Never smoked, not even the electronic ones, but I've always been tempted to. The health risks kept me away, but now I'm considering trying out the 0mg e-cigs, just for something to keep me busy. I'm overweight-- not a lot, but enough that it bothers me-- and by far the biggest reason for that is boredom eating/drinking. So I figure this would be something to keep my hands, mouth, and taste buds occupied, without all the calories and fat and high-fructose corn syrup. So even though I don't have a nicotine addiction, I do have a mountain dew addiction that I'd like to get over.
The idea is intriguing, and I also can't pretend I'm not extremely curious.
Absolutely not. Vaping is all about harm
reduction. How safe is it long term? Nobody's sure. It hasn't been around all that long. Especially compared to smoking.
The vast, vast majority who switch report greatly improved health like breathing better and not being "winded" and lower blood pressure and a host of good things. But the long term effects of vaping itself? Who knows? The vapor is made from substances considered innocuous enough that they're used in tons of products we all use all the time. But inhaling them? Not sure. Maybe it's utterly safe. Maybe not. We'll find out. Eventually.
It's a trade off. We
know the harm of smoking tobacco. And we have evidence (granted, mostly anecdote but there's a lot of it) that vaping is safer. Note the "-er". I'll take that gamble. Sure, twenty years from now, if I have to vape from now until then to keep off cigs, a doctor may say, "It was caused by your vaping".
Thing is, I have a better chance of living to be told that if I get away from tobacco cigs. Rate I was going, I might not even
have twenty more years to find out there are long term ill effects of vaping. Or not. Or whatever we know about it twenty years from now.
So it's a horrible, horrible, bad idea to take up vaping if you are not addicted to nicotine. You know, for one thing, it's possible to be "psychologically addicted" to things even when there's no chemical addiction. That's been my big problem. I
like smoking. Always have. And, weirdly enough, I knew I would like it
before I started. Turned out, I was right.
Now I wish time travel existed. I'd go back and kick my ....
If nothing else, consider the money. You get into the habit of vaping even 0mg stuff, you're still risking getting into a habit that's going to cost you cash. Vaping can certainly be cheaper (especially in high tax areas) but it's a relative thing. It's cheaper. Not free.
Sure you wouldn't rather set the money aside for something else? I try not to think about the money I've wasted over the years. If I'd saved and invested that money over thirty plus years, I'd be doing good. Even with the "crash".
Such as, I like to travel. But I smoked that away. I haven't taken a real trip in so long I couldn't tell you. Haven't even made it to
Canada for crying out loud and they're right next door!
Find something else you really, really want to do or really, really want to buy and put aside the money you would have spent on cigs or vaping or whatever.
It'll work out a hell of a lot better.
Like I have always wanted to visit New Zealand. If I'd saved and invested the money I spent all those years, I probably could have gone more than once. And Europe. And some other places.
Instead, here I am, 51, and the furthest I've gone is Mexico. And that's it. And my "cushion" against economic downturns is gone and I'm scraping by and at the rate things are going, by the time I could afford travel, I'll need a walker.
I screwed myself good.
Not to mention, if you started vaping even with 0mg and liked the habit and ritual, how do you know you won't decide to try "the real thing" anyway? Can you actually say you are
absolutely sure you wouldn't think something like, "hey, this is cool, wonder what regular cigs are like?"
If you feel some kind of temptation or pull to smoking, there's no guarantee you won't still feel it if you vape. You'd risk opening one nasty Pandora's box there.
Know what my advice to my younger self would be? Get to the gym. Seriously. Even as a smoker, I got seriously into weight training in my thirties and hit my 40s in better shape than I was in my 20s. There's an actual "high" to exercise. I loved it. Now,
there's an "addiction" that's actually healthy.
For various and sundry reasons (some of which are off the scale including I had a front row seat for Katrina... fun times), I've been lax about exercise for the last few years. That's one of the reasons I'm doing the vaping thing. I'm only two weeks in and my energy levels are coming back up and feeling better and starting to look at the dust collecting weight set and thinking, "I gotta get back to that".
I was a fat kid. Went through the usual ridicule and stuff at school. Got my ultimate revenge by packing on 30 pounds of muscle and dropping to my college age waist size when most all the people I graduated school with became fat and pasty and out of shape.
Hah!
And I'm still a big guy. Not in terms of tall, I'm average height. But I still have trouble with buying shirts and finding ones that fit me across the shoulders. I gained weight after the Katrina thing then got most of it off then other crap happened and I regained a lot of it then down... then up... then... sigh. I need my energy level back. I haven't been able to be consistent without it. I was just... slowing down.
51 isn't "pack me off to the nursing home" age but every year, aging grabs some of your energy. I better start fighting back. I started because my dad just... sagged... as he hit middle age. I saw myself heading that way. Not fat just... dumpy. Sure, age will win in the end but I ain't going quietly. It's gonna have to drag me while I kick, bite, punch, claw and cuss it out.
Go get "addicted" to exercise. You'll be a lot happier in the long run...
