Quit21Day 16 after quitting vapingSomeone else's device
By Yevhenii, who smoked for 26 years · Updated 30 Oct 2026 · 2 min readWhat's happening in your body
When researchers had smokers record their first lapses in real time, two things kept appearing in the data, alcohol and other people using. Vaping adds a third. Nobody has to buy, light or even own anything, because a friend holds a device out across the table. Alcohol is one of the strongest learned cues for nicotine, and it makes a decision harder to hold.
In a laboratory study, smokers who had been given alcohol held out against the first cigarette for less time than those given a placebo drink. The intention survives the second drink. The grip on it is looser.
What to expect
A craving in a bar that is out of proportion to anything you felt all week, and a reasonable inner voice explaining that a puff of someone else's does not count. Expect it a drink or two in, and strongest when someone nearby is vaping. If you do take a puff, it is one event, not the end of the attempt. Log it honestly, and the totals keep what you have earned.
Try this
Decide before the evening, not during it, whether you are drinking tonight and how much.
What else you could do
Some people skip drinking for the first month and find that simplest. If you do drink, start with something non-alcoholic, keep a glass in the hand that used to hold the device, and tell one person at the table what you are doing so that nobody offers. Have a reason to leave ready and use it without apology. Leaving early is allowed.
Sources. Measured in smokers. Shiffman S, Paty JA, Gnys M, Kassel JD, Hickcox M. First lapses to smoking: within-subjects analysis of real-time reports. J Consult Clin Psychol, 1996. McKee SA, Krishnan-Sarin S, Shi J, Mase T, O'Malley SS. Modeling the effect of alcohol on smoking lapse behavior. Psychopharmacology, 2006.