Addicted e-cigarette users share wisdom with experimenting teens
AI image WhyQuit 12/30/23
Yesterday, a concerned mom turned to a 35,000+ member Reddit quit vaping support group seeking insights she could share with her vaping son. She titled her post "Words of wisdom for a teen who is experimenting with vaping? (weed and nic)" and wrote:
"Based on your own difficult journey with vaping, what would you tell someone who is newly experimenting? We are trying to reach our 15-year-old son, who intellectually hears what the risks are, but he thinks he’s “smarter than that” or he somehow won’t experience significant effects. I’ve already opened up with him about my own battle with nicotine addiction (cigs) that started at his age and lasted 10 years. Thank you for any wisdom or cautionary tales you’re willing to share!"
Related reading: WhyQuit's Nicotine Addiction 101
What follows are actual member responses:
Smoked weed and vaped almost every day for 6 years, I’m 25 now and regret ever beginning getting started with both. There is quite literally zero benefit to either.
On day 5 of no vape, been without weed for about a month. Feeling good and healthy!
So true! I developed adult asthma from weed and nicotine. Stay away.
They will learn eventually that vaping/smoking weed and nicotine will destroy your motivation to do anything you wanted to do. Thats what was happening to me. I vaped nicotine and weed for 5 years and lost all motivation to make music like I wanted to. Not to mention the fact that nicotine will already make you depressed. They should stop now while they’re in it early before it gets even harder to quit. Eventually they WILL regret ever starting to smoke like every smoker does.
I was hella surprised how unmotivated I got. I thought because nicotine was a stimulant, I’d be more motivated. Nope.
Nicotine vapes have sent me into debt, anxiety of leaving house and being without vape, poor impulse control, poor sleep, depression, suicidal thoughts. So yes it’s very real and they are a terrible invention I’m honestly scared for young teens they look cool/trendy/harmless being bright and colorful.
I’m 25 now. When I was a teenager I thought vaping was cool and tasted good, but now I cough all the time and have been diagnosed with anxiety. And I have insane mood swings. It’s better off to just not do it.
Starts harmless with your buddies vape and then you all get one to look cool. You start doing little tricks but slowly you start thinking about it all the time. In class, sports, movies you name it. Then you realize you get a buzz if you put some nicotine in it. Then you stop with the tricks and just want the buzz. Then you increase the buzz you’re getting and can’t go a couple of hours without it. One day you wake up like many of us have who are on this sub realizing you’ve spent $1,000s to feel the way normal people feel who never start.
Thankfully I never messed with the weed pens. But tell them that what seems harmless now, quickly piles on and is a part of your life you never wanted. Good luck.
I pretended I was "smarter than that" for a long time.
Intelligence has almost nothing to do with addiction. To pretend otherwise is to be willfully dense.
Nicotine helps no one. I have no quarrels with THC, but edibles are the way to go here (microdose).
When I look back at some of my own mistakes from when I was younger, I wish someone had told me or given me the right advice. But the real truth is that, in some cases, it wouldn't have mattered what anyone said.
Tell him about the prices and frequency of buying. That eats up a paycheck fast, depending on addiction level. Sometimes I choose between a new vape and dinner.
I dunno, I quit and in the last 12 days my libido went up. It was pretty low. I mean, don’t trash your libido, kid.
Depression. If he doesn't have it now, he might get it if he starts vaping daily. Sorry. He likely won't quit for a while because it's so difficult, and also this sounds weird but tell him to google what it'll do to, um... his area. It's got long lasting effects. They're not good. Hopefully, that will scare some sense into him. If he starts vaping, you could make some rules like not in my house, etc, and check his bags. It'll make it a big deal and possibly not worth it for him. Best of luck.
Oh and if he thinks he's "smarter than nicotine/the addiction" that's a bit stupid. Your lungs don't have IQ. They're just lungs. And they're fragile.
I have no science to back up what I'm saying but I have heard of A LOT of similar guys that experienced what I have.
I had used nicotine (first cigarettes then vapes) from age about 24-30. I'm a male and in the last 3 years I was suffering from occasional ED (erectile dysfunction) with my girlfriend during sex.
