Vaping is harder to quit than cigarettes

BEFORE you know it, and buoyed by the endorsements of the healthcare experts, you’re puffing away 24/7. In fact there’s nothing to stop you. The refills last for ages so you don’t have to factor a trip to the corner shop into your day. They don’t run out like a cigarette so you can just keep going. Despite a crackdown you can still use them in pubs, bars and lots of places where nobody would dream of lighting up. You can even do it in bed without setting fire to the sheets and burning the house down.

Within weeks you have no desire to go anywhere near an old-fashioned cigarette. But what you do have is vapour pouring out of your ears and you’re consuming 10 times the amount of nicotine you were before.

Eventually you decide that enough is enough. It certainly seemed like a no-brainer when I made the decision to quit vaping. After all, I’d only taken up smoking because I thought it was cool. Wandering around glued to an e-cigarette was very much not the look I’d been going for.

I never thought it would be easy but I was resolved to do it and chose to leave my e-cigarette at home when I went away on holiday in July, turning the trip into my own personal stint in nicotine rehab. I quickly discovered that vaping’s big strength is also a major weakness.

Quitting cigarettes is made easier by saving money and feeling fitter and healthier. It helps you stay motivated when the cravings kick in. This contrasts with giving up e-cigarettes, which leaves you with exactly the same miserable withdrawal symptoms and precious little to show for the sacrifice.

Worst of all was that, convinced nothing bad would happen, I had grown used to a prodigious amount of nicotine – far more than I would or even could have ingested by using actual cigarettes. This is true of everyone else I know who has ever taken up vaping and it is a major downside because it renders an e-cigarette far more addictive than the other alternatives for quitting smoking patches and gum.

In my extensive experience of quitting smoking (as the old joke goes: it’s easy, I’ve done it eight times) the worst cravings pass within three days. After quitting vaping those feelings lingered for well over a week. All the while the reasons for doing so seemed harder and harder to understand. And then the temptation to cheat is overwhelming – sneak a crafty cigarette and the chances are somebody will catch on but puffing on an e-cigarette is the perfect crime.

My attempt to give up vaping has (so far) been a success but I cannot recommend the experience to anybody and those serious about quitting nicotine would be wise to avoid the e-cigarette. This will not stop plenty of doctors urging their patients to make the switch but with more reports of the health risks they too should remember that there’s no smoke without fire.

FERGUS KELLY IS AWAY