On Vaping

Recently, I started vaping because I thought it would be a nice alternative to the cigarettes I smoke every weekend when I am with friends. Here’s why I discontinued after a month or so.

The good thing about vaping is it’s odorless and because there’s no smoke it doesn’t irritate the lungs as much. The bad thing about vaping is that because it doesn’t have smoke and has less stigma you can do it anywhere.

It started as an end-of-day activity, I would sit down with my vape after dinner and enjoy the joy that comes with a kick of nicotine and the sensation of smoke coming out of my mouth after a puff. Pretty soon it became more, I would take it to my cricket matches, and between innings I would vape. Then I started taking it to my car on long drives. Then it became a habitual part of my carry-on at home. It soon became an accessory to my life and I started feeling anxious every time it wasn’t on me. This is not good — this is what it means when you start getting addicted.

This is the addiction part, the second part that put me off of vaping was how it was negatively affecting my sleep. Since I have sleep apnea, I am susceptible to changes in sleep quality. I started noticing that I seemed to have less REM sleep (fewer dreams), and more sore throat (because of the flavoring in the vape) and this caused lower quality of sleep. My initial premise of starting to vape was to reduce the irritation that smoking caused and the aggravation of sleep apnea because of smoking. When I saw that vaping was making my condition worse rather than better. There was no point in going on with it.

With this, I discontinued vaping. Now this was not easy. Had I kept my device at home, it would’ve been harder. I left it at my parents which made the giving up process easier. Even though I was only vaping for a month, there were withdrawal symptoms, I felt more agitated, and I felt a bit of a downer as well. Previously, when I would come home, I would look forward to sitting down with my vape and watch some TV or read some book. Now without it, those activities felt less pleasurable. I would say these withdrawal symptoms lasted at least a week if not more.

This was my experience with vaping. I was surprised at how addictive it was and I would recommend caution to anyone hoping to take it up as a healthier alternative. The best is to quit smoking rather than transition to vaping because the latter has its downsides.