Hello, I am a high school student who used to vape. My goal here is to tell you some ways to tell if your child is vaping, how to get them to stop, and ways to encourage them to do so.
Let’s start with some of the signs your kid may be vaping. These are all things I did to hide my vaping.
– I wore my jacket or long-sleeved shirt to hide the vape in my sleeves (now, this doesn’t always mean your child may be vaping; it just made it more convenient for me, and I know for others)
– I would bring my sleeve containing the vape up to my mouth, taking a hit (this is a more obvious sign if they do it around you)
– After hitting my vape, I would hold my breath for an extended time to let the vapor evaporate in my mouth so that when I opened it, nothing would come out (try holding conversations with them while they’re around you, it will discourage this)
– Spaces they leave may smell like the flavor they use (fruity smells could be a perfume, if they say it is, ask to see the perfume so you can smell it)
Here are some of the ways I helped kick the habit:
– In order to fix the need to bring something up to my mouth (to mimic the action of hitting my vape), I just got some suckers or other hard candy. They were fruit flavored, so they helped with that aspect as well.
– I threw out all my old cartridges. This removed any visual reminder of my dependency on vaping.
– Any money I would have used to buy vapes I put aside to get a treat for myself or put into savings.
Here are some options to help the process of quitting:
– Some people’s withdrawals from nicotine can be stronger than others. I only kept vaping for so long, after only doing it with my friends, because of the withdrawals. Nicotine gum or patches both have an end dose, so it can be easier to quit rather than quit cold
turkey.
– Instead of hitting your vape constantly (otherwise known as “chain vaping”), try reducing the amount of times you use it per day until you don’t feel the need to use it at all.
– Always feel free to talk to your doctor about ways to quit.
– Text GHOSTVAPE to 88709. This is a free text-to-quit program.
