: That “temptation” never goes away.  Anyone who beats their chest and tells you otherwise either wasn’t hooked on the stuff to begin with or is in deep denial, scarred over by years of white-knuckle recovery.  The hope is that cravings diminish over time, but the conventional recovery wisdom is that the farther you are away from your last smoke, drink, drug, whatever, the closer you are to your next.  Admittedly, it’s a recovery platitude that’s propagated to remind us to stay vigilant, but that shouldn’t make it any less useful of a tool in our daily struggle with addiction.).

Thanks for Reading & Happy Vaping!

-Alex

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