For over a decade, Amanda Calkins was addicted to vaping nicotine.
In early 2013, the now 38-year-old was smoking cigarettes, but was growing uncomfortable with the negative health effects of her addiction. She was looking to quit and found out about a new technology touted by many as "good" and a form of "harm reduction."
"There was no research about it, so I couldn't do any research on it. Anything that I found was pro-vaping…Like 'it helps people, it's not harmful, there's no secondhand smoke risk for people' all these good things," Calkins told CTVNews.ca in an interview.
She says the lack of information around vaping led to her nicotine addiction, a habit she says she successfully kicked about four months ago, but the process of getting there was not easy.
Calkins said the nicotine withdrawal symptoms lasted longer and were more severe than she was prepared for. For months she experienced debilitating depression and anxiety and was not getting enough sleep each night.
Experts warn the impacts of vaping on the body are not minimal, and may cause long-term health impacts. This is true not just for those who vape for years but also during withdrawal.
'I SLEPT WITH IT IN BED'
In 2013, there were no regulations around vaping, and many places, such as pawn shops, made their own "juice,"—the chemicals that when heated produce vapor. Calkins said she regularly bought "juice" from places like that.
Due to the lack of government oversight on vaping products, Calkins said she had no way of knowing the levels of nicotine concentration in vapes at the time, but she suspects it fuelled her addiction.
"I got hooked really, really fast," she said. "I became a heavy vaper right away. By probably 2016, I was puffing all the time. It was literally attached to my hand. I slept with it in bed — it was ridiculous."
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By then, Calkins said she was already dealing with the repercussions of her heavy vaping.
"I was really, really addicted to it, incredibly addicted to it," she said. "I used it for everything, mostly to cope with emotions, that was my reaction. So I didn't really want to quit until the last couple of years. I have asthma and it started getting worse."
As more research came out about the impacts of vaping and the Canadian government started implementing tax hikes on the paraphernalia associated with the product, Calkins realized what a financial and health burden it had become.
When she first started, vaping was the cheaper alternative to cigarettes, but by 2018 it was no longer the affordable option. Knowing she needed to kick the habit, she began trying to quit.
The first and second time she tried, she couldn't curb her addiction, despite using nicotine replacement therapy in the form of a patch, which is designed to release smaller doses of nicotine throughout the day absorbed through the skin.
It wasn't until her beloved cat, Seth, became ill, that Calkins became financially strained due to vaping.
"It was like 'I can feed my cat the food he needs to not die, or I can buy vape supplies, but I can't do both,'" she said. "I felt like I was kind of forced into it but I needed to be forced into it because I would have never done it (on my own)."
THE EMOTIONAL AND PHYSICAL IMPACTS OF QUITTING
Calkins says she experienced severe nicotine withdrawal when she successfully quit vaping.
Her underlying anxiety and depression were exacerbated when she stopped vaping, causing insomnia that lasted well over two months.
"It was like a suicidal depression at times. It was really hard," Calkins said.
About two years after regular vaping, dependence symptoms start to appear, Dr. Michael Chaiton, senior scientist at the Centre for Addictions and Mental Health (CAMH), said.
"It's a process, and it does take some time," Chaiton told CTVNews.ca in an interview. "Once you start, (there's) things like cravings, the anxiety if you don't have your vape with you or that you don't have sufficient liquid."
Chaiton is set to publish a study in the journal of Addictive Behaviors in January 2024 on the withdrawal process of vaping.
His . A week later, nicotine is removed from all the metabolites of the body.
"After that time, it's less about the withdrawal feelings and more the learning process of dependence," Chaiton said. "That psychological need comes in after that."
For Calkins, the act of vaping was "soothing" to her emotions. She said it was a crutch for her, similar to how a baby would suck their thumb.
The initial impact of quitting causes irritability, Chaiton said, but this changes the longer the body is away from nicotine. In many instances, people actually feel their mood boost.
By month two, Calkins was feeling more herself and felt she was in the clear emotionally and physically.
Due to the social aspect of vaping, Chaiton said it can be difficult for people to quit.
"It's more socially acceptable than smoking," he said. "You can hide it in different places, and you can do it in more places and more people are okay with you using it."
WORRYING TRENDS OF VAPING IN YOUTH
In 2023, health researchers have a better understanding of the negative impacts of vaping,
"Compared to not doing anything, vaping is unquestionably harmful, compared to smoking, vaping is unquestionably less harmful," Chaiton said.
Vaping can still be used as a tool or substitute for people who are trying to quit smoking cigarettes, he said, and when paired with behavioural therapy, can be very effective.
"But for people who aren't smoking, and who may never have smoked, that vaping is leading to health risks and the chance of dependence," Chaiton said.
Young people are increasingly using vapes in Canada, studies show. One report published in the journal Children found about a quarter of high school students in Canada had used a vape within the last month.
Youth and young adults are also more likely to have tried vaping instead of smoking, a Statistics Canada report published early September 2023 shows.
In 2022, about 30 per cent of youth aged 15 to 19 years, and nearly half (48 per cent) of adults aged 20 to 24 had tried vaping in their lifetime, according to StatCan.
"In 2022, in 2021," the StatCan report reads.
This trend is worrying researchers who still aren't fully aware of the long-term impacts of vaping. Some research points to negative effects on the respiratory system, while others say there could be a long-term mental health issues.
"We see things like depression that can come out almost right away," Chaiton said. "It's a big deal, especially I think, as so many people vape, they think it's helping them and in fact, it's making it worse."
TIPS TO QUIT
There are a number of ways people can try to quit vaping, and for Calkins, she tried many different tactics.
Knowing she was addicted to nicotine, she started adding more THC, the active chemical in cannabis, to her vape. As a medicinal cannabis user, she planned to slowly start decreasing the amount of nicotine she vaped while increasing the THC levels in her "juice."
"For probably the first two months, I was vaping and smoking more cannabis than usual as kind of a replacement," she said.
Calkins said she also used Facebook support groups and Zoom communities as resources when she was struggling.
She started carrying fidget toys or her water bottle with her everywhere to help combat her cravings.
"I know it sounds really, really simple but I started to constantly keep a water bottle beside me all the time and take sips of water when I had cravings," Calkins said.
She adds one of the best parts about quitting was being able to save hundreds of dollars per month. Her pet cat, Seth, also played a large part in her success.
"He was the final push that I knew I had to quit," Calkin said. "Because obviously, he is more important than my addiction.
