Lucas quit vaping after eight years
using Reveri’s Quit Smoking exercise.
For the last three years, Lucas has had a voice in his head telling him, “This isn’t OK.”
What was the problem? He’s a fit, healthy guy in his 20s. He studied kinesiology. He works out and eats well. But after exercising, he would vape. The cognitive dissonance grew stronger and stronger.
“I hated myself for it for the last three years.”
Tell us about the challenge in your life that you came to Reveri for as a potential solution.
“I just needed to quit vaping. I’ve vaped (nicotine) for eight years. I was really, really addicted to nicotine. And I’ve quit before — sometimes just for a few hours, but once I quit for three months and another time for five months. Overall, I’ve quit nicotine seven times. But this time, it had to be for real.”
What’s different about this time?
“I’ve put my wife through so much crap. She’s been so patient with me. Now that she’s pregnant, I’ve promised myself I’m not going to put her through even more.”
“In addition to the fact that I’m becoming a father in the next six months, and that my wife has put up with so much because I’m not a very nice person when I’m starting to quit, I happen to be exercising a lot more in the last few months. Maybe that has something to do with it, I’m not sure.
And I also think the self-hypnosis.”
Prior to using Reveri to manage his urge to vape, Lucas has also tried nicotine patches, gum, and quitting cold turkey.
“I set myself up mentally that Reveri would be a tool to help me quit.”
How is it that Reveri has made this easier for you?
The question that Dr. Spiegel asks.
Lucas uses the interactive version of Reveri’s Quit Smoking exercise because it feels more like a conversation. In that mode, the exercise opens with Dr. Spiegel asking a question. “Have you smoked since the last session?” (Lucas swaps out the word “smoke” for “vape” for his personal use case.)
“It might sound funny, because it’s just a recording. But I don’t want to let Dr. Spiegel down, and I don’t want to break that cycle.” He thinks about answering this question next time when he feels the urge to vape.
“I’ve used Reveri when I was craving the most. The first two or three times I didn’t feel like I was doing much, but then I started feeling like I was really in trance and I started believing in it a lot more.”
“So I really use Reveri whenever I’m craving.”
Initial lessons, one month in
Lucas has learned in this first month of being off nicotine that he has more control over himself than he thought he did.
He also learned his body doesn’t always react the same way. Based on every other time he quit, he predicted he would feel the same this time, and it was actually very different. He wasn’t as irritable as he was every other time, and he still doesn’t know why. “I don’t wanna say it was easier [this time], but it kinda was.”
“I learned so much about myself when I tried to quit each time before.”
Lucas shared that in the past, he would still smoke a cigarette every now and then when he was quitting nicotine. But that would ultimately prolong his withdrawal symptoms, like irritability.
“Any nicotine I took before would just prolong my torture.” That lesson helped him decide to go completely nicotine-free this time around.
What advice would you give to people who want to quit smoking or vaping?
“Keep trying. One stat that motivated me a lot — the average smoker quits after seven times.”
This means, counterintuitively, the more times you’ve tried to quit (and failed), the closer you are to actually succeeding the next time you try.
Lucas says that during the Quit Smoking session, Dr. Spiegel asks if you have tried quitting before. “I said yes, and he said that’s good, because that means my odds of quitting are higher. That’s motivating.”
He also learned from The Huberman Lab Podcast that the chances you will remain nicotine-free increase significantly after two weeks. That was a big motivator as well. If you can make it two weeks nicotine-free, you are much likelier to succeed in the long run.
“The number of times you failed doesn’t mean you can’t do it,” Lucas shares. “That would be my biggest piece of advice to anyone trying to quit. Because that used to demotivate me in the beginning; I used to think, ‘I’ve tried this so many times, there’s no way I’m going to succeed in quitting.’ This time around, I knew that wasn’t true.”
What has Reveri enabled you to do?
“Reveri has enabled me to get focused, and it reminds me of my goals. Something that has really helped me has been to think of the ‘three commandments of Dr. Spiegel,’ I like to call them, from the Quit Smoking exercise.”
Lucas, like many people, tried to quit nicotine in the past by fighting his urges. This time, he has flipped that on its head: Now, he focuses on what he’s for, rather than what he’s against, as Dr. Spiegel recommends. Instead of being against nicotine, he is for taking care of his body like he would a small child.
“When I’m feeling weak, I do an exercise, and it puts this reminder of my goals right in the front of my mind again.” And Reveri is helping him to link the feelings he has about becoming a father to a new baby to the way he cares for his body.
Now that you’ve achieved your goal, what’s next?
“I haven’t accomplished my goal yet. Well, I have, but I’m trying not to rest on that too much. I’m trying to be nicotine-free FOR GOOD. This time that I’ve quit, is the first time I’m thinking about what happens after quitting. Reveri has been a huge part of this. I want Reveri to help me prevent a relapse. I’m using it as a reminder of my goals all the time.”
Lucas brings up an important point about quitting an unwanted habit. Once you get comfortable, the habit can creep back into your life when you least expect it:
“What happens after quitting, and feeling like you’re ‘done’? You accomplished your goal? It’s easy to forget. This can get you back into it. Six months later, you feel like, ‘I can just take a puff of my buddy’s vape.’ “
“Classic quitting advice is to stop being around the things that trigger you, such as being around other smokers. You can do that for a while, but at some point, you need to be around those triggers again. I might be done with physical withdrawal symptoms, but eventually, I can have a cognitive desire to smoke. I don’t feel like I need it, but it would be nice to take a puff.”
“So that’s what’s next for me: To stay the course, and not relapse. To take care of my body, my wife, and my new little baby. Reveri will continue to be there when I’m feeling an urge.”
Lucas is a real Reveri member using a pseudonym for the purpose of this testimonial.