So I began to take the e-cigarette to school with me regularly and using it the same as I would use a standard paper cigarette. I conducted a two week trial, smoking the e-cigarette roughly seven times a day and noting how I felt and whether it continued to work with stopping my cravings.
For the first week or so, the e-cigarette worked perfectly. It fulfilled my cravings and I didn't feel the need to go outside and smoke an actual cigarette. I fielded questions from a few curious smokers and gave them advice as to where to buy an e-cigarette. I sampled it with a group of friends who smoke and they all felt the nicotine work. They also noticed an unusual (not unpleasant) grapey flavor. For an entire I week, I went without buying or wasting cigarettes.
Then mid-terms happened.
Stress causes smokers to smoke more. The smoker uses the nicotine as a crutch during these times of pressure. I was up late at night and waking up early in the morning. I began to use the e-cigarette more often (8-12) times a day. I found that the e-cigarette wasn't giving me the same feeling as it once did. I found myself craving paper cigarettes. This caused me to do a little more research and this is what I found:
"Another study, conducted this year at the University of Auckland in New Zealand and financed by Ruyan, an electronic cigarette company, shows that users typically receive 10 percent to 18 percent of the nicotine delivered by a tobacco cigarette." (New York Times)
It makes sense that I wanted a paper cigarette. By smoking an electronic cigarette, I was only getting, at best, 20% of the nicotine I would smoke with a regular cigarette.
