I am curious to hear from people who started vaping without having smoked beforehand.

I’m curious about these things - feel free to respond to as many or as few of them as you wish. Primarily I am thinking about nicotine, but feel free to reply if you vape something different.

  1. What age were you when you started vaping? Feel free to reply with a vague range (e.g. 12-15) or description (e.g. young teen / adult)

  2. Why did you start?

  3. Do you regret having ever started? If so, why do you regret it?

  4. Have you noticed any long-term negative health effects from vaping?

  5. Do you feel that the socialogical and/or legal issues around vaping are more or less of a concern than health effects? (e.g. having to go outside to vape, vaping being banned/restricted in certain places/situations/countries, the risks of vaping being more legally controlled in future, etc.)

  6. Do you feel that the financial cost of vaping is more or less of a concern than the health effects?

No need to follow the numbered format or anything, this isn’t a survey, I’m just looking for answers to these questions for my own personal curiosity! Also, feel free to add any more information that you wish!

Please only share from your personal experience - no links to news stories or studies, please.

Also, not interested in responses from ex-smokers, sorry - those can be found in huge volume already.

  • Zikeji@programming.dev
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    9 months ago
    1. ~18.

    2. See answer below.

    3. No.

    4. No.

    5. Yes.

    6. Yes.


    I started vaping around when I was 18, back when disposable coils were first starting to be a thing and the paradigm was mainly making your own coils, testing resistance, and then pulling your own cotton. Very much a manual process, and not a known thing just yet. Smoke shops were just starting to carry juice.

    I started after I got in trouble at work for eating sunflower seeds. Back then I had a pretty bad tick where I had to do something with my mouth quite often. My coworker mentioned it and I saw it as an alternative, I also liked the idea of replacing caffeine with nicotine as a stimulant.

    Easy to guess, but my symptoms and tick were ADHD related. It worked for a short while, but soon I was using both caffeine and nicotine, though by the time I quit vaping for the first time I had completely gotten over the tick.

    Since I started I’ve been through a few cycles of quitting and resuming. I’ve never quit because I saw it as an addiction, and mainly have quit for financial or health reasons, if any at all. And by health I’m referring to purely the impact stimulants had on my blood pressure, nothing to do with vaping itself.

    Being ADHD my addictions have always been as transient as my hobbies, and I’ve quit both nicotine and caffeine multiple times and only the last few times grew conscious of the withdrawal symptoms.

    I do recognize it as a legitimate addiction, as the time I quit intentionally (asthmatic friend was visiting) I did notice the desire to resume, although that may also be related to finally finding working ADHD treatment.

    If you plan properly you can use 0nic liquid and mix it with nic liquid to slowly wean yourself off nicotine, and have personally coached two people through this process, one of which was a lifetime smoker.

    Aside from health concerns from nicotine itself, the only health issue I’ve had from vaping was suffocating myself by vaping too much lol.

    I do think vaping in public should be treated the same as smoking, and that access be behind an age restriction. But I don’t see it as anything more than a mildly unhealthy vice. My addiction to sugar and sweet stuff has been much more harmful to me and is completely unchecked here in the US.

  • 𝑔𝑎𝑙𝑎𝑥𝑖@lemm.ee
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    9 months ago

    I was in my early 20s when I started. Wanted the calming effects of nicotine, was into other similar interests, and was dating someone who also got into it. He was actually the second vaper I’d dated, so you could say it took me a while to be interested.

    I’d had a couple cigs before but I never considered myself a smoker and didn’t take to it. Vaping became a huuuge hobby for me. Learning about different mods, building your own coils, DIY e-juice, etc. I was vaping all day, all the time, pretty much as soon as I woke up (at the lowest amount possible though). It was a nice flavor and chemical pick me up when I was on edge. Sort of like a physical distraction. I vaped for 5 or so years. The lasting effects I’ve noticed are that sometimes I miss it. That’s it. It was pretty hard to quit, mostly because I didn’t want to. I had a lot of resistance, because it became a passion for me. But nicotine regulations started to suck, and that same partner quit as well. I got really sick with a flu and didn’t vape during it. Then, I didn’t start again after I got better. I had dreams about it, and it took a bit for me to want to move on.

    The thing is, though, I don’t feel any different now than when I was vaping constantly. It doesn’t improve your life that much. It’d be great if it could be an occasional thing, like alcohol or dessert is, but it’s hard to not do it all the time if you’re doing it at all. And you get to an equilibrium where it just doesn’t feel that strong. Hence the constant clouds.