I quit vaping a few months ago as I heard it affects blood flow. As soon as I quit vaping my penis started working normally again and I haven't had ED since.
And honestly, I just want to say there is nothing more depressing than not being able to perform when the time comes it's such a horrible feeling.
Ask him if this is what he wants to do forever.
Nobody who chronically uses nic enjoys it. They want to stop but they can't because it's addictive and they have to fulfill a physical urge or else feel withdrawal. It gives no benefits or happiness at all. This subreddit is FULL of people saying "I desperately wish I had never started, I don't enjoy it, I feel so stupid. I can't believe I'm so dependent on this thing that gives me nothing and makes me feel terrible physically."
I thought similarly! Many of my friends vaped and I thought I could outsmart it, only use it sometimes, etc. Fast forward to 3.5 years later…..broke from spending 20 bucks on flavored cancer air for so long, random scary chest pains, didn’t want to leave it for longer than ~3 hours, knew I was wasting money but felt like I couldn’t stop…it’s a horrible thing to feel addicted to something. You lose a significant amount of freedom and that can contribute to bigger mental health problems (feeling isolated, depressed, constantly anxious about it, the list goes on and on).
The best way he can outsmart it is by never starting. I’m just now at over 2 months without a vape and never expected my habit to last longer than a year or so. I tried to quit upwards of 15-20 times and felt like a total failure each time I caved.
Just don’t do it. Seriously. It sucks the life, health, money, fun, and happiness out of you and chains you to poison. You don’t want to be handcuffed to it.
Started younger than him now I'm 23 and I absolutely have to stop or it will kill me. Ask him if 23 is when he wants to start looking at his health seriously rather than later in life. I've had nights my lungs can't take my partner even laying her head on my chest bc it feels like I can't get a good breath. I thought I'd be ok and quit whenever I wanted. Pipedreams. Please stop.
You can try talking to him but I hate to say this, someone will not be able to quit unless they actually want to. Trust me when I say ppl do find another way to get it if the option is taken away and if he's vaping weed since he's a minor there's a big risk of not getting it from the right place and obviously minors shouldn't smoke but its very common where I live.
Related reading: As for a "big risk" example see The Alarming Surge of Fentanyl-Laced Vapes: A Lethal Combination. As for teens needing to want to quit, see Joel Spitzer's 1984 Quitting for Others article
Did "cautionary tales" work on you? Scare-mongering rarely works on teens. Yes, he knows there are risks, but he's only 15 and smart enough to know that none of the scary side effects (of which you don't even know about for sure considering vaping is NOT the same thing as smoking) are going to affect him for a long time, if ever.
Remember that nobody actually PLANS to be a long-term smoker or vaper when they first start. Everyone tells themselves they'll just quit before anything bad happens (and you have already told him yourself that even YOU quit before anything too bad happened, right?).
There is really only one truly effective thing you can do here: limit this kid's access to cash. Vaping can be pretty expensive (especially if you're vaping both cannabis and nicotine), so where's he getting the money to vape in the first place?
Quit giving him money and the problem will solve itself. No allowance or anything like that. If he needs $ for school or anything else try to prepay it or use giftcards when you can instead of giving him actual cash. Of course, if he's got a bunch of money saved up from birthdays or allowance you'll have to hope he runs out soon. If he complains about being punished, let him complain. You aren't his friend you're his parent.
Related reading: Supporting "he knows there's risks" see Marlboro Maybe archetype ad campaign evidencing that Philip Morris knowingly uses risk to entice teens to smoke.
John R. Polito received his JD from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1985, where he graduated Wig & Robe. He is a former 3-pack-a-day thirty-year smoker and the 1999 founder of WhyQuit. A nicotine cessation educator since 2000, John mentored under Joel Spitzer for two decades, presenting more than 100 live nicotine dependency recovery programs modeled after Joel's programs. He is the author of "Freedom from Nicotine - The Journey Home," "Smart Turkey," 6 peer-reviewed journal articles, and founder and director of Turkeyville, a 17,000-member Facebook support group exclusively for cold turkey quitters. Email: johnpolito54@gmail.com
