What is Vaping Doing to Your Body and Mind?

Sophia Martuscello|October 24, 2020

What Does Vaping Do To You?

As much as nobody wants to talk about how bad caffeine can be for us, many highschoolers also don’t want to talk about how horrible vaping can be. But, with American teens “[reporting] a dramatic increase in their use of vaping devices in just a single year, with 37.3 percent of 12th graders reporting “any vaping” in the past 12 months,” in 2018, it’s obviously something that must be and has been addressed. I think a lot of times adults think that when teenagers do these types of things we’re doing it without thinking about the consequences. The reality though, in my opinion, is that most of the time we are fully aware of the risk but when something seems fun it’s easy to do around your friends, especially if your friends are doing it. And that’s normally how vaping starts for teens. But quickly for some it becomes a habit and the addiction that follows is what leads to getting one’s own. So it’s like a slippery slope. As it is with any addictive substances. Of course everyone knows it’s not healthy to do, but our brains can often trick us into thinking we’ll only “try” it once or twice or three times…

The most important thing to note about this article is that we are specifically talking about how vaping affects teenagers. This changes a lot about the conversation because in adolescence our minds are extremely malleable and also a lot more “uncontrolled” and not developed. For instance, our emotions are felt more strongly and change more often, and it can be difficult for us to not give in to the temptation of risk taking behavior. With this being the case, nicotine and other chemicals which are not naturally occurring can stunt brain development or simply change it’s course. A lot of teenagers who vape may find themselves having increased anxiety leading to hyperarousal symptoms such as a racing heart, nausea, shakiness, and irritability. These types of symptoms impact mood and physical health which lead to a direct shift in a person’s life due to nicotine use. The addiction of nicotine, and don’t forget nicotine IS highly addictive, it just doesn’t have the same negative effects as other drugs, can leave teenagers in distress when they don’t have access to their device. This also can lead to trouble by causing teens to bring their devices into places where they are not allowed for fear of experiencing withdrawal symptoms like headaches and mood swings.If caught in certain places such as school, teenagers can get suspended for up to 2 days for having a nicotine vaping device. And most often this suspension will stay on your record and be mandated to report to your choice colleges. Along with this vaping increases your likelihood of smoking cigarettes which we know builds up what looks like tar in your lungs. And vaping alone puts a large strain on teenagers’ respiratory systems.

So yea using a vape may seem pretty lit sometimes but the addiction, chemical imbalances, mood swings, nausea, headaches, shakiness and difficulty breathing definitely should encourage us to abstain as its not adding anything to our lives.