UK Teen’s Lungs Collapse After Vaping 400 Cigarettes a Week

A UK seventeen-year-old teenager had obsessively vaped equal to 400 cigarettes per week. Her lungs have faced severe damage with a hole that burst there. After approximately 6 hours of surgery, the damaged section of the lungs was removed to avoid the situation of cardiac arrest. She mentioned how vaping being popular among teenagers made her this addictive.

What do the numbers say? Meta-analysis research from Pubmed Central shows approximately 3.3 to 11.8 per cent of teenagers use e-cigarettes, that is vapes. These numbers have seen to be drastically increased with a 10% margin in a few years.

What makes Vaping so Addictive? 

Nicotine: The major cause lies in nicotine as its component. Nicotine, which is often found in many smoking products, has been consistently proven to be addictive. Many times, companies endorse their vaping product without nicotine, still evidence has suggested the opposite.

Peer pressure: Vaping is something that teenagers follow without thinking because of peer pressure. If they see their friends and other people of the same age group doing it, a second thought is mostly not sought after before taking a puff.

Accessibility is one of the other reasons. With not many governmental regulations on vape circulation, accessibility of vapes to adolescents has been quite common. Media exposure, like seeing a teen main character vaping in a movie can influence and enhance the popularity of vapes.

Is it just one puff?: Most teenagers start vaping with the thought of ‘this is just one puff’ and ‘I won’t do this again’. But its addictive attribute takes over. Without much self-awareness, vaping doesn’t take much time to realise that one is addicted to it. Then it becomes a regular habit, and even to avoid vaping, it takes a lot of energy. 

Read More: The Hidden Effects of Vaping Addiction on Mental Health

Seeking help: Often teenagers fall into the trap of addiction and feel helpless about curing it. The first step is coming out to parents or any other caregiver about it. The right guidance can be transformative in the recovery journey. Opening up can initially bring the turmoil of scolding and getting grounded, but parental supervision helps to achieve complete quitting by providing the right resources along with socio-emotional support,

Finding the motivation: Before starting the goal to quit, it is important to identify what is the intrinsic motivation factor that compels you to give up vaping. Acknowledging the cause is utmost essential with constant reminders of why I want to quit vaping. This has been proven to be one of the most essential ways of maintaining the quitting path.

Read More: Addiction Reconceptualized

The gradual solution: Choosing the quicker solution or gradual folding out, it’s completely on the quitter, whatever sails your boat. These involve patches of nicotine, gums and even sprays that act as an alternative to cater to the nicotine rush. This is based on the principle of scaffolding where dosage of nicotine is regulated to avoid withdrawal symptoms. Supervision under a healthcare professional can come in handy. Teenagers often believe that vaping is less harmful than smoking, whereas in reality the amount of nicotine in vape can sometimes be more than even cigarettes. NRt for vaping cases often starts with a higher dosage comparatively. 

What triggers vaping? Few individuals prefer vaping in a certain state of mind, usually stress or in the circumstances of a given social context. Identification of such triggers and then preparing a different healthy coping mechanism is one of the biggest milestones in the direction of quitting the addiction to vaping. 

It’s okay to have a cheat day: Like in the process of dieting, having a cheat day is considered completely acceptable and even healthy at times; similarly having few slip-ups is natural. What is significant here is continuing with the quitting journey while accepting a few lows of relapse. Relapse cases can be reduced magnificently if the quitting process is itself not quit.