Behind the sweet-smelling clouds of vapour often lies a complex addiction, proving as tenacious as traditional smoking.
As Stoptober begins, encouraging people to quit smoking, focus is also shifting to the equally challenging task of abandoning vaping.
The Independent spoke with Dr Marc Picot – a GP, founder of Vape Escape, and author of The Last Puff – who is on a mission to help individuals break free from this habit.
He explains key reasons why quitting vaping is so hard and shares tips for those ready to stop.
What are some common signs of a vaping addiction?
“There are some general behaviours of a vaping addiction, such as early morning vaping,” says Picot. “Many vapers sleep with a vape next to their bed and pick it up first thing in the morning.”
Another clear red flag of an addiction is continuing to do something when you know it’s causing you harm, highlights the GP.
“Harm from vaping comes in many ways,” explains Picot. “For example, vaping can cause physical harm, such as oral or dental problems. It can also cause psychiatric harms as there’s a quite strong association with worsening of mental health, especially in young people.
“It can also come with financial harm, so people spending money on it that they can’t afford, for example.”
In addition, withdrawal symptoms are also a common sign of a vaping dependency.
“This can vary from person to person,” notes Picot. “Some people may stop cold turkey and not get much of a withdrawal syndrome, but others can suffer quite severe withdrawal symptoms.
“The symptoms can be broken down into physical symptoms of withdrawal syndrome, like nausea, headaches and insomnia, which can be quite prominent in the first few days. Then cravings can start to peak around days three to five, and then after that, physical symptoms often begin to settle. Then psychological symptoms often come more into play – things like anxiety, restlessness, feeling low or depressed.”
Vaping in inappropriate places may also indicate a vaping addiction.
“For example, if you’re in a restaurant or at work and continuously sneak off to the toilet to vape,” says Picot. “Vapers often vape in places that they know they shouldn’t, but often feel like they have no control over it because of the addiction has taken hold.”
What makes vaping so addictive and hard to give up?
One of the main biological reasons that makes vaping so difficult to give up is the addictive nature of nicotine, explains the GP.
“Nicotine is the main psychoactive ingredient in e-cigarettes and vaping juice, and is a well-known addictive substance,” says Picot. “Nicotine affects the dopamine system in your brain, which is basically the reward system. When you have a vape, there’s a nicotine rush and it sends a release of dopamine out which makes you want more and more.”
Furthermore, Picot highlights that the hand-to-mouth motion of vaping itself can be difficult to stop.
“Especially in people who vape quite heavily, they are constantly moving their hand to their mouth to inhale the vape, and it starts to become an ingrained pattern,” explains the GP. “They’re constantly wanting to do something with their arm and move their hand to their mouth. So, you’ll find that a lot of vapers find breaking that cycle and finding something to replace that action is as equally as important as focusing on the nicotine/biological aspect.”
Picot also adds that many vapers get addicted to particular flavours of the vapes – something that isn’t present in cigarettes.
“You can get all sorts of flavours, anything from desserts to sweets to menthol and mint,” notes Picot. “I know quite a few people who are addicted to vaping because they really like a particular flavour.”
Advice for people who are struggling to quit vaping
Be clear on why you want to quit
“Motivation has to come from within,” says Picot. “Once you’ve decided you want to quit, decide the reason why. Is it because of health concerns? Is it because of concerns to do with breaking free from addiction? Is it financial concerns?
“Be clear on what your why, because that is going to stick with you throughout the whole of your journey, and will help to motivate you.”
Decide on a method
“There’s several difficult quitting methods,” says Picot. “You can go cold turkey, or slowly reduce the amount of nicotine you vape, or use nicotine replacement therapy. There’s pros and cons to each method, but decide on the method and then go with it and see if it works for you.”
Increase the intervals between vaping times
“If you sleep with a vape on your bedside table and tend pick it up first thing in the morning, your first goal could be to not vape for the first 30 minutes of your day,” suggests Picot.”You might want to stick with that for a few days, and then extend it by another half an hour and increase that interval time gradually.”
Distraction techniques
“You have to be prepared for craving management and distraction techniques which can be wide and varied,” says Picot. “For example, doing some exercise, like going for a 20 minute walk, when you’ve got a bad craving can help. Or you could try sketching, or writing in a journal, or gaming – whatever will help distract you from that craving.”
Build a support system
“Your support system can be your close network of family and friends, so people that you trust who are there for you in case you need support from them,” says Picot. “Your inner circle is really important, so it’s important to be open and honest with them. Then you’ve got your wider network, which could be someone at school, for example. It might be your school teacher or someone at work.”