    The most annoying part about it is that it becomes like a security blanket. You have to take it everywhere. Forget it for work? Guess you’ll just be late today. Have to sit for a movie? Man it sucks not to vape inside. Flying for hours? What a nightmare, can’t wait to land and go outside.

    It was annoying to not feel myself if I ever decided to leave my vape behind. And blowing clouds out of my car was great, but it sucked having to wipe down my car windshield all the time due to the glycerin condensation. Same with inside – no smoke on the walls, but the glycerine would hang around and I’d have to run an air purifier. I’d often worry about the vapor leaving slight residue all over my apartment, belongings, monitors, PC internals and such.

    Overall, it was great for a while as it was something I got really into, but it was also a lot of money and stress over something that didn’t really benefit my life the way other hobbies still continue to do. Much better to be a free person unattached from adult security blankets. 😎

  • rufus@discuss.tchncs.de
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    9 months ago

    If you want my opinion: Don’t get addicted to nicotine.

    I’ve quit vaping. And it’s supposedly easy for some people… But for me, overcoming the nicotine addiction has been hard and just shit and taken way longer than I thought. So, I don’t know why you’re asking all these questions… Just be a bit cautious with nicotine and things like that.

      • rufus@discuss.tchncs.de
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        9 months ago

        German law. Crazy high taxes were introduced starting earlier this year.

        Why do you want to know all the things in your post? They’re somewhat specific for ‘just curious’. (If I might ask…)

        • Blake [he/him]@feddit.ukOP
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          9 months ago

          So it’s a monetary thing, mainly? If it was cheap would you still want to quit?

          I’m very curious on the topic - having had many friends and relatives who have started vaping, I wanted to get an understanding of the topic, both in terms of health data, but also the perspectives of people who vape.

          It’s incredibly difficult to get good, clear information about this - lots of responses are from smokers talking about how much better vaping is than smoking - but we know that kids/teens have been picking up vaping at a high rate without ever having smoked and have been doing so now for a number of years, so those responses aren’t helpful.

          On the other hand, when it comes to finding the negatives of vaping, it’s very difficult - so much has been written about one or two overblown stories (e.g. vitamin E acetate in THC vapes, or issues involving black-market or gray-market vapes/nicotine solutions) which absolutely drowns out the ability to find information about the negative health effects of a typical vape user buying name-brand products from reputable suppliers.

          Long story short, I’m just trying to gather opinions and personal experience with vaping products. I have no real opinion either way, I’m just looking for the truth.

          If you do want to help people avoid nicotine, all of the research has shown that the best anti-smoking campaigns used storytelling and strong emotional messaging - so I would encourage you to share your story if you’ve had a negative experience with vaping.

          Edit: I just saw your edit saying my questions were a bit specific, it’s possibly my autism or something that makes me inclined to the way I asked, if that helps. It’s genuinely just curiosity, I’m just weird, haha

          • themachine@lemm.ee
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            9 months ago

            I like your curiosity. Smoker turned vaper here. Being addicted to anything rules a part of your mind and life. I crave it constantly. It seriously occupies so much of my time and focus and I don’t really get anything out of it outside of feeding the addiction.

            I guess you can say it’s fun but it doesn’t stay fun if you get hooked it’s like a tractor beam.

            I’m only talking about my experience with the drug, I realize it’s not this way for others. It’s a powerful drug nonetheless.

  • WeLoveCastingSpellz@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    9 months ago

    Vapes can be as bad as smoking for you but there are restrictions to it like it smelling like shit which at least prevents teens from starting it to some extend. When it comes to vape its new it actually does smell kinda good,its colorful and packaged like a toy. Vape is the cousin of cigarettes that is designed to exploit younger people. Don’t do it

    • Blake [he/him]@feddit.ukOP
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      9 months ago

      All of the evidence says that vaping is much less harmful than smoking, so I’m afraid that I will have to disagree with you on that. This kind of misinformed comment is not helpful to discourage vaping, as it just makes all anti-vaping messaging seem deceptive, which is why I asked for personal stories from people about their experience.

      I agree with what you wrote about vape products being marketed at young people, but that isn’t the focus of this post.

      • Thisfox@sopuli.xyz
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        9 months ago

        Having had our school call ambulances to scrape teen students off the bathroom floor due to vape smoking on several occasions now, I can tell you that there are health risks. We have also had several teens contract unexpected asthma for “no reason” after vaping. Sorry if yu have been misinfoemed by the hype, but consult a doctor instead of a publicist for a truthful rundown on the true short and long term risks of vaping.

        • Blake [he/him]@feddit.ukOP
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          9 months ago

          I would have been interested in your perspective if it wasn’t for your attitude. You seem really aggressive and chauvinistic, so I don’t really want to engage further.