Day 29 after quitting vapingThe long tail

By Yevhenii, who smoked for 26 years · Updated 30 Oct 2026 · 2 min read

In shortLate lapses are rarely about withdrawal. They happen in rare, charged situations that did not come up in the first month, such as a breakup or a festival, and can be as strong as anything in week one. Write one if-then line for each situation you have not yet faced.

What's happening in your body

In long follow-ups of people who stop nicotine, the return curve flattens without reaching zero, which is why the vaping trials follow their participants for seven months. The shape of late lapses has been studied in smokers. Withdrawal plays little part in them. They happen in rare, charged situations, a breakup, a festival, a holiday with old friends, that simply did not come up during the first month.

What to expect

Weeks in which you hardly think about vaping, followed by one evening when it is all you can think about. It usually comes in a situation that did not exist in the first month, and it can be as strong as anything in the first week. That strength is not a sign that the work was wasted. It is an old cue meeting you somewhere new, and it passes the same way.

Try this

Take your list of unfaced situations from day fifteen and write one if-then line for each. If someone passes me a device at the festival, then I hand it on and go and get a drink.

What else you could do

The format matters. A plan tied in advance to a specific cue runs by itself at the moment when clear thinking is hardest. In a pooled analysis of trials in smokers, plans of this kind helped people stop, although the studies differed a lot. Keep each line short, one situation and one action. Put the three most likely ones where you will see them, and add a line whenever life shows you a situation you had not thought of.

Sources. Measured in vapers: Graham et al., 2021. Relapse pattern measured in smokers: Hughes, Keely, Naud, 2004. Method measured in smokers: Armitage CJ. A volitional help sheet to encourage smoking cessation: a randomized exploratory trial. Health Psychol, 2008. McWilliams L, Bellhouse S, Yorke J, Lloyd K, Armitage CJ. Beyond planning: a meta-analysis of implementation intentions to support smoking cessation. Health Psychol, 2019.