OPINION: I quit vaping 11 days ago and accidentally found my personality

If you'd told me last year, hell, even last month, that I would be off the vape for 11 days straight, I would have literally laughed and probably blown my peach and apple smoke in your face. 

I was one of those 'vape before bed, puff in the morning when I woke up' type of gals, and on my worst days, I would even have the vape next to me while I was in the bath. 

Yeah, look, I’m not proud of myself for any of this, but weirdly enough, none of those moments ever made me think 'okay, maybe I need to stop'. 

For the longest time, I knew I had an insane addiction to vaping, even the trip to the hospital back in 2022, where the doc confirmed ‘grey lung’ (inflammation or scarring in the lung tissue), only kept me away for a year. I tried to quit so many times in the last 6 years, and truthfully, it sucks the first time you start again, but there will be a time when you just don't wanna pick it up again, no matter if it's your second or sixth time trying.

It took a comment from one of my best friends and my four-year-old nephew to make me realise that what I was addicted to was more than just the nicotine. It was becoming a safety blanket and a repetition crutch. 

I blamed a lot of my addiction on stress, which, don’t get me wrong, played a crucial role in it, but that wasn't how it started. 

I remember the first time I tried a vape. I had just moved into a new flat, and one of the new flatties had one. I asked him whether I could try it, and he let me and then told me to just keep it. After a second, he said, “Oh, wait, maybe don’t, I don't want you to get addicted”, and that was over six years ago.

“Nah, I probs won’t. I just wanna try it, it smells nice,” were my infamous last words. 

For years, friends, family, bro, even society asked me to stop, when most of the time it was those same people asking me to have a cheeky hoon on the vape when we were drinking.  

It was only during this last summer break that I knew something was really wrong.

One of my best mates and I were sending snaps to each other, talking about something important, and she had to stop me and say, “Lis, you hit that vape 8 times in your last snap” (for context, the snap was less than 2 mins long). 

I just laughed it off, but it low-key stuck with me. She’s about to give birth soon, and the last thing I want is for another one of my nephews to ask me about my vape.

Fast forward to Christmas Eve, I was making the Kit-Kat Santa House with my nephew, and my very cute, pink and black vape was next to us on the table (I didn’t realise I put it there and not in my pocket, I was clearly really excited to make the Santa House), and he asked me: 

“Aunty Lis, what's that? You always have it”. His innocent little voice hit me harder than anything else, as he was extremely interested in what it was. Even with my attempts to distract him with chocolate and Christmas, he was adamant about knowing the answer. 

I never vaped around him. I just happened to leave it out on the table, and now I have to explain myself. 

I was about to answer when his mum reminded me, “Don’t lie to him, he’s gonna remember”, and that hit like a ton of bricks.

Instead, I sat down next to him and explained: ​” Vaping is when adults breathe in air that smells really nice, from a little machine like this one, but it’s not good for aunty, and children should never do it.” 

“Then you should stop.”

His little voice actually ruined me. 

Now, the better version of myself would have just stopped then and there, but guys, I’m only human. I needed to prepare for it mentally. 

I was giving myself the rest of the summer break to get it all out of my system. I told myself that once I was back at work, that was it, I was done.

I knew that if I could get through the stress of work, being around other people vaping or smoking, and the worst of it all, while I'm drinking, I could do it this time. 

I’m proud to say that I am now 11 days, 3 hours and 45 minutes vape-free, and I have never felt better.

I know people read quotes and statements like this all the time, so trust me, I can understand the unwhelming feeling you’re probably having right now. 

There will be no out-of-this-world epiphany, no tricks to help (although having your nephew and best friend judge you in plain sight helps). I'm just a normal gal, telling you that if you literally just do it and have some mental restraint, and maybe have a genuine reason to stop, you’ll be okay. 

The first three days are the worst; no one warns you enough about the vivid dreams you start having. One thing that really helped, though, was the app ‘Quit Vaping’, where I can track my progress day by day.

Not only can I see how many days I’ve been clean, and yes, I say 'clean' because that's exactly how I feel, I can watch how much life I have regained, PLUS circulation and lung recovery, which for me was a huge positive, seeing as I have a bung lung. 

It also tracks how much money I’ve saved, and calculates the average number of times I WOULD have vaped so far. 

My brain feels less foggy, my taste buds are sharper than ever, and my mood, OH MY GOD, my mood has changed so much that I didn’t realise vaping was affecting it to that degree. 

It really is just a mind-over-matter type situation, and I just have to keep reminding myself that I’m doing this for the kiddos, my lungs, and more importantly, for myself. 

If you were waiting for the cliche line... There it is. If you're thinking about having a go at letting go…good luck!