According to Public Health England, an agency directly affiliated with the UK Government, vaping is officially 95 percent less harmful to your health than smoking tobacco-packed cigarettes. Now, great news though this is for vapers everywhere and those looking to quit smoking via the vaping route, it should be borne in mind that e-liquids vaped through e-cig devices still contain nicotine, just like conventional cigarettes do.
And, don’t doubt it, this is one of the favourite sticks with which the anti-vaping lobby like to hit vaping and its adherents. But is there any meat to such nicotine-in-vape-juice criticisms? Well, addiction is, as anyone with any sense ought to be aware, abnormal in most cases and can be destructive to everyday life in different ways. So, perhaps more vapers ought to ask themselves, are they addicted to nicotine? And, if so, how might they know…?
I’ve got that craving feeling
The biggest tell-tale sign of addiction is, of course, the sensation of craving. Do you find during much of the day you’re experiencing ‘needing’ a hit from your e-cig device as opposed to just merely wanting or looking forward to one? If the answer’s yes, then at best that’s definitely dependency; at worst addiction. In short, you’re craving the nicotine present in the vape device’s e liquid. In that case – and you’re not a smoker looking to quit tobacco by moving on to vaping so already aware you’re addicted to nicotine – it might well be a good idea to seek advice from the types of organisation that usually handle tobacco addiction.
I just can’t stop vaping
So, when you tot it all up, how many hours of the day are you actually vaping? Could it be that for so much of the time you have free while at work, while travelling to and from home or even in your own time at home you’re vaping away – or arranging your life so you can vape? If asking yourself these questions causes a cold realisation then you could well be addicted, without previously considering you are.
I’m increasing my nicotine consumption
As you may well be aware it’s the nicotine in e-liquids that’s the critical addictive component (itself a relatively harmless chemical, aside from its highly addictive nature, to the human body). That said; it shouldn’t be overlooked that the fact e-fluids comprise nicotine, by default, is of crucial importance in ensuring that vaping plays such a successful role in aiding people to kick the habit of conventional cigarettes packed full of tobacco and its tar, featuring so many carcinogenic toxins – because these relatively harmless e-liquids contain no such hazardous chemicals but do contain nicotine, which fulfils the need for that addiction-sating nicotine hit. It’s not the toxins in tobacco that are addictive; it’s the nicotine.
Now, the trouble here may come when a vaper, having successfully transitioned to e-cigs from traditional cigarettes, finds they’re not keeping their nicotine consumption at the same level as before, let alone reducing it, but increasing it. Generally speaking, no addiction’s likely to be good for you, so such an ex-smoker-turned-vaper may wish to look to ways to combat this addiction.
So then, what’s the big takeaway here? Well, there’s no question that vaping’s nowhere near as bad for one’s health as smoking – and yet, becoming addicted or remaining addicted to something (whether it’s nicotine, as in this case, or anything else, frankly) is not good news; it’s not something to simply ignore and then act as if it’s not important. Why? Because with addiction come potential psychological and psychosomatic effects; few of which should be taken lightly as they can, to a greater or lesser extent, affect mental health. To wit, if you believe you’re addicted to vaping – or are an ex-smoker who’s still addicted to nicotine despite wilful efforts to curb it – simply seek help as soon as possible.